Page:Philosophical Review Volume 1.djvu/187

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No. 2.]

CHINESE MUSICAL SYSTEM.

171

The result of leaving pien-Koung to be produced by the harder blowing of the former Tche would be to make it a note intermediate between Yu and Koung; and this supposition may take its place beside Mr. Ellis's mechanical theory of the three-quarter tones as another possible hypothesis of the origin of this peculiarity of the Chinese scale. The intermediate intonation of pien-Koung is on this view, like the rest of the Chinese musical system, the outgrowth of performance not on stringed instruments, but on pipes; and performance, moreover, principally pentatonic, since it is the subsidiary importance of pien-Koung that renders unnecessary its presentation in the ancient key by a special note. The pitch of the note is regarded on this hypothesis as a mark left on the Chinese scale by the duality of key structure which we have reason to suspect is fundamental in Chinese music.^[1]

Since c# represents a pentatonic note in the one scale, and C only a pien in the other, a natural simplification of the scale of the instrument would be the sacrifice of c. With this change the scale supposed is that of the Kuantzu, excepting that by a further and less defensible simplification, f#, upon which pien-Koung falls in the mediaeval scale, is abandoned in the lower octave, and Chang of the ancient scale left to be represented by g. To judge from the notes used in Man-nen-fon and Long-how-sa, other devices have been employed in adapting the Gie-erh to give a key in both systems. The note g# has been added, but not c#, the ancient Yu being produced by the harder blowing of c. The mediaeval pien-Koung has apparently been made an intermediate note (f) perhaps after the analogy of the

↑ The habitude of the intermediate pien-Koung, although not mentioned by Van Aalst, can be inferred from a note appended to his translation of the flute part of the hymn before mentioned. It is in the minor (or Kong) key of Tche (as we have seen), the pien of the scale being omitted. From Van Aalst's note we learn that the pitch of Koung is between one and two semitones below Chang. Since, as the scheme herewith shows, the Chang of this key corresponds to Koung and its Koung to pien-Koung,

pT $\cdot$ T $\cdot$ Y $\cdot$ pK $\cdot$ K $\cdot$ CH $\cdot$ Ki $\cdot$ pT
T $\cdot$ Y $\cdot$ $\cdot$ $\cdot$ K $\cdot$ CH $\cdot$ Ki $\cdot$ $\cdot$ T

this remark determines the pien-Koung of the scale of reference as at the intermediate intonation.

[1] The habitude of the intermediate pien-Koung, although not mentioned by Van Aalst, can be inferred from a note appended to his translation of the flute part of the hymn before mentioned. It is in the minor (or Kong) key of Tche (as we have seen), the pien of the scale being omitted. From Van Aalst's note we learn that the pitch of Koung is between one and two semitones below Chang. Since, as the scheme herewith shows, the Chang of this key corresponds to Koung and its Koung to pien-Koung,

pT $\cdot$ T $\cdot$ Y $\cdot$ pK $\cdot$ K $\cdot$ CH $\cdot$ Ki $\cdot$ pT
T $\cdot$ Y $\cdot$ $\cdot$ $\cdot$ K $\cdot$ CH $\cdot$ Ki $\cdot$ $\cdot$ T

this remark determines the pien-Koung of the scale of reference as at the intermediate intonation.

[1]