A Middle School-oriented Probe Into The Musical Approaches Of Aesthetic Education In The Reading Of Classical Chinese Poetry

Classical Chinese poetry, as is known to all, is distinctively characterized by music. Chinese poetry, which, throughout its development, once tried to get rid of its dependence on music to gain an implicit musical feature from the tones, rhythm and rhyme, recognized its shortcomings in this aspect in the end, only to find its way into the submission into the aesthetic ultimate of music. Music and poetry accompanied each other in such aspects as tones and rhythm, and so sentiment, rhythm and pursuit of infinity make up the core musical feature of classical Chinese poetry. Ignorant of the musical feature of classical Chinese poetry, some of the teachers, more often than not, adopt such unnatural and inadequate explanations to the texts as to degrade classical Chinese poetry, the carrier of beauty, into a tool of examination. Students, as a result, lose interest in them, and no aesthetic joy is gained in this process. It is not only in compliance with the musical feature of poetry, but a kind of excavation into the innate nature of music itself as well to appreciate classical Chinese poetry through musical approaches. Poetry, as a form of literature, unexceptionally shares with other forms of literature the same literary aesthetics, namely, sensory synthesis. As far as the aesthetic psychology of adolescents is concerned, the special cognitive ability, the aesthetic intuition, interests and psychological tendency of adolescents have provided us with theoretical support on the feasibility of aesthetic education of classical Chinese poetry through musical approaches, in the process of which, music stimulates students imagination and arouses students active participation into the whole poetry appreciation, and therefore, shortening the distance between readers and poets. The process can be identified as the following three stages. To put it more specific, in the first stage, what the poem read is like in the poet's mind; and in the second stage, the other way round; then as sublimation, readers conceive their own version of what they read. The elements of aesthetic education of classical Chinese poetry through musical approaches mainly include speech pauses, tones, rhetoric, rhythm and rhyme. Such methods as reading aloud with background music, singing, chanting and reciting can be adopted to perceive and release the beauty of music. For example, background music can be used to help create certain atmosphere to arouse emotional resonance; reciting can be adopted again and again to touch the beauty of music which helps in memorizing and consolidating what is learned. Besides the flexibility in the choice of music and contents of teaching, the cultivation of students ability to feel and appreciate both in and out of classrooms with the help of music worth our attention as well.