In Ancient China Early Wind Instruments And The Law Of The Huangzhong Tube

Acoustics is one of the most developed disciplines in ancient China, and one of the most brilliant disciplines in Chinese scientific history. Some foreign scholars even remark that China is a nation of acoustics. This study mainly concerns the pipe temperament in Chinese musicology. Because of its interrelation with many other social elements, pipe temperament can not be simply considered a branch of acoustics; the social aspect of temperament is a significant reason for the prominent position held by ancient Chinese acoustics. The greatest distinction and achievement of Chinese acoustics lies in the temperament which is based on the Huangzhong pipe. The national standard temperament pipe—Huangzhong pipe—dates back to 5000 years ago, the rulers of the following dynasties regarded the establishment of Huangzhong pitch as part of fundamental national system, and as important as metrology. Therefore, the paper discusses two dimensions of ancient Chinese pipe temperament. The first part addresses the earliest pipe instrument in China and the playing technique of pipe instrument, and infers the beginning and the patterns of development of musical scale and discusses the impetus of the development of early music. The second part analyzes the Huangzhong standard pitch through literature survey and archaeological scale testing, and it also discusses the reason and tendency of the changes of Huangzhong pitch.Chapter One mainly deals with the beginning and spreading of early pipe instrument. The early bone flutes throughout the world are enumerated. Through the application of provenance research method, literature survey, study of their making and naming, and their space distribution, the origin and possible transmission of bone pipe instruments are discussed in order to gain insight of the migration and cultural exchange of ancient people.Chapter Two reports the scale testing of a seven-hole Jiahu bone flute excavated in 2001. It is found that the bone flute might be played obliquely, in which way two octaves can be easily achieved. Seven-hole bone flute is capable of playing seven-tone scale. In a modern 12-tone equal-temperament scale, the average error (comma) is imperceptible to an ordinary ear. Considering the technical correction in playing, the accuracy of Jiahu bone flutes' actual performance is unprecedented. A significant achievement of the research is the comparative study of Jiahu bone flute's playing method, which leads to the conclusion that the flute should be played obliquely.At the 7th-millenium Neolithic site of Jiahu, Henan, China, the discovery of playable bone flutes has initiated study of the earliest-known musical scales. Chapter Three is about the scale testing of two Jiahu bone flue in the first sub-period (7000-6600 B.C.), and analyzes their tonal structure using modern music software. New musical data are also reported from a recently-discovered middle-period (6600-6200 B.C.) flute, professionally played. Our results may also relate to the development of sensorimoter processing in the human central nervous system, and they are helpful to uncover the beginning and the patterns of scale evolution, and...