Chinese music
Sounds from Beijing
Chinese music encompasses the traditional and contemporary musical forms of China, spanning thousands of years and dozens of regional styles.
Traditional Chinese music features distinctive instruments like the erhu (a two-stringed fiddle), pipa (a pear-shaped lute), and guzheng (a plucked zither), often organized around pentatonic scales.
The term covers everything from ancient court music and folk songs to Chinese opera and modern C-pop: She studied Chinese music at the conservatory.
- erhuChinese bowed string instrument
- pentatonic scaleMusical ladder with five steps
- fluteTube blown sideways
- zitherFlat stringed instrument, played horizontally
- Buddhist chantsReligious recitations from Eastern temples
gong · strings · ceremonial processions · folk songs · village festivals · lion dance · dragon boat festival · Spring Festival · red envelope · Beijing opera · lantern · jade · moon gate · melody · traditional · temple · folk · ancient
- folk musicfolk, folk songs, folk ballads, folk ballad, folk singers
- world musicreggae, samba, bossa nova, flamenco, fado
- SinologyConfucianism, Daoism, Han dynasty, Qing dynasty, Four Books
- ancient musiclyre, pan pipes, panpipes, tibia, shofar
Chinese musicEuropean music
Compositions from that continent
American music · African music · Latin American music · Celtic music · Caribbean music
Chinese musicsymphonic music
Large-scale orchestral compositions
orchestral music · opera · Gregorian chant · chamber music · jazz