志异 Draft by Drama box December 2014 (english) | Page 37

The quality of yielding and leading is not the key aspect of this
model of harmony. It is essential to harmony, but it is significant
only because it is the mechanism that allows the musical
performance to continue. What is of greatest importance to
harmony in this musical model, is that yielding (and responding
to the right cues) is the necessary component for sustaining
and advancing processes or cycles in system (or if it helps you
understand better: in a kind of eco-system).

Jonathan Sim

A superficial understanding of this would be to regard harmony
as nothing more than obedience to a set of social ’traffic’ rules.
Rather, this model of harmony treats the diverse groups as
belonging to a certain eco-system. Harmony exists when diverse
groups act in ways that preserve/perpetuate or improve the ecosystem. Each group must know how to perceive and understand
cues given by other groups, and be willing to yield and/or
sacrifice accordingly so that another group may rise up and lead
at the appropriate time – in so far as it keeps the eco-system/
cycle in balance.

37
Early Chinese Conceptions of Harmony

refuse to give way, or when different parties insist on leading at
the same time. In which case, the music becomes very jarring,
and in some extreme cases, the performance cannot continue
as the conflict has escalated to such an extent that the other
musicians do not know when or how to come in.