Early piano work of Sang Tong: becoming a style
Authors: Han Siuebin 
Published: June 2019

Background. The article explores the development of the piano style of the outstanding composer Sang Tong, one of the founders of the national pianistic art. He was one of the first Chinese composers to apply modern techniques of composer writing on the basis of national musical elements. The early period of the creativity of this musician (1950–60’s) was the basis for the formation of his composer personality. The basis of the creative experiments of Sang Tong was his early piano work. In such works as “In a distant place” (1947), “Seven Ballads on the Themes of Songs of Inner Mongolia” (1953), “Three Preludes” (1955), “Two Piano Pieces” (1956), “The Little Children’s Suite” ( 1958), “Miao National Songs” (1959), “Imagination” (1959), the composer’s innovative style crystallized. Objectives. The purpose of the article is consideration and study the early period of Sang Tong’s piano work, the development of his compositional style in the 1950–60’s. Methods of research are based on a set of scientific approaches necessary for the disclosure of its theme. The complex approach, combining the principle of musical-theoretical, musical-historical and performing analysis, is taken as the basis of the methodology. Results. The influence of European teachers V. Frankel (student A.Schoenberg), J. Schloss (student A. Webern), and Chinese musician Xu Luosi on the formation of the artistic worldview of Sang Tong is investigated. If V. Frankel and J. Schloss instilled in the young musician an interest in modern techniques of composer writing, then Xu Luoxi pointed out to San Tong the importance of preserving the national principle in musical compositions. The influence of other musical genres, in particular, vocal and instrumental, on the formation of the composer’s piano style in the 1950s is also considered. Composer’s works have high artistic value due to his composer personality and high artistic merits of his works, which reflect the national style of music. His music is modern, it is often performed on stage, it sounds on radio and television, it adorns a lot of art and documentary films. The early works of San Tong, according to the peculiarities of harmonic language and musical content, can be divided into three groups. To the first group based on traditional harmony, it is possible to carry its vocal works. Although Sang Tong tried to adhere to traditional harmony, he does not associate himself with rigid canons. The composer boldly uses modern harmonic complexes consisting of nine, eleven, thirteen sounds, variable chords performing the function of complication, uses complex polyphonic combinations, which leads to a strong and dramatic sound. The second type of works differs in that their musical language is based on modal harmony and the structure of pentatonic. Mostly it concerns such works as “Spring wild mountain song”, “Jiannan thousand aromas of rice”, “Piano song about Miao song”, etc. The composer creates his own rich, gravitating to the national style, poetically depicting bright and memorable pastoral paintings. Functional limitations of pentatonic allow the author to diversify the style and demonstrate the inherent elegance of writing. The third group of the composer’s early works is based on a modern style. The main works, where the author used modern innovations, are his “Three Preludes”, “Night” and “In that remote place”. Boldly relying on some principles of modern harmony and combining them with a pentatonic fret, Sang Tong made some useful discoveries. In the “Three Preludes” retaining the color of pentatonic, the author used the serial technique of the composition for the development of the material. When composing chords, he relies on the Chinese principle of Yin Yang, which in this context embodies harmony and disharmony and expands the scope of the chord. Breaking the traditional harmonic concept and transforming it into a complex function that depends on factors such as multi-level chords, using a number of modern notions of harmony, the composer invades the sphere of traditional pentatonic sounding, modernizing it, which allows us to rethink the possibilities of the pentatonic fret. Conclusions. Thus, the early period of music creation laid the foundation for the study of the modern theory of harmony in the work of Sang Tong, and also contributed to the further development of innovation in the use of modern techniques of composer writing in synthesis with pentatonic.