Chinese Music Composition: Inspiration and Aesthetics
Chow Fan Fu
Sources of inspiration for Chinese music composition today are so diverse that the resultant work can carry distinctly different aesthetic properties. To truly appreciate their quintessential beauty, we need to approach them from different angles and levels. The four original compositions in the programme of the Liu Sha & HKCO concert are therefore good examples to illustrate these points.
The Beauty of Harmoniousness and East-West Fusion
The Twelve Beauties of Prince Yong, a suite composed by Luo Maishuo, is in four movements, each of three sections. This composition is inspired by, and corresponds directly with, a set of twelve Qing palace paintings bearing a similar title that is in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing. The compositional intent seems to be to translate the aesthetics of the traditional Chinese painting genre – portraits of ladies – into a musical soundscape. In other words, visual beauty is translated into aural beauty through music. The musical style is distinguished by the blending of harmony and lyricism, in a verisimilitude of the genre of Chinese literati paintings. Luo’s work emphasizes especially the melodiousness of Chinese music by adhering to the musical ideals of qing, wei, dan, yuan ("pure", "delicate", "muted" and "profound") in art music of the Chinese literati tradition.
The piano concerto The Yellow River is based on The Yellow River Cantata, a choral piece written by Xian Xinghai (1905 – 1945) during the Sino-Japanese War. The original choral work incorporated boatmen’s work calls, folk tunes and vernacular elements. By enhancing the instrumental sounds through the full-scale Chinese orchestra and the piano, the concerto arrangement highlights the mixed timbre, and throws back to the East-West cultural blending which started at the turn of the 20th century and morphed into the musical aesthetics of modern China.
Modern Aesthetics and Rustic Simplicity
The creative stimuli for the two pieces by young composer Wang Danhong are different again. The yangqin concerto Rhapsody represents the modern way of thinking, which is creatively a breakaway from the traditional. It combines pop rhythms and the compositional technique of the Western rhapsody in the hope of achieving the breakthrough. It may be described as a typical consideration of modern aesthetics.
Hymn to the Sun, Wang’s other piece, is a large-scale composition in four movements, approximately half an hour long. It is inspired by the ancient Bayu folk culture and the way of life of the working class in the region around what is Chongqing, Sichuan, today. The music is suggestive of the rich piquant flavours for which Sichuan cuisine is renowned. The opening movement Walking on the River is a bold rhythmic march for winds and percussion, and embraces the grandeur of the imposing landscape in the region. It is followed by Picking up the Mountain, a portrayal of porters heaving their load up and down the hill slopes, with a lively and invigorating tune. The mood then quietens with A Missing Heart, a clear contrast between the second and third movements. The soft lyrical notes evoke the memories of loved ones and the yearning grows. Finally, with full-blown emotions, Hymn to the Sun enters. This last movement shows a prominent folk influence, in both the melody of the tranquil theme in its introduction, as well as the style of the hymn-like percussion climax in its finale. The entire piece displays a rustic magnificence – sincere, guileless, earthy, robust and vibrant. The beauty of simplicity in Hymn to the Sun is the perfect complement to the beauty of harmoniousness in The Twelve Beauties of Prince Yong.
Towards a Colourful Montage
In today’s increasingly globalized environment and with the interactive cross-influence between different localities, ethnic customs and art growing at an exponential rate, the pool of creative concepts which composers of Chinese music can draw upon will continue to expand. The diverse stimuli behind the creation of the four compositions discussed may be seen as a mini-representation of some of the possible sources of inspiration for modern Chinese music. Programming the four works in one concert is putting together a colourful Chinese music montage. The pieces can be enjoyed as individual works of music or as a single composite of musical art, and such views may well prove interestingly different.
