AESTHETIC FOUNDATIONS OF VOCAL PERFORMANCE IN CHINA AT THE END OF THE 20TH – BEGINNING OF THE 21ST CENTURY

Abstract

The experience of Chinese singers and vocal teachers in the first quarter of the 21st century is unique, since during the past century, representatives of a generation of vocalists purposefully worked on combining the technique of the academic Western style of singing with the national Chinese manner. Mastering the manner of singing, which is significantly different from the national style, went from blind copying to achieving synthetic unity. However, after mastering singing "in a European way", by the end of the 20th century, progressive Chinese performers again turned to traditional culture, striving for its comprehensive involvement in the world artistic space in the 21st century. The search for the place of Chinese vocal performance in the modern world naturally actualizes an appeal to the aesthetic foundations of the national vocal culture, the fundamental foundations of which are determined by ancient Chinese philosophical teachings (primarily Confucianism and Taoism). The article examines the categories of ancient Chinese philosophy (the concept of harmony "he"; the unity of beauty and virtue "Meishan hei"; the phenomena of "Yu" (presence) and "U" (absence); ), their close connection with vocal practice, the transformation of terms into principles for describing vocal technique and their practical application in mastering Chinese national singing. The uniqueness of modern Chinese vocal culture is fully reflected in the work of singer Wu Bixia, who is fluent in the vocal layers of Western culture, modern and traditional Chinese singing. "The Wu Bixia phenomenon" consists in a kind of musical "bilingualism": the singer demonstrates not only the synthesized style of "Chinese bel canto", but also fluent in a variety of academic Western European repertoire, can participate in the performance of Peking opera or folk songs in an authentic manner.