A Comparative Study Of The National Meanings Of Chinese Representative Piano Works From Different Historical Periods

When was piano first introduced into China? It is marked by the sending of an ancient piano over 400 years ago from Matteo Ricci,an Italian missionary to the emperor of Ming Dynasty as a present at that time. With the expanding cultural exchange and the introduction of western theoretical techniques of composition, as well as Chinese musicians'studying abroad, composers in our country began their explorations in composition.Since the appearance of the first piece of piano music in 1915 by Zhao Yuanren, many classical well-known and meaningful works have come out in different historical periods. And learners have achieved fruitful deep-going and creative researching results including composition techniques; national styles; performing skills, and so on. From reading those articles, we may find that it took a hard time to take the first steps, and we can feel the learners'handwork on creating music with national flavor and their admirable ideas. But meanwhile, we may note that researches on musical works and composers of different time periods were all individual and single ones. Thus it is still a virgin field for a systematic clearing-up and vertical comparison from which readers can touch the gradual development of piano works and enjoy the beauty and specialty in different composers and works. So, the comparison and study of works of different periods can not only be used for reference to later development of piano works, it also does good to the performance of works and is valuable for the understanding of national meanings through the works. Also, it is a beneficial trial and compensation for the research field of piano works.Through the study on this topic, it is also found out that in many articles about works of piano and its composition, demonstrations were often carried out only from composition techniques and styles, but the historical background and the relationship between the demonstrations and their historical background were missing. This article fills this blank, thus can be regarded as a creative result of systematic research on relation between composition and historical background. It is hoped that through the reading of it, people can feel the national meanings contained in the representative works and know the above mentioned relationship.Nowadays, there are plenty of materials that we can refer to in our study and analysis of works of the piano including some excellent articles which are helpful to piano teaching and its performance. From years of practice in teaching and performance, the author feels that it's easy to find audiovisual materials and academic articles about the interpretation of Chinese works of piano. But it is also noted that the summarization of the works and reordering of logical connection as well as comparative research on national meanings can undoubtedly inspire both the learning and teaching of piano courses. They are also valuable references for the composers because they can learn and familiarize the national meanings of Chinese representative works in different historical periods and the differences of types, thus enriching and improving the learners and teachers. Besides, they are supplementary to the general mastering of and improvement of their aesthetic taste. This is also the purpose of this thesis.