The Interpretation of Mr. Huang Zi and His Works, His History, His Contribution and His Creation ()
1. Introduction
Since 1955, there have been many famous people who have started to interpret Mr. Huang Zi and his works. Searching for the keyword “Huang Zi” on China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), a total of 1495 articles about the analysis of Mr. Huang Zi and his works or related content appeared, including 951 in academic journals and 325 in academic dissertations. Visible, for since Mr. Huang’s study, the growth from different aspects of the research will help us to Mr. Huang from music creation have a better understanding of music aesthetic thought of Mr. Huang from search for better, for our rich music discipline connotation, learning music aesthetic subject has a special significance.
A large number of music researchers have formed their interpretation of Mr. Huang Zi and his works after analyzing his works. In this paper, I lead various schools and combine my personal views to understand Mr. Huang Zi’s person, his events, his contributions and his works. Some of them are summarized and expounded. Through literature search, they are described as follows:
Mr. Huang Zi, courtesy name Imago, an important Chinese composer and music educator in the 1930s, studied composition at Oberlin College and Yale School of Music in his early years [1]. In 1929, he returned to China and successively taught in the Music Department of Shanghai University of Hujiang and the Theoretical Composition Group of the National Music College, and also served as the academic director of the Music College. He devoted himself to music education and cultivated many outstanding musical talents [2]. Huang Zi is the most influential founder of early music education in China. Representative works include the chorus of anti-Japanese and National Salvation Movement “Song of Resistance against the Enemy”, “Flag Is Flying”, oratorio “Song of Everlasting Regret” and 94 musical works in various genres, including symphonic music, chamber music, piano polyphonic music, oratorio, chorus, solo, textbook songs and so on.; 15 music treatises on theory creation, criticism, appreciation, writers, history, etc.; 56 texts on the general knowledge of music; three unfinished music books. Huang Zi also left important musical aesthetics thoughts and preliminary practical experience in Chinese music education [3]. In terms of educational inheritance, Huang Zhe trained a large number of plastic talents for modern China, such as He Luting, Jiang Dingxian, Chen Tianhe, Liu Xue’an and other outstanding musicians, so he is also known as the “grandmaster”.
2. Very Patriotic Enthusiasm and Democratic Thoughts of the Promising Teachers
Jiang Dingxian published an article “in Memory of Mr. Huang Zi” in 1958, which mentioned that Mr. Huang Zi had studied and returned to China since 1929 and taught in Shanghai National Conservatory of Music. His time in office was from the eve of the 918 Incident to the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War. With the trend of thought of national salvation movement rising, Mr. Huang Zi composed a large number of morale inspiring songs for the anti-Japanese national salvation movement and the Communist Party’s fight against the reactionary Kuomintang regime at specific historical moments. For example, a large number of anti-Japanese and national salvation movement songs such as “Song of Resistance to the Enemy” and “Flag Is Flying” are extremely patriotic.
Qian Renkang published his interpretation of Huang Zi’s achievements in his article “Huang Zi’s Life, Thought and Creation”. From Mr. Qian’s article, we can still see a teacher Huang who led students to Northeast China to raise funds for the volunteer army, and his active performance in the national salvation movement, which shows his pursuit of democratic self-improvement. In the process of developing Chinese music culture, Mr. Huang Zi still insists on carrying forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture. In ordinary classes, Mr. Huang Zi is also a good tutor for students. From his careful study of lesson preparation to his cultivation of a large number of music masters for modern Chinese society, it can be seen that Mr. Huang Zi is indeed a famous professor and a good teacher. His tireless work on lessons is very worthy of learning by today’s music educators.
Liu Xuesu in the plum flower words gardener―have since two or three things, “Mr. Huang article shows their mentor since Mr. Huang’s recall [4], this paper discusses: we want to learn from Mr. Huang to revitalize the Chinese nation music education career dedication spirit, to study his rigorous doing scholarly research attitude, patriotism and creating method of realism”. It can be seen that this promising teacher with great patriotic enthusiasm and democratic thought is an important emissary in the enlightenment of learning for students, but also an important emissary in their growth.
3. A Composer Who Is Fond of Expressing Emotions by Combining Ancient Poems
Influenced by his father, Huang Zi was heavily influenced by poetry during his childhood. It can be seen in Qian Renkang’s Life, Thought and Creation of Huang Zi: “I remember when I was two or three years old, my father would buy a basic singing book and Nannan would be playing along in my arms with me in the book, along with ‘Roll and Nannan go to sleep’ and ‘Skunk, Party today’ [5]. When I was a child, my favorite reading was The Song of a Pipa Player by Bai Letian. At that time young, even the meaning of the word cannot fully understand, more cannot talk about what appreciate the deep meaning of the poem. I like him only because his syllables are sonorous and very pleasant to say.” Huang had a strong interest in reading poetry from his childhood to his youth, when the content of poetry was gradually reflected in his music creation [6]. Therefore, in a large number of art songs created by Huang Zi, we can find that his works are created by combining poetry and music. Among them, the Song of Everlasting Regret is a very representative piece of unfinished cantata work. The lyrics are quoted from the Song of Everlasting Regret written by Bai Juyi in Tang Dynasty.
In “yellow Qian Renkang from profile” we see a more real yellow since, in old China, learning music is really no way out [7], yellow since father for yellow self learning music has also been denial, but for the love of music or make yellow since adhere to their own music dream, in order to dream in the heart he quoting to father illuminates the music education and the enlightenment, His understanding of the enlightenment of music was also evident in the formation of his musical thoughts.
Jiao Zhili listed a lot of extremely poetic lyric songs in the “Renaissance Junior High School Music Textbook” by Mr. Huang Zi in the article “Great Waves Rush Sand and True Gold―Recalling the Pioneer of Modern Chinese Music” [8]. Many of them are composed of ancient poems by Bai Juyi, Xin Qiji, Li Bai and Wang Chao, which still occupy an important position in the current Chinese vocal music collection, such as The Song of Everlasting Sorrow, Flower Not Flower, Bu Zi, Nanxiang Zi, and the Hall of Eternal Life on July 7. It can be seen that the significance of Mr. Huang Zi’s love and flexible application of poetry is bright and great.
4. A Practitioner of Paradoxical Music Aesthetics
Huang Zi’s music aesthetic thought is self-contradictory, which is based on his understanding of the connection between music itself and external things [9]. Qian Renkang said in Huang Zi’s Life, Thought and Creation that Huang Zi’s aesthetic thought is contradictory: on the one hand, Huang Zi believes that appearance is the structure of music, and the content and appearance of music are integrated [10]. On the other hand, Huang Zi is very used to showing lyrical things in his own songs. He thinks: “The ‘content’ of music is the transformation of ‘willingness’, and the meaning of music is of course the music itself, not the external things.” [11]
Gong Xiaoqiang mentioned in “Rethinking Huang Zi’s Musical Aesthetics”, In the large number of studies on Mr. Huang Zi in recent years, there is still too little reflection on his musical aesthetics [12]. This paper is a re-demonstration of Mr. Huang’s musical aesthetics. It says that the core of Mr. Huang’s musical aesthetics is that music is the expression of will. His ideas are romantic: emotivism, and he lays great emphasis on the aesthetic effect of music creation itself, which is largely reflected in his lyrical works.
Mr. Huang Zi’s music aesthetics has their shortcomings and advanced thinking. We need to take a dialectical and negative attitude to actively absorb the advantages of Mr. Huang Zi’s music aesthetics.
5. Creative Artists with a Wide Range of Creative Directions
Huang Zi is a highly productive composer, and his times and social hotspots are the sources of his artistic creation. The content of Huang Zi’s music creation is very broad, focusing on vocal music, and he created a large number of vocal music works in his very short youth. In “Huang Zi’s Life, Thought and Creation”, Qian Renkang introduced to us the true portrayal of a famous person based on creation, which let us see Huang Zi’s rigorous and practical music creation.
Mr. Huang Zi’s instrumental works are not as many as his vocal works, but he has made great achievements in the creation of orchestral music. The two orchestral works show us that Mr. Huang Zi is rigorous and practical in writing instrumental music. Through the description and writing of Qian Renkang, we can see a Mr. Huang Zi who has high requirements for harmony and form structure and has national self-confidence. In his creation, Mr. Huang Zi likes to combine the content of music with traditional Chinese musical structure and ethnic factors, which is also the embodiment of his national confidence. Mr. Huang Zi’s freehand style of lyric songs also allows us to see the flowering of poetry again in the new era. The integration of music and poetry can make us see more colorful artistic blend.
6. Conclusions
Mr. Huang Zi is one of the most important modern musicians in China, and has an important development function to Chinese modern music aesthetics, and has also injected a large number of new elements into our music development. The way of combining poetry and music made Chinese modern vocal music have obvious development, which has a profound influence on our present vocal music system and singing skills. Listening to Mr. Hwang’s music, you can also understand the burning hearts of young people who used music to convey the spirit of patriotism during the period of democratic liberation and Anti-Japanese War and national salvation. Mr. Huang Zi’s music thoughts and principles have also trained a large number of musicians for modern music.
The research on Mr. Huang Zi has always been an enduring topic, and the understanding and exploration of Mr. Huang Zi have also become the pursuit and mission of our contemporary young researchers. We should continue to carry forward the musical spirit of Mr. Huang Zi, fully feel the charm and treasure left by Mr. Huang Zi in his short youth for the human society, listen to the rustful night rain in the Song of Spring Thought, and understand the eulogization and praise of the times.