A Study Of Two Fundamental Works In The Historiography Of Chinese Contemporary Music

The appearance at the end of the1950s of Outline of Contemporary Chinese Music History(Draft Version)[Zhongguo Jinxiandai Yinyue Shi Gangyao (Wei Ding Gao)] with its appendix Reference Material on Contemporary Chinese Music History [Zhongguo Jinxiandai Yinyueshi Cankao Ziliao] co-edited by the Association of Chinese Musicians and the Chinese Music Research Institute, and History of Modern Chinese Music(Draft Version)[Zhongguo Xiandai Yinyueshi] edited by the department of theory and composition of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, marked the establishment of the historiography of contemporary Chinese music. These two works, by filling a vacuum in the studies on contemporary Chinese music history and becoming the basis for the training of numerous historians, laid the foundations for the growth of the historiography of contemporary Chinese music.Although products of a period of "extreme leftism", which exerted a strong impact on their academic outlook, both books played an important role in the development of China’s music historiography. The author of this dissertation endeavors to analyze the two works with the aims of:on the one hand, re-assessing their historical significance and reconstructing the academic configuration of early historiography of contemporary Chinese music; and, on the other hand, summarizing their merits and demerits so as to provide reference material to nowadays historians.This study is organized in six parts. The first chapter discusses the historical and academic background that saw the birth of these two works. The second chapter describes their genesis and the two teams who carried out the editing. The third chapter briefly illustrates outline, content and sources of the two works. The fourth chapter offers a synthetic analysis of the two books from the perspectives of:situation of the historical periods, musicians, musical output, musical thought and music education. Based on such analysis, this chapter also compares similarities and differences between the two works. The fifth chapter, discusses their historical meaning and their bearing on the development of today’s music historiography. The conclusion summarizes the results of the whole study.