The Singing Pursuit For Luo Zhongrong's Art Songs Employing Modern Composing Techniques

Thanks to China's developments in music, Chinese Art Songs enjoyed great prosperity in 1980s. Many professional composers dedicated themselves into creation of art songs by employing modern techniques, and this paper is about a prominent representative of them, Professor Luo Zhongrong and his art songs. The art songs of Luo which employed modern techniques are the main theme of his composing career, and also masterpieces in the history of Chinese art songs.The paper can be generally divided in to three parts: the prolog, the main text and the epilog. The prolog illustrates the significance of the research. Chapter I of the text is the review of the art song history, including its origin and development, especially the development in China. Chapter II introduces different composing techniques employed in art songs. Chapter III is the introduction of Luo's life and his composing career. Chapter IV is about the overview of Luo's art songs. Chapter V focuses on three representative works of Luo's art songs: "Picking Lotus in the River", "Morning Glory" and "Partridge Heaven". And in the last part of the paper, I extended my own understandings and feelings of these works as a soprano singer.As art songs employing modern techniques are becoming more significant in this new era of music, and also because of my personal interests in these works and their composer, I selected "The Singing Pursuit for Luo Zhongrong's Art Songs" as the research topic for my master degree. I hope to make my own contribution to this research, provide references for other singers and teachers, and also give rise to people's attentions and considerations for Luo's art songs employing modern techniques.