“Chinese Style” in Music at the Turn of the 19th-20th Centuries

Abstract

The study focuses on the features of perception and interpretation of China and Chinese culture in European music at the turn of the 19th/20th centuries—yet another heyday for chinoiserie (“Chinese style”) in art. The author uses an integrated approach which encompasses cultural- historical, sociological, comparative-historical and musical-analytical methods.

The analysis of Russian and European music associated with the “Chinese style” proves that the development of chinoiserie in the late 19th -early 20th century was influenced by changing cultural and political relations between China and the major European powers. The main milestones were the European colonial policy of the 19th century, growing export of exotic goods as well as the acquaintance with the culture of the Far East at the World Exhibitions. This was followed by the aggravation of relations, the Boxer Rebellion, extermination of Christians, the invasion of China by troops of eight European counties, the Battle of Beijing. Under the influence of these events, the romantic view of the Celestial Empire, sophistication and oriental bliss are gradually fading into the past, and China begins to be portrayed as wild, spontaneously unbridled and deadly. The evolution of the "Chinese style" also reflected the change in artistic landmarks of that time: from late romantic incarnations of exoticism through "playing rococo" and the exaggerated beauty of modernity to the barbaric wild sounds of expressionism; from the "generalized East"—to an increasingly national character and an expansion of the range of specific means (texture, mode, timbres, tempos, etc.).

It is the first time that musical chinoiserie of the turn of the centuries is considered as an integral phenomenon, which makes the study relevant. The paper outlines its evolution and characteristic features and concludes that the path of chinoiserie in music development at the turn of the 19th/20th centuries is the path to the emerging dialogue between the cultures of the East and West.

Key words: chinoiserie, “Chinese style”, orientalism, East and West, dialogue of cultures, music of the turn of the 19th/20th centuries, Debussy, Stravinsky, Bartok

For citation: Medvedeva Yu. P. “Chinese Style” in Music at the Turn of the 19th-20th Centuries [Electronic source]. In: Sovremennye problemy muzykoznaniya /   Contemporary   Musicology,   2020,   no. 2,   pp.   50–74. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.56620/2587-9731-2020-2-050-074