What is the position and function of the shepherd boy piccolo in the history of modern music in China?

The Shepherd Boy Piccolo (formerly known as the Shepherd Boy Flute) is the first piano piece with China national style in China. This is an epoch-making masterpiece of China piano music created by He Lvting. Although the piano music of "The Shepherd Boy Piccolo" lasted less than 5 minutes, and the so-called level was only 6, it was quickly recognized by the domestic and foreign music circles after its premiere in Shanghai on 1934, which established the important position of "The Shepherd Boy Piccolo" in China piano music.

1. The cowboy piccolo opened a new era of China national piano music.

Cowboy Piccolo has a great influence because this China piano piece has been recognized and applauded by many influential people in the international music industry since it was published. For example, Soviet pianist and composer Qi Erpin (1899- 1977) brought this piano piece to Berlin, Munich, Geneva, Vienna, new york, Amsterdam and other major cities and personally performed it, which was warmly welcomed by audiences all over the world, believing that it was a wonderful combination of oriental music and western music. Since then, this piano piece has become famous at home and abroad, and it has become one of the standing repertoire of pianists from all over the world. Ding Shande, a musician, pianist and composer who recorded Piccolo, played Piccolo in a piano solo concert. EMI's good recording and publishing also played an important role in the spread of Cowboy Piccolo. The Shepherd Boy Piccolo was also published overseas, first in Japan, then in the Soviet Union, France, Germany and other countries. It makes China's piano music works go to the world, and also lets people around the world know about China.

At that time, people in the domestic music industry believed that He Luting's greatest success was that he opened the boundary between Chinese folk music and western music. He combined China's folk music and folk music with western music seamlessly, and created The Shepherd's Piccolo, which is worthy of the world music scene. The New Evening News praised: "The most important and memorable thing is that he opened the boundary between China timbre and western music theory. The success of his works encourages us to revive and improve China's music, study the techniques of western music theory, and give the same vigilance to the extremely conservative ancient musicians and those who advocate complete Europeanization. " Qu Wei, a composer, still said many years later: "Its appearance has a very unusual significance, which has opened up a new world for the nationalization of piano music."

Moreover, some foreign musicians also said that "The Shepherd Boy Piccolo" is a piano solo essay based on China folk music, adopting traditional techniques of western music, with rigorous structure, vivid image, beautiful voice and strong local flavor. After more than half a century's test, The Shepherd Boy Piccolo is well-deserved to be recognized as a successful piano piece with a combination of Chinese and Western styles. Over the past 70 years, the artistic charm of Cowboy Piccolo has been enduring, and it is an artistic treasure dedicated by China's excellent national culture to the people of the world.

Since Cowboy Piccolo came out, China has created thousands of piano works, including many excellent ones. But from the perspective of music history, objectively speaking, The Shepherd Boy Piccolo is the first fully mature China piano piece, and it is still one of the best China piano pieces. This piece of music with distinctive musical image and strong Jiangnan style is of pioneering significance in the creation of foreign musical instruments (such as piano and violin) in China, and it is still a reserve teaching material in piano teaching.

"The Shepherd Boy Piccolo" skillfully uses piano skills to show the unique musical style of China's national musical instrument flute, which can be said to be an unprecedented breakthrough in national music, both in playing mode and creative form. At that time, the conditions in China were limited, music education was stagnant, and folk music was in the original ecological state. Without the collection and arrangement of folk music by professionals, it is difficult for folk music to promote innovation. When Chinese folk music was rarely recognized and recognized by foreign music circles, the shepherd boy piccolo did create a great miracle for Chinese folk music. As a successful work of China's piano music, The Shepherd Boy Piccolo was later adapted into China's piano music, which greatly promoted the creation of China's national music. Therefore, no matter from its historical position in China's piano music or its influence on China's piano music, it can be said that it is the first masterpiece of China's national piano music and a masterpiece of China's national music.

2. The Shepherd Boy Piccolo is the earliest and most successful famous song with China elements.

China's piano art first sprouted at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century. Zhao Yuanren composed March for Peace and March for Children on 19 15 and 19 19 respectively. These piano pieces with simple conception and short form mark the birth of China's piano music. Although for various reasons, these works did not have much influence at that time, 20 years later, they brought inspiration and inspiration to the creation of the shepherd boy piccolo. It is a new attempt to compose China folk music with piano music, and the piano, as the king of musical instruments, is of great significance. Music has no national boundaries, and music works need to keep pace with the times. It is undoubtedly the best attempt to integrate China elements into piano music, which will help to introduce Chinese folk music to the world and let people around the world know about China music. Of course, China composers must have a historical process from imitation, exploration, experiment to maturity when they use this foreign art form to create this novel artistic work of China piano music.

It is no accident that "The Cowboy Piccolo" became the most successful masterpiece of China national piano music. At that time, besides Cowboy Piccolo won the first prize, He Lvting also won the second prize of Lullaby. Although reminiscing about the past has strong national characteristics, it has little influence. In addition, there are 20 piano works created by 1 1, and only Cowboy Piccolo won a great victory. This is also because it has a distinctive national style, runs through the implicit beauty of ancient oriental civilization, and shows the industrious, simple, cheerful and lively national character of the Chinese nation.

The shepherd boy piccolo has a simple structure. The whole song is in C major and consists of three stages: A, B and A.. The whole work is fresh and smooth, with two polyphonic melodies echoing, which successfully imitates the characteristics of China national musical instrument flute and shows people a traditional ink painting in the south of China. The first paragraph adopts octave mode, which is slow and melodious. Through polyphony, the upper and lower melodies are interpreted at the same time, just like the idyllic scenery with red flowers and green leaves: a shepherd boy rides on the back of an ox, plays a bamboo flute and roams leisurely in the field. In the second paragraph, the traditional folk dance rhythm is adopted, and the main melody has a slightly faster sound speed, making the mood more enthusiastic and high. The shepherd boy rides a cow and plays the flute vividly. The main theme is like the unique vibrato technique of bamboo flute, loud and clear, accompanied by cheerful jumping. The third paragraph is written by borrowing the polyphony of the first paragraph, and the tune is more fluent, cheerful and compact. Melody changes a lot, and the speed of music gradually slows down at the end, ending in a bright high-pitched area. Watching the shepherd boy go away, there is an unfinished aesthetic feeling of music, which evokes people's imagination. "The Shepherd's Piccolo" mostly adopts the method of variation, and the accompaniment adopts the writing of parallel three-degree descending and voice harmonic main continuous bass, thus weakening the function of mode harmony and coordinating with the lively main theme. The superb polyphony in The Shepherd's Piccolo is an important sign that modern piano music has made great progress in exploring the polyphony of China style. He Lvting skillfully used polyphony, pentatonic rotation, multi-purpose progressive main melody, common ending of three or four degrees, and music development with repetition and antithesis as the main forms in his music, which made the melodies of the two parts full of the charm of China folk songs.

It is true that "Shepherd Boy Piccolo" not only uses the techniques of western music, but also shows the characteristics of national music, which has a far-reaching impact on solving the problem of the relationship between Chinese and western music, inheriting excellent national culture, promoting the innovation of national music culture, and even on the creation of new music in China, and also adds new varieties to the world piano music.

Thirdly, the cowboy piccolo gave birth to the prosperity of piano music in China.

The success of the piano piece "The Cowboy Piccolo" gave birth to the enthusiasm of China music circles for the creation of China national piano music at that time. It has the most miracles in the history of piano music in China, with great influence and far-reaching significance. China's piano music really appeared in the early 20th century, when many piano music works were created, and composers injected factors such as times and nationalities into the creation of various music genres. China composers also tried their best to give full play to the advantages of European music creation techniques, and used China traditional tones and national harmony more maturely, which made the piano music creation in this period have both the spirit of the times and new development. Among them, "The Shepherd's Piccolo" is a classic among China's piano works in the 20th century, with elegant style, exquisite techniques and distinct levels, and it makes good use of the melody and harmony of national music. It is a reformed European composition technology, which is not only the application of European composition technology, but also the breakthrough of European composition technology. The Shepherd Boy Piccolo is considered to be China's first piano work with China style, which is the best interpretation of how to combine European music theory with China's national culture. As a pioneering work, The Shepherd Boy Piccolo also inspired China's piano music works and made China's piano music works take an important step forward.

Since the piano music Cowboy Piccolo was successful, it has attracted the attention of the world and become a successful model for people to learn from. This is of far-reaching significance to China's piano music creation, which was in its infancy at that time, and to the later development of piano music, and also makes China's piano music work enter a new historical era. The successful works not only lie in the works themselves, but also ignite the beautiful expectations of the domestic music industry for national music, which also makes many excellent China piano music works born. Such as lullaby, shepherd's joy, variations on the theme of folk songs, yearning for spring, butterflies flying, flower drums, flowing water, variations, Three Chapters of Yangguan, Youth Concerto, Yellow River Concerto, Red Female Suites, etc. These piano music have excavated the national music culture. Through the nationalization of melody, rhythm and music, in a sense, the development of modern piano music in China is not only the continuation of ancient music, but also represents "new music". It proves that some composing techniques, principles and factors in western music can be used to express China's temperament. At the same time, it also points out the direction for more composers, provides valuable piano music creation experience, and makes China's piano works look brand-new. It is the root of the nationalization of piano music to seek roots in China's national culture, find creative inspiration and open up new musical fields. As long as we can make unremitting efforts like previous artists, I believe there will be more and better national piano music constantly emerging, which will become a new artistic miracle to promote China piano music.