title: Chinese Music and Musical Instruments
author: Xi Qiang
description: Founded in 1960, <b>China National Orchestra</b> is a state funded Chinese folk orchestra. Noted members include many famous composers, conductors and performers. Due to the prestige of its members the China Central Folk Orchestra is able to perform a great variety of musical pieces in different styles. <br /><br /> <b>Xi Qiang</b>, director of China National Orchestra, is known for mastering various Chinese instruments. He has edited many specialized books and published <i>Collected Papers on Chinese Folk Music<i> and the instructional book, <i>A Guide for Young People to Learn Playing the Erhu</i>.
  						    	
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zlib_text: Western Influences on 
  the Early Chinese Qin-Zither 
  by 
  Bo Lawergren 
  Foreign influences on the qin have been considered earlier,' but the arguments were 
  brief. The present, more expansive, evidence chiefly concerns the shape of the qin, 
  its tuning keys, and some pre-Han texts. The dscussion clarifies what is indgenous 
  features, and what is not. Before embarlung on the project (section B), some aspects 
  of ancient Asian instruments are reviewed (section A). 
  A. The East-West Divide in Asia 
  Broadly spealung, Chinese music passed through two distinct phases between the 
  Shang and Song dynasties. Before the beginning of our era, music sprang mainly from 
  indigenous sources. Afterward, much came from Central Asia via the Silk Road.2 
  Whereas China was closed to foreign music in the first phase, it struck the opposite 
  stance in the second. Perhaps this bimodal historical model eventually will prove too 
  simplistic but, at the moment, it is useful. A related bimodality emerges when we 