Tan Dun: How a Chinese Composer Combines Chinese Music and Western Music

by

Abstract

The study examines the combination of the Chinese music with the Western music and keeping in view the work of a famous Chinese composer Tan Dun. The features and differences of Chinese and Western music are described. Tan Dun's environmental and educational background is reviewed which breeds Tan Dun's music philosophy 1+1=1, and lays a foundation of his music composition. It is on this new conceptual basis of composition he creates many famous works known worldwidely. In his works the Chinese traditional music merges homogeneously with Western music becoming a brand new and both enjoyable and understandable by either Eastern or Western people. Tan Dun also is one of conductor celebrities, conducting many well-known symphony orchestras around the world. It is no more surprise that he has won so many musical honorary awards. His major or prominent works like Marco polo, Tea, and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon are analysed. It is found that the Chinese music has remained diverse in terms of adopting moulding itself into other forms of music and using the foreign instruments. He composed music, orchestras, and operas that earned acclaim from the critics and showed that music is a universal language that can mould itself in cross cultural composition.

Acknowledgements

I would take this opportunity to thank my dissertation tutor, family and friends for theirsupport and guidance without which this dissertation would not have been possible.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION4

CHAPTER 2: TAN DUN'S MUSIC STYLE AND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHINESE TRADITIONAL MUSIC AND WESTERN MUSIC5

CHAPTER 3:TAN DUN'S BACKGROUND, WORKS AND HONOURS AND AWARDS8

Background8

Works9

Honours and Awards10

CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS OF TAN DUN'S WORKS11

The Martial Arts Trilogy13

Marco Polo/opera15

Tea17

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS18

BIBLIOGRAPHY21

Tan Dun: How a Chinese Composer Combines Chinese Music with Western Music

Chapter 1: Introduction

Tan Dun is a conceptual and all-round composer who has made an indelible mark on the world's music stage with a creative musical style that spans the boundaries of multimedia performance, classical music, organic music and Chinese and Western traditions. He is an outstanding conductor as well. Thus Tan Dun is a representative of New Music in China.

Tan Dun was born in China. When he was in boy and lived in a small village, he began to be fascinated in music. Fortunately, when he became a youth, the disastrous “culture revolution” ended, he got a chance to enter into the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Later in 1986, he was admitted to Columbia University, New York Cityin USA, where he was well educated with western music. After his doctoral graduation in music, he achieves a lot in various music fields and won a variety of honorary awards. So it is worthwhile to study this one of the most prominent in genre of world classical music in detail.

In order to understand how Tan Dun's music has developed, first of all it is necessary to briefly explain what is Tan Dun's music style and some general features of both Western and Chinese ...