By: Yi-Cheng Daniel Wu,
Associate Professor of Music Theory at the Soochow University School of Music
Abstract:
Luo Zhongrong (1924–2021), a pioneer of modernist Chinese music, was the first composer in China to adopt twelve-tone techniques after the Cultural Revolution. The Rhyme of Qin (1993), written for the qin (Chinese zither) and chamber orchestra, features an opening section (mm. 1–7) that presents three distinct twelve-tone rows. This video examines the work’s formal structure and Luo’s approach to serial design.
Each row follows a 5+5+2 structure: the two 5s represent non-overlapping Chinese pentatonic scales, while the 2 refers to their complementary dyad. Luo manipulates the row’s pentatonic character through transposition and dyadic intervals. When the two Chinese pentatonic scales are closely related by T1 and the complementary dyad forms a pentatonic perfect fifth, the row achieves maximum pentatonization. Conversely, when the 5s are distantly related by T6 and the complementary dyad forms a non-pentatonic tritone, pentatonicity significantly diminishes.
The opening section moves between maximally and minimally pentatonized rows. At the midpoint, where pentatonicity is minimized, the row simultaneously introduces a quotation of a traditional qin melody. This creates a heightened tension, as the melody from the past—strongly evoking a sense of Chineseness—is embedded within a row whose internal intervallic structure stretches to the furthest extreme of the non-pentatonic, weakening the traditional Chinese pentatonic resonance.
Selected Bibliography:
Jiang, Lei. 姜蕾. 2014. “From Pitch Collections to Pentatonic Pitch-Class Sets: Allen Forte’s Music Set Theory and
its Application in Luo Zhongrong’s String Quartets, Nos. 2–4”(從音級集合到五聲性音級集合—阿倫 • 福特與羅忠鎔的隔空對
話). Huang Zhong 2014, no. 4: 86–97.
Rao, Nancy Yunwha. 2002. “Hearing Pentatonicism through Serialism: Integrating Different Traditions in Chinese
Rao, Nancy Yunwha. 2002. “Hearing Pentatonicism through Serialism: Integrating Different Traditions in Chinese
Contemporary Music.” Perspectives of New Music, 40/2: 190–231.
_____. 2023. “Serialism in East Asia.” In The Cambridge Companion to Serialism, edited by Martin Iddon, 278–300. Cambridge:
_____. 2023. “Serialism in East Asia.” In The Cambridge Companion to Serialism, edited by Martin Iddon, 278–300. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Wang, Rue. 王瑞. 2004. “e Twelve-Tone Compositional Techniques of Luo Zhongrong”(羅忠鎔十二音作品技法研究). Ph.D. diss.,
Wang, Rue. 王瑞. 2004. “e Twelve-Tone Compositional Techniques of Luo Zhongrong”(羅忠鎔十二音作品技法研究). Ph.D. diss.,
Shanghai Conservatory of Music.
About the Author:
Yi-Cheng Daniel Wu is an Associate Professor of Music Theory at the Soochow University School of Music (Suzhou, China). His research interests various aspects of 20th-and 21st-century musics. His articles appear in Indiana Theory Review (2013 and2023), Music Analysis (2017 and 2022), Musicology Australia, Music Theory Spectrum (2019, 2025, and 2026), Canadian Journal of Music, Studia Musicologia, Perspectives of New Music, The Society for Music Theory Videocast Journal, and Ethnomusicology Translations.