LU PIPES

in Chinese music, 12 bamboo pipes closed at one end and cut in lengths mathematically proper to produce, when blown across their open ends, the 12 l, or fundamental pitches, of the untempered scale ( i.e., a scale whose semitones are not all of equal size). This is the most ancient specific music theory system known. Although the pitches are the same as those of the Greek and early Western systems, their acoustical generation method is different; the tones of Chinese music are produced by the so-called overblown-fifths method, whereas Western music uses the divisions of a string.