"The Yellow River Piano Concerto" A Study

Yellow Rive Piano Concerto, which was composed during the Cultural Revolution, not only exerted a great influence on the people of those days, but also gives a shock to us—people of the new century. Since it was born, the Concerto has been being performed throughout China, including Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, and in many places over the world, which makes it the most influential and most often performed among those Chinese concertos composed during the 20th century. Meanwhile, many scholars, Chinese or not, are studying its different aspects from different angles in different ways, resulting in divided opinions. In this new century, studying the concerto composed decades ago is not only to sing highly of our motherland, but also to provide living models and realistic base for the future development of future Chinese concertos. This thesis starts with the composition of Yellow River—Cantata and its influence on the concerto, and goes on with the overall and systematic analyses of the composition, content, structure and features of composition and the comparison of different editions of the concerto, with the aim of finding out its value and significance for the past, the present and the future.