Russian and Chinese traditions in the piano piece by G. Ya. Ore “Fantasy of Southern China”

Lyu Tsze Postgraduate student, Department of Music History, Nizhny Novgorod State Conservatory named after M.I. Glinka 603005, Russia, Nizhny Novgorod region, Nizhny Novgorod, Piskunov str., 40 jielliptical@qq.com Other publications by this author

Russian musical culture has had a significant impact on the formation of the Chinese professional school of composition. Thanks to the activities of emigrants, first of all, Alexander Nikolaevich Cherepnin, a fruitful tradition of synthesis of national and European principles was formed among Chinese musicians. The creative path of Russian masters – B. Zakharov, A. Cherepnin, S. Aksakov, Z. Pribytkova, B. Lazarev, E. Levitin, V. Shushlin, A. Avshalomov – is reflected in extensive scientific literature ^[1-4]. Meanwhile, many names are still unknown in Russia. Among them is Harry Yakovlevich Ore (in China – Xia Likeh, 1885-1972) – composer, teacher and concert pianist belonging to both Russian and Chinese culture. G. Ore was born in St. Petersburg in a Jewish family that moved to the capital from Latvia. He successfully graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in two specialties – in the composition class of Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov (1855-1914) and Joseph Ivanovich Vitol (1863-1948), a Latvian composer, teacher, music critic, student of Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky–Korsakov, an active participant in the Belyaev circle. By piano class – with the Austrian pianist and teacher, author of numerous piano transcriptions Gottfried Galston. After graduating from the Conservatory, Ore received the title of "free artist".

During the First World War – in 1915 – he moved to Harbin, and in 1921 – to Hong Kong, where he lived until the end of his life. Thus, the musician's creative destiny is inextricably linked with the East: in Hong Kong and Macau, he composed music, gave piano and composition lessons for more than half a century, making a significant contribution to the development of Chinese art. Among his students is the famous composer of China Chen Peixun. Touring with concerts allowed Ore to visit many countries: he performed in the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore. In recent years, Chinese musicologists have begun to pay tribute to his work and study the composer's connections with various regional traditions of the country ^[5-7].

In China, the composer showed great interest in national music and adapted many folk melodies for piano. This is reflected in the titles of his works: "Liu Yao Jin" (""), "Autumn moon over the Han Palace" (""), "Hungry Horse with a rattle" (""), "Raindrops drumming on banana leaves" (""). While working in Guangdong Province, Ore attended performances of the local traditional opera, the melodies of which enriched the composer's work. The piano arrangements of regional folklore included the play "Fantasy of Southern China: a Lady and a Flower Seller" (1931), based on four themes of the Cantonese opera yueju – "Ba Da Ban", "Dressing Table", "Sale of products" and "Narcissus Flowers". Yueju Opera () is a traditional form of Chinese theater, including singing, instrumental music, martial arts, acrobatics and acting. The process of formation of the genre began in the XII century in the depths of the southern drama of Nanxi, performed on the stages of public theaters. During the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279 AD), an early form of Cantonese opera was actively developed in the Jiangnan area (Yangtze Delta). Subsequently, it became widespread in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong and Macau.

The combination of Chinese national melos and the traditions of Russian pianism in Ore's music allowed him to become "the founder of the Cantonese piano style" ^[6]. Chinese musicologists call the "Fantasy of Southern China" the first ever piano treatment of Cantonese opera themes ^[7].

Most of the composer's plays can be attributed to the genre of arrangement. R.G. Shitikova and Li Yun in their article "Musical arrangement: to the content of the concept" rightly note: "In China, all the variety of compositions related to the genre definition of "music to music" and representing mainly the composer's projection of samples of song and dance folk art, it is customary to designate the term "arrangement"", which "transforms the original musical material in style, form, with a deep artistic reinterpretation, and, consequently, in terms of internal content, since the content side also changes after stylistic changes" ^{[8, p. 50]}.

The choice of genre was not accidental and fully corresponded to the tradition of adaptation that characterizes the Cantonese opera yueju. Thus, the most popular opera repertoire of Guangdong from the middle of the XIX to the beginning of the XX century, known as paichansi ("episodic repertoire"), was a treatment of works from Cantonese and other regional opera traditions.

The title of Ore's play directly refers to the quoted material. The genre of fantasy allows the composer to freely vary Cantonese tunes. The author distinguishes seven sections, noting in the text the change of tempo and some borrowed melodies: Introduction (Allegretto non troppo), "The Lady at the dressing table" (Andante cantabile), "The flower seller passes by" (Con moto), Andante, Con moto, "Flower Song" (Andantino grazioso molto cantabile), Coda (Allegro).

The essay opens with a detailed introduction (Allegretto non troppo) based on the theme "Ba da ban". Russian Russian composer's manner of working with traditional material fits into the Russian tradition of the "Mighty Bunch", the line of which is continued by the musician: expressive melodic undertones, trichord playing, reminiscent of the works of M. P. Mussorgsky and N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, run through the whole fantasy, intonationally bringing Russian and Chinese folk melos closer. Smooth vocalization with parallel sexts and a gradual chromatized descending movement of the bass evokes the preludes of the composer's teacher – A. K. Lyadov. Despite the traditional Chinese pentatonic fret of the original (gong-fret from a- a-h-cis-e-fis), the author harmonizes it with traditional European functional turns, mainly autentic, and deviations in fis-moll brings a feeling of parallel-variable fret (A-fis) characteristic of Russian music.

Fig. 1. G. Ya. Ore. Fantasy of Southern China: a lady and a flower seller. Introduction. The theme is "Ba da ban". Tt. 7-13.

The Introduction is followed by an expositional presentation of the three main themes of fantasy. The composer carefully preserves the Cantonese melodies of the primary sources and their pentatonic fret organization. In the Andante cantabile section, the author conducts a typical chant of the qiupai (, the vocal-instrumental "formula-cliche" of the traditional Chinese drama ^[9]) of the Cantonese opera "Dressing Table" in zhi-lad from e– e-fis-a-h-cis against the background of a bass organ point. Chinese researchers ^[10] consider the national fret system as a set of five pentatonic frets with a common tonal composition of their sound orders, calling it the "system of one gong". According to the terminology adopted in the PRC, zhi-lad from e refers to the system of one gong from A.

The parallel sextual movement of voices in the second sentence of the period form, interrupted harmonic turns (D-S), deviation into the tonality of the second stage (h-moll) allow us to talk about writing techniques common with the Introduction.

Fig. 2. G. Ya. Ore. Fantasy of Southern China: a lady and a flower seller. The theme is "Dressing table". Tt. 23-31.

The exposition section of Con moto ("The flower seller passes by") is based on the Cantonese melody "Selling products". The author relies on the fret organization of the original – yu-lad from cis – cis-e-fis-gis-h (refers to the system of one gong from E). The moving theme is conducted in the tenor register against the background of light arpeggiated chords in the right hand. The colorful harmonization of the chords of the secondary steps (the triad of natural D, VII35, III35) recalls the influence of the musical language of the Petersburg composers-kuchkists.

Fig. 3. G. Ya. Ore. Fantasy of Southern China: a lady and a flower seller. Topic "Sale of products". Tt. 32-40.

In the exposition section of fantasy Andante, the theme of the Cantonese opera tune yueju "Narcissus Flowers" is presented in its inherent chi-lad from e– e-fis-a-h-cis (refers to the system of one gong from A). Thus, the sections written in the chi-lad from e (the system of one gong from A) frame the section in the yu-lad from cis (the system of one gong from E). There is an allusion to the tonic-dominant relations of themes (A-E-A), however, hearing relies primarily on the change of major (A) and minor (cis) tert colors (A-cis-A). The composer expounds the melody of "Narcissus Flowers" at a restrained pace, emphasizing its softness, lyricism and melodiousness, which distinguishes his interpretation from the mobile and playful original melody of the opera yueju.

Fig. 4. G. Ya. Ore. Fantasy of Southern China: a lady and a flower seller. The theme is "Narcissus Flowers". Tt. 41-48.

The two following sections are filled with active development of the topics outlined earlier. In Con moto, the author contrapuntically conducts the tunes "Dressing table" and "Sale of products". The first melody (tt. 49-50) "grows" out of flowing trichord figurations, the second contrasts with it in texture and tessitura (it sounds again in the tenor range, tt. 51-52). Next, the composer extracts a key two-stroke chant from the melody "Dressing Table" and, varying, conducts it with a semitone harmonization in C-dur and With is-dur and then in A-dur on forte dense chords with a comparison of registers.

Fig. 5. G. Ya. Ore. Fantasy of Southern China: a lady and a flower seller. The counterpoint of the themes. Tt. 49-55.

The Andantino grazioso molto cantabile section is the most expanded in Fantasy. He develops the theme of "Narcissus Flowers" in a simple three-part form with a varied reprise, where the melody sounds against the background of crystal figures in a very high register. The composer resorts to characteristic techniques that have already been "tested" in the composition: expressive undertones, smooth sextonic movement, colors of parallel-variable fret (A-fis-A).

Fig. 6. G. Ya. Ore. Fantasy of Southern China: a lady and a flower seller. Narcissus flowers. Tt. 60-65.

 A laconic Allegro coda with major-minor A-F-A juxtapositions completes the fantasy.

Thus, Harry Yakovlevich Ore managed to combine Cantonese opera melodies of yueju with the principles of folklore development formed in the depths of the Russian piano school, primarily in the works of the Kuchkists and their followers: these are the variant-singing type of thematism, trichord intonations, variable frets, chords of side steps, sub-vocality, smoothness of voice, "singing" piano texture.

The romantic treatment of yueju's tunes subordinates them to Russian methods of working with the material, demonstrates the view of an "outsider" observer and markedly distinguishes them from the arrangements of Chinese composers, which emphasize the authentic theatrical and comic character of Cantonese opera thematism, local vocal performance techniques and the sound of national instruments.

Ore combines Chinese national features (primarily modal and intonation-melodic) with the techniques of Russian pianism, variational methods of shaping and developing themes. The author reinterprets, rethinks the selected melodies, changes their character, enriches them harmoniously, texturally, timbre and register, filling them with new content and breathing new life into them.

The genre of piano arrangement of fragments of traditional Chinese opera from different provinces later received intensive development and manifested itself in the works of many masters of national music of the XX-XXI centuries – Chen Peixun, Song Minzhu, Jia Datsun, Wang Lisan, Chu Wanhua, Tan Dong, Chen Yi, Wang Jianzhong.