The history of Chinese music dates back at least 5000 years, as long as the culture of China.  There are numerous types of Chinese music today, classified roughly into three categories: traditional music, contemporary music, and popular music. Traditional music includes royal court music handed down from ancient times, folk music, and the music of various ethnic groups. Contemporary music refers to works composed with Western music techniques, and date from the beginning of the twentieth century until the present.

The timeline of the development of Chinese contemporary can be divided roughly into three phases: 1900-1949, 1950-1976, and 1977-

In the earliest phase, music educators and composers, inspired by the enlightened thought of the Western world, composed a large number of songs in order to teach their students and motivate the general population.  The most famous works include Wen (Asking, Youmei Xiao ~ audio), Meigui san yuan (Three wishes of Rose, Zi Huang, 1932 ~ audio) Jiao wo ru he bu xiang ta (How Can I Help But Think of You, Yuanren Zhao ~ audio) Yi yong jun jin xing qu (March of the Volunteers, Er Nie, 1933 ~ audio). One of the earliest symphonic works, Huai jiu ( In memoriam, Zi Huang, 1929 ~ audio), belongs to the late Romantic style. Mu tong duan di (Buffalo Boy's Bamboo Flute, Luting He, 1934 ~ audio) is a piano piece combining contemporary compositional techniques with rich Chinese melody.

The second phase, dating from the establishment of the People’s Republic of China and ending at the conclusion of the Cultural Revolution, is called the “Revolutionization” period of Chinese contemporary music. Under the policy of art in the service of working people, many musical works were composed in a strong national style. The most famous Chinese violin concerto Liang shanbo and Zhu yingtai (Butterfly Lover, 1959 ~ audio), was written by Gang Chen and Zhanhao He, based on the Yue Ju work with the same name. The piano concerto Huang he (Yellow River, Chengzong Yin, Wanghua Chu, 1970 ~ audio) was based on the Chorus of Huang He composed by Xinghai Xian. These two works are expressions of revolutionary spirit, with Chinese folk music materials merging with the Western concerto form.

The third phase marks the current period of reform and opening in China. With the wide-ranging exchange of culture between China and other countries, Chinese contemporary music has become diversified in genre and individualized in expression and technique. Vocal music no longer holds a dominant position; there is an increased output of solo instrumental, chamber music, and orchestral works. Many works have strong individuality and high artistic quality, such as the mixed chamber piece Meng Dong (Qu Xiaosong, 1984), the orchestral work Meng size (Four Dreams, He Xuntian, 1986), the work for string quartet and orchestra Tangshi Si Shou (Poems from Tang, Zhou Long, 1995), the orchestral work Di ping xian (Horizon, Ye Xiaogang, 1985), the solo piano piece Duo ye (Chen Yi, 1984), the string quartet Feng Ya Song (Tan Dun, 1982), and the flute concerto Chou shan kong (Guo Wenjing, 1992).