Research Of Innovation And Development Of Chinese Dulcimer Art

Since the introduction during the late Ming and early Qing periods, dulcimer has experienced nearly four hundred years of development and finished the transformation from foreign musical instrument to national instrument, becoming a unique Chinese national musical instrument worldwide. The stable social environment brought by the reform and opening-up policy in 1980 s provided a good external condition for the development of Chinese dulcimer art. The growing number of Chinese and western culture and idea exchanges brought a new way of thinking for the development of Chinese dulcimer art.Innovation is the important factor to promote the progress and development of Chinese dulcimer art. Since 1980 s, Chinese dulcimer has achieved innovative progress in aspects of the reform of instrument shape, dulcimer musical work creation, playing techniques and performance forms and reached the unprecedented new height in history. For example, on the shape improvement, a variety of types of dulcimer were produced, among which dulcimer type of 402 is still in widespread use throughout the country. On the dulcimer musical work creation, many western composing techniques were applied and formed new national music works to express Chinese national elements using western composition techniques. There were also transplant works by transplanting and adapting foreign instrumental music works to be played on the dulcimer. On the dulcimer playing technique innovation, except for the use of a new combination of traditional dulcimer playing techniques and orchestration, composers were also committed to the development of new sound effects of the dulcimer in order to better present the content and emotion of the works. In the development of dulcimer performance form, the flexible characteristics were reflected. Dulcimer art is not only a sound art but also a performing art. The creation of multiple performance forms makes the dulcimer performing more fit with the modern audience’s aesthetic demands, which is a reflection that Chinese dulcimer follows the time development pace.Under the background of Chinese dulcimer art development and era background, this paper firstly sorts and analyzes the development status and background of Chinese dulcimer. Secondly, aiming at the innovation achievements of the development of dulcimer art, systematic sorting and research are carried out from four aspects of shape improvement, work creation, playing techniques and performance form. Conclusions are drawn and innovative behaviors of this period are summarized and considered. Finally, the significance of innovation in the development of Chinese dulcimer art is explored and personal reasonable suggestions and imaginations for the future development of Chinese dulcimer are proposed.