What are the typical characteristics of European music? Explain the cultural reasons for these characteristics.

1 General Characteristics of European Folk Music

The first is the stanza song. A stanzaic, stanzaic song is a tune with lyrics consisting of multiple verses, and the lyrics often rhyme, this is called a stanzaic song structure, which is very common to us nowadays.

Secondly, there is a variety of scales. Their children's songs often use just two or three tones, and there are quite a few pentatonic scales, but they are mainly seven-tone scales. The pentatonic scale is not unique to China, which of course is very much characterized by it, but Ireland is also pentatonic, Scotland is pentatonic, Hungary is pentatonic, there are many. But for the most part, Europeans are still predominantly heptatonic.

The third one, most of them use even meter. That's an even 3/4, 2/4, 4/4, every bar is even. Eastern Europe has a more complex beat than Western Europe, often with an odd number of beats: 3/8, 7/8, 9/8.

Fourth, it sings in two styles. An old European style, more relaxed, clearer tone, simpler tunes, rarely use ornamentation, very flat, right, polyphonic used a lot in the chorus, which is the style of most of Europe; the other Eurasian style of singing, called the Eurasian style, singing is tighter.

The fifth, is the main song genre, there are epic and narrative songs, love songs, festival songs, including religious, and secular celebrations, as well as dance music. These are its song genres.

Sixth, the melodies of the troubadours. In the Middle Ages, there were a large number of troubadours, wandering around, singing and playing the piano, and these people played a great role, he actually put the European culture, played a unifying role, especially the music of Europe, especially in Western Europe. Vagabonds were not called vagabonds, they were called troubadours. Their performances, he was originally in the court, some folk, and then in all of Europe, especially in Western Europe, performing everywhere, and finally these melodies, these songs all spread to all places, can not figure out where is where, this is the cultural unity of the whole of Europe is played a role.

While we talk about European classical music as a kind of world culture, it is often easy to overlook the fact that it also contains many national factors

The composers of both the classical and the romantic schools of music find it difficult to part with their links to their respective national cultures, and therefore their creations should first be

national, and then be regarded as global. The incorporation of national identity in creation can be said to be the same goal pursued by human artistic creation.

Keywords European Classical Music National Characteristics Classical Music School Romantic Music School Folk Music School

I. National Characteristics in Music Culture Concentrated in Ethnic Folk Music

National characteristics in music culture are factors that have always existed in the history of music. Regardless of any era, any country and any composer's music

, all have their national characteristics. In essence, the national characteristics of music are determined by the objective cultural characteristics that exist in different nations and countries. Because each nation

has its different language tones, different life interests, different psychological qualities and different characteristics of folk music and cultural accumulation. So the music of the national

characteristics of the more durable, more concentrated in the traditional folk music.

In professional music creation, the performance of national characteristics is not only limited to the musical language and expression methods, but also in the content of the subject matter and genre form.

In the musical language, it is mainly reflected in the extensive use of national folk tones or the processing and re-creation based on national folk tones.

In terms of expression

methods, the use of national popular creative techniques, expression methods. In terms of the content of the theme, it reflects the real life of the nation and praises the people and

their heroism. They also reflect the memory of the glorious history of the motherland, glorify the country's great mountains and rivers, and embody not only the aspirations and character of the nation, but also the traditional style and artistic preferences of the nation.

These works are also self-aware of their genre and form, and they have the ability to create their own music. In the genre form, the same consciously inherited national traditions, to meet the aesthetic habits and special interests of the various nationalities

In the works of European classical music professional composers, due to the historical background and the performance of the differences in the pursuit of aesthetic ideals, the various eras, the various music

schools, the various composers of the musical works embodied in the national characteristics of the situation is different.

Second, the classical school of music national characteristics is the natural flow of enlightenment consciousness

European classical composers Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven are widely used in the creation of the rich and colorful folk music materials.

"Father of the symphony", "father of the string quartet" Haydn (1732--1809) and German and Austrian folk music

Music tone, phrasing, and the sound of the music. p>Music tone, sentence, structure and style are closely linked. For example, the second movement of Symphony No. 94 in G Major (Stunned), the theme, the second movement of String Quartet in F Major, Serenade, the square phrases, simple harmonies give his style simple, fresh features. The third movement of the symphony, minuet

music, the fourth movement of the bright dance style is also characterized by German and Austrian vernacular music.

The "musical prodigy" Mozart (1756--1791) was a composer of operas and symphonies. He used German and Austrian folk

style popular songs and Protestant chant tones in his opera "The Magic Flute" with great success. He was a master of the melody, and had a knack for blending Austro-German folk tones with Italian lyricism

to create Mozartian, sing-song, poetic and beautiful melodies.

Music Saint Beethoven (1770--1827) was a classical masterpiece and a romantic pioneer. The advanced social ideas of the bourgeois revolution became the core of his

composition, and Beethoven was the first musician to combine the art of music with the destiny of mankind. He loved nature, he loved life, he loved to listen to the rural musicians play music, and embodied this in his creations, in the Symphony No. 6 in F major (Field), Symphony No. 8 in F major

all appeared the simple image of the German and Austrian country bands playing folk dance music. The "Ode to Joy" in Symphony No. 9 (Choral) in D minor is full of the earnest, simple and passionate feelings that characterize German folk

songs. According to Roman Roland study Beethoven expressed the masses **** the same feelings, such as love, friendship, wedding

ceremony, etc., often quoted folk song melody.

European classical composers in the music of the national folk factors, is their enlightenment consciousness of the real life of a natural outflow.

They are close to

real life "to the folk", "back to nature," the specific manifestation of the aesthetic thought. It embodies the spirit of the times of the bourgeoisie's ascendancy: resistance to

feudal bondage, firm optimism, the courage to struggle for the spirit of democracy and profound humanitarianism, and a high degree of perfect harmony. Therefore, it can be said that the classical music

in the national folk characteristics of the general, and no other meaning, is the enlightenment consciousness and democratic spirit of the natural flow and reflection.

Three, the romantic music is y rooted in their respective national music traditions

Romantic composers such as Schubert, Weber, Chopin, Brahms, Verdi and others are y rooted in their own national music traditions

The music and art emphasize the national characteristics.

Schubert (1797-1828), the "King of Art Songs", was familiar with Austrian folk music from his childhood, and his works made extensive use of folk songs,

customary dances, marches, and the tones of popular songs from his life. This folk song form became the basic "skeleton" of Schubert's songs,

and because of this, many of his best-known songs became popular folk songs, such as Wild Roses, Trout, and The Bodhi Tree, etc.

This kind of folk music is the most popular form of Schubert's songs.

This kind of popular and simple songs, in turn, became the main constituent of Schubert's instrumental works. Professor Qian Renkang said, "The song-like melody, song-like weaving

body, and song-like musical thinking also played an important role in Schubert's symphonies and chamber music compositions, and became an important feature of Schubert's later Romantic music

compositions." (Musical Arts, No. 1, 1979). Commenting on Schubert's musical compositions, Dvorak said, "Perhaps the most characteristic feature of his

Unfinished Symphony and Symphony in C Major ...... are the song-like melodies that abound, and the way he has used songs in the

symphony and transplanted them so skillfully that Schumann would not only have to say that these orchestral voices resemble human voices now." (Music in Translation, No. 6, 1981)

Thus, popularity and ethnicity prevailed in his compositions and became his distinctive compositional features.

Weber (1786--1825), the founder of German Romantic national opera, premiered the national opera "Free Shooter" (also translated as "Magic Bullet Shooter") in Berlin in June 1821, which was warmly welcomed by the audience and its tune became a household name.

The song became a popular song, and goods sold in the market were also trademarked under the name of the opera, such as "Magic Shot Beer" and "Magic Shot Women's Clothing". The play is based on German and Czech

widely circulated "black hunter" folklore, the stage shows a picture of the authentic North German forest folk customs. The first time I've ever seen this, I've seen it in my life.

The development of ethnic opera has contributed, but their "Magic Flute", "Fidelio" in the "national" is not yet complete, although the German lyrics,

Music also has German characteristics, but depicts the Oriental myths or Spanish stories, while the "Free Shooter" with a strong folk atmosphere of the music material

The "Free Shooter" is the first of its kind in Germany. The "Free Shooter" is dedicated to the depiction of remote German villages and forests and the expression of German national thoughts and feelings with strong folkloric musical materials

(hunter's chorus, girl's ballad, and the allemande dance of the villagers) and the traditional style of the "singing opera" in German narration, which is a great success.

Romantic piano poet Chopin (1810-1849) was a Polish patriotic pianist, composer, and a pioneer of national music in Central Europe, whose

works were extremely original and national. Mazurkas and Polonaises were composed throughout his life, and he raised these two genres of Polish folk dance music to the level of the concert music genre.

He wrote 57 mazurkas and 57 polonaises. He composed 57 mazurkas, creatively using their characteristic rhythms and folk modal harmonies to give them more distinctive

folk colors and Polish national temperament, making them poetic instrumental sketches. Some of his works are imitations of folk bagpipes ("Mazurka in C Major," Op. 24bis), while others use alternating dominant chords to portray the sound of folk musicians (Mazurka in D Major, Op. 33bis)

. He composed 15 polonaises, which were completely free from dance, no longer showing off external effects, but injected with serious intellectual content, and became dramatic tone poems in the style of

unique, resolute, and bold marches. Chopin linked the Bonnets to the battlefield, the army, and the glory of ancient Poland. Both

dance genres embody a connection to the spirit of the Polish homeland.

The last German classicist of the heyday of Romantic music, Brahms (1833-1897), who had a

deep affection for folk music, was another master of the German-Austrian art song. The vast majority of his more than 200 solo art songs are lyrical in nature as folk songs

. The lyrics are full of folk life flavor, the tone and rhythm are closely associated with folk music, the tune is concise and condensed, and most of them are in the form of folk songs

Sectional songs. For example, "Lullaby" (OP.49 quater) is a nursery rhyme from a German children's picture book with lyrics in the form of a sectional song, a round dance tune, and a gently swirling accompaniment. Another example is "Vain Serenade" (OP.84 quater), which is a folk song from the Lower Rhine region

composed into four verses, with a melody that is close to the rustic style of German folk dance songs. Eternal Love (OP. 43 no. 1) is set to a Slavic

folk song. Brahms in 1869 and 1880 composed and published four volumes of 21 "Hungarian Dance Songs", absorbed the Slavic and Hungarian

Liberian folk music tunes and rhythmic characteristics, vividly expressed the rich Hungarian local flavor and national character.

Verdi (1813-1901), the king of opera, was the most highly acclaimed opera composer in the European music world, and his belief was that "every man should preserve

the peculiarities of his people." (Levick, "Masterpieces of Foreign Music," Book III, page 325) His operatic melodies are rich in figurative, lyrical, and dramatic

ness, and these melodies are mostly based on folk tunes, which are simple, popular, distinctive, and easy to remember, and once a new opera is staged, many of these tunes are widely sung

. Such as "The Lady of the Camellias" in the "Drinking Song", "the woman loves to change her mind" (after being renamed "summer boating on the sea

" to become the creation of folk songs) on a popular, and the "Troubadour" in the "Flame Rising" has almost become a folk song.

The formation of the Romantic school of music took place in the 19th century in the European countries of national consciousness awakening, with the development of national liberation movement, in the history of music

there is the first such period, that is, emphasizing the national differences and national values in the process of the development of music and art, the national characteristics of the period of decisive influence

. The Romantic School, by its very nature, was influenced by folk music, whether in melodic tone or expression, and was y rooted in the foundation of their respective national musical

tradition, emphasizing national characteristics and inheriting national traditions.

Fourth, national music schools generally pursued and deliberately expressed national characteristics in order to stimulate national consciousness and

improve national awareness

Because of the influence of the French bourgeois revolution, and the ensuing revolutionary storms of the 1820s and 1830s that swept across the land of Europe, the various countries of Europe

had a great deal of influence on their music, especially the Russian and Nordic countries, and the European countries had a great deal of influence on their music.

The revolutionary struggles against national oppression and for national independence took place in all European countries

, especially in Russia and the Nordic countries, where national consciousness and feelings were growing. At the same time, with the development of capitalism and the rise of Romanticism, various regions of Europe entered a period of national culture. The birth of the National School of Music

shows that national culture began to flourish.

The National School was a branch of the Romantic School, and it was in the same lineage as the Romantic School in terms of its aesthetics and compositional methods. They expanded the "individuality" emphasized by the Romantic School to "ethnicity", and developed "individuality" to the extent that each ethnic group had its own performance characteristics different from the others. The character of each nation is different from that of other nations.

The result was that the national folk characteristics emphasized by the Romantic School became more prominent and comprehensive in the hands of the National School.

Glinka (1804-1857), the father of Russian folk music and the founder of the national school, composed and staged the classical folk

national opera Ivan Susanin in 1836, which is a "heroic tragedy of the motherland" full of patriotism and passionate historical themes. ". The composer used a wealth of Russian

s folk songs, borrowed from the world of operatic art, and drew on the techniques of the German and Italian romantic schools to create the first Russian national

opera in a uniquely national style.The Kamalinskaya Fantasia, composed in 1884, uses two popular songs and dances from Russian folklore - a wedding song, a wedding song, and a dance song. -The wedding song

"From Behind the Mountain, From Behind the High Mountain" and the dance song "Kamalinskaya" were used as the themes, and the variations in the form of symphonic music unfolded, which distinctly portrayed

the picture of the customs of Russian rural life and the character of the Russian nation. It became the cornerstone of Russian symphonic music, as Tchaikovsky said, "All

Russian symphonic music was birthed from the Kamalinskaya Fantasia." Glinka attached great importance to drawing from Russian national poetry,

from Russian folk music. As his motto suggests, "It is the people who make music, and we artists merely arrange it

into tunes." Ancient peasant songs, Russian church tunes, songs of city life and dance tunes were his inexhaustible source of creativity. In

harmony, he tried to avoid the strong vertical chordal four-part harmony method, and instead used the unique Russian technique of polyphony and polyphonic tunes. His compositional practice paved the way for the Russian

Russian national music school to enter the advanced world of music.

Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), one of the few all-rounders of the romantic period, was a composer of great individuality. His musical language, in terms of technique

influenced by Germany and France, was characterized by cosmopolitanism. In his works, the European style of splendor and elegance prevailed over the Russian style of simple rustic colors.

In fact, his music is still rooted in the reality of the soil of the nation, folk, some works directly adopted and developed the Russian folk songs, dance music and city

city people's songs. For example, "The Song of Songs" is based on the Ukrainian folk song "Vanya Sitting on the Sofa", and the final movement of Symphony No. 4 is based on the melody of the Russian

s folk song "A Birch Tree in the Field". The theme of the third movement of the Piano Concerto No. 1 in [b]b minor is taken from another Ukrainian

Korean folk song, "Come, Ivanka". Russian national themes and character were always present in his music, which therefore remains predominantly

uniquely Russian.

The most important composer of the Czech national school in the second half of the 19th century, Dvorak (1841-1904), published in the late seventies a two-volume set of 16

slavonic dances, and these contained polkas, skocinas, vulliants, otzmakers, polonaises, dumkas, and other Czech, Slavic

varks, Polish, Ukrainian and many other national dance genres and is world-famous and widely praised by the international music community. In the early nineties, during his tenure as director of the New York

National Conservatory of Music, he composed his New World Symphony No. 9 in E minor, which uses the tonal core of Indian folk tunes (but opposes direct quotations from the original folk melodies) and skillfully weaves in the distinctive temperament of Bohemian music; expresses a deep love for the American Indian

and a deep sense of gratitude for the Czech homeland, and a deep love for the Czechoslovakia. The work is structured, melodious, and rich in national style, and is a classic work of deep thought and easy comprehension. Dvorak also holds an important place in the history of American art music

and is an international Czech national composer.

Bartók (1881-1945), a representative of the Hungarian New National School, ethnomusicologist, composer, and educator, spent several

decades of his life collecting, organizing, and researching folk music, with great success. He and his fellow student and music educator Kodály (1882-196

7) shook the European music world with their thesis of "reconceptualization of Hungarian folk music". Bartók, in order to compare and study folk music and to find out the "musical mother tongue" of Hungarian folk music, extended his folk song collecting activities beyond Hungary's borders: to Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Turkey, and North Africa. North Africa. More than 6000 folk songs were collected and recorded, and nearly 2

000 were published. He worked out a set of systematic and scientific collection and analysis methods and made great contributions to the development of folk music. Utilizing native Hungarian

Teutonic folk music materials, he spent 10 years composing and writing a collection of piano pieces such as "Dedicated to the Children" and "The Little Universe", which have great educational

value.

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the national music school generally pursues and deliberately expresses its own national characteristics, and they have a clear artistic goal

, act consciously, and want to make the music and culture become a means to stimulate the national consciousness and raise the national awareness. This was in the context of the new ideology and the struggle for national liberation

determined by the composers' national consciousness and their special feelings for their own country and nation.

Five points of revelation

From the analytical study of the national characteristics of European classical music, several points of revelation can be obtained.

1. All accomplished musicians who are loved by people all over the world can be said to be national musicians. Their works are characterized by the saying, "Only what is national is global." (Prof. Zhao Fēng@1). Despite the differences in the characteristics of their musical centers, there are no exceptions to the rule that nationalism is the artistic goal to be pursued by all countries in the world in professional music creation. As Rimsky-Korsakov said:

"Music without ethnicity does not exist. In fact it is generally recognized that the music of all mankind is national in character."

2. Strengthen the study of European music culture and world music culture, emphasize the global significance of diversified music education, and contribute to paving the way for Chinese national music to the world

world. The "European music center theory" in China's music industry, especially in the professional music education circle has a deeper impact, should spend a lot of effort to critique, change the concept, and correctly deal with the relationship between Chinese and Western music. In teacher training, the author believes that in strengthening the national music education, but also

should strengthen the study and research of European and world music culture. Recently, an American music education expert wrote to me and asked: "I have heard that Chinese educators have the idea of learning

good mathematics, science and chemistry to go all over the world, but now is there a world of music and culture to learn to prepare for going global? Do you think this is a definite trend for the future?

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We should fully realize the global significance of the importance of diversified music education, and we should see the comprehensive and positive influence that the Western music theory, technique, and education system have had on the development of China's national music in the past few decades.

We should avoid criticizing "the music of the world" as "the most important music in the world". It is important to prevent one contradiction from overshadowing another, and one tendency from overshadowing another, while criticizing the "European music

centrism" and strengthening national music education. The study of European and

world music theories, techniques of expression, skills and lessons learned in the creation of music is aimed at the development of our national music, in order to make the Chinese national music

music further to the world to lay a good foundation.

3. Reform the teaching of foreign music history, under the premise of being faithful to historical facts, from teaching materials to lectures should highlight patriotism, people's nature, democracy, and folk

national characteristics of the main theme. At present, there are a lot of problems in the teaching of foreign music history, the use of textbooks are mostly imported textbooks, the content is cumbersome, all-encompassing, not enough to highlight

; some views are old, and even a lot of idealistic views, promoting the bourgeois concept of genius, heroes make the times, personal struggle; in the evaluation of musicians and

works, some of them lack of Marxist-Leninist dialectical materialism and historical materialist point of view, can not be divided into two parts. They can't see both sides of the coin, and only see the historical contribution of musicians, not

to the limitations of history. As a matter of urgency, we should organize our countrymen to prepare a textbook on the history of Western music with a novel point of view and a strong focus. The textbooks should promote the spirit of patriotism of foreign musicians

who oppose feudal autocracy and foreign invasion; promote the creative spirit of musicians who love the people, love life, love folk art, inherit

traditions, and are brave to explore and innovate. While fully recognizing their historical contributions, it is also necessary to comprehensively and objectively evaluate their ideas

, aesthetic views and the historical limitations of their works.

The history of the past is a mirror. "Use the foreign for the Chinese, the ancient for the modern", based on China, facing the world; based on the modern, facing the future

. Absorb the excellent musical traditions of various countries, the development of our national music, so that the Chinese national music further to the world, this is the starting point of our learning

Respondent: pussycute - Apprentice Wizard III 11-30 10:42