KWL on Chinese Music

I have always been a fan of hearing music from other cultures and I really enjoyed the performance of traditional and contemporary Chinese music at our last class. Hearing this music and the ensuing discussions, however enlightening, I feel only lent itself to more questions! I feel this is good, though, as it will drive me to seek out new information.

Before entering the class, I did not know much about Chinese music. One of the most interesting things that I learned was how heavily Chinese music is based on the pentatonic scales. In fact, the instrument that was demonstrated for us did not even have the 4th or 7th notes of the scales and the instrumentalist as required to "bend" pitches to make these notes if they were required as passing tones. I also found it interesting to observe that the use of this scale did produce the characteristic "Chinese" sound associated with the phrase "Chinese Music", however, when used in jazz, the pentatonic scale does not produce this characteristic sound. Upon further reflection, though, I feel this is most likely due to the inflections that were added to the music by the performer.

I also know now that not only do the Chinese have their own notation system which, in many respects, seems to be simpler than ours (although more complicated/limited in others), but each instrument has its own specific variant of that system. I really found this piece of information to be fascinating, although, it created the question of why this is so?

I feel, as I said earlier, that this class left me with a significantly higher amount of questions than answers because each answer spawned another question! Combining what I know with my own personal interests in the field of music, I am quite interested to know how their theory system works from both a purely theory standpoint and from the historical point of how it developed. Actual music is called a "universal language" by some (myself included), however printed music differs significantly and I am curious as to why that is. I feel that a study of the development of the Chinese notation system could offer an answer to this question.

I further would like to know about the way that music is used in China. I am curious about the role that it plays in the lives of the Chinese. Do they idolize their pop stars as Americans do? Do they have pop stars in the same respect that Americans do? How respected is art music? How does music function in the daily routines (i.e. religious functions, ceremonial functions, etc.)? Is the study of music related to the study of their language, or vise versa, since Chinese is one of the tonal languages of the world?

Clearly, I do have more questions about Chinese music and I, unfortunately, can offer far fewer facts about it than I would like to learn. I would, however, like the opportunity to explore more about this fascinating style of music and find ways to incorporate what I learn about it into both my own playing and my educational philosophy as I feel that this music is so diverse and unique from Western music that it is only right to include a study of it into any curriculum.