The Concert And Changes Of Social Life In The Period Of The Republic Of China:1912—1945

The concert is a music form which came into being with the introduction of western civilization into china,became an important way of music and art activities and leisure entertainment in the Republic of China. In the early stage, the concert occurred mainly in the part of the city’s upper social class, however, with the development of social culture and changes of social life, concerts could gradually be found in more and more Chinese cities, and became a symbol of modern music development in China. The rise and development, and the role and function of the concert, not only reflect the collision of Chinese and western music culture, also reflect the evolution and change of city culture in the Republic of China. The research of concert development in the period of the Republic of China, will help us deepen the understanding of China social culture development from perspective of music culture, and reveal functions in the construction of modern life style and modern civilization. What’s more, it has theoretical and practical significance on the understanding of the relationship between music culture and city social life changes, and the development of national music culture.The young students in the Republic of China, is an important social force in renewal. Therefore, the school concerts which were held in early twentieth Century became the important channels that western music culture came into Chinese society. Because of aggregation of intellectuals in schools, and their active response to foreign culture, and concert evolution in China reflected more concentrated development in school concert.The quantity of current academic research of the concert is not much, and there is few deep and systematic articles on this phenomenon. What’s more, there is less attention on the cross regional and comprehensive history of the concert. Because there are lots of blank in concert research, this dissertation is to go deep into the historic appearance of concert activities in the Republic of China.In this article, the author discusses the evolution of the concert and changes of social life, in the center of interaction and influence of concert and social life.The conditions of introduction of western concert into Chinese have been formed in the tide of "East meets West". Firstly, there is a profound economic and cultural transformation in China, and modern city came into being and expanded gradually. Secondly, the new social strata have emerged. Thirdly, foreigners life style became a model for modern Chinese to follow. With the establishment of modern school, music education rose, the development of music in the China entered a new stage. The introduction and promotion of Western students, played a positive role in promoting publicity and extension of concert in the Republic of China.The rise of school concert produced multiple effects in the period of the Republic of China. On one hand, as a teaching activity, the concert not only improved the teaching and students’artistic accomplishment, but also enriched the campus culture.What’s more, it cultivated the youth sentiment as the way of appreciation. On the other hand, school concert promoted the development of the music, like Chinese and foreign art, promote development and progress of national music of China. At the same time, the concert changed from form to content, when church school music education became secular and indigenous.In the collision and exchange process between Chinese and Western culture, the national music got new development. National music faced severe path choice, because strong impact of western music. National music and western music were learning in the collision, evolving in the struggle, developing in communication, absorbing nutrition, fusion of Chinese and Western art, updated development road constantly. The understanding of western music art, also experienced the way of "novelty---identity---reference".The construction of the social life style in the Republic of China, brought new musician groups into being. We can see the development of music culture and features of times (the turbulent social situation and the different social development stage will act on the music man) from their experience of life and the road of art and living state. As the unique social role, the music community has a special role in the social and cultural life. They made great contributions to the development of music culture in national music by their unremitting pursuit of art and hardship in the struggle.In the process of urbanization in the period of the Republic of China, concert evolution and interactivity between urbanization and concert became more prominent. Appearance of modern city, formation of modern city life, and the evolution of the consumption mode, changed the needs of city culture life. Bureaucratic class, business class, and active thinking and strong sense of open-minded literati, starting from different culture, values and social psychology and social life, who had shown the passion of concert form, improved the status and the function of concert in city culture. The concert is production of modern culture with its time feature and social needs, which reflect the development of music culture. While the concert evolved both in form and in content, as an important carrier of modern music culture, it played an important role in dissemination of the new social and cultural awareness, brought great effect on urban culture life,and helped to retain national music during the exchange of Chinese and foreign music. The concert promoted the national consciousness and modern consciousness, played a positive role in promoting civilization and progress in the modernization of society in the Republic of China.