Music in East Asia

Afterthought 1:

1. Compare the tone quality of the Shakuhachi to that of the Turkish Ney.

The tone quality in the piece of Shakuhachi varies, but the piece is played on an aerophone and so there is an overall breathy sound, however this varies from relatively clear notes to much more breathy ones. There is no tonguing used, but rather at 0:47, the note is overblown, and so produces a tone that is very much like wind.
In the piece of Ney, the tone is also from an aerophone, however there are almost no overblown notes and most notes are pure, as opposed to the occasional breathiness in the Shakuhachi. However in places like 1:00, the note is slightly overblown, and so a slightly breathy tone results.


2. Compare this music with the Egyptian Arghul. What similarities/differences are there in terms of a) tempo, b) melodic range, c) use of rests and d) texture?

The piece of Arghul is much livelier than the other two, and has a much more distinct melody to it- whereas the other pieces have long, sustained notes throughout the majority of the piece, in this piece the melody (played on an aerophone seemingly similar to a bagpipe) has notes with much shorter durations, is much faster, and has a more singable tune. 
However the melodic range is quite small, just like the other two pieces, though it is slightly larger than the others. 
The piece uses rests in much the same way as the Shakuhachi, because it has them after every phrase. This is different to the Ney, which does not have rests, insofar as is possible (the performer only takes breaks for breath). 
The texture of the Arghul is more similar to that of the Ney, because they both have a melody accompanied by one single instrument (drums in the Ney and a drone in the Arghul). This is different to the texture of the Shakuhachi, which only has the one instrument which plays the melody.

Afterthought 6:

-Does the vocal tone quality of the male soloist remain similar over his whole range? In what kind of scale does he sing, and which notes of this scale seem the most important?

The vocal tone of the male singer (from 0:56) varies over his range. In the higher register, it sounds more desperate and passionate, and is louder. When he sings lower, the quality is similar, but it is quieter, perhaps because he is struggling to sing so low. 

He seems to be singing in a mode, however the most important notes seem to be the As and the Es (possibly the As are the tonic, or equivalent and the Es are the dominant, or equivalent, which would actually mean that this piece was in the equivalent of A major/minor, and not a mode at all).

-Compare the scale of this music with the scales used in the piece for qin and sizhu ensemble. 

The scale of this music seems to be tonal, however the scale is not obvious, whilst in the qin and sizhu ensembles have much more scale-focused melodies, and in the piece of qin, the melody uses a lot of step-wise movement, making the scale much clearer. In the sizhu this is also the case. The scales of the sizhu and qin seem to be major, whereas with the opera, it seems to be either minor or modal.