Study On Chinese Traditional Music Education In Music Major In Normal Colleges And Universities

Featured by its unique music form, expression technique and estheticssignificance, traditional Chinese music differs from foreign music and new Chinesemusic. It is a kind of mother-tongue music culture and as well the “root” of Chinesemusic. With western music accessing to China, traditional music starts to present atrend of decline. The music education of China’s modern school established on thebasis of the principle of “learning from remote France and Germany as well asneighboring Japan” has always been led by western musical system, but excludestraditional Chinese music from classroom. Since the20th century, traditional Chinesemusic has been increasingly marginalized and deserted in the system of musiceducation of China’s schools including higher normal universities.School music education is one of the effective approaches to spread and inherittraditional music, and in particular, higher normal universities can better play theirdistinctive roles. Just like a mother machine, cultivating faculties of music educationin higher normal universities has a long-lasting, continuous, and extensivepropagation effect; as school education is characterized by standardization, non-commercialization and non-indirectness, traditional music can effectively prevent itfrom being alienated or degenerated by virtue of standardized education;strengthening the study of traditional music can help students in higher normaluniversities to construct sound intellectual framework, so as to meet the newrequirement raised by basic compulsory education; being nurtured by “musiceducation” can contribute to students’ peace of mind or inner tranquility and promotestheir moral practice.From the investigation of several higher normal universities, it is easy to findthat lots of overt problems still exist in traditional Chinese music education in highernormal universities’ music major: far insufficient curriculum provision; woefullyinadequate faculties; students’ absent interest in traditional music; deficient otherteaching forms apart from classroom teaching. The first factor comes from the lack ofconfidence in mother-tongue music culture, ingrained idea that “what’s in China isrustic while what’s in western world is exotic”, blind worship for western music, as well as the absent strategic understanding and defensive preparation before culturalsupremacy; additionally, the concepts of pragmatism and technicalization have greatimpact upon schools, and ideas that “traditional music course is useless” and“technique comes first and culture is useless” are fairly common; moreover, theimbalanced consumption and immoderate communication of pop music in societyresult in limited dissemination approach of traditional music, thus affecting students’appreciation delight and their interest in traditional music.In reference to problems and factors, the paper makes following proposals forintensifying the education of traditional Chinese music of music majors in highernormal universities: the precondition to strengthen the education of traditional musicin higher normal universities is to change the contemptuous attitude toward traditionalmusic, deepen the understanding and clarify the thought of it; introducing policysupport and implementing funding support are supporting conditions to strengthen theeducation of traditional music in higher normal universities; deepening curriculumsystem reform and enhancing faculties construction are specific measures tostrengthen the education of traditional music in higher normal universities;establishing experimental pilots nationwide and setting up experimental classes inschool are new ideas to strengthen the education of traditional music in higher normaluniversities.