In chapter two of Huang’s thesis, Theory and Practice in the Traditional Chinese Music: Observations and Analysis, titled “The Essential Elements of Tonal Theory in Traditional Chinese Music”, Huang underscores how language, philosophical perspective, and geographic features play a role in the development of traditional Chinese music. The relationship between language and music within Chinese music is interesting due to the tonal and monosyllabic nature of the Chinese language. The tone of how a sound or a word is pronounced decides its meaning which is intimately related to pitch inflections within music. For this reason, Huang emphasizes that language and linguistics play more of a role in Chinese music than in the study of European languages in European music. Linguists break down the tonal range of the language into five levels. These five tones, while relatively consistent, can differ depending on the dialect. Huang highlights that there are over 40 different dialects of the language stating that it “not only varies from one ethnic group to another, but also differs from one geographic location to the next within the same ethnic group” (Huang, 1994, pg. 13). The element of tonal inflection within each distinct dialect profoundly influences the development of melodic material and gestures present within Chinese music and adds a microtonal effect to the music. Influenced by the tonal inflections within the Chinese language, microtonality is also a distinct trait of traditional Chinese instruments. Many traditional Chinese instruments such as the erhu and ku-chyn are fretless allowing for increased control and variance over pitch. While fretted instruments also exist, pitch nuance is still prominent through altering the pressure on the strings to create a microtonal effect.
Overall, this thesis offers some interesting information regarding the influences of traditional Chinese music that is heavily related to my project. I’ve never really thought about how features such as tonality in the Chinese language could play a role in shaping Chinese music. As a fluent Chinese speaker, I find these ideas fascinating. The notion of how tonal inflections in the Chinese language produce a microtonal effect within the music is an idea I can incorporate into my composition. It could be interesting to explore microtonality along with prominent modern production techniques such as autotune within my composition to highlight a theme of naturality vs artificiality reflecting prominent themes in traditional music and modern music.
This week, I completed the LinkedIn training modules “Prepping Tracks for Mastering”, “Mastering the Song”, and “Audio Mastering Techniques”. As I have a decent handle on Mixing, my next step was to learn more about the mastering process, a phase of audio production that I’m not as familiar with. These videos helped a lot and introduced me to techniques and tips to help me get started. I’d like to practice on some productions I’ve mixed to gain some experience, but it’s interesting to see the difference in approach as each move you make is affecting the entire track rather than an individual part within the track.
Huang, H. (1994). Theory and Practice in the Traditional Chinese Music: Observations and Analysis. https://www.proquest.com/docview/304142235/abstract?parentSessionId=B%2FN6J8A%2BjswhI52F2qajydgotQi0WOEfd8NEvEM8%2FcA%3D&pq-origsite=primo&accountid=14270&sourcetype=Dissertations%20&%20Theses