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Very few countries in the world can boast of centuries old civilization. Even fewer can claim to have contributed as music as Chinese did in field of arts and culture. Chinese music is said to have a treasure trove of no less than 8000 years of history behind it. The origin of great Chinese music can be traced back to Zhou dynasty in the period of 1122 BC to 256 BC. This was the time that gave rise of inceptions of mesmerizing artifacts and instruments.
In musical terms, Chinese have been found using pentatonic scale or five-tone music system. However, several compositions have also experimented with heptatonic or seven tone musical scales and the result has been equally effective. Music has always remained a cultural strongpoint of china. Its legacy in musical arena has been acknowledged world over. The tones and melody produced by Chinese music has been legendary.
Like its neighbor India, china can claim to have produced great musical talents and compositions. During earlier times, Chinese were fond of classical and folk music. But with changing times, its music has also changed colors and now a day other popular forms of music including movie music, pop, rock and hip-hop have made silent entry into the region. Some of the popular names in Chinese music industry are, Anna Guo, Wu Man, Liu Fang and Lei Qiang.
If we try to delve into musical technicalities of Chinese music then a series of 12 frequencies defines the music in the country. This mathematical formula is also known as lü-lu. This has further given rise to other scales that has got some similarities with western music scale. If we talk about instruments used in the region then Haidi and Guanzi apart from Suona are the foremost names. All these instruments are used in classical music of china. Apart from them, Xian drum music and Sheng is also popular among the musicians.
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