Music on the Silk Road

Along the Silk Road came lutes, harps and new modes that reshaped music in the Central Plains.

Related

PipaKonghouGongdiao

Time and place

The Silk Road linked the Central Plains with the Western Regions. After Zhang Qian's missions, transverse flutes and hu music moved east; Kucha music flourished in the Wei, Jin and Northern-Southern Dynasties, and Western-Region ensembles filled most of the Sui and Tang court suites. In the Northern Zhou the Kuchan musician Sujiva brought the five modes and seven keys, and Dunhuang left pipa scores behind. Music travelled through the oases, the Hexi Corridor and the Qinghai road.

Musical features

Hu music brought new modes, rhythmic patterns and instruments. Pipa, konghou, jiegu and bili entered Central Plains bands, and their microtones and syncopations were gradually absorbed. Central Plains theory, notation and ensemble practice travelled west in turn. The exchange was no copy: hu music was rewritten in the plains, while plains institutions reshaped court music in the west.

Repertoire

Qingbei Yue and Xijiang Yue from the Dunhuang pipa scores, the Tang grand song Nishang Yuyi Qu, and today's Twelve Muqam of Xinjiang all show traces of this traffic.

What to listen for

Listen to the hand-drum pattern and the modal colour of the melody, then to the grain of the plucked strings. The same tune takes different ornament and speed in the oases and along the corridor.

Common misunderstandings

Silk Road music is often imagined as one style along one route. It is a traffic of many segments, peoples and centuries. Nor did it run one way; the Central Plains absorbed and transformed as much as it sent out.

Sources

• 《中国音乐词典》编辑部编，中国音乐词典（人民音乐出版社）— 乐部与乐律条目核对，未引用
• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "China" — framework and dates checked, not quoted

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.