A Cultural Perspective Of "Cantonese Music

Born in an immigrant area with an extensive foundation of national folk music like Canton, "Cantonese Music" has absorbed some ingredients of other art forms and western music in many ways. After experiencing a long course of social development it has evolved a style of its own and become a local musical form with distinctive features. Its formation resulted from the accumulation of the cultural history of music in Canton.By applying the methods of national musicology, this work analyzes and dissects the birth, development, prosperity and tatus quo of "Cantonese Music" from the visions of history, sociology and folklore. It digs the peculiar cultural characters and artistic spirits out of "Cantonese Music" as a folk music in modern times so that we can understand the regularity of the formation, development, prosperity and change of coastal cultures.By dividing "Cantonese Music" into the five phases of gestation, growth, maturity, pacing up and down, and development, this work discusses the different social cultural backgrounds, musical instruments used, their combinations, characteristics, representative works and characters in its respective developing phase. It also reviews the spreading ways, the handing down measures, the cultural connotations, the boundaries of both refined and popular tastes, the urban and rural distributions of the traditional music in Canton.