Research On Tan Xiaolin's String Trio

Tan Xiaolin(1911-1948)is a famous composer,performer,music educator and a pioneer of modern Chinese music in the first half of the twentieth century.The main theme of his creation are chamber music,art songs and chorus,among which chamber music works are the most distinctive.His String Trio had won the J.D.Jackson Award.As far as i know,it is the first time that Chinese composers have won an award for their ensemble music abroad.It has very high artistic value.Tan Xiaolin's String Trio was written between 1944 and 1945 when the author was studing music composition with Paul Hindemith.Therefore,this work will be an important basis for us to explore Hindemith's music theory — one of the three Western harmony theories.Tan Xiaolin's creation is deeply rooted in the Chinese traditional pentatonic melody and tonality although his works have obvious "neoclassicism" features.In brief,his works have both modern features and national characteristics,forming a unique style.This article will take Tan Xiaolin's chamber music work String Trio as the research object,and make a detailed analysis of the harmony and melody of the work,in order to explore the main characteristics of Tan Xiaolin's music creation.This paper mainly includes the following four parts:The first part is an overview of chamber music and Tan Xiaolin's chamber music creation.The second part briefly introduces the theoretical sources of Tan Xiaolin's creative techniques.Afterwards,the harmony analysis of Tan Xiaolin's String Trio is carried out.The third part makes a detailed analysis of the melodic techniques of String Trio from the aspects of the basic form of melody,the application of polyphonic and polyphonic techniques.The fourth part,Tan Xiaolin's inheritance and de velopment of Hindemith's harmony theory,explores the historical status of Tan Xiaolin's String Trio and its influence on modern Chinese music.