Quick Answer: What Is Gongche Notation?
Gongche notation (工尺谱, gōngchěpǔ) uses Chinese characters to represent pitches. In one common reading, 上, 尺 and 工 correspond to do, re and mi. Additional marks can show beats or other features of a performance. The key, register and local convention help determine what pitch actually sounds.[1][2][3]
- Pitch: Characters act as note names in the system.[1][2]
- Meter: Some scores add small marks around the pitch characters.[2][3]
- Layout: Printed examples can run in vertical columns.[2][4]
The same character can be read in the context of a particular key or score tradition.[1][2]
A column of gongche can look like ordinary Chinese writing at first. A small character such as 工 may tell the reader how a melody moves. A dot beside it may tell them where the note falls in a beat pattern.[1][3]
What the Pitch Characters Tell You
The notation takes its name from two of its signs, 工 and 尺. One common solmization sequence is 上, 尺, 工, 凡, 六, 五, 乙 for do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti. If you read 上 尺 工 as a short group, you can see a rising contour in this convention. Its sounding register and pitch level still depend on the score.[1]
Some scores use variants of the characters or add detail about register. A study published by the Education University of Hong Kong shows an example with a different form for a pitch sign and describes vertical reading. The same study discusses Liang Tsai Ping’s 1938 zheng publication Nizhengpu, which contains fifteen gongche scores. The instrument and edition are useful clues to how a set of signs is meant to be read.[1][4]
Where Beat Marks and Local Conventions Come In
A score can place dots to one side of the pitch character. In some traditions, the main beat is called ban (板, bǎn) and subsidiary beats are called yan (眼, yǎn). These marks can help a player locate a note within a cycle of beats. They may leave some details of duration or phrasing to the performance practice.[2][3]
The Hong Kong Education Bureau describes Cantonese opera singers learning the notation through its syllables. It notes that the syllables need not sound like everyday Cantonese readings of the written characters. The same resource notes that Cantonese opera teacher Wong Jyt-seng had singers learn the melody using the gongche syllables. That practice gives a learner a way to hear the signs before reading them in a printed score.[2]
How Gongche Differs From Tablature and Jianpu
Many gongche scores give pitches. Chinese instrumental tablature can specify the instrument action, such as where a string is stopped. Research on earlier instrumental signs shows why visual resemblance is a limited clue. Some historically related signs gave fingerings, while the later gongche signs under discussion give pitches.[3][5]
Jianpu numbered notation uses numerals for scale degrees. To compare a gongche score with a numbered transcription, establish the pitch reference and register before comparing the notes. A numbered transcription can make the melodic comparison easier while the older edition preserves its original beat marks and layout.[1][2][4]
Historical scores can combine systems on the same page. In an example discussed by the Hong Kong Education Bureau, Liu Tianhua used gongche characters for pitch in New Year’s Eve, alongside Chinese beat marks and rhythm signs and slurs adapted from staff notation. The additions tell a reader how this edition marks timing and phrasing.[2]
FAQs About Gongche Notation
Does a gongche character always mean the same absolute pitch?
The actual note can depend on the key and register used for the piece. The character identifies a pitch within the relevant convention.[1][2]
Can a gongche score show rhythm?
Yes. A score can add marks for main and subsidiary beats. The amount of timing detail depends on its notation practice.[2][3]
資料來源
[1] Key Concepts in Chinese Thought and Culture. Gongche Notation
[2] Hong Kong Education Bureau. Listening to Chinese Music
[3] Grove Music Online. China: Instrumental Notation
[4] Education University of Hong Kong Library. Gongche in Chinese Zheng Music
[5] Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, Russian Academy of Sciences. Study of Early Chinese Instrumental Notation