Heroic pastoral and its national-style reception IN THE CANTATA “YELLOW RIVER” BY XIAN XINGHAI
Authors: Huang Lei 
Published: January 2022

The statement of the problem. The cantata “Yellow River” (&#40644;&#27827;) is one of the most expressive works in Chinese musical art. The article offers interpretation of the cantata in the light of national Chinese pastoral symbolism. Created in 1939 by Xian Xinghai (&#20924;&#26143;) and based on the text of a poem by Guang Weizhan (&#20809;&#26410;&#28982;), the cantata is still of great interest to the researchers. The poetic text of the cantata tells about hard struggle of the Chinese people against the Japanese invaders during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Ukrainian listeners are faced with misunderstanding of the musical language and cultural norms of Chinese mentality. The artistic concept of pastoral genre as a harmonious communication between man and nature makes it possible to interpret the ethno-national language of this work in the system of European values. Rather, we can talk about a historical and cultural parallel corresponding to the “dialogue of cultures” as a leading trend in contemporary art and not about stylization. Heroism of European Baroque and Classicism was closely associated with the image of a person fighting for the social ideals (and even dying for them), while the pastoral emphasized images of nature, which served as excellent “scenery” for human actions. The relevance of the article increases interest in the problem of human communication in the globalized oecumene, in particular, in the composer’s interpretation of the cantata genre semantics in relation to a concept of “heroic man” and idea of pantheism as a philosophy of a pastoral man. The purpose of the article is to identify the established dominants of the Chinese national language in the cantata “Yellow River” by Xian Xinghai in the context of pastoral genre symbolism. Number of scientific publications investigate this piece, yet none of them addresses the issue of cantata genre semantics as a national reception of heroic pastoral. Thus, Shang Bei’s dissertation revealed the principle of constructing the Yellow River piano concerto, borrowed from the thematism of the cantata (the second section of the dissertation is devoted to the cantata itself, and the third – to the concerto). Xiangtang Hong’s (2009) dissertation explores the history of the cantata, its verbal text, Western European influences. Analysis of recent research and publications. Cantata as a genre and form of European music embodies a certain ideal of cultural identity through musical and poetic means. “The Yellow River” is no exception. The composition consists of 8 parts. There are parts where there is a tutti chorus (I, IV, VII, VIII), its female composition (IV), male duet (V), solo tenor (I), solo baritone (II), solo soprano (II), solo soprano (VI), solo pipa and the reader’s part (all parts except V), uniting all movements. The cantata uses a paired orchestral composition, but with three trumpets and solo parts for Chinese folk instruments – pipa, two sanshinas – large (bass) and small (soprano). There is a large percussion section (including seven Chinese folk instruments), harp and classical string section. The article emphasizes the role of the reader, who personifies Poet and becomes one of the most expressive timbre-dynamic lines of the music piece. The reader’s part not only reveals the patriotic idea of the work, but also contributes to the development of its form as a unifying element. This technique found in drama productions and modern cinematography made musical genre closer to the performance. Each movement is a “live scene” depicting extremely tragic times for China, when people proved the invincibility of their spirit. The poetic text makes it possible to distinguish two dramatic dimensions in the cantata: the one in which the Poet (the image of the Author) speaks of what has already happened and the second one glorifies the current events “here and now”. Each movement of the cantata portraits the changing image of the Yellow River, the waters of which can be calm, stormy, dark and transparent. The work is filled with national stylistics embedded in melodic-rhythmic and modal structures. Each movement of the cantata has several themes united by the idea of glorifying the native land and its people in different dimensions: lyrical contemplation (pastoral), stories about tragic times (narration) and singing about people (ode). Conclusions. One of the innovative principles of musical thinking is the shift from heterophony inherent in the Chinese folk song tradition to homophonicharmonic and polyphony. This proves the influence of Western European musical thinking. For example, the attraction to chromaticism, completely alien to Chinese music, at some stages of the dramatic development of the cantata becomes one of the stylistic features of its harmonious language. This is how the first part of “The Song of Boatmen on the Yellow River” begins – with a massive, brilliant chromatic descent. Thus, first of all, the hidden or the absent becomes paramount. The article notes the technique of timbre mixes of folk and symphonic instruments, which signals a professional work oncthematicism based on genrestylistic synthesis. The genre features of pastoral are revealed in the composer’s tendency towards sound-imaging symbolism associated with images of nature, which are equivalent to heroic images. In general, the interpretation of cantata as a heroic pastoral coincides with the early (baroque) stage of the genre in Europe (oratorio by G. F. Handel), which formed a complex of invariant elements in musical language, emphasizing genre semantics (the image of the “shepherd”). The work exposes the national features of the Chinese pastoral – a collective hero (people), heroic pathos, pantheism as a philosophy of love for nature, a lyrical and contemplative worldview.