Shi Fu Early Reform And Opening Up Ballet Music Research

Mr. Shi Fu was a famous composer, music critic and social activist in contemporary China. He was also one of the first professional composers on dance drama music since the founding of PRC. He worked as a member in the Council of Chinese Musicians Association, deputy head of creative committee in the association and a member of China Dancers Association. Mr. Shi Fu wrote10dance dramas and some dance music when working in National Ballet of China from1974to1989.My research focuses on the four dance dramas, written by Shi Fu during1978to1989. They are PRINCESS WENCHENG, LIN DAIYU’S DEATH, THE DREAM OF A GHOST, THE KING OF SOUTHERN YUE STATE. The thesis analyzes the theme, formal structure and compositional techniques, all of which show his guiding theories, achievements, general characteristics and also the limitations of his.My thesis includes four chapters. The first chapter is a review of his works. The second chapter introduces the four dance dramas in detail and takes the historical context into consideration. There are three parts in the third chapter:the first part analyzes the aspects of subjects, melody appearance and development in his Chinese national drama and Ballet works. The second part analyzes the structural integrity (beginning, developing, reaching climax and ending), scene structures and characteristic structures (such as Prologue, Pas de dux). The third part analyzes the characteristics of harmony, polyphonic procedures and the characteristic of his orchestration and instrument. The fourth chapter analyzes his20papers of dance drama and shows the guiding theories of his works.The researcher thinks highly of the dance dramas of Shi Fu, especially the four above works. The research also shows how his concepts and skills were influenced by New Music, how he dealt with the intercultural problems between ballets and aesthetic character of Chinese, and how he made achievements on indigenization and integration. Meanwhile, the limitation problems of Shi Fu’s works are also taken into consideration in this research.