Peng Xiuwen: Research on the Art of Chinese Traditional Orchestra Music

Author: Peng Li
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-03-01
Features: Peng Xiwen is one of China's contemporary renowned composers and conductors of folk orchestral music, as well as one of the founders of modern folk string orchestras. Over the past 40 years, he has created and adapted over 400 folk orchestral compositions. He participated in establishing and shaping one of China's most important folk orchestras—the China National Folk Orchestra. Centered around this orchestra, the "Peng Xiwen Model" was one of the most representative models and ensemble forms in the mid-20th century and has had a far-reaching influence to this day. This paper primarily focuses on dozens of Peng Xiwen's representative folk orchestral compositions, the evolution of the organizational structure of the Broadcasting Folk Orchestra influenced by him, and related instrument reform practices. It summarizes ands Peng Xiwen's stylistic characteristics in folk orchestral composition, examines the development of folk instrumental ensemble culture since the founding of the People's Republic of China, extracts Peng Xiwen's artistic concepts in folk orchestral music, and ultimately highlights his role in the development of folk orchestral music. It objectively evaluates the historical contributions and shortcomings of the "Peng Xiwen Model." The paper is divided into four chapters.
Chapter 1 reviews Peng Xiwen's musical career.
Chapter 2 provides a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of Peng Xiwen's dozens of representative folk orchestral compositions from aspects such as themes, melodic forms and development, harmonic language, polyphonic techniques, formal structures, and orchestration characteristics, and draws brief conclusions about his compositional style.
Chapter 3 primarily examines the organizational structure evolution of the Broadcasting Folk Orchestra and related instrument reform practices, highlighting Peng Xiwen's significant role in the establishment and development of the orchestra model, while also assessing the gains and losses of this orchestra model and instrument reforms.
Chapter 4 summarizes and extracts Peng Xiwen's artistic concepts in folk orchestral music based on the above analysis and organization.
In the conclusion, the author fully affirms Peng Xiwen's role and status in the development of folk orchestral music since the founding of the People's Republic of China. It is believed that Peng Xiwen is an outstanding representative of China's contemporary folk music circle; Peng Xiwen's folk orchestral art is a valuable treasure in China's contemporary musical endeavors; the "Peng Xiwen Model" is a prominent representative of new culture in the early years after the founding of the People's Republic of China and also a prominent carrier of traditional culture. It represents a transformation from folk musical forms to professional musical forms; it inherits and develops the tradition of Chinese folk music, guiding Chinese folk instrumental culture toward the world. At the same time, it also points out the limitations of Peng Xiwen's folk orchestral art and elaborates on the author's reflections inspired by the "Peng Xiwen Model."