The Research Of Pre-liberation Chinese Korean Ethnic Ballads

Before Chinese liberation, the study of the Korean ethnic ballads plays a very important role in the study of the Korean ethnic art history.The Korean ethnic ballads are the artistic visualization of Korean immigrat ion and settlement in China, of Korean anti-Japanese imperialism and fighting against feudalism before Chinese liberation. Meanwhile, the formation and th e development of the Korean ethnic ballads are closely related with the Kore an ethnic social education, cultural movement, reception and popularization of modern music.Before Chinese liberation, the development of the Korean ethnic ballads is divided into three periods:the period of formation (1910-1931), the perio d of development (1931-1945), and the period of transition (1945-1949). Duri ng the period of formation, Korean traditional ballads are passed on and dev eloped; songs, school songs and independent songs are composed and popula rized as well. Some of these songs composed by educators and independent movers have strong ideological attitude which reflect immigrants' difficulties a nd hardship during their immigration, their ideal of national enlightenment an d their consciousness of anti-Japanese protests. During the period of develop ment, anti-Japanese songs, March of volunteers, Korean Recovery Army songs and mass songs are developed continually. Ballads of this period mainly refl ect the strong will and confidence in victory of anti-Japanese War. Most com posers of these ballads are professionals and anti-Japanese soldiers with musi c-talents. During the period of transition, most mass ballads are composed an d popularized. Those ballads emphasizing the local consciousness of the Korea n ethnic and their yearning of new life take the main roles in this period. At the same time, these ballads also praise the revolutionary spirit and indomit able will of those Korean soldiers in Chinese Civil War. Most of the compose rs are professionals and military artists with certain degree of art training.The Korean ethnic ballads show the characteristics of inheritance and dev elopment of Korean traditional ballads, and of the dialogue and creative rece ption with ballads of other nationalities, as well as the art reproduction and representation of anti-colonial and anti-feudal spirit during the process of the development. In the sense of orientation, the Korean ethnic ballads embody modern consciousness, class consciousness and local consciousness.The modern consciousness of the Korean ethnic ballads basically reflects the pursuit of national enlightenment and civilization, the affirmation and pr aise of national history and the support for the spirit of national self-reliance.The class consciousness of the Korean ethnic ballads mainly depicts the criticism for semi-fuel society, the yearning of the emancipation of proletaria t and the belief in victory of anti-Japanese fighting.The local consciousness of the Korean ethnic ballads expresses the chan ges of recognition of hometown, the affirmation of China and Chinese revolut ion, the praise of new social system and etc.The Korean ethnic ballads have the unique artistic characteristics. They r eflect the spirit of the epoch; meanwhile, they keep exploring in art forms. T he Korean ethnic ballads in China have varieties in the formation of rhythm. The syllabic meter of most balladss not only keeps the traditional one of4.4and3.4but also changes to the one7.5and its variations. In the aspect of choosing words, the Korean ethnic ballads keep the characteristic of hybridit y. In addition, words of the Korean ethnic ballads consist of symmetrical stru cture of sentences complemented with fun sentences and chord sentences.The music forms of the Korean ethnic ballads keep their own characterist ics in melody, mode, rhythm, temperament, and length. The main characterist ic of the melody is the strong popularity of singing and mass-oriented. At th e same time, the Korean ethnic ballads have the further development of trad itional Korean ballads in melody and create the new national melody, which not only meets the requirement of times better but also fulfills the integratio n of nationality and modernity. Furthermore, the Korean ethnic ballads also a ccept elements of foreign melody positively and make it "self-oriented". The Korean ethnic ballads have the reception of Japanese "Four-seven dial tone" as well as the melody of Han-Chinese and the Man ethnic ballads. All these aspects can be considered as the achievement of artistic practices of the Kor ean ethnic ballads towards the modern transition.As to the mode pattern, major mode is occupied mostly in the Korean e thnic ballads and some minor mode as well. Meanwhile, the Korean ethnic b allads also accept modern forms of the beat and realize the new developme nt when they keep the inheritance of forms of beat of Korean traditional bal lads. In other words, the Korean ethnic ballads accept the popular and distin ctive beat mode in accordance with public aesthetic sensibility at that time a nd change the traditional melody mode into the form of three beats which e stablish the new features.The Korean ethnic ballads adopt the rhythm of ballad melody creatively a nd particularly accept the rhythm of foreign music, which strengthens the fea tures of March. These features are depicted well in anti-Japanese songs, inde pendent songs, Korean Recovery Army songs and March of volunteers.The traditional elongated length is hardly seen in the length pattern of t he Korean ethnic ballads. And most of it is the changed length pattern whic h is rapid, lively and vigorous.Considering the artistic characteristics in the Korean ethnic ballads, one of the notable features is mutual reference of words and music which covers emotional reference, structural reference and syntactic reference. This featur e plays a very important role in strengthening national characteristic and ens uring artistic quality.In a word, the Korean ethnic ballads with high artistic value occupy an important position in the Korean ethnic music and art history.