The Fusion Of Chinese And Western Musical Elements Of Chinese Art Songs In May Fourth Movement Period

The art songs, as a specific genre of songs, have become popular in Europe back in the end of the18th century and the early19th century. In the early20th century, Chinese composers introduced this kind of music genre into China. Composers represented by Xiao Youmei, Qing Zhu, Zhao Yuanren and so on, have created art songs with national style by drawing lessons from foreign advanced art song composing techniques. They continuously explored the nation’s traditional music features and achieved the actual meaning of "making foreign things serve China". The art songs created by these composers are filled with Chinese characteristics which reflected the national temperament, helping Chinese art songs shining with dazzling brilliance. Concerning about the content and theme of the songs,composers expressed their dissatisfaction to the state of society with musical creation,and their creations reflected the scientific and democratic spirit of "May Fourth" period. About the lyrics, music melody, modal tonality and piano accompaniment, these art songs are very distinctive.This thesis mainly studies the production and development of Chinese art songs under the special background of "May Fourth" period,. Through the interpretation of music connotation of Chinese art songs during this period, such as the nationalization of Art song Lyrics in"May Fourth" period, imitation and application of musical structure, modal tonality, the modal tonality characteristic combination of Chinese and Western music, the style characteristics of melody and piano accompaniment and so on. This paper analyzes specifically several representative works in this period,including Zhao Yuanren’s creation of art songs "How can I help thinking of her?", Xiao Youmei’s creation of art songs "ask", Qing Zhu’s creation of art songs "I live at the end of the Yangtze River" and so on. This paper analyzes and studies the content, subject and creation form, explores the composers’s composition techniques in the art song creation. They basically inherited the outstanding achievements of the German and Austrian art songs, and combined properly with characteristics of Chinese traditional music, which made the art songs of the "May Fourth" period fully embody the integration of eastern and western music culture, and have distinctive Chinese characteristics.