On The Traditional Chinese Singing To Strings

This study focuses on the traditional Chinese art form of "xian ge", or the "singing of intoning to the string musical instruments of qin and se", following the method and principle of a multi-fields perspective to analyze the forms and styles in its development on the basis of collected and categorized literature. The previous studies on poetry are always from the literary perspective, concentrating on its poetics but neglecting its singing and intoning property, whereas this study will not only investigate it from literary and historical angles, but give more emphasis to the study of its musical properties throughout its birth and development.Every musical or musical literature concept is set in some given relationships, of which are mainly the following two: 1. The concepts of different levels have a subordinate relation, while those of the same level are contradictory and convertible as well. These relations are not equivalents. "qin ge" or "singing/ intoning to qin" is a major form of "xian ge", but they are not the same; "the harmony of singing and strings" is a major form of "harmonious singing", and they are not the same, either. 2. The relation of the concepts from the same level can be found as parallel or combined, such as harmonious "singing and singing", "singing and beat", "singing and pipes", or "singing and strings", with the sub-concepts in relations of combination. Either "xian ge (singing/ intoning to strings)" or "ge xian (singing/ intoning-along strings)" is a specific though different harmony of vocal and instrumental sound, combined yet parallel, which is the very property of multi-perspective of "xian ge". From another angle, it can also be literally understood as a kind of play by combining any of all the string instruments with human voice, which is exactly the drive to the diversity of Chinese musical culture in its development. Therefore, "xian ge", literally, not only refers to a narrow sense of "singing/ intoning to guqin", but has a broad sense as well. It is the combination of the vocal art with many more string musical instruments played by the singer himself. For those endeavoring in musical science, therefore, it is their commission to rediscover more forms of "xian ge" to have a wider vision and find additional fields of study.Part I of this study discusses the time, environment, and cultural background in...