A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Western Musicians’ Composing Music for Chinese Ancient Poetry

To cite this article: DONG Huanling. (2021). A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Western Musicians’ Composing Music for Chinese Ancient Poetry. Asia-Pacific Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 01:3, 001-007, DOI: 10.53789/j.1653-0465.2021.0103.001

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.53789/j.1653-0465.2021.0103.001

Abstract: The characteristics of ancient Chinese poetry resonated with the Western society influenced by Taoist thought in the 20th century, so ancient Chinese poetry set off a wave of enthusiasm in the West at that time. The translation of ancient Chinese poetry is undoubtedly the most important step before creating music, and the misinterpretation in poetry translation often leads to the aesthetic misrepresentation of a piece of music with a matching composition. Some Western composers also over-interpreted ancient Chinese poems through composing music. They reproduced the music of ancient Chinese poetry in the world from their unique perspectives and found a new historical breakthrough point for the integration of cross-cultural art. 

Keywords: Chinese poetry and culture craze; misinterpretation; over-interpretation; cross-cultural communication

DONG Huanling Number 3 APJHSS.pdf