Whenever I think of China and
music, I think of long held traditions that have been passed down for
centuries. However, there was the Chinese Cultural Revolution that destroyed
this aspect of tradition because people feared persecution for practice. Despite
this, from the video clips Saga of Mulan
and From Mao to Mozart and Titon’s
blog about his trip to China, it seems as though traditions have survived and
the idea of “tradition” is still important. It is unfortunate that for a period
of time they were not able to freely practice, but I think it speaks highly of
the culture that they returned to their traditions and uphold the belief about
sustaining Chinese music.
What stuck
out to me in the video From Mao to Mozart
was the opinions on Chinese music that was discussed. One being the belief
that “we do not need Western music, we need Chinese music” and the other being
“we need to develop Chinese music, but it is important to study Western Music.”
When I was reading Titon’s blog with this in mind I thought of how it relates
to the Qujiaying
village traditional concert/funeral music he heard out in the town. Titon tells
us that the concert style song was "suited" and is compared with
Western music: because it included 13 divertimentos, and seven concerto grossos.
Titon mentions how this might be because they are trying to make the music more
classical. However, I think of the ideas from the video and how tradition
Chinese culture and music is always changing just like all style of music. It
is just more interesting because it is what they consider traditional. Besides
this, the instrumentation of the concert and the people talking during it
(regardless of if it is a funeral or not) still reflects the heritage of
Chinese music. This can also be seen in
the Saga of Mulan because their voice
parts and instrumentation is reminiscent of the traditional Beijing opera style
JingJu.
Chinese music is being sustained,
but with minor changes over time. But for the most part, traditional aspects
can always be seen.
