Music Analysis and Singing Research of Vocal Suite

Reading Liaozhai

Introduction
This thesis attempts to study the vocal suite Reading Liaozhai, consisted of three artistic
songs, namely “Beauty”, “Looking into the Hometown” and “Wan Xia”. Liaozhai is a collection
of short stories in classical Chinese written by Pu Songling, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty. The
novel has successfully created a large number of characters and artistic models. Its bizarre,
fantastic and beautiful story has twists and turns, and the style is concise, which can be regarded
as the peak of short novels in classical Chinese. The lyrics of vocal suite Reading Liaozhai are
derived from three stories in Liaozhai: “Painted Skin”, “Geng Shiba” and “Wan Xia”. Qian Yuan,
the writer of the lyrics, wrote with concise lines three narrative and melodic songs, namely
“Beauty”, “Looking into the Hometown” and “Wan Xia”. Three lyrics are featured with a sense of
haziness, implicitness and ethereality. Derived from far-reaching realistic stories, the three
vernacular songs present artistry in different ways. “Beauty” exudes a spooky power through the
depiction of secluded places; “Looking into the Hometown” depicts a world immersed in sadness
and bleakness; “Wan Xia”, with rhyme and rhythm harmonious, presents a scene of joy and
excitement. Generally speaking, three songs have certain connections and differences in artistic
conception, emotion and style.

As a famous music educator and composer of China in the 20th century, Chen Mingzhi
devoted his life to musical composition, academic research and education career. In music
composition, he integrated the theories of Chinese folk music with the techniques of western
music composition, and composed many popular music works. Devoting himself to education
career for more than half a century, Chen has cultivated a large number of outstanding talents in
the field of contemporary Chinese music composition, and has made significant contributions to
the progress and development of China’s music composition. The theme of Reading Liaozhai, the
only vocal suite composed by Chen, is novel and mysterious, its melody smooth but bold. It not
only uses western composing techniques to increase color changes, but also contains national
characteristics, which makes it sounds cordial and touching. The whole set consists of three
artistic songs, namely “Beauty”, “Looking into the Hometown” and “Wan Xia”, with distinct
national and dramatic characteristics. Three lyrics bring into full play the illusory artistic world
depicted in Liaozhai, featured with a sense of haziness, implicitness and ethereality.

Problem Statement of the Research

Through the introduction of the composer and creation overview, analysis of
music and singing art, the author aims to make more people know Chen Mingzhi, and
present the artistic beauty of the vocal suite Reading Liaozhai. Moreover, the author
hopes to provide some reference to the scholars who study Chen Mingzhi’s vocal
suite in the future.
Specifically, this study will answer the following questions:
1. Why study the musical characteristics of the vocal suite Reading Liaozhai ?
2. Why study the singing art of the vocal suite Reading Liaozhai ?
3. How does Chen Mingzhi integrate the linguistic characteristics of folk culture with
the musical commonality of art songs in the vocal suite Reading Liaozhai ?

Significance of the Research

At present, researches on Chen Mingzhi’s vocal suite are relatively few, and the
depth and breadth of existing researches are far from enough. The vocal suite draws
lessons from the composing techniques of western music, and uses a large amount of
inflection, complex harmony and shifting tones, and cleverly combines the unique
elements of Chinese folk music with that of werstern music. Such a vocal music work
is worthy of discussion and analysis. Specializing in vocal performance, the author
can put the knowledge of music to good use, more importantly, dig out the innovative
significance hidden in the vocal suite Reading Liaozhai.

Scope and Limitation of the Research

This study only focuses on the analysis of the musical characteristics and singing
art of the vocal suite Reading Liaozhai, such as melodic techniques, accompaniment
texture, musical form structure, as well as the study and discussion of singing
techniques and emotional processing. Since time and resources are limited, the thesis
couldn’t do a comparative analysis of Chen Mingzhi's works .

Methodology
First, literature analysis method and historical analysis method. Collect the music
examples, books, audio and video, papers and other materials related to Chen
Mingzhi's Liaozhai melodies, and start to sort out Chen Mingzhi's music creation
process and achievements from these materials. Second, interdisciplinary research
method and music&score analysis method. This thesis does a comprehensive and
detailed study on the music analysis and singing study of Chen Mingzhi's vocal suite
from the perspectives of musicology, ethnology, aesthetics and literature. Third,
experience summary method. According to the author’s singing experience, this paper
summarizes the singing skills of Chen Mingzhi’s melodies.

Review of the Status of Literature

Current Status of the Research Literature:
1. A Study on the Singing Practice of Ancient Poetry and Art Songs from the
Perspective of Vocal Music Aesthetics (Ji Ziyue, 2022)
2. The Artistic Characteristics and Singing Analysis of Yuan Qu Xiaochang (Lu
Jingjing, 2021)
3.The Aesthetic Characteristics of Ancient Chinese Poetry and Art Songs in Singing
(Long Hongyi, 2021)
4. Research on Chinese Ancient Poetry and Song Singing (Yang Jing, 2020)
5. Chen Mingzhi’s Research on the Techniques of Creation of Polyphonic Collections
and Its Enlightenment (Yu Meiqi, 2019)
6. Comparative Research of Two Chinese Folk Style Fugues (Jiang Shutong, 2019)

Evaluation of the Status of the Literature (Gap and weak points in the Literature):
The above literature has inspired the author's whole framework of research topic,
thoughts and analysis Angle of article writing, so that the author can broaden his
vision and analyze and study Chen Mingzhi's vocal diverge at a deeper level.
However, there are some loopholes, such as: the first article provides aesthetic
principles and emotional expression methods about the singing practice of ancient
poetry art songs, but there are not many case studies. The second passage ignores the
meaning of the melody in the poem. The third article analyzes the four works, but
lacks a broader musical cultural context and historical development. The fourth
chapter discusses the singing skills and artistic characteristics of the ancient poetry
songs, but it does not take into account the regional differences in the singing of the
ancient poetry songs and the differences influenced by different cultures. The fifth
article lacks in-depth discussion of music theory and practical analysis of music
samples. The sixth article does not provide specific information about the practical
application of its research findings.

TENTATIVE CHAPTERS OF THE THESIS:

CHAPTER I
Introduction of composer and the creation background of the vocal suite Reading
Liaozhai
This chapter introduces composer Chen Mingzhi's life, a overview of his composing
journey, and the background of the vocal suite Reading Liaozhai.

CHAPTER II
The text analysis of the vocal suite Reading Liaozhai
The three small songs in the vocal suite Reading Liaozhai are all inspired by the
stories in Liaozhai. Qian Yuan uses very simple verses to write stories and lyrics.
Although the poems are written in the vernacular poetic style, they have a strong
mysterious color and profound practical significance.This chapter will use historical
analysis and interdisciplinary analysis method to analyze the lyrics of the works.

CHAPTER III
The music analysis of the vocal suite Reading Liaozhai
The vocal suite Reading Liaozhai, consists of three songs, namely “Beauty”, “Looking into
the Hometown” and “Wan Xia”. The vocal suite was composed in the late stage of Chen
Mingzhi's music creation. This chapter mainly analyzes his Reading Liaozhai from three
aspects: melody development, musical structure and piano accompaniment.
 CHAPTER IV
The singing research of the vocal suite Reading Liaozhai
This chapter mainly analyzes and discusses the use of breath, words, lines and
emotions in singing, so as to study the singing art of Chen Mingzhi's vocal suite
Reading Liaozhai.

THESIS REFERENCE LIST

1.A Study on the Singing Practice of Ancient Poetry and Art Songs from the
Perspective of Vocal Music Aesthetics (Ji Ziyue,2022)
2.Master the Singing Techniques and Style of Traditional Poetic Songs (Zhou
Boqiong,2022)
3.The Artistic Characteristics and Singing Analysis of Yuan Qu Xiaochang (Lu
Jingjing,2021)
4.The Aesthetic Characteristics of Ancient Chinese Poetry and Art Songs in Singing
(Long Hongyi,2021)
5.Study on the relationship between Chinese Traditional Music Performing Arts and
music forms (Xiao Mei,2020)
6.The singing analysis of Chen Mingzhi's song cycle Thoughts of Liaozhai (He
Rugui,2020)
7.Research on Chinese Ancient Poetry and Song singing (Yang Jing,2020)
8.Chen Mingzhi’s Research on the Techniques of Creation of Polyphonic Collections
and Its Enlightenment (Yu Meiqi,2019)
9.Comparative Research of Two Chinese Folk Style Fugues (Jiang Shutong,2019)
10.An analysis of the musical creation characteristics of Chen Mingzhi's song cycle
Thoughts of Liaozhai (He Rugui,2019)