
FAQs
Q1. How do Chinese elements find their place in music, other than a Chinese background?
'Chinese elements' is a myth to both reviewers and composers. You won't ask a German or American composer to write music in a German or American manner, but you will definitely expect a Chinese composer to feature something Chinese. When a composer introduces his work on alien soil, the identity of a 'Chinese composer' is somewhat overemphasized. Some so-called Chinese elements are very superficial. People tend to equate the pentatonic scale with Chinese music. If it is that simple, isAuld Lang Syne, which is entirely pentatonic, Chinese music? I don't want to be too artificial or superficial, like conveniently assigning chords in Western music to a Chinese melody. I want to do it with some depth. Let's say, the cadence in Western music is usually presented in form of chord progression, but in Chinese music, it is usually expressed by changes in tempo and tone colour. I'm actually more concerned with exploring ways to build up the architecture for Chinese music.
(Prof. Chan Hing-yan, Composer of the operas Heart of Coral and Datong, The Chinese Utopia, in CUHK Newsletter 453, 2015/2)
陳慶恩認為其中一個重要原因是「演奏家的能力和數量,跟作品的數量不成正比。演奏家空有一身好武功,想挑戰自己就會作其他嘗試。有二胡演奏家玩柴可夫斯基小提琴協奏曲玩到出神入化。小提琴演奏家窮一生也未必能奏畢巴洛克時代至今的作品,而二胡成為一件獨奏樂器只有百多年歷史。
(U Magazine 2016/9 Issue 563 p.52-54)
問題 2: 在網上常看到樂手用二胡玩小提琴作品,但用小提琴玩二胡作品卻不多,原因何在?
可以這樣說,其運作不像西方音樂,好像戲曲,所謂的創作者其實是寫詞那一位,古琴的音樂創作則是演奏者本身。中樂樂器的性能,樂器中最有趣的玩法,都在演奏者的掌握中。所以中樂中最成功的作品都是演奏家自己的創作。直至20世紀,因為西方音樂慢慢的影響,還有中國開始出現音樂學院,才開始有專業作曲家專為中國樂器撰寫作品,所以發展的時間也不是很長。…
(陳慶恩《明報》2016年8月12日)
問題 3: … 中樂有沒有作曲這回事?