Chinese Musical Language Interpreted by Western Idioms

By incorporating recent achievements of music theorists, composers, musicologists and ethnomusicologists, this monograph proposes a multidimensional approach to the analysis of Chinese composers Chen Yi's music for Western instruments. The analytical procedures are informed by Richard Waterman's theory of syncretism and Peter Chang's research on composers' reinterpretation of cultural elements, which serve to explore Chen Yi's cultural and educational background in relation to her composition. A set of factor proposed by Elliott Schwartz and Daniel Godfrey are examined to discover underlying organizational principles. The first two chapters provide an overview of Western and non-Western composers' approaches to cross- cultural fusion in general and Chinese composers' approaches in particular. The subsequent four chapters present detailed analyses of Chen Yi's nine work with an emphasis on underlying organizational principles. The final chapter contains a summary of Chen Yi's personal style, the evolution of her concepts of stylistic fusion and related techniques, and evaluates their significance with respect to successful fusion.