<Eight Memories In Watercolor> Artistic Characteristics And Analysis Of Piano Performance

‘Eight Memories in Watercolor’ was written when Tan Dun studied at theCentral Conservatory of Music in Beijing, in the year of1978. The Eight Memories,according to Tan, was inspired by the folk songs of his culture and the recollection ofhis childhood in Hunan. The composer described his first piano work as a ‘diary oflonging’ which is subdivided into eight short pieces: Missing Moon, Staccato Beans,Herd boy’s Song, Blue Nun, Red Wilderness, Ancient Buria,Floating Clouds,Sunrain. This highly pictorials music recalls the period in the composer’s life, depictingscenes such as unending songs in the hollow valley, children’s joy in the festive days,the regret of parting with family, and the ambitiousness of grownups.As a pianist the author believes that apart from rapt concentration and akaleidoscopic range of color when performing the work, one shall base hisunderstanding of this crystalline set of miniatures on traditional Chinese melodiesaround a core of tonal Western music, to evoke a delicately perfumed sound world.Therefore the thesis is aimed at research on the playing techniques, by drawing uponboth the work’s cultural backgrounds and the author’s stage experience, so as to createa texture that has the quality of straddling East and West.