What's the difference between eastern music and western music?

1, different tones of the sound series

Oriental music is dominated by five tones, including Gong, Shang, Jiao, Qian, Yu, and many voiceless sounds. Western music mainly uses seven tones, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, of which 4 and 7 are two semitones, so voiced sounds appear.

Oriental music and western music are two big conceptual categories. Oriental music includes music from many countries, not only from China, but also from many other eastern countries. Music in different countries has very different regional characteristics in hearing because of different modes. Western music also includes music from many countries, such as Germany, Austria and France.

Not to mention the differences between the East and the West, that is, the music of different ethnic minorities in the same country and different provinces is sometimes quite different, which is the difference in style.

China's traditional music is dominated by five tones, while western music is dominated by big and small tones, while China's traditional music is relatively simple. The colors of western music vary widely, but they are not absolute. Different countries have similar music.

Music all over the world is interlinked, borderless, interactive and integrated.

2. Differences in classical music

On the technical level, western classical music is theoretical and standardized, with a large number of text and audio documents, which are easy to spread; However, China's traditional music has no complete composition theory and rules, and it is easy to be lost. China's traditional music is dominated by lines, while western classical music pays more attention to harmony.

China traditional music pays attention to breath, while western classical music pays more attention to rhythm. The biggest technical difference between them lies in timbre and playing method. On the artistic level, China's traditional music mainly shows the thoughts of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, emphasizing understanding and wisdom, so it is subjective. Western classical music emphasizes aesthetics and functionality, so it is more objective.

The performance characteristics of China's traditional music realm are different from those of western classical music. Western classical music is good at being profound and serious, highlighting the opposition between subject and object, and most of them are full of drama or tragedy, which embodies the "grandeur" of an artistic spirit; China's traditional music is good at being broad-minded, emphasizing the blending of "emotion" and "scenery" and the unity of subject and object, which embodies a spirit of "harmony" and "beauty".

Generally speaking, the classical traditional symphonies in western countries can best reflect the thinking equations of westerners. The vocal music wave of western symphony is several timbres, divided into several bars, and dissolved into the natural sound of simulated creatures. The subtle fluctuation of instrumental sound energy can make the audience sort out a trace of continuity from the chaotic present, thus making people's thinking gradually rational.

If vocal music waves are used, the sound wave series of such symphonies in the west have similar pulsation with the mental process of the human brain. Therefore, from this aspect, the symphonies of western musicians have more or less influenced the qualitative thinking of westerners. Let's call the western music wave "the pulsating music wave of auxiliary thinking" for the time being.

At present, China's traditional vocal music seems to be only popular with some traditional opera music. By carefully analyzing the vocal music of these traditional operas, we find that our opera music stays on a plane of feeling. No matter from the perspective of opera singing or vocal music spectrum, Chinese traditional opera vocal music always jumps peacefully, and gradually jumps with curves and radians. The biggest feature of this kind of vocal music is that it has similar pulse with people's hidden emotional nerve thinking.

Therefore, when we watch Chinese opera and opera music, it is easy to touch our irrational emotional nerves. Of course, this irrational emotional nerve is touched by the sound of opera, which can naturally awaken people's emotional memory, and over time, it will make people's rational thinking nerve in a state of inhibiting hibernation.

3. Differences in pop music

At present, there are popular misunderstandings in the domestic pop music market. The popular vocal music in our country stays in a very superficial vocal music, and the biggest feature of this popular vocal music band is that the waves are low and the pulse is flat.

From a deeper point of view, it takes several nerve beats to forcibly accept the beating wave of this sound wave in the memory nerve. Therefore, this popular vocal wave is named' the pulsating vocal wave dominated by nerves'.

Now let's talk about some western pop music: the biggest vocal feature of western pop music is that sound waves are close to human nerve conduction. When we stay in that kind of vocal music for a long time, we will inevitably adjust our nerve rhythm with that kind of vocal music, and we will inevitably dance. Therefore, this kind of vocal music wave is named' nerve-forced pulsating vocal music wave'.

Extended data

In the discourse system of China's music theory, "theory" is the core word, "China Music" modifies "theory", and "discourse system" is the way of expressing "theory" and its knowledge system through language.

To establish "the discourse system of China's music theory", we must first make clear the basic music theory of China traditional music.

Music takes sound as the medium. Among the four physical characteristics of sound, pitch and duration are more important, which are the focus of various basic music theories.

Pitch includes musical sound, musical sound system, rhythm, scale, rising tone, mode and mode, and sound length includes beat, rhythm, beat and speed.

In terms of pitch, other concepts are based on "musical tone". The concept and structure of musical tone is the "deep structure" of pitch, while the problems of musical tone system, rhythm, scale, rising tone, mode and mode are the "surface structure".

In terms of sound length, rhythm, beat, and rigid eyes. They are all based on the beat value, so the beat value is the deep structure of the sound length, while the problems of rhythm, beat and board eye are the surface structure.

There are many similarities in the "surface structure" of Chinese and western music theories. First of all, from the legal system, both China and the West adopt the law of five degrees, the law of purity and the law of twelve averages. Both Guanzi and Pythagoras have discussed the "five-degree law", and there is still a debate about which comes first. Pythagoras explained pure law with a stringed piano. Although there was no discussion about pure law in ancient China, the sound measurement results of Zeng Houzhong's use of pure law for piano proved that the guqin in China had adopted pure law more than 2,400 years ago.

As for the law of twelve averages, it was initiated by China musician Zhu Zaiyu in 1584. More than a century later, the German Wilkmeister put forward the same theory.

Indians divide an octave into 22 "legacies", Arabs generally use the difference tone to divide a whole tone into four parts, Cameron in Indonesia adopts the law of five averages, and Southeast Asian countries also adopt the law of seven averages. Their legal systems are different from those in China and Europe.

The various scales used by the music of all ethnic groups in the world can be divided into two categories: "uneven scales" with different intervals between different levels and "average scales" with the same intervals between levels.

The former is like "major scale" and "minor scale" in western music and "orthochromatic scale" in China traditional music. The latter is like "chromatic scale" and "chromatic scale" in western music.

Both Chinese and western music adopt all kinds of pentatonic scale, hexatonic scale and heptatonic scale in the "non-average scale", and because they all use twelve steps, they can have "sixty tones" with five tones and "eighty-four tones" with seven tones.

In Chinese and western music theories, the names of tones are different, and the ways of each tone level are different, but they are arranged from low to high, and their appearances are exactly the same.

For example, China's pentatonic scale is consistent with the "La pentatonic scale" in European music, and China's bass scale looks exactly like the western major scale.

The scales in Indian and Arabic music often exceed seven tones, and Southeast Asia is also characterized by the "average scale" (such as the "Slindello" scale of Kamelan and the average seven-tone scale of Thailand), which is very different from the scales involved in Chinese and Western music theories.

Russian music theorist Kholopov proposed that the mode system of European music should be divided into two types: tonic mode and melody mode, both of which exist in traditional music in China.

Five different modes, such as Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zheng and Yu, can be called "modes", while Xipi,, and Kuyin can be called "modes".

In terms of sound length, the "superstructure" in Chinese and western music is the same or very similar. First of all, the beats in the two kinds of music are divided into two categories. In China, there are "rhythmic" and "scattered", while in the west, there are "separable" beats and "inseparable" beats. The former is called "metric" or "measured", and the latter is called "free rhythm".

In Gregorian hymns and concertos, works or fragments with "inseparable" beats can be found. The original meaning of "rhythm" in Chinese is "rest" and "playing (singing)", but it is expressed by notes and rests in western music scores.

There are two beats, three beats and four beats in western music, and one board with one eye and one board with three eyes in China music.

Although there is no such thing as "one board and two eyes" in China's traditional music theory, there are still some triple-beat works in China's music, such as Huadiao, a Shanxi folk song, and Juvenile, which is popular in Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai.

In western music, "beat" is divided into "strong beat" and "weak beat", and there are "board" and "eye" in "board eye", so musicians draw equal signs between strong beat and board, and between weak beat and eye.

Baidu Encyclopedia-China Music (Music Culture)

Baidu Encyclopedia-Western Classical Music

Baidu Encyclopedia-Western Music Culture