Performers › Composers
Zu Xiaosun
Sui–Tang music theorist who revised the early Tang court music, rotating the tonic through the twelve pitches to create the Twelve He suites known as the Great Tang Elegant Music.
Mural of the cultural record “Court Ritual Music (Yayue)”, which this person is tied to.
Also known as Zi Demao
Zu Xiaosun, styled Demao, came of the Zu clan of Fanyang. Under the Sui he served as music regulator, helped settle the court music and learned Jing Fang's tuning method from Mao Shuang. Under the Tang he became vice-minister of the Court of Sacrifices. Ordered in 626 to revise the court music, he weighed northern and southern styles against ancient sound, matched the twelve pitches to the months and rotated the tonic through them, producing the Twelve He suites of 31 pieces in 84 modes, presented in 628 as the Great Tang Elegant Music. His writings on tuning are lost; their gist survives in the music treatises of the Tang histories.
Life and times
Dates 562 CE–631 CE