III
With the exception of the Mohammedans, the first and foremost use of music among the exotic races has been in religious rites of one sort or another. And in this connection it is in most cases an accompaniment to religious dancing and pantomime. Music is rarely looked upon in the Orient as a means of social diversion or artistic enjoyment in itself alone, such as we consider music of the orchestra or the string quartet. Only in the form of poetic song or of orchestral accompaniment to the religious or secular ballet is it highly appreciated.
The hymns chanted in a sing-song manner, the monotonous tunes accompanying the temple services and sacred dances of the ancient Mexicans would, no doubt, prove intolerably wearisome to our ears, but the Aztecs took such pleasure in them that they often sang during entire days. And, quite in the eighteenth century manner, the wealthy Aztec nobles maintained choirs of singers and bands of professional musicians. At the great Sun-feast of the ancient Peruvians, ‘the long revelry of the day was closed at night by music and dancing.’ Some sort of song flourished among this people. There was a class of minstrels. Aside from the traditional melodies which have already been mentioned, the music of some of the distinctively Inca (not Spanish) dances, the huaino, the cachua, the cachaspare, has come down to our own day.
In China music is for the most part confined to sacred ceremonies and dancing. Père Amiot, a French missionary who spent some time in China in the second half of the eighteenth century, wrote down the following celebrated chorus; a hymn in honor of the ancestors, sung in the emperor’s presence to the accompaniment of sacred dances, and the typical Chinese orchestra:
Part one.
![[PNG]](#7492430724626623457_pag56_score1.png.id-3310658494892709545.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
See hoang sıen Tsou
Yo lıng yu Tıen.
Yuen yen tsıng heou.
Yeou kao tay hıuen.
Hıuen sun cheou mıng.
Tchouı yuen kı sıen
Mıng yu ché tsoung.
Y-ouan see inen.
Part two.
![[PNG]](#7492430724626623457_pag56_score2.png.id-3751486180535684594.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
Touı yué tché tsıng.
Yen jan jou cheng.
Kı kı tchao ming.
Kan ko tsaı ting.
Jou kıen kı hıng.
Jou ouen kı cheng.
Ngaı eulb kıng tché.
Fa hou tchoung tsıng.
Part Three.
![[PNG]](#7492430724626623457_pag56_score3.png.id-8936826394242120498.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
Duei tsıen jin koung.
Tê tchao yng Tıen.
Lu yuen kı yu.
Sıao-tsee.
Yuen cheou sang koue.
Yu pao kı tê,
Hao Tıen ouang kı.
Yu tsin san hıen.
Duo sin yué y.
At private and ceremonial banquets, also, dancing to orchestral accompaniment is usual. Solo, in the province of Yunnan, the most southwestern division of China, supplies the musicians and dancers for the private orchestras and entertainments of mandarins throughout the Celestial empire. Then, too, the Chinese orchestra finds a place in theatrical representations. The songs to be heard in every Chinese city at eventide to the crude accompaniment of mandolins and guitars may attest a popular fondness for music, but the gongs continually sounding in the temples and innumerable tinkling bells upon the towers and pagodas can hardly be said to constitute music.
In Siam, Burmah, Cambodia, and Java the arts of music and dancing have always been held in high esteem. In Java the native dances are marked by gravity and harmony of movement. The average ambulant band in that country consists of six players, while the gamelags of native sovereigns like the sultan of Djokka or the emperor of Solo usually comprise a dozen. The Siamese have ballet performances of posturing and slow, deliberate dancing, most of which are pantomime plays with orchestral accompaniment, the story chanted by a kind of Greek chorus behind the scenes. The king of Cambodia maintains a large troupe of dancers, chosen among the most beautiful women in his realm, who preserve the tradition of the ancient dances of the land. The following air is a prelude to one of these Cambodian dances, sung by a female chorus with orchestral accompaniment:
Cambodian Dance.
![[PNG]](#7492430724626623457_pag57_score.png.id-260955909403935132.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
In both these countries, as in Annam and Burmah, it is not the orchestra that leads the dancers, but the dancers who are followed by the orchestra. And in nearly all cases these pantomimes are of an allegorical or mythological character. Similar performances, notably ‘devil dances,’ are given in lamaseries of Tibet, Mongolia, and Siberia in which the Buddhist monks, in costume and mask, represent gods, devils, mythological kings, and other traditional characters.
The airs of the sampan-men of the Hue River in Annam are often beautiful. In alternation with their wives they sing simple ballads full of poetry and grace as they float down stream at night. Peculiar are the orchestras of the blind, made up of poor families, some one member of which is sightless, who sing love-songs before the village tea-houses for a pittance.
The Butterfly Dance Music.
![[PNG]](#7492430724626623457_pag58_score.png.id-7437057173218385808.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
In Japan the ‘geishas’ perform their poetic dances, ‘The Leaf of Gold,’ ‘The Butterfly Dance,’ to the sound of a vague, discreetly agreeable accompaniment. The geishas’ music is that of the plucked string, and is generally vague in form. The koto and the samisen are the representative instruments, though sometimes the musicians sing a few measures. Harmony in our sense of the word is entirely lacking. In the Buddhist temples the entire service is intoned on one note, but the priests sing successively at a different pitch, and the chanting is punctuated by the occasional clang of cymbals and the deep, rich tones of the great gong, a strange and impressive combination. At the time of the various Japanese flower festivals, those of the azaleas, of the flowering plum and cherry, when the country is glad with pink and white blossoms, roving bands of musicians and dancers in grotesque costume add to the gaiety of the occasion.
Old Japanese Print: ‘Girl of the Old Kingdom Playing the Harp’.
In Hindustan dance music (vocal and instrumental combined) plays an important part in the religious ceremonies of the temples, both in the voluptuous dances of the devadhazis, or bayadères,[18] and in the chanting of the montranis, scriptural formulas set to a fixed musical rhythm. The size of a Hindoo orchestra varies, and the dance-music it plays is not always of a sensuous, erotic type, but often very animated and vigorous in character, such as accompanies the dancing at the courts of the rajahs. Music frequently accompanies dramatic representations as well, and there is a great deal of popular song. The Hindoos have dhourpad and kourka, warlike hymns, hoti, canticles in honor of Krishna, stouti, official odes, bichnoupoud, evening songs, kheal, love songs, sohla, nuptial songs, thoumries, patriotic songs, palma, cradle songs, and darda, love songs. In many cases Hindoo music shows signs of Mohammedan influence, especially in the variety and liveliness of its rhythm. It is curious to note that the use of certain types accompanying instruments is restricted to certain social classes, priests, mendicant holy men, dancing girls, and so forth.
Mohammedan music is associated with a wide variety of voluptuous secular dances, for the Mohammedan Orient possesses an art of dance equal to the most delicate inspirations of our poets. There is the dance of the Ouled Nail, the famous dancing girls of Biskra, the Tunisian ‘Dance of the Hair,’[19] the Algerian ‘Dance of the Pitchers,’ the dances of the Egyptian Ghaouazi or ‘Almees,’ exponents of what is known to us as the danse du ventre, of which one of the dance airs follows:
Ghaouazi Dance.
![[PNG]](#7492430724626623457_pag60_score.png.id-1852280839973503210.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
There are the dances of Syrian, Soudanese and other dancing-girls. Then there are the special dances, accompanied by choral singing and instrumental music, that celebrate the nuptial ceremony throughout the Orient.