Presented by: Zhao Weiping, Shanghai Conservatory of Music
Date: Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Location: Koessler Room, Michigan League

Abastract:
Before the emergence of Western neumatic notation in the 9th century, scores, different systems of musical notation appeared in China. Qin notation appeared as early as the sixth century AD. Since the eighth century, notational scores for pipa (lute), zheng (long zither), di and xiao (bamboo flutes), sheng (mouth organ) were produced, and exported to Korea and Japan, generating complete systems of music notation in East Asia. In recent years, a large number of ancient East Asian music scores were discovered, demonstrating that East Asian musical instruments and notation underwent extensive changes in the last millennium. How to understand, restore and/or reconstruct ancient music through historical musical instruments has become a complicated and timely job for Chinese music scholars. Launched in 2010, the East Asian Notation Research Center in the Shanghai Conservatory of Music has collected a large number of ancient and notated scores from all over the world, and established a database of ancient tablature and other kinds of musical scores. In September 2018, the Center published its ancient music website, making its collection accessible to international researchers. This lecture discusses the Center’s collection and examination of East Asian ancient notated sources and their interpretation.

About the speaker:
Professor Weiping Zhao is Chair, Professor and Advisor of Doctoral Students of the Department of Musicology at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He ​leads a national research project on Chinese Ancient Music History at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and directs the Center for Research on Music Cultures of China and Japan.