Court music of Asian countries converges at 2013 festival

Beijing has been used to hearing the sounds of traditional music every October since the Beijing Traditional Music Festival was launched in 2009.

Starting on Oct 9 and lasting till the 13th, this year's festival will focus on the court music of different Asian countries, which has become unfamiliar to the general public.

Yayue, literally meaning "elegant music", is China's court music that first developed in the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046-771 BC), and influenced the formation of similar music genres of other Asian countries such as the Japanese gagaku and Vietnamese nha nhac.