Composition, commentary and collegiality in the translated modernity of early Chinese art song ¹

Art song was the favoured genre among pioneering Chinese composers in the 1920s and 1930s. The National Conservatory of Music’s affiliated journal Yueyi (Musical art) provided an outlet for composers to publish their works, and for music advocates to discuss musical issues. An exchange on Chinese art song in 1931 between two composers, Zhao Yuanren (1892-1982), a US-educated academic with expertise in various disciplines especially linguistics, and Qing Zhu (1893-1959), a German-educated intellectual and erstwhile political revolutionary who was the editor of Yueyi, provides overlooked aspects of Chinese art song modernity. Their dispute reveals two contrasting compositional approaches to art song as expressive of Chinese poetic sentiments: Zhao Yuanren’s emphasis on reflecting in music Chinese linguistic properties and rhythmic grouping, and Qing Zhu’s priority on the internal logic of musical flow. This chapter draws on the theoretical concept of “musical translation” to show how musical mediators adopted selected aspects of foreign models and adapted them to native resources. The analysis shows how both composers engaged with native Chinese resources to generate a sense of Chinese national identity in art song.