The creative thinking deduction of traditional Chinese piano music elements - taking cultural works from different periods in history as the main line

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52152/heranca.v6i1.797

Keywords:

Chinese Piano Music, Traditional Elements, Different Historical Periods, National Culture, Evolution of Thinking, Composition of Piano Music

Abstract

In the 70 years since the founding of China, piano music has undergone a unique process of development. In the early years of the founding, piano composers tended to favor folk material, focusing on nationalization and mass. This study explores multiple stages in the evolution of creative thinking about traditional elements of Chinese piano music, using the cultural lineage of piano works from different historical periods as the main thread. Among them, the first stage is 1949-1966, the seventeen years of unprecedented prosperity of piano creation in the early years of the founding of the country. To make piano music more accessible to the masses, the subjects of piano works had regional and mass characteristics, the melodies tended to be folk materials while not using overly complex musical language and the melody was served by form, weave, and harmony. The second stage was from 1967 to 1977, the decade of the Cultural Revolution. Although the subject matter could only be pianistic adaptations of model operas, revolutionary songs, and traditional instrumental pieces, it prompted composers to dig deeper into the musical language and explore the perfect use of folk music patterns, traditional branching vocal weaves, and nationalized harmonies in the piano. The third stage is 1978-2019, the period of diversified development. A variety of modern Western music genres influenced Chinese piano music composition. Composers used and modernized ethnic materials to varying degrees, resulting in different approaches to ethnicized subject matter. Non-traditional tonality and dissonant acoustics are two of the main characteristics of the musical language at this stage. Nationalization and modernization are explored in Chinese piano works in multiple ways, with remarkable achievements.

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Published

2023-10-09

How to Cite

Li, J., & Heng, T. (2023). The creative thinking deduction of traditional Chinese piano music elements - taking cultural works from different periods in history as the main line. Herança, 6(1), 244–256. https://doi.org/10.52152/heranca.v6i1.797

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Articles (Regular Review EUR450)