A Study On The Performance Of The Court Music In Sui And Tang Dynasties

In the long process of historical development, there are numerous Chinese performance artists with theirs brilliance of artistic creation for the world. After being thoroughly tempered, Chinese music art, unique in the music world, is famous for its superb performances, lofty aesthetic taste and great spirit of art and unique theoretical system.Under the guidance of ideas like “tracking roots”, “cultural identity”and “cultural consciousness”etc., with many historical documents, archaeological relics and folk surveys material, this paper fully shows the broad and profound music performing arts in the period of the Sui and Tang Dynasties in China, in order to enhance people’s the perception, cognition, feeling, sense of responsibility, correct evaluation and creative development of Chinese traditional music culture.The full text is comprised of four parts, or six chapters.The first part(Preface) mainly introduces the aim and meaning of the present topic and the previous academic study on the history of Sui and Tang Dynasties palace music.The second part(the first,the two and the three chapters)mainly focuses on music shows in the Sui and Tang Dynasties.The rulers of Sui and Tang dynasties follow the conventions of“investigating and researching classical music”and“defining the Yayue(雅乐)in detail”formed by previous Emperors.Ultimately,they have established a set of relatively stable and norms of the ritual music system in the respects like occasions of playing music,performance procedures,arrangement of music instruments,rule modes of ancient Chinese music,compiling and creating Cultural Dances(文舞)and Military Dances(武舞),the number of musicians and dancers in the team,music costumes,music melody and composition of its lyrics,etc.,which not only embodies their worship and awe to heaven,earth,and their ancestors,but constantly reflects the infinite glory of the supreme imperial power.Taking a panoramic view of the ceremony of offering sacrifice to God,Land and human ancestors,the Yayue(雅乐)dance is the most important part of the ceremony entertaining Gods.From the initial part of welcoming Gods to the final part of sending God,the Yayue(雅乐)dance is performing throughout the ceremony,which is used to express people’s gratitude to Gods and Land which breed living creatures and nurture all things,and to human ancestors who have made achievements and produced offspring.The court music in Sui and Tang Dynasties is not only the inheritance and development of the third generations of music,but also the continuation and the“newborn”of ancient reproduction worship ritual dance.The third part(the fourth,the five and six chapters)focuses on performances to show celebration and entertainment at feasts in the Sui and Tang Dynasties.With the second national integration in the period of the Han Wei and Six Dynasties,Hu yue(胡乐)has achieved its dominant position in the Central Plains.Facing the new situation of cultural development,the Sui and Tang Dynasties rulers have taken the inclusive and pluralistic development strategy,and has successively established a“multinational music”(多部乐),“second Kabuki”(二部伎)and other forms of performance system at feast.At the same time,the performances usually have been mingled with the Bai Xi(百戏)and comedians’shows,“like a game you go I sing at the party farce.”These performances can be described as colorful,lively and extraordinary!The mainstream culture in Sui and Tang Dynasties is characterized by cultural amalgamation of the South and the north and the integration of Hu and Han peoples’ cultures, in this culture integration process, the Chinese ancient music culture has obtained rapid development, one of the extremely notable features is the music and dance performance at feast in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and it has achieved a great height of prosperity. Such a rich variety of music art has not only embodied a high degree of vitality and creativity of the Chinese people, but also demonstrated a vivid display of the “diversity” of Chinese ancient music culture.The fourth part(conclusion)is the summary,comments and sublimation of the present study,and on the basis of it,a proposal is put forward:the development of Chinese music performing arts should“moderately”play its music entertainment function,at the same time,attention should also be paid to the aspects like its ethic and moral education function,with particular emphasis on traditions that the ancient ritual music has been used to“respect God”(敬天),to“worship land”(崇地),to“respect for ancestors”(尊祖)and to“respect teachers”(尊师重道).The song usually appears with poems,then what is called“the song poem”?The present author believes that the song poem is performed in Sang Tai(桑台)or at the temple to pray before the gods.Therefore,the initial stage of ancient music performance is more or less of divinity,and currently the“divinity”has basically disappeared among Chinese music performing arts.