The Chinese Art Song, yishu gequ: Between Tradition and Modernity

The Chinese art song, yishu gequ 藝術歌曲, is a typical genre of New Music (Xin yinyue 新音樂) of the May Fourth Movement. Such pieces were primarily composed by Chinese graduates of European and American universities who found inspiration in European Romantic art songs, especially nineteenth-century German lieder. The existing Western literature about this genre emphasizes the connections between the Chinese art songs of the twentieth century and European Romantic songs and does not consider any relationship with the domestic Chinese tradition. Publications by Chinese scholars also do not examine in any detail specific connections to the Chinese tradition at the ideational level. As this paper demonstrates, the Chinese art songs that emerged during the May Fourth Movement were not created solely by following a Western model. Their uniqueness is the result of combining the search for “new culture” with the significant traces of domestic roots in the social role of music and the tradition of joining words and music in a single artistic whole. The paper first explores the emergence of the art song in the context of Chinese musical modernization, and then, through citing theoretical works and analyses of select compositions by three of the most famous art song composers – Xiao Youmei 萧友梅 (1884–1940), Zhao Yuanren 趙 元任 (1892–1982), and Huang Zi 黃自 (1904–38) – it demonstrates the various approaches to creating art songs, especially in terms of how they were related to the domestic tradition. I have chosen examples that allow us to observe the gradual adoption of an originally European genre in the Chinese cultural environment and various factors that influenced how this genre changed. I also examine the changing ways in which this foreign genre interacted with the domestic Chinese environment.

1. Cai, Yuanpei 蔡元培 (1912). "Duiyu xin jiaoyu zhi yijian" 對於新教育之意見 [Opinions on the New Education]. In: Cai Yuanpei 蔡元培 (1997), Cai Yuanpei quanji 蔡元培全集. Vol. 2., Hangzhou: Zhejiang Jiaoyu chubanshe.

2. Cai, Yuanpei 蔡元培 (1918). Beijing daxue yinyue tuan 北京大學音樂團 [Peking University Music Group]. Beijing Daxue Rikan, pp: 63.

3. Ho, Wai-chung (2011). School Music Education and Social Change in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Leiden: Brill. CrossRef

4. Huang, Zi 黃自 (1997). Huang Zi yizuo ji黃自遺作集 [Collection of Huang Zi's Posthumous Works]. Hefei: Anhui wenyi chubanshe.

5. Liang, Qichao 梁啟超 (1999). Liang Qichao quanji 梁启超全集 [The Complete Works of Liang Qichao]. Beijing: Beijing chubanshe.

6. Liu, Jingzhi 劉靖之 (2000). Chaoxi, mofang, yizhi - zhongguo xinyinyue fazhan de sange jieduan 抄襲、模仿、移植 - 中國新音樂發展的三個階段 [Plagiarism, mitation, Transplantation- the Three Stages of the Development of New Music in China]. Nanjing: Nanjing yishu xueyuan xuebao 3, 7-⁠10.

7. Nikkels, Eveline (1989). "O Mensch! Gib Acht!": Friedrich Nietzsches Bedeutung für Gustav Mahler. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

8. Pater, Walter (2011). The Works of Walter Pater. New York: Cambridge University Press.

9. Sun, Shi 孙时 (1919). "Yinyie yu jiaoyu" 音乐教育 [Musical Education]. In: Zhang Jingwei (ed.), Zhongguo Jindai Yinyue Shiliao Huibian 中國近代音樂史料彙編. Beijing: Renmin chubanshe.

10. Sun, Yung-Wei (2012). "A Performance Guide to Mandarin-Chinese Diction and Selected Art Songs." PhD. Dissertation. Ohio State University.

11. Van Aalst, J. A. (1884). Chinese Music. Shanghai: Statistical Dept. of the Inspectorate General of Customs.

12. Weber, Max (1958). The Rational and Social Foundations of Music. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

13. Whitton, Kenneth (1984). Lieder: An Introduction to German Song. London: Julia MacRae.

14. Xiao, Youmei 蕭友梅 (1993). "Guanyu woguo xin yinyue yundong" 關於我國新音樂運動 [About My Country's New Music Movement]. In: Xiao, Youmei 蕭友梅, Xiaoyoumei quanji 蕭友梅全集. Shanghai: Shanghai yinxueyuan chubanshe, 679-81.

15. Xiao, Youmei 蕭友梅 (1993). Xiao Youmei yinyue wenji 蕭友梅音樂文集 [Xiao Youmei's Music Collection]. Shanghai: Shanghai yinyue chubanshe.

16. Yao, Xinzhong (2015). The Encyclopedia of Confucianism. London: Routledge. CrossRef

17. Yu, Quanheng 禹權恆 (2013). Xuetang yuege yu zhongguo xinshi de shanbian 學堂樂歌與中國新詩的嬗變 [School Music and the Evolution of Chinese New Poems], Jinyang xuekan 晉陽學刊3, 30-35.

18. Zhang, Jigao 張繼高 (1982). Xiao Youmei xiansheng zhi shengping 蕭友梅先生之生平 [The Life of Mr. Xiao Youmei]. Taibei Shi: Yazhou zuoqujia lianmeng Zhonghua minguo zonghui.

19. Zhao, Yuanren 趙元任 (1937). Gecizhong de guoyin 歌词中的国音 [Guoyin in the lyrics], Yinyue yuekan 音乐月刊 1, Shanghai yinyue chubanshe.

20. Zhao, Yuanren 趙元任 (1987). Zhao Yuanren yinyue zuopin quanji 趙元任音樂作品全集 [Complete Musical Works of Zhao Yuanren]. Shanghai: Shanghai yinyue chubanshe.

21. Zhao, Yuanren 趙元任 (1996). "Shuo Shi" 說時. In: Zhang Jingwei (ed.), Zhongguo Jindai Yinyue Shiliao Huibian 中國近代音樂史料彙編. Beijing: Renmin chubanshe.