Hongyuan Dong January 28, 2013 Baltimore, MD

Hongyuan DongJanuary 28, 2013Baltimore, MD

TONES, POETICS AND MUSICALITY—PRINCIPLES OF TONAL ACCOMMODATION IN CHINESE

VOCAL MUSIC—

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Tones, Poetics and Musicality January 28, 2013Hongyuan Dong

Overview• General introduction

• Historical development of Chinese vocal music with regard to tonality

• Principles of tonal accommodation

• Implications for teaching Chinese through singing

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Introduction• Chinese is a tonal language.• A tone is Chinese is a property of pitch

contour superimposed on the syllable• For example in Beijing Mandarin:• mā má mǎ mà• mother hemp horse scold• 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

• High level high rising low dip high falling• Tonal contours distinguish meaning

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Introduction

Photo credit: Jin Zhang from MIT (http://web.mit.edu/jinzhang/www/)

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Introduction

answer questions |great morals |convey meaning| big coat | [primary interpretation of lyrics]

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Introduction• Tonality and musicality use the same

acoustic property: pitch• Melodic contour gives rise to primary

interpretations of lyrics, although other interpretations are possible depending on context.

• To sing naturally and meaningfully requires tonal accommodation to a certain extent.

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Historical Development• The development of vocal music with

respect to tones coincides with the major historical periods of the language.

• A major theme is the relations between vocal music and poetry

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Historical DevelopmentEtymology of “poetry” and “songs”:• 詩 shī: feelings, which can be expressed

with words• ( 『說文解字』：詩，志也。又段玉裁『說文解字注』：毛詩序曰。詩者，志之所之也。在心爲志。發言爲詩。 )

• 歌 gē: sing, the radical 欠 indicates breath coming out of a person.

• ( 『說文解字』：歌，詠也。从欠哥聲。欠，張口气悟也。象气从人上出之形。又段玉裁『說文解字注』：悟，覺也。隱身爲解散之意。 )

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Historical Development• According to chapter “the record of music”

from the Classic of Rites (Warring States 475BC-221BC) ：• When the feelings are moved within, they are

manifested in the sounds of the voice 『禮記・楽記』：情動於中，故形於聲。• Hence, singing means the prolonged

expression of the words; 『禮記・楽記』：故歌之為言也，長言之也。

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Historical Development• Therefore, when a person has certain

feelings, he/she can externalize them with words. This is what is called shī (poem).

• When one utter these words in prolonged voices, he/she is singing, e.g. gē.

• Thus originally “poem” refers to the content, while “songs” refers to the performance.

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Historical Development• “Poems” originally were always sung.

• According to the Chronicles of the Grand Historian: Confucius sang the 305 poems in the collection “The Book of Poetry” to the accompaniment of stringed instruments.

• 『史記・孔子世家』：三百五篇孔子皆弦歌之。

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Historical Development• At this early period, poetry and songs are

intertwined together, as exemplified in the Book of Poetry (Western Zhou1046 BC - 771 BC)

• This is also the period of Old Chinese.• Linguists study the sounds of Old Chinese

by studying the rhyming schemes in the Book of Poetry, among other things.

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Historical Development• A detailed study shows that rhyming characters

in the Book of Poetry normally belong to the same tonal category (a later concept).

• But sometimes different tonal categories can rhyme too.

• According to statistics, 82.2% of the rhyming characters belong to the same tonal category, while 17.8% do not.

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Historical Development• Such evidence prompted some scholars,

e.g. Chen Di 陳第 (1541-1617) , to say that there were no tones in Old Chinese.

• Wang Li proposed that there was no qu tone, since it rhymed with all the other three in the Book of Poetry.

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Historical Development

• Whether there were tones or not in Old Chinese, we note that poetry/songs in Old Chinese period generally did not pay special attention to tonal properties.

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Historical Development• After the Han Dynasty (206 BC -220 AD),

Old Chinese gradually transitioned into Middle Chinese by the beginning of the Sui Dynasty (589-618AD).

• The first mention of four tones (ping, shang, qu and entering tones) was Shen Yue ( 沈約 441-513)

• After that, tonal properties of the Chinese language became a major concern for poetry and songs.

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Historical Development• Middle Chinese phonology was largely

recorded in the rhyme dictionary Qieyun (601 AD).

• This dictionary was the standard of composing poems in the imperial examination in the Sui and Tang dynasties.

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Historical Development• An extreme concern to tonal properties

led to a poetic genre of regulated verse in the Tang Dynasty.

• Tonal arrangement: even tones (the ping tone) and deflected tones (the other three) should be arranged according to certain patterns.

• Only characters that belong to the same tonal category can rhyme.

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Historical Development• Poetry and songs began to diverge.

• Poems were often chanted, while a special type of songs called “ci 詞” began to develop and became popular during the Song Dynasties (960-1279)

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Historical Development• The divergence of songs from poetry made it

possible for composers to note special requirements for tonal accommodation.

• According to Zhang (1998), as early as in the Song Dynasty, Zhang Yan (1248-?) wrote “If the melody is flat while the character has a non-flat tone, then they do go together. Therefore uttering the characters correctly goes first, and then melody follows.”

• 腔平字側莫參商，先需道字後還腔。

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Historical Development• In the subsequent Yuan Dynasty (1279-

1368), Middle Chinese had already morphed into Early Middle Chinese.

• Zhongyuan Yinyun 中原音韻 was the major record of the phonology of Early Middle Chinese.

• It was a reference book for composing the qu 曲 drama.

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Historical Development• The composition of drama/opera led to

more works to discuss the tonal properties in vocal music in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1912) Dynasties.

• Towards the end of the Qing Dynasty, a form between speaking and singing called shuochang 說唱 , such as Jinyun Dagu 京韻大鼓 , was gradually developed into a popular genre of storytelling.

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Historical Development• After the Qing Dynasty began the Modern

Chinese period. • In the modern era, tonal properties are no

longer a major concern for many composers.

• Correspondingly, in modern poetry, such concerns become very much relaxed as well.

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Historical Development• To sum it up:• In the Old Chinese period:• Poetry and Songs were intertwined.• Tonal properties were quite relaxed in

poetry, compared to Middle Chinese.• It might be due to simpler or no tones in

Old Chinese.

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Historical Development• In the Middle Chinese period:• Tonal theory became common knowledge.• Tonal properties became a major concern for

poetry, as exemplified in regulated verse.• Poetry and Songs began to diverge.• Although poems could still be sung, they

were often chanted.• Ci as a special form of vocal music emerged.

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Historical Development• In the Early Middle Chinese period:• Vocal music continued to diversify,

culminating in the qu genre.• Composing vocal music led to proliferation

of works discussing tonal accommodation• Poetry continued to develop mostly as a

genre of literature, further detached from singing.

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Historical Development• In modern times:• Unless it is a traditional genre of vocal

music, most composers do not pay special attention to tonal accommodation.

• Correspondingly a similar relaxation also occurs in modern poetry.

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Tonal Accommodation• In this section I will discuss the following

principles of tonal accommodation• Tonal contour resemblance introduced in

Zhang (1998)• Carryover (I propose to make this a separate

principle using materials from Zhang (1998)• Register distinction (I propose this based

on Wong and Diehl 2002 and Zhang 1998)• Ad hoc grace notes (my new proposal)• Phrasal contour (my new proposal)

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Tonal Contour Resemblance• Zhang (1998) introduces the following

principles of tonal accommodation used in traditional Chinese vocal music, e.g. operas.

• These principles can be lumped together as “tonal contour resemblance”

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Tonal Contour Resemblance• 1st tone: high notes mostly, can use a single

note or a downward succession of single notes, but not upward succession

• 2nd tone: upward succession of two notes for one 2nd tone, or two tones.

• 3rd tone: low notes, upward progression

• 4th tone: high notes, downward progression

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Tonal Contour Resemblance

• The second character is a 2nd tone realized by B-D;

• The third character is a 3rd tone realized by A-D;

• They do not seem to be sufficiently distinguished.

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Tonal Contour Resemblance• According to Yuan (1998), both the 2nd tone

and the 3rd tone have a dip towards the beginning of the tonal contour and a rising part towards the end of the tonal contour.

• Therefore both tones have the same basic shape.

• What is different is that the turning point is earlier for the 2nd tone while later for 3rd tone.

• This is corroborated by perception tests.

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Tonal Contour Resemblance• Therefore for the previously cited example,

it is reasonable that the two characters 明 and 柳 have a similar melodic contour.

• But the 3rd tone still starts lower at A than the 2nd tone at B.

• For students of Chinese, confusability between the 2nd tone and the 3rd tone is quite common as well.

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Tonal Contour Resemblance

• In this example, the first character in the second half of the phrase 有 is a 3rd tone. Which is again realized as a rising contour.

• But compared to the second character 王 which is a 2nd tone, the starting point of 有 at C♯, which is significantly lower than the F♯ for the 2nd tone 王 .

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Carryover

• A previous note can carry over to the next one so that the transition will better preserve the tonal contour.

• In this example, 晴 is a 2nd tone with a rising contour. It is associated with only one note F.

• But the previous note C is lower. The transition between these two notes realize a rising contour as C-F

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Register distinction• The four principles mentioned above in

Zhang (1998) do use the notion of pitch register, e.g. 3rd tone should use low notes as the start point while the 4th tone should use a high note as the start point.

• But register distinction was not used consistently as a principle for all four tones.

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Register distinction• Wong and Diehl (2002) the 6 tones

(excluding the entering tones) in Cantonese can be grouped into high-pitch (55 and 35), mid-pitch (33 and 23) and low-pitch (21 and 22).

• Although the exact contour of the tones might not be wholly preserved, the register distinction can still narrow the possible interpretations to one of two.

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Register distinction• In Mandarin: the only non-controversial

one would be the 1st tone as a high-pitch tone.

• In the same fashion as in Cantonese argued above, we can treat the 2nd tone as a high-pitch tone as well.

Tones Tonal values1st tone 552nd tone 353rd tone 2144th tone 51

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Register distinction• For the 4th tone, in many cases it is realized

as 53 especially if the following tone starts with a 5.

• Therefore the 4th tone can be considered a high-pitch tone.

• The 3rd tone is often realized as 211 (half-3rd) if it followed by 1st, 2nd and 4th tone. In this case it is a low-pitch tone.

• If the 3rd tone is followed by another 3rd tone, it is realized as 35, thus a high-pitch tone.

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Register distinction• Therefore a register distinction in

Mandarin would be:

Register Tones

High 1st, 2nd, 4th . If 3rd is followed by another 3rd, then yes

Low 3rd in most cases (Half 3rd)

• Thus the most obvious tonal accommodation is to make the 3rd tone a low note, and the contour does not matter that much.

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Register distinction

• In this selection, both 3rd tone characters are realized by one low note with no contour.

wǒ yuàn yi wèi nǐ我愿意为你

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Proposal 1: ad hoc grace notes

• For tonal interpretation, the initial contour is enough for correct identification.

• E.g. The following pitch contours can be interpreted as the 2nd tone and the 4th tone respectively.

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Proposal 1: ad hoc grace notes• Thus a singer can add ad hoc grace notes

to locally accommodate a tonal contour.

• These need not be written as part of the music score.

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• Acciaccatura is especially commonly used for 2nd tone and 4th tone.

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• Mordents can be used to give a non-flat flavor. If the main note is a high note, it could be interpreted as a second tone.

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• A special type of portamento in Chinese vocal music can be used to locally accommodate the 4th tone.

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Proposal 2: phrasal contour

Theoretical abstractionPhoto credits http://guide.wenlininstitute.org/wenlin4.1/Pronunciation

Actual pitch contour in connected speech

http://guide.wenlininstitute.org/wenlin4.1/Pronunciation



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• Real pitch contour in connected speech is not always in the ideal form.

• The principles we mentioned earlier only look at the theoretical ideal forms in isolation.

• Thus we may wonder about the actual acoustic correlates of these principles.

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• Rather than looking at individual characters in the lyrics and their local melodic contour, we look at a bigger phrase.

• The overall degree of resemblance in pitch contour is more important than individual cases.

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sī niàn shì yì zhǒng 思念是一种

Theoretical ideal forms:

• In the melody, each character is associated with a single note, while four out of the five characters have a non-flat contour.

• “Carryover” is very useful here.

• Also the fifth character is in accordance with the register distinction by being the lowest note in this phrase.

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• Phrase contour shape (red line) vs. actual speech contour shape (blue line)

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Proposal 2: phrasal contour• Further research is needed to find an

algorithm to evaluate the overall degree of phrasal contour resemblance.

• A computerized analysis should be able to calculate an index of overall resemblance of the whole piece.

• The index can then be used to quantify how well a piece is in preserving the tonal contrasts.

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Teaching Implications• What level to introduce singing?• Since tones are not always maintained in

songs, it would be better for students above the beginning level.

• For beginning students, they need to establish good tonal accuracy before introduced to singing.

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Teaching Implications• What songs to choose?• Students generally prefer popular

contemporary songs.• Pop songs written in a “folk song” style

generally maintain the tonal contours better.• If possible, choose contemporary pop songs

that maintain tonal contours to a good degree.

• Modern Mandarin rap-style songs. But maybe not Cui Jian’s rock-rap style.

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Teaching Implications• In general, teaching Chinese through

songs can motivate students.• Better song selections can train students

in tonality while singing.

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Teaching Implications• On the other hand, teaching students to

recite poems might also be a good idea.• The regulated poems are especially

beneficial to students since the poems were composed according to very strict metrical and tonal rules.

• Such elevated forms of language can help students grasp the prosodic properties of the language better.

thank you!Contact me at [email protected]

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Hongyuan Dong January 28, 2013 Baltimore, MD