EAST ASIAN MUSIC

China
• Traditionally, the chinese believed that sound
influences the harmony of the universe.
Significantly, one of the important duties of
the first emperor of each new dynasty was to
search out and establish that dynasty’s
through standard of pitch.
 CHINESE MUSICAL
INSTRUMENTS
• 1. Yueqin
- A moon-shaped lute with shorter neck and
four strings, played with a spectrum, used for
accompanying local operas.
• 2. PIPA

- a four-stringed lute with 30 frets and a pear-

shaped body. This instrument has an extremely
wide dynamic range and remarkable expressive
power.
3. ERHU
- A two-stringed fiddle and one of the most
popular Chinese instruments. It is used as a
solo instrument as well as in small ensembles
or large orchestra, and by various ethnic
groups.
4. YUNLUO
- Literally “cloud gongs”. It is a set of ten small
tuned gongs mounted in a wooden frame.
- Gongs are generally of equal diameter but
different thickness.
- The thicker gongs produce a higher picth.
5. SHENG
- Also called as the Chinese mouth organ and
looks life a set of panpipes with 12 to 36
bamboo pipes.
- Each pipe is of different length with a brass at
the bottom and a hole that must be blocked in
order for the note to sound
- One of the oldest Chinese musical
instruments.
6. DIZI
- Is the Chinese traditional flute. It can have a
membrane over an extra hole to give the
characteristic rattle effect.
- The player plays the dizi by blowing across the
mouthpiece and produces the different notes
by stopping the six hole found in the rod.
7. ZHENG
- An ancient Chinese instrument that has an
arched surface and an elongated-trapezoid
with 13-21 strings stretched over individual
bridges. Its playing range spans three to four
octaves.
8. PEGLING
-these are two s mall bells made of high-tin
bronze, without internal clappers, and
bottomless gourd-like in shape.
 KOREA
- korea’s folk music tradition, with its generous
use of bright rhythms and melodies, offers a
more energetic and capricious contrast to the
nation’s collection of classical music works.
Folk music represents the soul and sound of
Korean villages with an eclectic array of music
forms including numerous folk soungs, various
forms of instruments pieces, pansori, and
shaman ritual music.
• CHONG-AK – means literally “ right or correct
music” and its tradition includes both
instrumental and vocal music, which were
cultivated mainly by the upper-class.

• SOG-AK – is a category of korean music

traditionally associated with the lower-class or
for the general public. It includes genres such
as pansori and minyo.
 STRING INSTRUMENTS
1. KAYAGEUM
- is a traditional Korean zither-like string instrument, with
12 strings, although more recently variants have been
constructed with 21 or more numbers of strings.
- is the best-known traditional Korean musical
instrument.
2. GEOMUNGO
- This six-string plucked zither is a traditional Korean
stringed musical instrument of the zither family of
instruments with both bridges and frets.
3. Haegum
- (two-string vertical fiddle) has a rod-like neck,
a hollow wooden soundbox, two silk strings,
and is held vertically on the knee of the
performer and played with a bow.
 WIND INSTRUMENT
• PIRI
-used in both folk and classical (court) music
of Korea. It is made of bamboo. Its large
reed and cylindrical bore gives it a sound
mellower than that of many other types of
oboe.
 PERCUSSION INSTRUMENT
• CHANGGO
- Is the most widely used drum in the traditional music of
Korea. It is available in most kind, and consist of an
hourglass-shaped body with two heads made from
animal skin. The two heads produce sounds to represent
the harmony of man and woman.