On reflection

I put up a short post about Chinese music and hinted at the difficulty I was having with understanding it. If you followed the link, you probably noticed this:

A melody may be developed in several ways, through

• repetition
  
  • the repetition of a melodic phrase or
  • of a rhythmic pattern
• changing the beginning of the phrase


• changing the ending of a phrase


• repeating a snatch of a motif


• ornamentation


• piling on “jia duo”


• “jia sui”


• continuation/passing on
  
  • “jie zi” beginning of second phrase uses the ending note of the first phrase
  • “jie yin” using material from first phrase to develop second phrase
• having certain motif that repeats throughout “guan chuan”


• sequence


• others

A couple of days later when I turned on the car radio, a complicated jazz piece came on, and it occurred to me that jazz uses some of those same techniques. And lo and behold: Shidaiqu.