J.S.Bach’s "St.Matthew Passion" From The Perspective Of Chinese And Western Rhetoric

Taking fundamental principles of dialectical materialism and historical materialism as guidance and Chinese and western rhetoric theories as the foundation of standpoint,using theoretical resources for reference not only in literature,history,philosophy,aesthetics,Chinese classics and musicology,but also the“Chinese Perspective”in western music study,this thesis establishes a research approach with Chinese scholars’ characteristics on J.S.Bach’s St.Matthew Passion,and explores the significance and substance of studying western musical works by means of traditional and modern/contemporary Chinese and western rhetoric skills.It brings both theoretical and practical significance to the promotion of Chinese features in western music study,also the fresh perspective and new approach provided by this thesis offer ways of expansion.Chapter 1:Theoretical basis of the interpretation of Bach’s St.Matthew Passion:By introducing and interpreting the growth,penetration and development of rhetorics in the realm of music,as well as its influence and inspiration on the artistic creation in various periods especially the Baroque,by analyzing the disputes on the means and the ways of resolution in contemporary music rhetorical theory field,and with the supports and recognition on performance practices as feedback,the author explored the rhetorical understanding and purposes rooted in Bach’s musical life and enumerated the possibility and inevitability of combination and collision occurred between musical rhetorics and Bach,so as to carefully distinguish and study the purpose and phenomena of the rhetorical means being applied and constructed in Bach’s various works.As per these progressive train of thoughts,prove that rhetoric is an appropriate perspective for observing the development of aesthetic and artistic language in the era,moreover,it is one of the important measures and approaches to analyze and study Bach and his musical works.Chapter 2:Research on St.Matthew Passion under Chinese rhetorics:Starting with the research on the status of contemporary music study,and applying diversified rhetoric features as distinction,preliminary studies are conducted in this chapter on a fewexamples which are of typical significance,as a try to explore a musical analysis way from Chinese rhetoric perspective and to analyze the connection between Bach’s music composition and rhetorical skills.By detailed interpretation of the facts that the east and west rhetoric analysis perspectives are interacting,as well as of the objectivity of the trend on the study of intertextuality,also by coordinately extrapolative research on the special means of Chinese rhetoric and western music rhetoric contents,a conclusion is drawn which is served as proof of the feasibility and practical significance in studying this passion by Chinese and western rhetorical perspectives.Then the artistic rhetoric means of St.Matthew Passion is divided,as per Chinese rhetoric aesthetic laws,into two forms as“the thinking of seeking common ground“and“the thinking of seeking differences”,and the specific application of the rhetorical skills by Bach under this two laws as well as the effects achieved are elaborated respectively.Chapter 3:Reflection of western textual structure rhetoric on St.Matthew Passion:This chapter focuses on the textual rhetoric of the musical piece from several aspects.In the first section headline of the works is studied,afterwards specific parts are studied together to analyze various composing techniques Bach employed,textual rhetoric is discussed and analyzed in many ways.In the second section the author introduced and applied the RST(Rhetoric Structure Theory),which has a wide influence in recent years,to make an experimental analysis on the musical piece.In the third section the author targeted the audience in the rhetoric circumstances as in the history of western rhetorics the third party awareness always has an important place,and it has been brought into the research scope of rhetorics since ancient Greco-Roman period,it is fair to say that no art works can be created without taking into consideration of the audience’s feelings.By clearly defining the concept of audience and in-depth analysis of the audience-based strategy that Bach applied during composing St.Matthew Passion,the composer’s thinking of audience is revealed at length that Bach was proactive and tactful in his consideration of his audience,he liberated his audience from substance and time,created vast space for them,and gave them permanence and absoluteness.Chapter 4:Collision of Chinese and western“Arts for Beauty”on St.Matthew Passion:Starting with the common pursuit of Chinese and western rhetorics,this chapter elaborates that the consistency and intercommunity lie in many aspects such as the historical background and social environment at the beginning of Chinese and western rhetorics,the recognition on the abilities of rhetoric,the sincerity which is the foundation for rhetoric to success,the moral self-cultivation requirements on rhetors,and the real internal pursuit of rhetoric,etc.Then centring on the tragic rhetoric aesthetic of Bach’s St.Matthew Passion,different pursuits on aesthetic ideal of Chinese and western tragedy are elaborated,and St.Matthew Passion is re-analyzed as per the“obedience”experience conforming to Chinese classical tragic aesthetics,making it possible to understand and study the religious beliefs and spiritual tendencies in Bach’s musical works through Chinese rhetorical perspective.In the last part it is elaborated that Bach made rhetorical creation on typical images represented by his selections on the musical genres of Passion.Such creations give full expression to the composer’s personal subjective thoughts as well as his world outlook.The relationship between Bach and his classic images is unified as universality,which reveals a common aesthetic ideal and spiritual pursuit shared by Chinese and western rhetorics,and understood is Bach’s St.Matthew Passion from Chinese classics point of view based on the common spiritual foundation.This understanding proves that universality not only exists in Bach’s musical works,but also in valuable cultures,furthermore it shows that Chinese classics are concept carriers of Chinese civilization,they are the wealth of Chinese people,a spiritual key to open the treasures of human cultures,and they are the spiritual treasury vault that belong to whole people in the world.Conclusion:This section is a summary and extension of the above related contents.The study is an exploratory practice of Bach’s works from the perspective of Chinese and Western rhetorics.Its purpose is in hope that the author,as a Chinese scholar,can expand in her academic studies the research scope of western music history in China,make breakthrough on theoretical construction that to explore new ways to study western music other than the monotony of research paradigms,actively study and promote excellent Chinese and western cultures,and strive to develop innovative academic research directions and methods based on Chinese traditions and aesthetic spirits.