"Pu'an Zhou"《普庵咒》, no. 9 from the collection "Xiansuo Beikao"《弦索备考》- version 1

[@felang-9363]

Trying to navigate and become more familiar with the various forms of Chinese music. Do you have any videos of something which would resemble European Chamber Music/Orchestra, or Thai Piphat, by a professional group such as this one? Who are the Dowlands, Beetovens, Bachs?

[@dbadagna]

The Chinese musical heritage is vast, but most of the music is anonymously composed. There are notable exceptions, such as the 12th-century poet-composer Jiang Kui (姜夔), who published a set of 28 songs around 1200. Chinese music differs from place to place as well as time period to time period, but I think you'll find that sometimes the music played by amateur performers is more authentic and interesting than that played by professional troupes. Over the past 10+ years I've uploaded more than 1,000 videos of Chinese music in its full diversity, so you could simply browse through my videos (or playlists) and see if anything interests you. kzbin.infovideos

[@dbadagna]

As far as quality goes, I think the music from China's golden age, the Tang Dynasty (c. 7th-10th centuries AD) is outstanding, but it's only now being rediscovered. The interesting thing is that this music is primarily heptatonic rather than pentatonic, being based largely on music of Central Asia (which was itself influenced by the music of India). This music can be considered the world's earliest fully notated orchestral tradition. Here are a few examples: www.youtube.com/@dbadagna/search?query=mannlichkeit

[@dbadagna]

The xiansuo (string ensemble) suite in the above video dates from roughly the time of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven and is, in my opinion, of exceedingly high quality; I have uploaded a few score videos so you can get a better sense of how the music is constructed: www.youtube.com/@dbadagna/search?query=%E6%B8%85%E6%95%85%E6%81%AD%E7%8E%8B%E5%BA%9C%E9%9F%B3%E4%B9%90

[@felang-9363]

@@dbadagna @dbadagna I am enjoying your Tang dynasty video, Sa Jin Sha's song sounds very "rock," as its said: good art stays fresh. The Qin always reminds me of instrumentals of John Fahey. With the complete lack of Chinese recordings on Apple Music, I've got a lot to dive into here.

[@dbadagna]

@@felang-9363 Where did you find a recording of "Sa Jin Sha"《撒金沙》(Scattered Golden Sands)?