On the Stylistic Formation of the "Individual Voice" of Contemporary Chinese Composers: Rethinking of the Cultural Collision in Music Writing Based on Chen Qigang’s Stylistic Declaration

Abstract

Musical works by Eastern Asian composers often find themselves being labelled “exotic" and are habitually pigeonholed by Westerners into "the same group". Yet, the works by Modern Chinese composers (such as Tan Dun, Chen Qigang, Zhou Long, etc.) that are widely appreciated, deliver music that is both metaphysically and technically individualistic, and “are sometimes aesthetically complete opposites." This paper begins with French-Chinese composer Chen Qigang's artistic declaration in response to the author’s question on the “Chineseness” reflected in his work: “We are all human beings with flesh and blood, despite the different countries and cultures we are from. This commonality provides an unshakable foundation for music creation. As a result, humanity is dominant when it comes to self-expressing. We may or may not integrate Chinese elements, as long as we maintain the principle that all elements should contribute to courageous humanistic expressions rather than just being cosmetic. (...) I think (traditional Chinese and French cultures) are manifested through all aspects (in my music). (...) But we cannot assert which aspect specifically belongs to what culture. They combine and become what ‘I’ should be like, and only in this way do I feel comfortable.” (Chen Qigang, 2023) Based on Chen’s stylistic declaration, the author further discusses the compositional factors and music demands shaping the individual voices of three "Western-cultivated" Chinese composers (Chen Qigang, Tan Dun, and Wang Xilin), outlining the individual upbringings and encounters that impacted the metaphysical pursuits underpinning their own music vocabularies. By introducing specific writing backgrounds of their representative pieces and analysing they respective approaches to westernise the motifs that are applied from indigenous musics, the author hopes to answer the question raised by Chou Wenchung: “What then is Chinese music today?”