The Development of 'Chinese Style' Piano Music Influenced by Chinese Traditional Musical Instrument

The ‘Chinese style’ piano music first appeared to the public is from a competition named ‘Chinese style piano works composing competition’, held in Shanghai in November 1934 by Russian-American composer and pianist Alexander Tcherepnin. 'Chinese style' is a cultural concept. It might be influenced by Chinese folk song, dancing, traditional instrument, painting, calligraphy...etc. The piano works influenced by Chinese traditional musical instruments occupy a large proportion on Chinese piano music and it has been changed a lot on the process of development. Before the 1980s, composers often adapted Chinese traditional instrumental music directly to create piano works. They retain the melody and structure of the original work and re-arrange the harmony to suit the performance of the piano, that is, ‘pianoization’, such as the piano works 'Mei Hua San Nong' (Guqin), 'Bai Niao Chao Feng' (Suona), 'Er Quan Ying Yue' (Erhu)...etc. However, after 1980s, increasing original piano works has appeared to reflect Chinese traditional instrumetal internal culture such as ‘Wu Kui’, ‘Ancient Music’ and so on. So, the development of Chinese-style piano music influenced by Chinese traditional instrument could be summarized as the transformation from ‘form’ to ‘connotation’.