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Crossing Lines: Stylistic gradients in Chinese electroacoustic music

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 December 2022

Marc Battier
Marc Battier*
Affiliation:
Shenzhen University, China Institut de recherche en musicologie, Paris
*
Email: marc.battier@mac.com
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Abstract

In this article, I discuss the case of Chinese electroacoustic music with a focus on contemporary music, Asian instruments and mixed music. I pay particular attention to mixed music, without however limiting myself to it, also dealing with contemporary Western-style instrumental music. Several authors have discussed the question of the relationship between contemporary creation and certain stylistic factors of Asian cultures. They questioned what might constitute identifiable traits unique to Asia that could be observed in contemporary creations and they sought to determine whether systems of relationships can be established. Some, such as Chou Wen-Chung (周文中 Zhou Wenzhong), emphasised syncretism, thus establishing a link with the works of anthropology and cultural studies. In his 1971 article, ‘Asian Concepts and Twentieth-Century Western Composers’, Chou cites many examples that tend to emphasise notions of integration and syncretism across various stylistic gradients found in many composers, mostly Western. More recently, musicologist Yayoi Uno Everett described distinct categories in these relationships, on the part of both Asian and Western composers. This article attempts to find which cultural gradients can be observed in the electroacoustic music production of Chinese composers. For instance, the specific case of mixed music creates an unprecedented situation of contact between instrument and sound material in the context of renewed intercultural relations.

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Information
Organised Sound , Volume 27 , Issue 3: Chinese Electroacoustic Music Today , December 2022 , pp. 284 - 293
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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