Urgently seeking a music appreciation essay on Chinese famous instruments or western instruments

The Different Charms of Chinese and Western Instrumental Music

A song "Two Fountains Reflecting the Moon" lets us hear the deep flavor of the Eastern instrumental music culture; a song "Memories" lets us appreciate the unique charm of the Western instrumental music culture. Both at the same time instrumental solo I don't know if you have ever thought about why the music performed by Chinese and Western instruments why there is a huge difference? The reason is that the production and sound of musical instruments are subject to different cultural influences and constraints. Different cultural influences constrain the sound of different musical instruments, and this specific sound requires the selection of what material shape of the instrument, which further determines the different musical styles. Overall, the differences in the sound of Chinese and Western musical instruments precisely reflects their deep cultural differences

I. The differences in the materials of Chinese and Western musical instruments are rooted in a different relationship between man and nature: subjugation and respect

To deal with the relationship between human beings and nature, the mainstream of traditional Chinese culture focuses on the advocate of "unity of man and nature", emphasizing respect for nature, the pursuit of harmony between man and nature, the Chinese traditional culture is the main focus of the "unity of man", emphasizing respect for nature. The mainstream of traditional Chinese culture focuses on advocating the "unity of heaven and man", emphasizing respect for nature and the pursuit of harmony between human beings and nature, and the idea of the unity of heaven and man constitutes a distinctive feature of Chinese culture.

Westerners really like artifacts, the result of man's transformation of nature. What they really appreciate is the self that is objectified in nature in the process of conquering and transforming nature, and a kind of self-indulgence in changing nature. Western culture advocates man's victory over nature, not only recognizing and interpreting nature but also emphasizing the conquest and transformation of nature. On the contrary, "the unity of man and nature" is the foundation of traditional Chinese culture, and the Chinese people emphasize the harmony and unity of man and nature. The geographic environment of the Chinese people has led to the closeness of man and nature, and they have never taken nature as an object of conquest and transformation, but respect and obedience to nature. It is because of the different cultures of China and the West, and ultimately lead to the cultural carrier of the Chinese and Western musical instruments in a huge difference.

Western musical instruments are made of metal and a variety of standardized wood-based materials, especially wind instruments, almost all of which are made of metal or metal and wood, such as trumpets, flutes, flutes, and harps, pianos, etc., most of which are artificially produced, reflecting the Western emphasis on the harnessing of nature and the transformation of the idea. In contrast, Chinese musical instruments are mostly made of natural materials. Other instruments that are absolutely dominant in the use of Chinese musical instruments, such as xiao, sheng, zheng, sanxian, pipa, as well as erhu and yangqin, are all made of natural bamboo, wood, and leather, which implies that the Chinese people respect the properties of nature. Chinese musical instruments try to make full use of the uniqueness of these natural materials in their voicing, and give full play to the unique role of these materials in voicing, so that their purpose of using natural materials to create a unique and individual tone can be successfully realized.

The difference between Chinese and Western instrumental music culture is rooted in different cultural ontology: rationality and sensibility

Westerners look at the world, is to take a particularly rational and scientific attitude, from this attitude to require music beyond the specific, dissolve the unique, in order to obtain a universal and **** sense of understanding, and the Chinese people are completely opposite, the Chinese culture is based on sensibility, to the life of the ontology, it is therefore trying to capture people's inner feelings and experiences. Chinese culture is based on sensibility and life, so it tries its best to capture people's inner feelings and experiences. In Chinese music, everything is subject to "flavor" and "emotion". The "imitation of nature" and "formal beauty" are the two main centers of Western aesthetic thought, but the Chinese are more accustomed to the rhythm of music, and all techniques revolve around the words "love, rhyme".

In terms of musical instruments, Western instrumental music has completed its own standardization and unification of work, very early in the music of self-management into a relatively abstract form of the system, the pronunciation is characterized by: the quality of sound as far as possible away from the human voice close to the instrumental sound, in order to obtain a tone effect of a kind of **** through the nature of the voice is not affected by the human voice, to maintain its rationality. Chinese musical instruments have never intended to standardize and unify the work, and never abstract their music into a purely formal system, so the sound quality of Chinese musical instruments has always been close to the "human" sound for their own highest interest, and even instrumental performance is governed by this sense, follow the line, strong emotional color. Such as the Mongolian musical instrument horse-head fiddle, is one such stringed instrument, its tone often let us experience the lonesome herdsman mood and the grassland open loneliness, it can imitate the human voice crying and laughing, animal cries and so on, better expression of the heart.

The sound of Western musical instruments is far from the human voice, and far from the human voice means that it must be far from the diversity, richness and uniqueness inherent in nature, which is too rational. The "instrumental" sound pursued by Western instruments is such that it is different from any specific instrument, but it can be well integrated with the sound of any instrument. On the contrary, Chinese musical instrument's near-human sound also determines that it must require the uniqueness and individuality of its tone. Each Chinese instrument has its own unique sound, which is very suitable for solo performance, but it is difficult to change them into a perfect structure, which is caused by the over-sensibility of each instrument. To make an analogy, Western instrumental music is like a few foreigners with similar voices singing together, who pay more attention to show their harmony, while Chinese instrumental music is like a few very emotional Chinese people with unique voices singing together, although they all have their own sound characteristics, but it is very difficult to achieve perfect unity.

West focuses on the rational way of thinking, China focuses on the emotional way of thinking, from theory to practice from the beginning to the end of the two paths, this is the fundamental difference between Chinese and Western instrumental music culture.

Three, the difference between Chinese and Western instrumental characteristics is rooted in different aesthetic requirements: strength and depth

The performance characteristics of traditional Chinese instrumental music are different from those of the West. Western instrumental music is characterized by profound seriousness, highlighting the subject-object dichotomy, which embodies a kind of artistic spirit of "magnificent beauty" and infects the audience with momentum; while Chinese instrumental music is characterized by openness and depth, highlighting the blending of scenes, which embodies a kind of "harmony" spirit of "ethereal beauty". The Chinese instrumental music is characterized by its openness and depth, highlighting the integration of scenes and reflecting a "harmony" spirit of "ethereal beauty", which infects the audience from the sensibility of the rhyme. Thus, it is not surprising that we appreciate the different feelings generated by Chinese and Western instrumental music performance - Westerners like symphonic music, the momentum of the solemn and magnificent, the more musicians and instruments on stage, the more grand, such as the "Pathétique Symphony," "Radetzky March"; Chinese people are more willing to use a few kinds of musical instruments or fewer instruments to show a music full of thought and meaning. music full of thought and connotation, such as "High Mountains and Flowing Water" and "Three Melodies of Plum Blossoms".

Western instruments are more uniform in their sound, with each note clearly defined, clearly delineated, and a standardized shape, which undoubtedly reflects a ****. Chinese musical instruments, on the other hand, are very varied, with different postures, reflecting the uniqueness of each of its notes, and such a sound shape is of course caused by the instrument's performance of Yin, vibrato, vibration and other sliding and shifting sound techniques.

These instrumental techniques are very flexible in their use, and they can be applied and processed according to actual needs, thus showing their rich and varied personalities, and enabling their expressive ability to reach an extraordinary depth and intensity, resulting in a heartfelt and unforgettable artistic effect.

The vein of Chinese and Western instrumental music is very different. The vein of Western instrumental music pursues the richness and fullness of the sound effect, dense and solid, and pursues the beauty of the magnificent momentum. This is the beauty of strength. The vein of Chinese instrumental music creates a meandering, undulating, single-line swimming line effect, and pursues the sound of the virtual light and ethereal and deep, so as to make one's own performance with a stirring effect, and to obtain the depth of the beauty of the musical performance. A pipa played the tragic siege of Gaixia, a guzheng played even the sea of the spring river tide, an ancient ocarina blowing out the ancient rise and fall of the ghost of thought, Chinese cultural heritage if not deep, who can understand the depth of the music? Western instrumental music is relatively speaking, the depth of its understanding of Chinese music is not so deep.

In the instrumental culture, Chinese music (mainly traditional folk music) and Western instrumental music (mainly symphonic music) in the expression of the sense of beauty has a very big difference, we can be verified from the following example: a "Moonlit Night on the Spring River" melody is simple, deep, beautiful and elegant, the rhythm of the smooth, stretching, the tone of the lingering, soft and graceful; a "Symphony of Fate" rhythm, Rapid rhythm, wide range, bright, robust tune, emotional, grandeur. From these, we can see that Western instrumental music emphasizes a kind of strength, and Chinese instrumental music emphasizes a kind of depth.

I hope my answer can help you-