A Study On The Version Of Tan Shu 's "Eight Watercolor Memories"

Eight Memories in Watercolor was written by Tan Dun as opus one when hestudied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. It is a programmatic pianosuite which integrates folk music&western modern technical skill. Tan’s particularways of composing&unique ideas makes this composition spinning traditionalChinese melodies around a core of tonal Western music, which has a high artisticvalue and aesthetic taste. Each movement of Eight Memories in Watercolor is short&different, remaining as classical repertoire of concerts&as good teaching materialsof Chinese modern piano music. Therefore, it is necessary&significant to analyzethis composition&to compare different performances. This thesis analyze thestructure&content of this composition&compare distinct performances of LangLang with Wang Tianshu concerning tempo, dynamics, tone color to illustrate thepossibilities of different connotation of this piece and also to improve understanding&aesthetic taste of listeners.