During the Qin dynasty, Chinese States were unified, and between existing states, they shared ideas with each other much more easily. Music in this era were believed to be heterophonic in texture, i.e. the decoration of a note with use of ornaments entirely at discretion of the player itself. During this era, the concept of ensembles of various types caught on, but music was mainly confined to the royal court.

During the Qin Dynasty, the guqin became a literary instrument, often becoming philosophical objects for scholars. The guqin thus gives the player a high and respected social status. Another breakthrough in music was introduction of gongche scores (工尺璞). The score system enables players to record down music they have learnt instead of oral tradition. This method, however, requires musicians to realise rhythm as it was partially written down. To see an example of gongche, see here http://www.arikah.net/encyclopedia/images/e/e7/QXRM_tab.jpg 

Music in the Qin Dynasty has been lost through time, and so are the instruments. Instruments that existed during that time were the zhu （筑）and the yu (竽）. The zhu was a five string instrument that is played by hammering the strings with the left hand, and stopping the strings with the right. It can be likened to a pipa being played with a yangqin stick. The yu was a heavy free-reeded instrument that resembled the sheng and was played in court music. Back then, the yu referred to any sheng that can play more than 13 notes. Nowadays, all forms of mouth organ are called the sheng (笙).

We shall look more into gongche notation and a glimpse of music between the Han to the Northern and the Southern Dynasties the next time I write.

I will write on Saturday before 9 p.m. North/South Korea and Japan. 

I'm back after a very long exam break, and i'm pleased to announce that this page is more than a year old! haha...

Anyways, I was back from a Hari Raya gathering at my third cousin's brother's wife's sister's stepniece's great aunt (twice removed) place. I overheard some relatives I can't recognise. I thought they were cultutrally philistines, they asked if I liked music that, you know, teenagers like to hear to hear these days, so I said anything goes, in fact I was listening to the second movement of Brandenburg Concerto No.5 so I said I was listening to Bach. The woman said she admired Bach a lot, and she just saw Bach got on the bus 700 to Bugis that very morning. That is one dumb lady, everyone knows 700 doesn't go to Bugis.

Anyway, to today's discursive topic, ever wondered how the process in which the choosing of which Malaysian to send to the moon? Here's a probable theory.

After months of hunting, three people were finally chosen as finalists. One of them was Dr. Muzaphar, the other was Tan Chow Kit and the last one was Salman Singh. When the prime minister His Excellency Dr. Abdullah Badawi personally came to ask every one of them if there were any requests they would like, Ah Kit was first to express his request. He asked for 1 million ringgit lest anything happens to him if he were in space, at least he is assured his family is well-insured.

Dr Muzaphar (my sincerest of apologies to Malaysians who is happening to read this, please understand this is just my theory and if I have offended you in any way, please accept my sincerest of apologies) came up to His Excellency the Prime Minister and said he wanted 500,000 ringgit for his wife. However, since he has 4 wives, he therefore asked for 2 million ringgit. His Excellency was shell-shocked, and said he would think about it.

Last of all was Salman. He asked for 3 million ringgit. His excellency had an even ruder shock and asked him why. Salman said, "The first million is for you, sir" Of course His Excellency was pleased. "The second million is for my family at home" His excellency asked what he was to do with the third million. Salman's face lit up and said, "The third million is to send the Malay up the moon!"

That was how Dr. Muzaphar got to the moon and Salman Singh got 1 million ringgit richer. Please understand this is just a theory, and I apologise for anyone who takes offence. No hard feelings ok?

I think that's it for today, I will write on Thursday after 8 p.m. Malaysia, Singapore and China and 9 p.m. North and South Korea and Japan. See you then!

Since I'm in the mood to blog today let's get this over with.

My blog is soon going to be 1 year old in 3 months' time and thought i'll celebrate it with writing a blog on the very day.

Let's start with today's issue: Celebrated Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti has passed away after his long fight with cancer. Let's face it: Cancer is hitting people one by one these days. Please go get a medical checkup regularly. (Doctor did not pay me to write this, I swear)

Also in today's issue is the startling issue that most people did not know Mozart named his fortieth symphony Symphony No.40 (Ok that wasn't the issue). Aaaannnddd President Bush and president Roh have a testy exchange (ehem...not testes) regarding the never ending truce over the Korean conflict. What are your views on the Korean conflict? Post your comments just under this post (err...).

On a lighter note, did you know that the Red Sea occupies a surface area of 450,000 square kilometres and has a depth of 2,500 metres? That means the Red Sea contains approximately 1,125,000,000,000,000 cubic metres of water? That is approximately 1,125,000,000,000,000,000 litres of water! Beat that Kok Wai and Boon Siang!

I think that sums up today's entry, take care and be nice!