A Study On The Concept Of Singing Tone Of Chinese Ancient-Poem-Songs

Tone color is one of four element of sound,and compared to other three elements,that is,length,pitch and intensity,the tone color is a multi-dimensional element,as it involves people's auditory sense,visual sense,smell,gustation and tactile sense etc.,and it is a synaesthesia of people for the sound.Objectively,the tone color has physical,physiological,psychological and cultural properties.Tone color of singing has been valued in China's traditional singing methods,and sometimes,a kind of tone color stands for a role or an occupation,and the tone color is a reflection of the personality and characteristics of a certain role or an occupation.As for the tone color of the singer,in addition to his voice and natural tone color,he also has adjustable tone color,which is closely related to his singing skill and pronunciation.As a singer sings,his pursuit and performance of tone color is not only relevant to the singing skill,but also have a close relationship with his understanding,aesthetics,culture and mentality.Originally,“view” refers to people's attitude and opinions about different things,and it is an essential understanding of one thing from another thing.In ancient China,view represents a means of aesthetic appreciation and widely observed in different disciplines;for example,in the literature,there is belief that,“by reading the article,you can understand the aesthetic values of the author” and in the fine arts,it is held that,“people can have happy feelings if they appreciate the landscape painting”.View of tone color is a compound word,and it is generated by combining “tone color” with “view”.First of all,the sound is an auditory art,and color means different colors and it is a visual arts.People would have synesthesia imagination if the sound is described by colors;second,view means to observe.Because the color of tone can be observed,the sound can be described and discussed by the color,and people can actually view the tone color.Therefore,the compound word of “view of tone color” is established.For this reason,the view of tone color is an aesthetic appreciation of tone color,and the tone color in the singing is studies from the perspective of aesthetics.With Chinese Ancient-Poem-Songs as the research object,this paper discusses the core issue of the view of tone color in the singing.In the introduction,the discussions are made from six perspectives,that is,the research intention,the definition of Chinese Ancient-Poem-Songs,the research status,research issues and significance,the research ideas and methods,and the innovation point,respectively.In the first chapter,the related theories on the view of tone color is explained.It includes four parts,that is,the overview on tone color,the explanation of view of tone color,the origin of traditional view of tone color in China and the traditional Chinese theories on the view of tone color in singing.As for the origin of traditional Chinese view of tone color,three views of tone color were proposed: “eight tones”(eight categories of musical instrument in ancient orchestra)--origin of tone color classification;“The music played with string instruments isnot as melodious as the music played with pipe instrument,and the music played with pipe instrument are not as impressive as the song sung by human voice.”---“Human voice is the most melodious” and comparison of tone color;“close to human voice”--the impetus for the development of tone color of musical instruments.At the same time,by sorting out traditional Chinese theories on singing,the theories on the tone color in singing are generalized,that is,“the sound is mellow and melodious like a string of beads;the sound is clean and sweet in its color;the sound is resonant,which is quite fundamental to the song”,and based on this,three views of tone color in singing,that is,“mellow,sweet and resonant”,are proposed for ancient poems and songs.In the second,third and fourth chapter of the paper,the discussions are made on different views of tone color in singing Chinese Ancient-Poem-Songs,that is,mellow,sweet and resonant.The researches on the view of tone color in singing are mainly composed of subjective description and objective measurement.Therefore,each chapter consists of three sections: first,three singing tone colors of mellow,sweet and resonant are explained,including the meaning of mellow,sweet and resonant from the perspective of etymology and the auditory characteristics of these three tone colors;in the second section,the computer software-based measuring method is adopted to measure the acoustic sample of Chinese Ancient-Poem-Songs performed by contemporary singers for further analysis,and it is found that the objective measurement is identical with the subjective description;in the third section,singers should be guided by the view of tone color(mellow,sweet and resonant),that is,the singer should have clear and mellow pronunciation in singing and use the tunes according to his own understanding;he should have sweet tone color in singing and pronunciation;he should have resonant,clear and gentle tone color in singing.In the fifth chapter,it is argued that,different views of tone color in singing is caused by different national cultural psychologies.However,the national cultural psychology is generated under the influence of ethnic group,aesthetics,mentality and culture etc.,and it is,to some extent,stable.The mellowness(?,also means round in Chinese),is determined by the national psychology of Chinese nation,that is,“fondness for round”;the sweetness(?,also means moist in Chinese)is valued in the aesthetics and culture of Chinese nation,that is,“fondness for sweetness”;the resonance is in line with the aesthetic psychology of Chinese nation,that is,“fondness for resonance.” The national psychology of Chinese people's fondness for round is identical with their emotional interests;the aesthetic culture of Chinese people featuring their fondness for sweetness is identical with their phonology and romantic charm of their language;the aesthetic psychology of Chinese people featuring their fondness for resonance is identical with their aesthetic experience,expectation and attitude.In the part of conclusion,it is argued that,as symbols,the singing tone colors are the manifestation of people's aesthetic consciousness.The singing tone colors,as a symbol,fully reflects the musical characteristics and artistic individuality of certain singing technique,style or system.The view of tone color in singing is originated from the practice of singing tone colors,while it also provides guidance to the practice of singing tone colors.As an objective reality of sound,the tone colors of “mellow”,“sweet” and “resonant” is belonging to the realm of object;however,when it comes to the view of tone color,“mellow”,“sweet” and “resonant” exist in people's perception,and they are related to the subject.The description on each view is developing from the physical explanation of tone color to the metaphysical statement of their meanings,to understand the ancient music by referring to modern theories and have insight into the modern music by referring to ancient musical theories.