Eastern Philosophy And Art Of Vocal Music

In this paper, teaching the vocal music by intuitive thinking, the origin of "beauty and good", and the significance of "the true, the good and the beautiful" for "human" and human society are thought and studied deeply and independently centering around the hunmanity subject of "the true, the good and the beautiful", and using eastern philosophy. A profitable learning direction is indicated to uncover the mysterious veil of the vocal music and its teaching. And it also has initiated learned value and great significance for revealing the essence of being a real person contained in art of the vocal music and training the social talents of "the true, the good and the beautiful".The teaching of the vocal music has been a difficult problem worldwide. The theory of the vocal music is also the most confused in the field of the artistic theory. Ms. Zhou Xiaoyan introduces intuitive thinking of eastern philosophy in the teaching of musical art to guide the students to realize the essence of musical art by wisdom, which is a pioneering work.Intuition is generally the ability to directly know the truth without the logical inference. The base of Eastern philosophy is by intuitive thinking which is completely different from Western thinking way to grasp the true world. All the things including the people are situated always in a moving and organic whole, in which they are inseparable, dependent on each other and changeable forever. The ultimate truths known by Eastern philosophical elders are beyond the perceptive and mental scope of language and concepts concerned and can not be the rational objects or conveyed by the clear knowledge.The principal theories of the Modern Physics lead to an outlook which has the intrinsic unity and perfect harmony with the Eastern Philosophy. One of the main discoveries of the Modern Physics is the basic unity of the universe. The universe is not an assembling of all bodies but is a complicated network of the interrelated various parts in the unity. In this attitude the universe is an inseparable dynamic system also including the observer, a basic element. The traditional ideas about space and time,the isolated objects and causality lose there significances. The art of vocal music is flowing, fast changing and passing in a flash. However, the art of vocal music known by the rational thinking is fixed, separated and decomposed by various concepts and theories (theory frames) , thereby losing its flowing and live essence of an organic whole. So many different perplexities come one after another and make us sink into the perplexed abyss. Professor Zhou knows very well the limitations of the rational thinking. With the intuitive thinking, she uses the metaphors such as " the drum","do taijiquan","bridge approach","grind the voice smooth","thread a needle" and "steam rice"and the principles of the vocal music which are the most natural, simple and scientific. Her aim is to guide the students through realizing the way and striving for the means to deeply understand the truth of the beautiful voice, and thus"directly reaching"the essence of art of the vocal music."The beauty" has always been an unresolved difficult problem which fascinates and inspires people to constantly find the resolutions.The find of the beauty's origin opens Professor Zhou's teaching doors about the beauty of art of the vocal music for me and makes me suddenly understand the profound and essential meanings and thoughts of aesthetics contained in her teaching.In the course of searching for the origin of the beauty, I found a word"羞" (shame)——having the beauty and ugliness in Chinese characters. Looking from the shape of theword,"羞" is made up of "美'' (beauty) and "丑" (ugliness) , places the ugliness ("丑") under the beauty ("美") and covers "丑" with "美". Only if people see the ugliness and have sense of shame could he or she cover the ugliness and pursue the beauty. From this we can say that initially seeing the ugliness and knowing the shame are simultaneously the production of the consciousness of human's beauty, and the pursuit of beauty originates from covering the ugliness. But because of Chinese implicit expression in creating Chinese characters, we can not know when humanity saw the ugliness and where ugly was so that he or she had sense of shame and covered the ugliness for pursuing the beauty.There is a paragraph in the Bible,"Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves."If combining the Eastern with the Western culture, we can search and obtain the further information as followed on the origin of the beauty.1."opened the eyes":"the awakening"of the realization of the humanity's "beauty"and the beginning of the "civilization"of humanity;2. "knew themselves" : "the intrinsic awakening","a self-judgement"and "a self-viewing", and one of the essential characteristics of human which distinguished from other living things;3 ."be naked": realizing the "ugly" parts of their bodies uncovered;4."fig leaves": "covering the ugliness"not "keeping out of the cold";5."sewed the leaves": start of creating the beauty, and the most primitive behaviour of creating the beauty;6."covered the ugliness": Where are the parts of the body ugly? Only that place. The earliest knowing and covering the place was the origin of the development on the consciousness and form of the humanity's beauty."Seeing the ugliness","having sense of shame","covering the ugliness " and "pursuing the beauty" were the beginning of the beauty's consciousness and creation, the basic reason why human being is called a person rather than an animal or a machine, the self-realization of conduction oneself namely, "turning to seeking oneself " and "looking towards inner oneself, and the essential characteristics which distinguish from other living things. From this time on humanity bade farewell to the apes and trod the long journey of civilization. "Seeing the ugliness" and "having sense of shame" maintain the moral systemcomposed of filial piety","respecting elder brothers","kindheartedness","义——theroad human should walk on","comity and reason","wisdom,ideal andrealization" and "sincerity and faith", etc. From the origin of the beauty——"seeing theugliness" and "having sense of shame", "conducting oneself "and" pursuing the beauty"were the essence and pursuit of a human being in real sense. The art of the vocal music should be the perfect presentation of conducting oneself "and" pursuing the beauty"."Seeing the ugliness","having sense of shame","covering the ugliness" and "pursuing the beauty"also were simultaneously the origin of good. "Seeing the ugliness" and "pursuing the beauty"have been developing all kinds of beautiful art forms."Having sense of shame " and " yearning for good " have the foundation of various kinds of virtues and good actions. The " self-realization (awakening) " of "seeing the ugliness " and " having sense of shame " are the life radiance of human being " and the start of humanity's civilization.A word "善(good) " in Chinese characters is composed of "美(beauty) " and "口(mouth) " , and places "口" under "美" . It has the meaning of beautiful singing.Experiencing " the true, the good, the beautiful " in singing can make the life flow in theglorious movement, dance cheerfully in the harmonious rhythm and walk ahead in themelody of universal love.For everyone the good is a kind of choice, yearning and pursuit of life. And choosing to do good works is choosing being a genuine person, you have to always restrain your lusts, cherish firm beliefs and strive perseveringly all your life. It is easy for a person to do a bit or briefly good works, but persevering bit by bit in doing good works all his or her life is an extremely arduous process of refining. Being a genuinely good person, you must have the " good " ideals, beliefs and standards in your heart; the behaviour and perseverance of benefiting others; the loyalties and persistence for doing a few good works and the dedication and sacrifices for your country." Good " is specific, period, national and state in time and space of life, but not absolutely illusory. Holding fast to the moral height; insisting on the moral accomplishment; adhering to the moral beliefs; regarding ardently loving motherland, Chinese Communist Party and Chinese people as the unswerving moral core of all her own life; and devoting her whole life to the Party, motherland and people she unparalleledly loves are Ms. Zhou's unchanging choices and persistent pursuit of all her life! " I have no regrets about making the efforts for my motherland! " she said." If you want to learn the arts very well, you must learn how to conduct yourself first " , as the saying goes. " Conducting oneself is the essential prerequisite of learning the arts. The existent significance and the final aim of the arts are to train the lofty sentiments and the fraternity spirit of humans and make the soul ofthe true, the good, the beautiful " immortal. " Good " is Professor Zhou's teaching foundation on art of the vocal music. Her teaching about " good" is by practicing for doing good works what she preach to influence and lead the students themselves to explore, realize and understand the essential significance of art of the vocal music.