A Research On The Theme Evolution Of Chinese Modernistic Music Education

The advent of Chinese modernistic music education is related to a new understanding of the traditional Confucius "Music Education" spirit.More objectively,its appearance is also relevant to the "Change-Seeking,Prosperity and Power-Pursuing,and Innovation-Initiating" ideology which originated from the grave disaster in modern times.Motivated by a desire to innovate politics and transform society,people brought the external functions of music into view again.Therefore,the "Music Education" spirit of Confucianism reappeared and was endowed with a new connotation in a new era.Besides,the education reforms carried out by late Qing Dynastic government,especially after the Gui-Mao Educational System was issued and came into effect,strongly prompted the emergence of Chinese modern music education.Stemming from the disaster-ridden modern society,Chinese modernistic music upheld the national independence and development first.On this basis,different music education themes formed in different phases.The first one is "Renewing People",which means remolding the national character by music education.Based on "School Songs",music education was involved into elementary education with the purpose of advocating "Martial Spirit" and improving people's moral qualities.Around the May Fourth Movement and in the 1920s and 1930s,as the spirit of the age changes,the simple politics-focused theme "Renewing People" was replaced by the theme"Cultivating People" which was more profound and contained much more cultural transformation.Focusing on perfecting people's feeling and aesthetic,musical aesthetic education became the main stream of music education,so it was involved in the music education system and was practiced widely.With building "sound personality" as the core,this theme was evidenced by music education system which took Ren-Zi and Gui-Chou School System as the representative.Furthermore,under the guidance of aesthetic education,the common music education represented by"Shanghai Normal College" and the professional music education represented by"National Music College" respectively constructed their own "Cultivating People"education.During the Anti-Japanese War,the previous themes,such as "Enlightening People","Renewing people" and "Cultivating People",faded out.Alternatively,"National Salvation" became the new destination of the times.By means of music,people were encouraged to fight with the enemy and save the nation from extinction.In the form of popular music,social music education bceame the subject of music education,and "Chorusing" became a means of resisting Japanese invasion.Besides,sticking to the independence of music education,the musical aesthetic education interpreted the "National Salvation" theme in its special way.Task of the achievement of national independence and national development was set in the late Qing Dynasty.Most of it has been realized since the founding of New China,thus the theme "nationality" in terms of music education gradually retreated to the secondary position.Instead,the proletariat came into power.They demanded to strengthen and consolidate the revolutionary achievements in an all-round way;also,they needed to build a nascent socialist country at all levels.Thus,the notion"country" became the theme of music education.Focusing on this theme,progress was made with class nature and ethnicity.At the overall request of promoting nation-building,social music education in this period kept developing,with chorus still the dominant way of training.Different from the music education in the Anti-Japanese War period,it included many elements of class nature;based on the premise of maintaining the proletarian regime,it reinforced the class nature of music and criticized all the non-proletarian music forms,and became the dominate concept in terms of music education.Besides,school music education in this period also promoted aesthetic education as the core of music education.Different from the past,music aesthetic education was based on class nature,with the main objective of training "new socialist builders" who had a clear sense of class nature and class attribute.After the impact of the leftism,and aesthetic education as educational policy re-established,the element of "people" in terms of music education re-emerged through a long period of silence.The "all-round development of people" was in full swing,showing new characteristics of the times.People's individual characteristics,needs and interests gained dominant position by degrees.Under the guidance of this basic theme,the curriculum standards,education systems,and teaching methods of music education in the new period kept improving;the new period became unusually systematic in terms of the process of music education with Chinese modernity.After entering the new century,and the North American music education concept introduced,the music aesthetic education with "all-round development of people" as its core is being questioned.Some scholars criticize the notion of "aesthetic education is the core of music education".However,their criticism is not based on the current situation of music education in China;instead,it is a simple transplantation of contention about music education in North American.Thus,the validity and pertinence of the criticism need our careful reflection.It is safe to say that Chinese modernistic music education modernity began its process of finding the theme along the line of "nationality-country-individual".And the elements of regularity showed in this process can not only broaden the space for the development of music education,but also provide a powerful theoretical reference for building contemporary music education.