A STUDY GUIDE OF EARLY CHINESE ART SONGS: REPRESENTED BY QINGZHU AND HUANGZI

Abstract

Chinese art song as a genre has been around for over a century. A hundred years ago, the pioneers of Chinese music went to Europe and the United States to study composition. These composers combined Western musical composition techniques with Chinese musical elements. Out of this, an entire genre of Chinese art songs was born. These Chinese art songs are worthy of further study to allow non-Chinese people to become more familiar with Chinese music and literature. This study will compare the similarities and differences between Chinese art songs and Western art songs; introduce the development, background, and notable composers of Chinese art songs; and analyze representative Chinese art songs. To make the poetry more accessible, details on the pronunciation of the Mandarin system and the International Phonetic Alphabet for selected Chinese art songs are provided. This is of significant help to non-Chinese singers who want to understand and perform Chinese art songs. Because Chinese art song has long occupied a marginal position within the vast array of art songs worldwide, this dissertation hopes to promote Chinese art song to a wider international audience and encourage singers from diverse cultural backgrounds to discover and perform Chinese art songs.