traditional chinese music vs. western classical music

Pan Yazhou (Charles)
EASL 68060 - Module B
March 17, 2015

Journal 2
Where is Our Classical Music?
Compare tradition Chinese music with western classical music


A few days ago, just an ordinary noon, Jake, Kevin and I had a chat about our countries. I asked them, do you have classical music in your country? Jake said: yes we do, 'A Li Lang' (a famous Korean music). No, I answered, it is not classical music; it is folk music. Korea is the same as China; in earlier age, we did not have classical music, and we only had two kinds of music: one to show our loyalty to the authority and the other one to describe life from the poor people. In fact, all eastern countries are almost the same. We are only famous for our folk music.
My topic today is comparing traditional Chinese music with western classical music, because I believe that culture can always record life and history in its unique emotional and wise way. Why didn't China have classical music, it is not only a question about music, but also an effect about our social structure in history and today. I hope it can be a different angle to help people understand my country deeply with heart and also can be helpful to music teachers and students being aware of history to build new modern music culture in today's China.
In this essay, I will focus on contrasting my opinions from three different aspects in traditional Chinese music and western classical music, which are: the differences of music purpose, performance and contents, education and mass-communication. For example, because a middle class had never appeared in China, wealth goes hand in hand with the power of the authorities, so it is very difficult to form an independent social group, especially an independent intellectual group. Similarly, in ancient China, there was no professional musician, and those composers who are called well-known musicians today were actually poets or just officials at that time. Besides them, there were only poor folk musicians and entertainers with the lowest social strata. Thus, both high class and low class music lovers can hardly improve the music skills and compose music regularly. This became the second significant difference from western classical music, performance and contents.
Because Chinese music was widely influenced by poets not professional musicians, as a consequence, it always emphasizes soul or feeling. Whereas western music has had a sea of works and great but difficult skills, traditional Chinese music prefers to use very simple skills and also to play solo not in a band. Chinese music seems more introversive and high-hearted. It describes the feeling of philosophy and pride in escaping from the daily life, which is the highest goal for all scholars and officials that one day they can live alone in the nature without politics and a complex life. Thus, musicians of this kind only play for themselves or their best friends and soul mates. Even until now it is still a common belief when Chinese people talk about music.
Based on the previous comparison, another important difference appears: education and mass-communication. While western classical music has been using their systematical strategies to widely educate and perform to the entire world, traditional Chinese music has been more and more fading away from Chinese people's daily life.
Like different arts with different methods to describe the world, different music has their unique way to contribute to the unique culture in different countries as well. Art has been vividly recording the world and this activity has never stopped. Our glory and shame should be written in it so as not to be erased. In the past it was; now it is, and in the future, it will be.
The references are from one book from Sheridan library, one dictionary and three websites respectively:
1. Rees, Helen, (2009). Lives in Chinese Music, University of Illinois Press. IN: Jist Publishing. ISBN: 9780252033797; 9780252092251
2. Don Michael Randel, ed. (2003). The Harvard Dictionary of Music (4th ed.). Harvard University Press. pp. 260–262. ISBN 978-0674011632
3. http://arts.cultural-china.com/en/94Arts7382.html
4. http://www.silkqin.com/09hist/qinshi/boya.htm
5. http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Division/personsjikang.html