The Yangtze string instrument in Liu Hanli's "Reflections on the City" concert

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to specify the technical and performance features of Liu Hanli’s “Reflections on the City” concerto for the orchestra of folk instruments and Yangtze. The research methodology involved the use of cultural, historical, and comparative methods, which are based on the principles of knowledge of nature, society, and cultural-historical processes – in order to trace the peculiarities of emergence and development of Yangtze, as well as formation of the concert genre in Chinese musical culture. The scientific novelty of the article is that it examines the Yangtze traditional instrument as a phenomenon of Chinese culture, which determines the further development of Chinese traditional instrumental performance and formation of the national genre palette. Conclusions. Generalisation of developments in the field of art history, which are related to the problem of traditional musical instruments and instrumental performance of China, allows us to state that emergence of the Yangqin string instrument associated with the 14th – 17th centuries. Moreover, it occupies a prominent place in the cultural heritage of China today. The performance capabilities of the Yangtzemen are analysed on the example of Liu Hanli’s concert “Reflections on the City”, in which the artist conveyed the worldview of the ancient people through musical means of depicting their bravery, kindness, hard work and fortitude in the fight against enemies. In this work, Liu Hanli demonstrates a synthesis of the European musical language and national folklore, because the combination of expressive means of the major-minor system and modified samples of folk song creativity is followed. Therefore, the national musical art of China is a distinctive landmark of world culture and deserves further scientific exploration, taking into account its centuries-old history.