The embodiment of national musical dramatic art traditions in Guo Zhiyuan’s piano works
Authors: Le Sun 
Published: February 2025

Statement of the problem. The article is devoted to the interaction of the traditions of national musical and dramatic art with elements of Western European writing techniques in the piano cycles of Guo Zhiyuan (1921–2013). The composer’s contribution to the development of the national piano pedagogical repertoire is determined, which we can consider as a kind of link between national art and modernity. Objectives, methods, and novelty of the research. The purpose of the article is to establish the connections between Guo Zhiyuan’s piano works and national traditions of musical and drama art, and to determine their role in the development of national pianism. The study of Guo Zhiyuan’s piano cycles requires the use of conceptual apparatus of theoretical and historical musicology, as well as the theory of pianism. The article uses methods of source studies, aesthetic, musical-theoretical, musical-performance analysis in combination with historical-cultural, stylistic generalizations. At the end of the 20th century, Guo Zhiyuan’s work was first highlighted in the musicological literature of Taiwan. However, researchers paid the least attention to piano cycles on themes of Taiwanese folklore, considering them secondary instructional works, the sphere of children’s music (Yang Shuan-Chen, 2008; Chang Hsun-Yin, 2016). Meanwhile, it is in these works that the connection between Guo Zhiyuan’s creativity and national musical and dramatic art is most clearly revealed. Therefore, the illumination of this little-known sphere of the composer’s work is relevant and determines the novelty of the results of the study. Research results. The influence of Taiwanese (gedzaishi, kau-ka) and Southern Chinese (gedzai, gaoqiang) musical and dramatic traditions is considered in the cycles “Six Taiwanese melodies kau-ka"”(1973), “Seven Taiwanese melodies gau” and “Four Chinese sichu” (1974), combined in the collection “Children’s piano pieces” (1996). The composer uses intonation turns of traditional tunes of Taiwanese and Southern Chinese opera art, in particular, the genre of hau-diao, characteristic of Taiwanese dramatic aria, accompanied by sliding chromatic turns in the melody with support on a parallel fifth in the bass, unexpected changes in mode. An important role is played by the image of traditional musical instruments – strings (huqin, piba, two-stringed violin chuan arha), wind instruments (bamboo flute dizi), percussion instruments (bangu drum, gongs, rattles). Some pieces, although they use elements of Taiwanese opera, are noticeably modified. In fact, many of the artist’s melodies are written under the influence of Western composition methods, which significantly distinguishes them from traditional Taiwanese and Chinese music. He introduces young performers to irregular meter and variable size, as well as elements of polytonality. Conclusion. Preservation and embodiment in piano music of the brightest national musical and theatrical traditions gave the composer the opportunity to enrich the Western instrument by expanding the possibilities of sound-imagining, reflecting the techniques of opera art, as well as updating the modal and metrorhythmic spheres. Guo Zhiyuan’s contribution to the development of the national piano pedagogical repertoire is comparable to the contribution of the outstanding Hungarian musician B. Bartok and his collection “Microcosmos”.