The music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

 of Qinghai

Qinghai

Qinghai ; Oirat Mongolian: ; ; Salar:) is a province of the People's Republic of China, named after Qinghai Lake...

, a province of China inhabited by Tibetans

Tibetan people

The Tibetan people are an ethnic group that is native to Tibet, which is mostly in the People's Republic of China. They number 5.4 million and are the 10th largest ethnic group in the country. Significant Tibetan minorities also live in India, Nepal, and Bhutan...

, Mongolians and others, includes hua'er, a type of song prevalent throughout northwest China. This informal music is often competitive in nature, with singers interacting and improvising topical and love lyrics, usually unaccompanied. Qinghai

Qinghai

Qinghai ; Oirat Mongolian: ; ; Salar:) is a province of the People's Republic of China, named after Qinghai Lake...

's folk music is known for its intervallic leaps in melody

Melody

A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...

.

The Salar people of Xunhua Salar Autonomous County

Xunhua Salar Autonomous County

Xunhua Salar Autonomous County is an autonomous Salar county in the southeast of Haidong Prefecture of Qinghai province, People's Republic of China. The county has an area of around and approximately 110,000 inhabitants...

 are known for distinct music, especially the song "Flowers", which is a combination of Tibetan

Music of Tibet

The music of Tibet reflects the cultural heritage of the trans-Himalayan region, centered in Tibet but also known wherever ethnic Tibetan groups are found in India, Bhutan, Nepal and further abroad...

, Han and Muslim banquet music. They are also known for a string instrument

String instrument

A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...

 called the kouxuan, which is oftne played by women and is made from silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

 or copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

.

Qinghai has also produced the well-known composer Bright Sheng

Bright Sheng

Bright Sheng is a Chinese-American composer, conductor, and pianist. He has lived in the United States since 1982 and is on faculty at the University of Michigan. In 1999, the White House commissioned Sheng to compose a piece to honor the Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji at a state dinner hosted by...

, who worked in Qinghai's Folk Dance and Music Theatre while he collected the area's folk songs. He has used elements of local folk music in his compositions.