Sonatinas for Piano in the Context of Mao-Shuen Chen’s Composer and Pedagogical Activities
Authors: Sun Natalia 
Published: January 2021

Background. The article is devoted to the piano work of the outstanding composer, pianist and teacher Mao-Shuen Chen (born 1936), his contribution to the art of music and education in Taiwan. Music education received in Taiwan, and then – in European countries, allowed Mao-Shuen Chen to significantly develop and modernize his native national art. His methodical works, textbooks and collections of exercises for piano became the basis of his own method of teaching, which the musician has long successfully used in public and private music schools in Taiwan. An important role in Mao-Shuen Chen’s unique pedagogical system is also played by his piano works, especially sonatinas. The sonatinas of Mao-Shuen Chen act as a kind of link between school-level compositions and opuses of the highest pianistic complexity. They are collected in three notebooks, each of the next of which represents a higher degree of pianistic complexity. Sonatina makes it possible, in a simpler and more compact-scale presentation, to prepare students for mastering a more complex genre – the sonata. Mastering the sonata form for members of the Taiwanese musical tradition is a particularly difficult task, due to differences in European musical thinking, within which the sonata originated, and the peculiarities of national music, which is usually the focus of composers. However, the genre of sonatina in the works of Mao-Shuen Chen and its role in the development of sonata thinking of Taiwanese students have not been studied to date. Objectives and methodology. The purpose of this research is to reveal the peculiarities of the interpretation of the genre of sonatina in the piano work of Mao-Shuen Chen, its role in the pedagogical system of the Taiwanese musician and its artistic and pedagogical value. In this connection the characteristic of the pianistic level of complexity of the works under consideration is given, their technical and artistic difficulties are revealed. For this, various methods of research were applied: genre-style, intonational analyses, systematization, musical-aesthetic and interpretological approaches. Results. Thanks to a well-organized educational system of methodological works, books, musical anthologies and audio recordings, Mao-Shuen Chen was able to build his own pedagogical approagh and introduce his teaching methods to many young musicians striving to acquire a high professional level as a performer and a teacher. In this system of mastering piano professionalism, thirty-five sonatinas by Mao-Shuen Chen, created from 1980 to 2015, occupy an important place. Sonatinas are very useful in preparing piano students to study more complex compositions written in sonata form. All sonatinas are dominated by the flavor of Taiwanese folk music. So, at the heart of Sonatinas Nos. 1–5, 7, 11, 17, 21 is the pentatonic scale of the mode “shan”, which can be expanded with additional steps. The exceptions are Sonatina No. 6, written using the atonal writing technique, and Sonatina No. 8, which is based on the Western European tonal system. Considering the rhythmic organization as the basis of music, the composer demonstrates in his sonatinas various versions of the musical meter and rhythm – complex and variable metering, syncope, polyrhythm, etc. He arranges these elements in his sonatinas from simple to complex. Mao-Shuen Chen pays great attention to polyrhythmic combinations 3: 2, 4: 3, 4: 6 and, considering them important for mastering the educational didactic. They can be considered the same instructive material as rhythmic exercises or etudes. For example, Sonatinas Nos. 3–6 are based on polyrhythm 3: 2, 2: 3, Sonatinas Nos. 7–8 – on combinations 3: 4 and 4: 3. It is no coincidence, that they also published in the composer’s educational methodological manual – the collection “Piano School and Piano Exercises 3: 4, 4: 3” (1990). The final Sonatinas (Nos. 32–34) by Mao-Shuen Chen require a high degree of pianistic mastership from the performer. They present works that combine complex elements of the Taiwanese national musical language and contemporary Western composer writing. The intonational and dynamic richness, variety of rhythmic patterns, irregular meters, extraordinary line drawing indicate that these works can rightfully be considered one of the brightest examples of the modern repertoire and can be widely represented on the concert stage. Conclusions. Mao-Shuen Chen made significant contributions to Taiwanese musical culture, especially in the areas of composition and music education. Among the many genres of his work, piano music occupies the most significant place. Having devoted many years to teaching in the higher musical institutions of Taiwan, Mao-Shuen Chen has developed a coherent system of teaching materials from the level of musical elementary school to higher education, with a focus on the practice of solfeggio and fundamental professional disciplines. The composer devoted a significant part of his attention to works of the sonata form – sonatinas and sonatas. In this regard, he can be compared with the Western European classic, the “patriarch of the piano” M. Clementi, who created a harmonious system of progressive mastery of pianistic skill. In all of his works, Mao-Shuen Chen represents his aspiration for the model of Western musical education, carefully preserving the Taiwanese national cultural tradition. He creates compositions with a typical Western structure, which should be performed on a Western musical instrument, but they clearly reflect the ChineseTaiwanese national flavor. Since the piano sonatas of Mao-Shuen Chen present high demands on performers due to their large volume, considerable virtuosity and the complexity of the rhythmic organization of texture, their mastering is possible only after passing through the simpler opuses of the Taiwanese composer.