HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PIANO CREATIVITY OF THE CHINESE COMPOSER JIANG WENYE ON THE EXAMPLE OF HIS PIANO CYCLE "BEIJING WANHUA COLLECTION"

Liu Siyu

The article is devoted to the musical art of Jiang Wenye, a famous Chinese (Taiwanese) musician: singer (baritone), pianist and composer, who was famous in the 30-40’s of the 20th century. Wenye was widely known not only for performing and composing music, but also for his musicological and historical analysis of Asian (Chinese and Japanese) music history and its adaptation to European musical academic canons, as well as for his literary works in Chinese and Japanese. The article analyses one of his piano cycles of the 1930’s, imbued with the impressionist technique of broad colourful strokes and modern intonations of atonal and dodecaphonic music, following in the footsteps of the famous Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), the founding father of the new Viennese school. A great number of young Chinese musicians and composers have contributed to the development of modern Chinese piano music since its inception. One of the pioneers in this field was Taiwanese pianist Jiang Wenye, who received his professional musical training in Japan. Wenye is famous as an outstanding musician and composer who played an invaluable role in the history of Chinese modern pianism, having enriched it with national colour. The Article notes the special significance of Jiang Wenye’s personal contribution to the evocation of national musical factors, which made it possible to fuse Chinese and Western European musical styles in the piano art. As a result of this fusion, the evolutionary development of the Chinese musical style manifested brightly.

Keywords:Chinese piano culture, Jiang Wenye’s piano works, national style of piano music in China