The Study On Contemporary Composer Chen Qigang's Compositions: Chinese Expressions, Leaning And Style

From a broad perspective within musical discipline,this dissertation belongs to the category of contemporary Chinese music research.While from a narrow sense of individual case studies,this dissertation belongs to the category of a case study of contemporary Chinese composer Chen Qigang,who will be the research object and a concept of a Chinese cultural presenter of this dissertation.Centering on Chen as a Chinese cultural presenter,music compositions,and style,this thesis focuses on the responding musical structures of Chen's "Chinese expression" and his leaning of "Chinese interest and taste" in the contemporary music works.In order to discuss this argument,I will firstly talk about the historical background of contemporary Chinese music.Then I will continually clarify and sort out the concepts and contexts of "new music" and xinchao yinyue(new wave music),in order to establish their theoretical positions and influence on later Chinese contemporary music in style and concept.Based on that,this dissertation will cross over to the field of humanities,and dig into primary aesthetics of Chinese music philosophy and musical connotations,which manifest in Chen Qigang's compositions.Secondly,this thesis will closely correlate that how the contemporary time and personal experience influence Chen's music;and carry out technical analysis of genres,formal structures,and acoustic shapes to understand the process of establishing his personalized musical language system.Moreover,interviews,lectures,etc.,on Chen Qigang over the past three decades will be collected for summarizing the creative ideas of Chen and exploring his writing preference and musical aesthetics.Finally,I will select Chen's vocal works,which principally reflect his writing intentions and dispositions.In doing so,I attempt to connect Chen's spirituality with Su Dongpo,a poet and literatus in the Northern Song Dynasty.Further,I will expand the perspective from an individual case study to a group,“Fifth-generation composers,” to examining the group of composers as a cultural phenomenon.Moreover,I will compare works between Chen Qigang and Tan Dun.Tan also achieves outstanding accompaniment in the history of Chinese contemporary music.Lastly,I will discuss the cross-cultural composition to reveal a novel essence of contemporary Chinese composers within the style of international discourse.For clarity of the arguments,this dissertation will also take advantage of the aesthetic discourses from philosophers and painters such as Zong Baihua,Li Zehou,Cai Zhongde and Xie He,.An in-depth comparative research to the theories of musical philosophies of Confucianism,Taoism and ancient Chinese painting will be included.The conclusion of this dissertation is that the Chinese expression,leaning,and style in Chen Qigang's music correspond the concept of “Chinese learning as substance,Western learning for practical application.” This conclusion is formed the hybridity of “the third space” through crosscultural “reproduction” and “reconstruction.” The music of Chen Qigang fuses his personality into Chinese philosophical ideologies,which combine the dichotomy between moral nature and practical order and rituals of Confucian ideology and naturalness,spontaneity,and individualism of Taoism.Overall,Chen Qigang's music displays his seclusive temperament as a contemporary literatus.By means of his expressing-true-self creativity,he consistent comprehends and pursues to the truth.