An Analysis On The Art Form And Performance Characteristic Of Ballades For Koto Solo Vol.3 ’summer’ By Minoru Miki

The Zheng was a unique instrument in China.It played a significant role in the long river of Chinese history.During the Tang period,a thirteen-string "Tang Zheng" was introduced into Japan as an elegant instrument.Via the development of Zheng,Japan had formed their own type of plucked zither which is Koto as we know nowadays.Koto contained characteristics of vivid Japanese culture and became a different instrument.A well-known modern Japanese composer,Minoru Miki started a revolution of Koto,It was very similar to the Chinese morden 21 strings Guzheng.He also created many pieces of this new type of Koto.This article is selected from his new Koto solo pieces,“Zheng Tan Poems”.In this essay,we researched the third section of“Zheng Tan Poems”,it contains 5 pieces which are “Drop of dew”,“Southward”,“Sanuru Dancer”,“Downside Of The White Wind”,“Drizzle”.We deeply analyzed their creation background,string characteristics,performance techniques and symbol,musical form,and performance characteristics.We also discoursed the continuously changing of their art form and music connotation.We expect through our parsing and organization of the difference and connectivity of Chinese Zheng and Japanese Koto,our reader could have a better understanding when we play those famous foreign Koto pieces in our Chinese Zheng.