Vigorous Harmony-Ccultural And Aesthetic Interpretation Between Centurial Chinese Chorus And Sing Praises

The artistic practice of chorus in China began in the early twentieth century. With the solid foundation of full-range techniques of western societies, chorus in China has experienced profound growth over the past century, drawing inspiration inexhaustible from its own cultural heritage. Attempts have been made to integrate western techniques with Chinese culture, thus innovating chorus with Chinese characteristics. Centering on the unique quality of Singing Praises, this dissertation aims to study chorus in China from two perspectives, culture and poetics, in two major sections.Integration with, as well as separation from, politics, is a distinctive feature of chorus in China. Given the drastic political changes during the past century, chorus, as a group vocal activity, has unwaveringly been representative of the predominant ideologies, singing the praise of beauty of the time. It is noted that there has been increasingly diversified objects of eulogy. Based on a historical review on major chorus works produced during the past century, this dissertation tries to reveal the beauty eulogy in Chinese chorus and highlight the inner link between the traditional cultural gravity on ‘harmony’ and the guideline of ‘entertaining mass education’. It is believed that chorus in China has effectively functioned to achieve ‘harmony’ emotionally, conscientiously and socially during different historic stages.The practice of chorus in China attempts to combine the artistic form with Chinese social reality. While both the producers and target audience come from homeland, it is committed to telling Chinese stories and representing national spirits, thoughts and feelings. Therefore, traditional Chinese aesthetics is overtly or covertly incorporated into the musical organizations although the parts are constructed on western technical principles. In the lower section of the dissertation, the aesthetic qualities of Chinese chorus are analyzed with the center on ‘vigor and power’. The multi-parts of chorus, together with the powerful Chinese spirit of Singing Praises, contribute to its ‘vigor and power’, resulting in ‘profound’ and ‘forceful’ appearance. Chorus accounts for immense aesthetic assimilation in Chinese cultural context so that flexibility of ‘force’ has been deposited as ‘go-between harmony’ in unconscious collectivism. This dissertation believes that ‘vigor and power’, rather than ‘sublimity’, is characteristic of Chinese chorus. Having found its essence in classic concerns over ‘presence and absence’, ‘expression and intension’ and ‘life spirit’, aesthetic properties of chorus in China are represented in three ways: the relation between forms and spirits, centrality of imagery and concept, Qi as chorus life center.