Twenty-one String Zithe:Development And Classification Of Solo Tunings

This paper, from players’ views, expects to dissertate on the development context of tune in Chinese21-string Zheng solo from the combination between western modern music and Chinese traditional music since the emergence of Zheng in1960s.Since such combination has it own development process and various stages, this paper classifies three development periods of tune for Chinese21-string Zheng solo according to different features in each age, and then provides the discussion. Single characteristic period (1960-1973):mainly representing the emergence of21-string Zheng and traditional form of tune. Transition period(1974-1985):illustrating some unique features of tune such as which are generated during the transition from single characteristic period to diversity period. Diversity period(1986-now):discussing the emergence, categories and analysis of manual tune on the basis of music scores. In addition, through the classification of tune and analysis of some important tune music scores, this paper illustrates the main categories of tune during the development process of Chinese21-string Zheng.