Opera "Fox Music In The Wilderness Mountain" By Tuan Yijiuma: A Fusion Of Tradition And Modernit

The opera "Chanchiki"(Japanese name: ちゃんちき)was written in 1972 by Japanese composer Dan Ikuma and presented on stage in China during the celebration of the 30 th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan.The opera is a "cartoon" mythological genre,and the music goes beyond the realm of folk tales.The music is a humanistic and meticulous treatment of the emotions of the fox and his son,who are dependent on each other in a harsh environment,and their love for their calf,and expresses the human sorrow that is common to the world.In his compositions,Dan Ikuma has always maintained a spirit of innovation and freedom.He has successfully used a specialised,nationalised and individual musical language,combining traditional and contemporary musical elements to give the entire opera a rich,vivid and intriguing emotional experience.The first chapter deals with the structural features of the opera Chanchiki,mainly in terms of dramatic structure and musical structure.The opera is narrated through folksong style scenes and follows the logic of Japanese mythology,and it is covered with oriental philosophical educational ideas.In terms of musical structure,Chanchiki is composed according to the four principles of parallel combination,paratactic forms,reproduction(double passage),and cycle(phrase repetition forms).As an opera of the twentieth century,it must be influenced by its trends,so the opera uses the Brecht system of the three major theatrical systems of the twentieth century and the modern stage space theory of Peter Brook’s "empty space".In the second chapter,we analyze three themes of the opera Chanchiki,firstly,the theme of "growing up" of young fox,which is performed six times throughout the opera in the form of Japanese nursery rhymes.The original intention of the play was to use the music of the Japanese people throughout the play,reflecting the characteristics of traditional Japanese culture.The second is the theme of the education of the big fox,which is the father’s teaching of the young fox,using the typical Recitative of Western opera to express the fox’s father’s teaching.The third theme is the otter couple’s visit to the banquet,and the lyrics of the song "hey shoo hey shoo" express the otter couple’s mountain climbing exertion;In the third chapter,we analyze the harmonic techniques of Dan Ikuma ’s opera Chanchiki,including the use of functional and color harmony and the characteristics of the vocal progressions and harmonic progressions.In the fourth chapter,the tonal modulations of the opera Chanchiki are analyzed,in which the folk song scale,the rhythmic scale,the rhythmic scale,and the metrical scale of Japanese traditional music are used.Secondly,the opera is also written with the twentieth-century compositional techniques of pantonality and serial music.The opera Chanchiki was composed with the goal of sublimating Japanese emotional expression and dramatic structure to musical structure,and it effectively explores the dialectical unity of musical and dramatic language,the colorfulness and ethnicity of the orchestral method,and the modern style and oriental characteristics of the harmonic technique.With Dan Ikuma high literary skills,profound musical attainments and unique artistic arrangements,the opera’s plot is well-structured and fascinating.