Investigation report on the differences between Chinese and Western music
XXX XXX XXX (member)
Abstract: With the development of society, since the 21st century, Human society is becoming more globalized and culturally diversified. The International Music Education Society actively promotes the idea of ??world multicultural music education and studies and understands music as a culture or music within a culture. Under this situation, we must grasp the connections and differences between our country's national music and Western music, so that we can better adapt to this trend and better promote our country's music while absorbing the advanced technology of Western music.
Second Keywords: Music Comparative Thinking
Three Research Methods: Online Collection
Four Groups Division of Labor: Group Leader XXX Group Member XXX XXX XXX
Five main texts
The differences between Chinese and Western music are first reflected in the differences in aesthetics: as mentioned in "Introduction to Chinese Music Aesthetics": "In terms of aesthetic pursuit, Chinese music art takes 'harmony' as its Ideals value nothingness, pursue emptiness, emphasize charm, pursue profundity, emphasize artistic conception, pursue vivid charm, emphasize intuition and understanding, and pay attention to the ontology of life. This is similar to Western music's pursuit of depth, which emphasizes rationality and thought, and takes reality, meaning and emotion as its essence. The musical aesthetic characteristics of the spiritual pillar are in sharp contrast." In my opinion, the history of today's music aesthetics is actually a history of Chinese music aesthetics thoughts and Western music aesthetics thoughts fighting, blending, and complementing each other. Traditional Chinese music mainly expresses Confucian harmony and the beauty of etiquette; Taoist nature, the unity of nature and man; Buddhist emptiness, understanding, Zen, etc., which are relatively subjective. This is consistent with the aesthetic appeal of Chinese painting and calligraphy that pursues verve and emphasizes artistic conception. Therefore, we pay more attention to harmony, beauty, profundity, broad-mindedness, etc. It is the natural expression of people's inner world in a certain natural environment, highlighting the blend of "emotion" and "scenery". For example, when listening to "Three Lanes of Plum Blossoms", the first thing you can feel is the scenery, and then the structure of this song adopts the method of cyclic reproduction, repeating the entire theme three times, and each repetition uses overtone playing method, which reflects the whiteness of plum blossoms. Aoxue Lingshuang's noble character. Western classical music, in the context of the development of Western drama, focuses on aesthetics and functionality, so it is relatively objective. Western classical music is known for its profoundness and seriousness, highlighting the opposition between subject and object. Most of it is dramatic or tragic, and embodies the "magnificence" of an artistic spirit. Therefore, the multi-sound range is wide, the tunes are vigorous, emotional, and grand. It also expresses people's unyielding spirit, and "Symphony of Destiny" appears to be deep and sonorous. First of all, it shocks people's hearts through the strong rhythm of the opening.
Secondly, the difference between music creation and music concepts: Traditional Chinese music does not have a complete set of composition theories and rules, and is more likely to be lost. On the technical level, Western classical music has theories, norms, and a large amount of text and audio documents, which are easy to spread. Traditional Chinese music focuses on lines, while Western classical music pays more attention to harmony. Just like Chinese painting and calligraphy pay attention to the art of lines; Western painting pays attention to the art of surface, three-dimensional, light and shadow. Traditional Chinese music focuses on breath and charm, while Western classical music pays more attention to rhythm and momentum. Just like Chinese painting focuses on freehand brushwork, between resemblance and dissimilarity; Western painting focuses on realism, expressing grand scenes.
Thirdly, the difference in the development of musical instruments: As mentioned above, Chinese music is mostly monophonic and melodic, so the structure of Chinese musical instruments is simple and most of them cannot play harmony. Such as flute, erhu, etc., but the simpler the instrument, the more it can express distant artistic conception (Chinese ink painting is also so simple that it only has the black color of ink, but it can transform into thousands of shapes). For example, the xun, a simple primitive earthenware instrument, but Can blow out the eternal thoughts. Chinese national musical instruments such as pipa, dulcimer, flute, sheng, and suona are mostly made of "silk" and "bamboo", so they are called silk and bamboo music. They have the characteristics of soft, thin and clear music. Western musical instruments such as French horns, trumpets, saxophones, etc. are mostly made of metal. Western classical music is harmonious and multi-part, so it has many and complex instruments, fine and complex structures, and many can play harmony, such as piano, guitar, etc. Therefore, the sound is rich, the range is wide, and the expression is strong.
Due to historical, cultural and other reasons, there are certain differences between Chinese and Western music. The main reason is that Chinese music focuses on the charm, while the two Western music focuses on the harmony of the music itself; Chinese music Development is a natural transition and continues from the same origin. The development of Western music shows a block structure and stage characteristics; Chinese music embodies a simple modular linear texture thinking, mainly lines, while Western music tends to a horizontal and three-dimensional texture thinking. , pays more attention to harmony; Chinese music language is more psychological, less formal, highly variable, and has an open structure, while Western music is rigorous in form and closed in structure; Chinese music advocates goodness and beauty, pursuing a quiet and ethereal artistic conception. It pays attention to feeling, while Western music pays attention to the unity of reason and emotion, pursues strength and intensity, and has clear and realistic musical ideas.
The root of this difference in the functions of Western music lies in the differences between Chinese and Western cultures . The difference is: Western culture emphasizes the acquisition of external knowledge, while Chinese culture emphasizes the enjoyment of one's own life; Western cultural tradition takes knowledge as its ontology, while Chinese cultural tradition takes life as its ontology. The so-called taking knowledge as the ontology means that Westerners regard the acquisition of knowledge as the driving force and purpose of their lives, and as the fundamental indicator of what makes a person human. The definition of human beings as rational animals has had an unshakable dominance in Western people's beliefs for two thousand years, which illustrates this point, because knowledge is the flower of reason and the crystallization of wisdom. As early as ancient Greece, Westerners were famous for their persistence in pursuing knowledge. In the minds of Westerners, the pursuit of knowledge is not only a means of human survival, but directly its own life and the whole meaning of life. In the minds of the ancient Greeks, it seemed that apart from the science of pursuing knowledge, there was nothing worth pursuing, and nothing that could satisfy the needs of their souls and give meaning to their existence.
In short, Chinese music has the charm of Chinese music, and Western music has the feelings of Western music. Although there are differences, I believe that through the exchange of Chinese and Western music, we will be able to create better music. We present a bigger auditory feast!
Thoughts and experiences:
After this study, I have a deeper understanding of the differences between Chinese and Western music. I believe that Chinese and Western music will become better and more fascinating when they communicate with each other.