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Scan 148
Harvard Dictionary Of Music(1950), 1950
32 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1CHINESE CRESCENT
3and slightly convex board over which seven silken strings are stretched. They are tuned: c d f g a c' d'. Underneath the lowest string 13 places for stopping are marked by inlaid studs in a very peculiar arrangement, that is, symmetrically disposed from the center to the right and to the left in the following distances: 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 2/5, 1/6, and 1/8 to one side, hence: 2/3, 3/4, 3/5, 4/5, 5/6, 7/8 to the other. The resulting tones are as follows:
5<table>
6 <tr>
7 <th>Vibratory Length:</th>
8 <td>7 5 4 3 2 3 1 2 1 1 1 1 1</td>
9 </tr>
10 <tr>
11 <td></td> one of two readings
12 <th></th> one of two readings
13 <td>8 6 5 4 3 5 2 5 3 4 5 6 8</td>
14 </tr>
15 <tr>
16 <th>Frequency:</th>
17 <td>8 6 5 4 3 5 2 5 3 4 5 6 8</td>
18 </tr>
19 <tr>
20 <th>Pitch:</th>
21 <td>c d* eb e f g a c' e' g' c'' e'' g'' c'''</td>
22 </tr>
23</table>
25(The d* is higher than that of our scale.)
27Actually, the high notes of this series are not sounded, since the places to the right side of the above scheme are used only for the production of *harmonics, similar to those of the violin. Since, with this sort of touch, stopping at 1/5 produces the same pitch as ordinary stopping at 4/5, the tones of the right half actually duplicate those of the left half, but with a different timbre. The playing of the ch'in is a highly complicated technique, involving many peculiarities such as glissando, vibrato, pulling of the strings toward the player or away from him, tapping, etc. The koto is a similar instrument, usually with 13 strings. [Illustration on p. 823.] Cf. R. H. von Gulick, "The Lore of the Chinese Lute" (Monumenta Nipponica, i, ii, iii, 1938-40); SaHMI, 187f.
29Chinese crescent. See *Crescent.
31Chinese music. I. History. The music of China presents the singular picture of a traceable history of about 4000 years. Considering the — no less singular — traditionalism and conservatism of Chinese culture in general, there is no reason to distrust reports according to which it reaches back into the third millennium B.C., although modern research has placed doubt on the legend that the system of Chinese music was established by Ling-Lun, at the time of the Yellow Emperor, Huang-Ti, around [address hidden]. One of the most remarkable characteristics of the Chinese system is the existence of a principal tone of absolute pitch, the so-called huang chung (yellow bell; see *Blasquinte), which was considered a cosmologic and sacred element of music as well as the very foundation of the state and the people. During several centuries, the extinction of a dynasty was invariably ascribed to their failure to secure the true huang chung; therefore, to new rulers it was a matter of prime concern to regain the exact measurement of the bamboo pipe of absolute pitch. The political and social importance of music was emphasized particularly by Confucius ([address hidden].) whose teaching anticipates in a striking manner the Platonic theory regarding the relationship between music and social order [see *Aesthetics of music II]. Numerical symbolism (e.g., the sacred number four, or the number twelve; see below) played a prominent part in Chinese musical theory, as in Chinese culture in general. In the centuries after Confucius the occupation with music, poetry, and other arts became so prevalent that the Emperor Shi Huang-ti, in [address hidden]., ordered all music books and instruments to be destroyed, in order to prevent a general neglect of practical affairs, agricultural, social, political, etc. This order caused the complete loss of innumerable priceless manuscripts as well as a severe setback of musical activity and development. Fortunately, the Emperors of the Han Dynasty ([address hidden]. 220) again favored music, which reached its classical period under the T'ang Dynasty (618-907) and the Sung Dynasty (960-1279). It is in this period that huge orchestras, numbering 300 or more instruments, were used for ritual and courtly
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