Analysis of music composition of Dunhuang lyrics in the context of contemporary culture,: Take Pusaman (菩萨蛮) and Yijiangnan(忆江南) as an example
Authors: Tian Siyu , Qiu Tian , Zhang Tongming , Tan Huibing 
Published: September 2023

Analysis of music composition of Dunhuang lyrics in the context of contemporary culture,: Take Pusaman (菩萨蛮) and Yijiangnan(忆江南) as an example1Siyu Tian(田思宇)*, 2Tian Qiu(邱添), 3Tongming Zhang (张同明), 4Huibing Tan(谭会兵)*1College of Humanities and management, Jinzhou Medical University, Jinzhou, China; 2Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, Tatari 13, 10116 Tallinn, Estonia; 3Teacher Professional Development School. Qwo Cournty, Shanxi, China; 4Department of Anatomy, Jinzhou Medical University, Jinzhou, China AbstractThe "Dunhuang poetry"(敦煌曲子词) edited by Wang Chongmin(王重民) contains more than 160 song lyrics (a highly stylized poems), and the " General Collection of Dunhuang Song Lyrics"(敦煌歌辞总编) compiles 1696 song lyrics. Many ancient poems can be used in highly stylized music, or singing-like recite and in the Dunhuang scrolls (manuscripts), in addition to two lines of instrumental music fragments and some scores for dancing, there are also 25 Dunhuang music scores (Zhuang Zhuang(庄壮), Dunhuang Cave Music, 敦煌石窟音乐). Far in the past, it has been missing the music tunes for the highly stylized music created from the highly stylized poems. However, in 1900, the Dunhuang Grottoes unearthed a large number of drawings and paintings of traditional female music entertainers(伎乐/乐伎, similar to geisha or kabuki), showed dozens of musicians, 246 bands composed of musicians, and the largest band composed of 2,727 musicians. Furthermore, we can see clearly that music was an indispensable and important part of life at that time. Judging from the existing Dunhuang musical scores, these scores are monophony. Whether the "25 pieces of Dunhuang ancient music" on the internet are from translated Dunhuang music scores is unknown to us (seemingly the names of the song/music have the same names for epigraph terms respectively). We guessed these music are of ancient oriented. The way of notation of Dunhuang music scores is completely different to western musical notation or Neumes. Only specialized professionals can read and translated the score into contemporary notation. Looking at the Dunhuang lyrics in a broad sense, from the perspective of music literature, they belong to "song lyrics". And most of them are tuned melodies similar to Gregorian chant. However, most of the ancient poetry are totally loss their singing-like recite. The lyrics of Dunhuang songs are rich in content and cover all aspects of life, and the love words in them are depicted in detail and varied. We believed that these numerous lyrics have a strong emotional color and dramatic lyrical character, and should be able to be combined with Western instruments under the contemporary harmonic musical way of thinking. Luo Jingjing(罗京京) composed "Dunhuang Lyrics", "Magpie Stepping Branch"(鹊踏枝), "Heavenly Fairy"(天仙子) and "A Cao Po"(阿曹婆). Dramatic lyrics combined with Western instruments and orchestras, especially experimenting with multi-part mixed chorus and orchestral works, will enrich the listener's musical experience. Tan Huibing(谭会兵) chose romantic temperament and love-hate lyrics " Pusaman • Makes a Thousand Wishes beside Pillow "(菩萨蛮• 枕边发尽千般愿) and "Yijiangnan • Heavenly Moon"(忆江南•天上月) to compose vocal works with piano and orchestra respectively. "Pusaman" uses piano to fellow art songs in terms of genre. "Yijiangnan • Heavenly Moon" is a mixed choral work by SATB, with orchestration (more than 11 minutes and 40 seconds, 213 measures). Among the other related works created by Tan Huibing, similar works include "Shangxie"(上邪) and "Thinking • I was drunk in my lover’s home"(有所思•当时我醉美人家), the same genre of art song as " Pusaman • Makes a Thousand Wishes beside Pillow ". The main contexts of this article is to analyze " Pusaman • Makes a Thousand Wishes beside Pillow" and "Yijiangnan • Heavenly Moon", trying to explore the nature and contemporary interpretation of the musicality of Dunhuang songs.