Gongche notation
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| Gongche notation | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | China | ||
| Traditional Chinese | 工尺譜 | ||
| Simplified Chinese | 工尺谱 | ||
| |||
Gongche notation or gongchepu is a traditional musical notation method, once popular in ancient China. It uses Chinese characters to represent musical notes. It was named after two of the Chinese characters that were used to represent musical notes, namely "工" gōng and "尺" chě.
Sheet music written in this notation is still used for traditional Chinese musical instruments and Chinese operas. However the notation is becoming less popular, replaced by mostly jianpu (numbered musical notation) and sometimes the standard western notation.
The notation usually uses a movable "do" system. There are variations of the character set used for musical notes. A commonly accepted set is shown below with its relation to jianpu and solfege.
Gongche 上
shàng尺
chě工
gōng凡
fán六
liù五
wǔ乙
yǐJianpu 1 2 3 (4) 5 6 (7) Movable do solfège syllable do re mi (between fa and fa♯) sol la (between ti♭ and ti) Simplified Japanese notation ル 人 フ り 久 ゐ L
Usual variations[]
The three notes just below the central octave are usually represented by special characters:
Gongche 合
hé四
sì一
yīJianpu 5̣ 6̣ (7̣)
Solfege sol la (between ti♭ and ti) Simplified Japanese notation ム マ ㄧ
Sometimes "士" shì is used instead of "四" sì. Sometimes "一" yī is not used, or its role is exchanged with "乙" yǐ.
To represent other notes in different octaves, traditions differ among themselves. For Kunqu, the end strokes of "上" "尺" "工" "凡" are extended by a tiny slash downward for the lower octave, a radical "亻" is added for one octave higher than the central. For Cantonese opera, however, "亻" means an octave lower, while "彳" means an octave higher.
Some other variations:
- "尺" is replaced by "乂" in Taiwanese tradition.
- "凡" is replaced by "反" in Cantonese tradition.
- "彳上", the "do" just above the central octave, is usually replaced by "生" in Cantonese tradition.
The following are two examples.
Gongche scale for Kunqu Gongche