<P> The lülü formed the ritual scale to which many instruments were tuned . The name of the lowest sound, huangzhong also implyed' musical correctness .' Its pitch formed a pitch standard, setting the base pitch of zithers, flutes and singers of imperial court orchestras . Straight - walled pitch pipes without finger holes were made of cast metal, their lengths specified by court regulations . The resulting chromatic scale provided twelve fundamental notes for the construction of the musical scales themselves . The lülü also has a cosmological value: its notes describe the energetic frequency of the twelve months of the year, the daily rhythm of the twelve bi-hours of the Chinese clock, the twelve main acupuncture meridians, etc . </P> <P> The two sets of tones (male and female) dividing the twelve - tone scale were generated by the "Method of Subtracting and Adding Thirds," or sanfen sunyi, which involved alternately rising a fifth and descending a fourth through the subtraction or addition of a third of the length of the preceding pitch pipe . The resulting pitches produced by adding a third (and descending a fourth) were referred to by Sima Qian in the Records of the Grand Historian (91 BCE) as pitches of "superior generation," that is, the pitches of Ling Lun's male phoenix; the pitches produced by subtracting a third (and ascending a fifth) were referred to as pitches of "inferior generation," that is, the pitches of Ling Lun's female phoenix . </P> <P> "Apart from technical and structural aspects, ancient Chinese music theory also discusses topics such as the nature and functions of music . The Yueji (" Record of music ", c1st and 2nd centuries BCE), for example, manifests Confucian moral theories of understanding music in its social context . Studied and implemented by Confucian scholar - officials (...), these theories helped form a musical Confucianism that overshadowed but did not erase rival approaches . These include the assertion of Mozi (c468--c376 BCE) that music wasted human and material resources, and Laozi's claim that the greatest music had no sounds . (...) Even the music of the qin zither, a genre closely affiliated with Confucian scholar - officials, includes many works with Daoist references, such as Tianfeng huanpei (" Heavenly Breeze and Sounds of Jade Pendants ")." </P> <P> The Samaveda and Yajurveda (c. 1200--1000 BCE) are among the earliest testimonies of Indian music, but they contain no theory properly speaking . The Natya Shastra, written between 200 BCE to 200 CE, discusses intervals (Śrutis), scales (Grāmas), consonances and dissonances, classes of melodic structure (Mūrchanās, modes?), melodic types (Jātis), instruments, etc . </P>

A compositional technique where the parts are written in order from lowest to highest is called