Musical Terms

大面 or 代面 dài miàn : "masked play" or "masked dance" 

A dance or musical play from Northern Qi, taken from the story of King of Lanling 蘭陵王. The performer wears a wooden mask and dances to a specific song. 



戴竿伎 daì gān jì / 戴幢者 daì tóng zhě: "stilt walker"
 


代言體 daì yán tǐ: "speaking in character"


軟舞  ruǎn wu : "soft dances" : melodious, lyrical dances

健舞 jian wu: "swift dances" : fast dances, usually accompanied by drums

散樂 sǎn  yuè: "motley music"

A type of performance resembling somewhat a musical (gewuxi 歌舞戲), that originates from the Western Regions, particularly India. It incorporates singing, dancing, acrobatics and magic tricks. It is practiced and performed by musicians in the Jiaofang, and is most likely used as banquet music to entertain foreign guests, as the fourth and final segment of one full set of performance, preceded by, in order of appearance: Sitting Ensemble, Standing Ensemble, and Dancing Horses. Instrumentation: one horizontal flute, one clapper, and three waist drums.  (Old History of the Tang)



聲 shēng: "tone"

In a broad sense, refers to the four types of level, rising, falling and entering tonal movements in speech. Hence it could also be interpreted as "inflection" (Maspero) or "accent" depending on the context. Karlgren explains the concept of 聲 shēng as "melody" of a word, or "form" of the tone from a philological point of view. In discussions of music, 聲 shēng could also refer to "sound" or melodic movements in general.


聲兒 shēng er: "choirboy"

A diminutive nickname that the people in Jiaofang called the people in Taichang.


聖壽樂 shèng  shòu  yuè: "Divine Longevity Music"

A song-and-dance piece of music performed in court during Kaiyuan, the music itself existed since Empress Wu's reign (Tongdian 通典)


徒歌 tú  gē: "plain songs"

Unaccompanied vocal music that takes the form of a song.


樂營 yuè  yíng: "music site/base"

In Tang and Song, refers to regional courts where upper class courtesans entertain high level officials.