China Books

Song Dynasty Musical Sources & Their Interpretation

PIAN Rulan Chao [Other titles by this author]

Stock ID: 22564

ISBN: 9789629960995

Chinese University Press 2004 1st Edition

230 x 155mm 288pp

~This is a standard reference on Sonq dynasty music, and a model of meticulous scholarship. In it Professor Pian surveys the theoretical and practical treatises on music, the historical and encyclopedic compilations, the song collections, and various other related materials. She comments on available editions of the musical works themselves, the origin of each piece, and its value for scholarly research. She also explains in detail the intricacies of the Sonq dynasty modal system and forms of notation, an understanding of which is essential for reading Sonq music.

~Originally published in 1967, this title has been reissued with a new foreword and an introductory essay.

~Although born in Cambridge and eventually educated at Radcliffe College the author, Professor Rulan Chao Pian, spent much of her childhood and part of her high school years in China. This enabled her, with some training, to undertake a Chinese language teaching position, while studying Musicology in the Music Department at Harvard-Radcliffe. Her interest in the musical culture of China had thus led to the exploration of Chinese musical sources, hence her study of the Sonq dynasty musical sources as her doctoral dissertation. Next she went further into the investigation of broader musical fields such as the Chinese dramatic and narrative music, for which she did much field work and published numerous articles. In 1974 she was appointed Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilisations and of Music at Harvard until her retirement in 1992. In 1990 she was elected a member of the Academia Sinica, Taiwan. (For this item please quote stock ID 22564)

Related Subject Areas:

Art      Music