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Chinese musicology is the academic study of traditional Chinese music. This discipline has a very long history.
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Music scales
The first musical scales were derived from the harmonic series. On the Guqin all of the dotted positions are equal string length divisions related to the open string like 1/2, 1/3, 2/3, 1/4, 3/4, etc. and are quite easy to recognize on this instrument. The Guqin has a scale of 13 positions all representing a natural harmonic position related to the open string. All musical tunings all over the world are based on this primary system. Afterwards different cultures moved to alternate variations of this harmonic system.
The ancient Chinese defined, by mathematical means, a gamut or series of Shi Er Lü (called the 十二律 12 lü) from which various sets of five or seven frequencies were selected to make the sort of "do re mi" major scale familiar to those who have been formed with the Western Standard notation. The 12 lü approximate the frequencies known in the West as A, B flat.....G, and A flat.
Scale and tonality
Most Chinese music uses a pentatonic scale, with the intervals (in terms of lǜ) almost the same as those of the major pentatonic scale. The notes of this scale are called gong, shang, jue, zhi, and yu. By starting from a different point of this sequence, a scale (named after its starting note) with a different interval sequence is created, similar to the construction of modes in modern Western music.
Since the Chinese system is not an equal tempered tuning, playing a melody starting from the lǜ nearest to A will not necessarily sound the same as playing the same melody starting from some other lǜ, since the wolf interval will occupy a different point in the scale. The effect of changing the starting point of a song can be rather like the effect of shifting from a major to a minor key in Western music. The Chinese scaling is using the same calculations as Pythagoras did, based on 2:3 ratios (8:9, 16:27, 64:81, etc.).
Source
- 一种体系 两个系统 by 陈应时 (Yi zhong ti-xi, liang ge xi-tong by Chen Ying-shi of the Shanghai Conservatory), Musicology in China, 2002, Issue 4, 中国音乐学，2002，第四 期
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