China

China over its 3000 years of history had developed its own, unique music style. Non-affected by Western style for most of its history, the music of China goes with a different scale, often melodic rather than harmonic, and often made for the wealthy and special events. Traditional music in China is played on solo instruments or in small ensembles mainly consist of plucked string instruments, flutes, and various percussion. The main scale is pentatonic. Bamboo pipes and qin are among the oldest known instruments from China; instruments are traditionally divided into categories based on their material of composition: animal skins, gourd, bamboo, wood, silk, earth/clay, metal, and stone. The Chinese have also incorporated its music into plays and dramatization of stories, with some forms require the performer to only speak in songs In ancient China the position of musicians was much lower than that of painters, though music was seen as central to the harmony and longevity of the state and only man was allowed to perform in ensembles (except for the concubines). Almost every emperor took folk songs seriously as they are a regular updated way for the Chinese people to express their opinion, sending officers to collect songs to inspect the spirit of the people. One of the Confucianist Classics, Shi Jing (The Classic of Poetry), contained many folk songs dating from 800 BC to about 400 BC. Chinese folk music thrives at weddings and funerals, special events where music are played. Chinese music is also largely influenced by Buddhism, the main religion of the Chinese people in history. Chinese vocal music has traditionally been sung in a thin, non-resonant voice and is usually solo rather than choral. During its history, Chinese music also developed many different instruments, some are listed here: Woodwind and percussion: Dizi, sheng, paigu, gong, paixao, guan, bells, cymbals. Bowed Strings: Erhu, zhongu, dahu, banhu, jinghu, gaohu, gehu, yehu, cizhonghu, diyingehu, leiquin. Plucked and struck strings: Guquin, sanxian, yangquin, guzeng, ruan, konghou, liuqin, pipa, zhu.rrr media type="file" key="Music08 - Chinese traditional music - Red river - Tae Jun.mp3" width="240" height="20"media type="file" key="Music08 - Chinese traditional music - Fisherman's song (1990).mp3" width="240" height="20" media type="file" key="Oriental-Japanese Traditional Folk Music Reiki Yoga Chinese Bamboo Flute (Meditation).mp3" width="240" height="20" - by Viet
 * China:[[image:http://www.travelphotoi.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Chinaflag.jpg width="281" height="199" align="right"]] **