As the world’s largest continent, Asia is made up of a great many cultures, each with its own distinct musical traditions. A few of them are outlined in this chapter.

Chinese opera dates back to the 6th century A.D. and has many different styles and subgenres.

One such style, called Peking opera, developed in Beijing in the 19^th century.  Peking opera combines instruments, singing, dramatic spoken word, pantomime, and martial arts. Peking opera singers use a unique vocal timbre that is more nasal and shrill than western singers. Peking opera orchestras include a variety of percussion instruments like gongs, cymbals, and drums. String instruments like the jinghu and the yuegin provide melodic accompaniment for the singers.

In Japan, ceremonial music has been used for over a thousand years. One such example is gagaku, an elegant style of music that is more than 1200 years old. Gagaku can be strictly instrumental, or it can accompany dancing in which the dancers wear costumes and elaborate masks. The instruments in gagaku may include the shakuhachi flute, the taiko drum, and the shooko, a small gong.

The music of India is based in repetition. A string instrument called a tambura plays a continuous note, called a drone, to establish a song’s tonal center. On top of the drone, a drummer plays a rhythm cycle, or a series of rhythmic patterns that repeats again and again. Some of these patterns are quite long and complex. These patterns are typically played on a tabla, a small hand drum that can produce a wide variety of sounds depending on how it is struck.

On the Indonesian island of Bali, musicians gather to play in large ensembles called gamelans. A gamelan can consist of two dozen or more musicians who play a variety of percussion instruments, flutes, and string instruments. The music often accompanies dancing and story telling. Balinese gamelan music features highly complex polyrhythms – interlocking patterns that create a rich musical texture.