Ancient Chinese Music

Ancient Chinese Music denotes the documented musical repertoire of China before the modern era: the ritual yayue of the imperial court, the seven-string guqin art of the literati, ceremonial bell and chime ensembles, and the notated repertories preserved in handbooks from the Tang and Song dynasties onward. Built largely on pentatonic pitch collections and heterophonic ensemble practice, it survives today through tablature reconstruction, unbroken teaching lineages and the historical recordings of twentieth-century masters, rather than through any continuous performing institution.