Everyone: Good morning, Sir Dean and classmates.

Today we will be talking about the music

of East Asia.

Zurich: The part of Asia that we were assigned to talk about today is East Asia. To begin let me
introduce the first country that we will be focusing on today. China. hinese folk songs have a
highly joyful and positive mood, which is likely due to Confucius' ideas, a philosopher who ruled
over China for a period and believed that music is the greatest sense as a method of calming
the feelings of desire and restlessness. Confucius believed that music is the highest sense.
Here’s an example of a folk song from China.

Felicity: The second country that we will talk about is Japan. Japanese vocal music is based on
the intervals of human breathing rather than the mathematical timing. Japanese musicians
master their chosen instrument instead of perfecting a technique for a song or such. Japanese
chamber and solo music have a slow meditative pace. Their cultural songs usually revolve
around their traditions through the form of storytelling. Here’s an example of their traditional folk
song.

Pherille: Last but not least, Korea. Out of all the three countries mentioned beforehand,
Korean's folk music has more of an energetic beat and rhythm. They as well generously use
bright melodies to showcase the liveliness of the songs. South Korean songs have a variation of
instruments and music forms that are diverse from each other. Folk songs, religious works, court
music, and shaman rituals all express the nation with colors and fascinating stories. Here’s an
example of their folk music.

Hulyan: The countries we focused on are Korea, China, and Japan. The general characteristics
that we observed while listening to their music were the following. First, the use of string
instruments were common in their folk songs. We could hear the violin, guitar, and etc.

Divine: The second characteristic is that their songs tell stories. While translating and
researching the meaning of their folk songs, we noticed that they’re telling a story. It was either
about a historical event or a story rooted from their culture.

Felicity: The third characteristic that we observed is that these songs have a soft melody. We
can classify it as pianississimo. Its soft, comforting, and slow. This brings us to the fourth
characteristic. Their songs are almost all sang by female voices. Their pitch is also distinct as it
is higher than alto but lower than soprano.

Hailey: Last but not the least, a common pattern in these songs is that they're heavily
influenced by culture. Their titles, lyrics, and even the beat stem from certain parts of their
culture. For example, the Japanese traditional folk song, Sakura or Cherry Blossom. The song
refers to “hanami,” or blossom viewing. “Hanami” is an old tradition in Japan and a favorite
pastime of the Japanese people during the spring. There are many versions of the lyrics in the
song, but the lyrics all tell the same story. They describe the beauty of the flowering cherry
blossoms.

Carmilla: To summarize the general characteristics or similarities of each song to the other, let’s
put it this way; East Asian music is characterized by mostly a string ensemble, an example of
this is the Guzheng. Their music is predominantly played in pianissimo, and there is an
emphasis on melody, transparency, the focus on individual instruments, word orientation, and
the low use of abstract music. A lot of their pieces are also influenced by their culture and have
the motive to tell a story. Furthermore, their songs are primarily sung by women, and the pitch
range is generally in a mezzo-soprano, higher than alto, and lower than soprano.

Ryeona: Now that we’ve discussed the similarities of each song to the other, what are their
similarities to our own music? Well, East Asian music and Philippine music are quite similar in
many aspects. They both have a strong cultural effect, to start. Their music displays a portion of
their culture to the outside world.

Pherille: Additionally, they are storytellers. Each occurrence will be the subject of a tale that
they will tell you. songs about their way of life to songs about historical occasions. Those are
just two of their similarities.

Hailey: And this brings us to the end of our presentation. We hoped you learned something
new. Thank you for your time.