Rekindling Ancient Values: The Influence of Chinese Music and Aesthetics on Harry Partch

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. ANDREW GRANADE
Keyword(s):  
Spoken Word ◽  
Chinese Music ◽  
Early Experiences ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Li Po ◽  
Cantonese Opera ◽  
Musical Traditions ◽  
Theoretical Thinking ◽  
Unpublished Manuscripts ◽  
Scale Composition

AbstractScholarship on American composer Harry Partch (1901–74) has long focused on the composer's use of Greek musical ideals as the basis of his aesthetic, but little attention has been paid to China, a nation with which Partch had familial ties and with which he claimed an affinity. Using Partch's published writings, along with unpublished manuscripts, letters, and interviews, this article repositions China's role in the development of Harry Partch's music and aesthetic. By surveying his early experiences with Cantonese opera, his early expositions of his theoretical thinking, and his first full-scale composition, a setting of seventeen poems by Li Po, it demonstrates that China symbolized an alternative path. China's musical traditions were tied directly to the spoken word and featured integration of the arts through ritual, and thus for Partch presented a way to renew Western music. Through the Chinese musical quotations that reside in several of his works, the article also shows that, despite his later protests to the contrary, Chinese music both informed and shaped his music. Finally, it suggests that only by exploring the implications of China in his music can we fully understand Partch's compositional aesthetic.

scholarly journals The Integration of Chinese Opera Traditions into New Musical Compositions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Nalin Shen
Keyword(s):  
Original Compositions ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
Musical Style ◽  
Global Village ◽  
Chinese Opera ◽  
Chinese Music ◽  
Historical Continuity ◽  
Cultural Roots ◽  
Generic Term ◽  
Musical Traditions

<p>Almost fifty years ago Chinese composer Chou Wen-chung proposed a musical “re-merger” of East and West. For many Chinese composers of today a sense of historical continuity and an awareness of inherited musical traditions are important contributor to cultural identity, and a basis on which to build the future. The generation that emerged after the Cultural Revolution found new freedoms, and has become, at the beginning of the twentyfirst century, a significant presence on the international musical stage, as the paradigm shifts away from being European-centered, to a culture belonging to the “global village”. As with many other Chinese composers of my generation, the creation of new compositions is both a personal expression and a manifestation of cultural roots. Techniques of “integration” and “translation” of musical elements derived from traditional Chinese music and music-theatre are a part of my musical practice. The use of traditional Chinese instruments, often in combination with Western instruments, is a no longer a novelty. The written exegesis examines some of the characteristic elements of xìqǜ (the generic term for all provincial Chinese operas), including dǎ (percussion - an enlarged interpretation of dǎ, as found in chuānjù gāoqiāng Sichuan gāoqiān opera), bǎnqiāng (The musical style that characterizes Chinese xìqǚ), and niànbái  (recitation and dialogue), as well as the kuàibǎnshū (storytelling with percussion) of qǚyì (a term to use to include all folk genres), and shāngē (mountain song). The techniques employed in integrating and translating these elements into original compositions are then analyzed. In the second volume of the thesis the scores of five compositions are presented, four of the five works are set in Chinese, exploring the dramatic aspects of language, and may be considered music-theatre, one being an opera scene intended for stage production.</p>

scholarly journals Musical culture of China in the first half of the XX century a dialogue with European and national

2021 ◽  
pp. 63-78
Author(s):  
Natalia Bragina ◽  
Wang Jie
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
New Music ◽  
Musical Culture ◽  
Common Trends ◽  
Music Schools ◽  
Chinese Music ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Time Distance ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Xix Century

The article attempts to systematize the processes taking place in Chinese musical culture in the first half of the XX century. The main direction of European art, manifested in this period in China – Romanticism. Using the example of the development of chamber vocal gen-res, it is shown how the aesthetic attitudes of Romanticism-the reliance on national traditions and the desire to synthesize the arts – were manifested in the works of Chinese composers. The methods of musical and poetic analysis, as well as the method of comparative analysis, are used to identify common trends between the formation of new music in China and the pro-cesses of formation of «young» European music schools in the first half of the XIX century. The reasons for the lag in the development of some na-tional cultures and the regularities of their accelerated development and overcoming the time distance are revealed. The most typical works of chamber-vocal genres of Chinese music of the specified period are used as the material for analysis.

scholarly journals CHANGING SOCIAL VALUES AND MUSIC

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1SE) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Suvarna Tawse
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Social Value ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Special Effect ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Complex Emotions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Musical Traditions

Music is a symbolic symbol of artistic achievements and musical traditions of human society. Music is considered as the social cultural heritage of society.When memories, anxiety, malice, mental tension, emotion and complex emotions make social life monotonous and rooted, then the arts especially the music arts have a special effect on the social value of society. संगीत मानव समाज की कलात्मक उपलब्धियों एवं सांगीतिक परम्पराओं का मूर्तिमान प्रतीक है।संगीत समाज की सामाजिक सांस्कृतिक विरासत मानी जाती है।जब स्मृतियाँँ,चिन्ता,द्वेष,मानसिक तनाव,आवेष तथा जटिल भावना,सामाजिक जीवन को नीरस तथा जड़ बना देती है तब कलाएँ विषेषकर संगीत कला समाज व्यक्ति के सामाजिक मूल्य पर विषेष प्रभाव डालती है।

scholarly journals INTEGRATED APPROACH TO AESTHETIC EDUCATION OF SCHOOLCHILDREN IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

2020 ◽  
pp. 143-154
Author(s):  
Olena Ionova ◽  
Svetlana Luparenko ◽  
Yuliia Lakhmotova
Keyword(s):  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Aesthetic Education ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Chinese Music ◽  
Musical Traditions ◽  
Regional Music ◽  
Characteristic Features

The article is dedicated to revelation of the peculiarities of integrated approach in the process of schoolchildren's aesthetic education in the People's Republic of China. The possibilities of using art while teaching different subjects (Mathematics, different languages, Literature, History etc.) have been outlined. The Chinese pedagogues underline the close connection of Mathematics and Music. It provides opportunities to learn fractional nature of the notes, feel the rhythm of the music, relate harmony, intervals, melody and notes to whole numbers, proportions, arithmetic operations, logarithms, Geometry and Trigonometry. The authors have pointed out that aesthetic subjects (music, art, theatre) are also closely connected in educational process of schools. The characteristic feature of schoolchildren's aesthetic education in the People's Republic of China is taking into account the regionality (differences in development of art depending on the region of the country). It is due to different historical, socio-economic and cultural factors of development of different regions in China. The regionality strengthens the connection of arts with History, Economics and Geography and helps schoolchildren to understand the significance and differences of regional music in China, to learn various Chinese musical instruments, folk lullabies and to investigate the important characteristic features of the Chinese music. So, schoolchildren's aesthetic education in China has a strong national basis: art is connected with national expression, development of musical traditions, nature and mental aesthetic ideas.

Recent technology and the hybridisation of Western and Chinese musics

2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTOPHER J. KEYES
Keyword(s):  
Essential Elements ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Chinese Music ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Musical Traditions ◽  
Other World

Although the hybridisation of Western and Chinese musics has been progressing for over a century, many early attempts tended to treat Chinese material in a rather superficial manner. This resulted in mere ‘Orientalist’ Western pieces and rather bland pentatonic/romantic ‘Chinese’ music that simply harmonised the basic outline of popular Chinese melodies with Western chord progressions. The use of recent technologies has greatly accelerated the pace and depth of this hybridisation and solved many of its artistic problems. Technological advances now make it possible and practical to incorporate the subtle but essential elements of traditional Chinese music, and of course other world musics, in works that seem satisfying for Western and non-Western audiences. This paper presents a brief historical overview of the hybridisation of Western and Chinese musical traditions, examines common pitfalls of many early attempts, and reviews how these issues are addressed compositionally and technically in the author's recent electroacoustic pieces, Li Jiang Etudes No. 1, 2 & 3.

scholarly journals “It came from me” – Māori representation in Ramai Te Miha Hayward’s authorship

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sian Smith
Keyword(s):  
Self Determination ◽  
Integration Policy ◽  
Critical Question ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Historical Film ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Kaupapa Māori ◽  
Unpublished Manuscripts ◽  
Shed Light

<p>Addressing the critical question of authorship in historical film, this thesis considers Ramai Te Miha Hayward’s works dealing with Māori and Pākehā intercultural representations. During a time when Māori in film were severely underrepresented, Te Miha Hayward prioritised Māori perspectives in The Arts of Maori Children (1962) and Eel History was a Mystery (1968), subversively critiquing the continuation of assimilationist integration policy. These contributions, and Te Miha Hayward’s extensive interviews and unpublished manuscripts, shed light on the change in intercultural representations between Rewi’s Last Stand (1940) and To Love a Maori (1972), feature films that entail romance narratives. Te Miha Hayward’s positionality is key to each chapter’s methodology, locating her voice in extensive primary and secondary materials.   This work challenges the debate around film’s value as a source of history, engaging at an intersection of disciplines. The analysis of Rewi’s Last Stand interprets its narrative text and Te Miha Hayward’s paratextual discussion through mana wāhine and kaupapa Māori theories. Such interpretation looks beyond the finished text, to Te Miha Hayward’s affirmation of its historical relevance. Connecting her work with the social realism genre, To Love a Maori’s dual narrative speaks to Māori and Pākehā audiences in different ways, further criticizing assimilation and Pākehā discrimination towards Māori. Navigating the issues of authorial ambiguity is central to locating Te Miha Hayward’s voice, thereby illuminating her authorship. Hence, I argue her contribution to Māori representation in film demonstrates her self-determination as a filmmaker.</p>

Music as language: An analogy to be pursued with caution

1997 ◽  
Vol os-29 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantijn Koopman
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Language And Music ◽  
Musical Traditions

The Conference themes all suggest that music may be considered as a language. However, I argue that this is a misleading analogy. I shall point out some crucial differences between language and music by examining the concept of meaning. Two types of meaning will be distinguished and explained: extrinsic and intrinsic meaning. Whereas the former kind of meaning is typical of language, the latter kind is characteristic of the arts in general and of music in particular. Conceiving music as a language may easily lead us to concentrate on the extrinsic aspects of music rather than on its intrinsic meaning. The distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic meaning is also relevant to understanding music of other cultures. I argue that properties related to intrinsic meaning can generally be apprehended by outsiders more easily than properties related to extrinsic meaning. Since we cannot initiate children fully into all musical traditions and styles in music education, I recommend that we pay special attention to furthering children's sensitivity to intrinsic aspects of music. Thus we can best assure that they gain a passport to musics of all cultures.

scholarly journals Musicians as “Makers in Society”: A Conceptual Foundation for Contemporary Professional Higher Music Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Gaunt ◽  
Celia Duffy ◽  
Ana Coric ◽  
Isabel R. González Delgado ◽  
Linda Messas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Professional Musicians ◽  
Conceptual Foundation ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Artistic Vision ◽  
Musical Traditions ◽  
The One

This paper considers the purpose, values and principles underpinning higher music education (HME) as one of the performing arts in a context of turbulent global change. Recognising complex challenges and opportunities in this field, HME is addressed from dual perspectives: educating the next generations of professional musicians, and higher music institutions’ (HMEIs) engagement in society. The paper has a particular focus on the sector within HME that is dedicated to intensive practical craft training for performers, composers, programmers, producers, managers, and teachers. We argue that there is an urgent need for fresh orientating frameworks through which to navigate HME’s development. We examine concepts such as artistic citizenship, social responsibility and civic mission increasingly perceived to be relevant to the sector, and we explore their connexions to concepts of artistic excellence, imagination and creativity, and musical heritage. We identify apparent dichotomies of value within contemporary HME, including between intrinsic and instrumental purpose in the arts, cultural heritage, and new work, artistic imagination and entrepreneurship, and we argue that creative tensions between what have hitherto easily been perceived as opposing concepts or competing priorities need to be embraced. To support our argument we draw on the particular ethnomusicological concept of “musicking,” and we look toward a partnering of artistic and social values in order to enable HME to respond dynamically to societal need, and to continue to engage with the depth and integrity of established musical traditions and their craft. Based on this discussion we propose a conceptual foundation: the “musician as a maker in society,” in which developing vision as a musician in society, underpinned on the one hand by immersion in musical artistry and on the other hand sustained practical experience of connecting and engaging with communities, offers invaluable preparation for and transition into professional life. We propose that this idea, connecting societal and artistic vision and practise, is equally essential for HMEIs as it is for musicians, and sits at the heart of the roles they evolve within their local communities and wider society.

scholarly journals The Integration of Chinese Opera Traditions into New Musical Compositions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Nalin Shen
Keyword(s):  
Original Compositions ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
Musical Style ◽  
Global Village ◽  
Chinese Opera ◽  
Chinese Music ◽  
Historical Continuity ◽  
Cultural Roots ◽  
Generic Term ◽  
Musical Traditions

<p>Almost fifty years ago Chinese composer Chou Wen-chung proposed a musical “re-merger” of East and West. For many Chinese composers of today a sense of historical continuity and an awareness of inherited musical traditions are important contributor to cultural identity, and a basis on which to build the future. The generation that emerged after the Cultural Revolution found new freedoms, and has become, at the beginning of the twentyfirst century, a significant presence on the international musical stage, as the paradigm shifts away from being European-centered, to a culture belonging to the “global village”. As with many other Chinese composers of my generation, the creation of new compositions is both a personal expression and a manifestation of cultural roots. Techniques of “integration” and “translation” of musical elements derived from traditional Chinese music and music-theatre are a part of my musical practice. The use of traditional Chinese instruments, often in combination with Western instruments, is a no longer a novelty. The written exegesis examines some of the characteristic elements of xìqǜ (the generic term for all provincial Chinese operas), including dǎ (percussion - an enlarged interpretation of dǎ, as found in chuānjù gāoqiāng Sichuan gāoqiān opera), bǎnqiāng (The musical style that characterizes Chinese xìqǚ), and niànbái  (recitation and dialogue), as well as the kuàibǎnshū (storytelling with percussion) of qǚyì (a term to use to include all folk genres), and shāngē (mountain song). The techniques employed in integrating and translating these elements into original compositions are then analyzed. In the second volume of the thesis the scores of five compositions are presented, four of the five works are set in Chinese, exploring the dramatic aspects of language, and may be considered music-theatre, one being an opera scene intended for stage production.</p>

scholarly journals Beyond Disciplines: Spoken Word as Participatory Arts-based Research

2021 ◽  
pp. 194084472110526
Author(s):  
Helen F. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Spoken Word ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Arts Based Research ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
Poetic Inquiry ◽  
Innovative Method ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
Participatory Arts

For many, the arts and sciences stand at opposite ends of an unbridgeable divide: the sciences, rigid, objective, systematic and authoritative; the arts, fluid, subjective, dynamic and capricious. Yet, there is a long history of productive dialogue and interconnection between these fields. Arts-based research represents a particularly fertile form of arts/science interaction. This paper interweaves poetry, theoretical discussion and empirical research to make the case for spoken word poetry as an arts-based method of inquiry that can provide a radically different way of doing, being and collaborating in and through research. With reference to the innovative method of ‘collaborative poetics’ and to the work of youth slam/spoken word educators, I argue that social scientists and spoken word practitioners can learn much from one another’s tools, techniques and ways of thinking, creating new forms of knowledge, redefining the audience/author relationship, and facilitating a ‘critical resilience’ which enables both individual fortitude in the face of adversity and a means through which to challenge the conditions that give rise to this adversity. The paper thus considers how spoken word as participatory poetic inquiry enables participants, researchers and poets to address the critical complexities and challenges of contemporary life.

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