The Deadline To Study

Xiang Yu is one of the most famous composers in China during the Luxun ArtAcademy period. His magnum opus songs such as Red Tasseled Spear and Song ofWatchers, along with his own conducting opera Song for Country and cooperationopera The White-haired Lady have taken a very important position in Chinese musichistory. The music innovation in Song for Country provides an artistic example for thebirth of Chinese New Opera. Then the musicians of Luxun Art Academy wereinspired to make their minds to the creation of new opera. Especially, the creation ofnew opera The White-haired Lady has given a great impact to opera history of Chinaand even the world, and has been a milestone in our opera art history. The musiceducational ideology of Xiang Yu when he was in Luxun Art Academy also showsgreat historical and practical significance to our modern music education.This disquisition tries to study Xiang Yu in an open and broad perspectivethrough impersonal analysis of the background of his masterpieces and musicaleducation ideology and with the scientific and unbiased analyzing method with thehelp of musicology, music sociology and systematic science for which we need todate back the real history states and tracks and in spite the side effect of a politicalstudying.This disquisition follows the cue of magnum opus of Xiang Yu, from AutumnalWindow, Blood Offer to Shanghai, Song for Country, Red Tasseled Spear to TheWhite-haired Lady, and analyses the background of his works in different times. Thedeveloping aspect of music culture had changed with the transformation of the themesof Chinese music culture from the May Fourth Movement, Sino-Japanese War, to theLiberation War.The Chinese musicians had been seeking for a rebuild object of Chinese music,but they had been stopped by the lack of proper carrier. They had to confront with therough choices and challenges modernizing the national folk music. The musicians ofLuxun Art Academy started to the experimental exploration of national folk music,and Xiang Yu was one of them.Xiang Yu is one of the two founders of Luxun Art Academy. He gradually cameup with his own musical education ideology in his teaching in Luxun Art Academy. He substituted the western content in listening courses with the Chinese folk songsand national ballad, and inspired students to study and adapt folk music.Song for country written by Xiang Yu in 1938 had been melodized with thewestern opera technique adventurously. The success in this opera showed importantconsequences in the adaptation of Chinese New Opera and this opera had settled atremendous base for the birth of Chinese New Opera. The musicians in Luxun ArtAcademy yearned for creating and adapting national opera when the story of theWhite-haired fairy spread in Yan’an. Xiang Yu with his colleagues and studentsadapted the story into a brand new opera in“collective creation”form. Theireagerness for creativity and the aspiration of new opera are the fundamental reasonsof marvelous success of the opera The White-haired Lady.