Zhou Qian’s Works And John Cage’s Musical Philosophy

Zhou Qian’s electronic music was written in a musical context in China in which the philosophy of key Western composers was influential.This thesis examines the music of Zhou Qian through her compositional thinking and analysis of her electronic music,using John Cage as a point of comparison.I first analyze Zhou Qian’s piece Qu Shui Ming Yun for zheng and electroacoustic sounds and Lian Yi for pipa and electroacoustic sounds to explore the types and combinations of sounds and explain her uses of silence.I then conduct a comparative analysis with John Cage’s music philosophy and his performance Water Walk on a television show in 1960,exploring the combination of seemingly random and irregular sounds.As a pioneer of experiment music in 20th century,John Cage raised sound to the same status as pitch,expanding the conceptual creative space for later composers.I will interview several contemporary Chinese electroacoustic composers to learn about their thoughts on the choice,extraction and transformation materials,and more importantly,their view on the existence and necessity of silence.