THE CREATIVE THINKING DEDUCTION OF TRADITIONAL CHINESE PIANO MUSIC ELEMENTS - TAKING CULTURAL WORKS FROM DIFFERENT PERIODS IN HISTORY AS THE MAIN LINE

degrees, resulting in different approaches to ethnicized subject matter. Non-traditional tonality and dissonant acoustics are two of the main characteristics of the musical language at this stage. Nationalization and modernization are explored in Chinese piano works in multiple ways, with remarkable achievements.


INTRODUCTION
The piano is a musical instrument that has been introduced to China from the West since 1601 and has a history of more than 400 years (Smith, A, 2019;Johnson, 2018;Thompson, 2017;Garcia, 2016;Rodriguez, 2015).With the increasing cultural exchange between China and the West in the early 20th century, the introduction of Western composition theories, and the study of composition techniques by Chinese musicians studying abroad, Chinese composers began to explore the path of Chinese piano music composition.To this day, generations of Chinese musicians have passed on this exotic instrument to the Chinese land, where it has become a popular and important instrument in the daily life of the masses.At the same time, there are numerous research articles on piano compositions in China and abroad, especially on the development of piano compositions in China and the results of compositional techniques and music in China.However, no article systematically compares the characteristics of the national meaning of piano compositions of different periods.Ethnic meaning: It is a general term for the Chinese cultural characteristics, national customs, national personality, national flavor, and national aesthetic habits that are reflected in piano artworks.It contains all the elements and intentions of composing techniques and aesthetic conceptions used by composers in creating their works (Cheng, 2019;Chang, 2018;Chiu, 2017).It is a concentrated expression of the core aesthetic values that have been rooted in people's hearts and passed down from generation to generation in five thousand years of Chinese culture.It is also the soul of a musical work that is resilient and full of artistic charm (Chen, L, 2016;Smith, J, 2015;Wang, H, 2014;Liu, Y, 2013;Li, X, 2012;Zhang, Q, 2011;Wu, 2010).
In the course of the nationalization of Chinese piano music, the Chinese piano industry has gone through different processes of development in terms of awareness, understanding, and practice of "nationalization", and with the continuous development of this awareness, the national style of Chinese piano works in different historical stages is also very different (Huang, 2009;Zhou, 2008;Liang, R, 2007).
A review of relevant materials and literature (Zhao, 2006;Zhang, H;2005;Wang, Y, 2004;Liu, S, 2003;Chen, Y, 2002;Xu, 2001;Li, J, 2000) shows that Chinese piano works have received more and more attention from scholars in recent years.However, the current scope of academic research and analysis on the nationalization of piano works is larger and different from the author's research direction targeting the subject matter and musical language.Therefore, the exploration of the nationalization of piano works in the 70 years of New China, analyzed from the perspective of subject matter and musical language, is particularly important and needs further in-depth study.stages.An Exploration of Chinese Piano Works at the Beginning of the 21st Century" provides a preliminary study and analysis of Chinese piano works in the 21st century.It focuses on the analysis of the characteristics of creation and the current situation of creation, summarizes the eight characteristics of creation, and analyzes the current situation of creation of Chinese piano music in the 21st century from four aspects: creation group, creation concept, creation thinking, and creation stage.Unfortunately, this article lacks an analysis of specific works with examples.The analysis of national characteristics is divided by subject matter into three categories: folk song adaptations, instrumental adaptations, and modern technical compositions.Although the analysis of these three categories mentions the development of each, the analysis of the ethnic characteristics of the same subject matter in different periods does not go into detail (Wang, X, 2010;Zheng, 2011;Mou, 2014;Zhang, W, 2019;Dai, 1999;Liang, 2005;Dai, 2013;Zhang, M, 2020).This paper analyzes the musical language of representative piano works from various periods, and explores the national characteristics of the subject matter and musical language in the form, weaving, and harmony of different stages.It will be possible to trace the process of nationalization in the creation of works in each period of piano music development and to gain insight into the basic characteristics of nationalized compositional techniques in different periods.

INITIAL PROSPERITY OF PIANO EVOLUTION IN CHINA (1949-1966)
In the seventeen years after the founding of the country (i.e., 1949-1966), many political events took place on Chinese land.The policies proposed in the political field, be it the "Double Hundred Policy" for literature and art during the socialist transformation period or the "Three Transformations" after the "Great Leap Forward", were like the slightest flap of a butterfly's wings.The slightest flap of a butterfly's wings could cause a great uproar in the music world.The quantity and quality of Chinese piano music have indeed improved greatly compared with those before the founding of China.However, in my opinion, this boom existed only in the first seven years in terms of freedom of composition and quality of content.The years 1949-1966 belonged to the period of the socialist transformation of the new China, and at the beginning of the founding of the country, music creation continued to be "music for workers, peasants and politics".The period from 1949 to 1966 was the period of socialist transformation of new China.Therefore, to conform to the purpose of music creation, the piano works of this period were composed of materials that were pleasing to the people.It was not until 1956 when the Ministry of Music proposed the literary policy of "a hundred flowers and a hundred schools of thought" to stimulate the people's enthusiasm for creation, that the musicians' thoughts began to come alive.The main body of Chinese piano works was mainly composed by the teachers of the "academy school", whose piano music not only expressed their thoughts and emotions but also met the needs of students' daily study and practice.Their compositions not only expressed their thoughts and emotions but also met the needs of their students' daily study and practice.They had an indelible influence on the next generation of composers and pianists in the transmission and development of nationalization.During the subsequent decade, many representative works also evolved in the trend of social background in conjunction with the ups and downs in the development of the new China.As shown in Table 1, Ma Sicong's Three Han Dances, Ding Shande's Happy Festival, etc.These works are graphic and emotionally simple, expressing the sorrows and highs and lows of the new era with enthusiastic and energetic melodies.In this phase of the creation of piano works, the composer highlights the traditional music's focus on melody while also bringing out the piano's characteristics to great effect.However, both the form, the weave, and the harmony are at the service of highlighting the melody, conforming to the emotional content to be expressed, and shaping the musical image.
The musical structure of Western piano music is meticulous and rigorous and has been formed as early as the classical period, such as compound triad, rondo, sonata, variation, etc.The development of music was logical and rational, bound by the structure of the tune.Unlike the Western structure, the traditional Chinese music form pursues a free structure of "loose form but not the loose spirit", and the main key of the music throughout the piece coalesces the seemingly sensual structure, while the development of the structure is ultimately determined by the emotional content of the music.The piano works of the early period of the founding of the PRC were greatly influenced by traditional music, often with an introduction at the beginning and a coda at the end of the piece, and the structure was relatively simple, as shown in Tables 2. and 3., for example.Weaving refers to the vocal structure of musical works, which can be narrowly divided into monophonic weaving and polyphonic weaving, while polyphonic weaving also includes dominant and polyphonic weaving.Throughout the 17 years of piano compositions in the early years of the founding of the PRC, the number of piano compositions has increased significantly compared to the pre-state period, and the number of original works and adaptations for piano is evenly divided.In terms of quality, piano compositions are not only telling Chinese stories, but some of them are also speaking "local dialects".This period was characterized by the closeness of the life of the subjects to the masses, the folkloric origin of the musical materials, the obvious melodic lines, and the simplicity of the harmonies, which are the most direct, effective, and obvious means of expressing the nationalization of the piano.No matter which subject matter is chosen, the main object of expression is the local folk culture, whether it is the cadenza style, the main key weave, or the harmony, all of them are aimed at highlighting the nationalized melody.Folk music and folk culture were no longer confined to a folk corner or a specific group of people but spread to all corners of China with the pleasant sound of the piano.However, there are some regrets in the pursuit of nationalization of piano compositions at this stage.

THE PERIOD OF PIANO EVOLUTION IN CHINA (1967-1977)
The years 1967-1977 were the decade of the Cultural Revolution, a cultural desert and a spiritual wasteland.It was only in 1966, when the influence of the "ultra-left" ideology of China broke out, that the art of piano and the six words of criticism each came together in an unprecedented and devastating crisis.It was not until 1968 that the art of piano was revitalized with the appearance of the piano accompaniment "The Red Lantern" and the piano concerto "The Yellow River", which survived the adversity precisely because they were adapted from "model plays" or revolutionary music, but also conformed to the principle of "three prominences".The "three outstanding" principle criteria.Although piano adaptations limit the subject matter, there are two sides to everything.In those days, since adaptations were the only way to create piano pieces, composers spent a lot of time choosing musical material and studying adaptation methods.This led to the creation of a large number of fine adaptations that brought out the best of traditional Chinese tunes and classical humanism in polyphonic piano music.For example, Wang Jianzhong's "Hundred Birds in the Morning" and "The Red Flowers of the Mountain", as well as "Three Blossoms of the Plum Blossom" and Lai Yinghai's "Sunset Cocktail Drum" have all become heirlooms and are still often seen on stage today.Among them, the most famous tunes are shown in Table 4. Compared to the political requirements of the early years of the founding of the state, the conditions for music created during the Cultural Revolution were even more demanding, requiring the revolutionary construction of music to be highlighted based on the "three cultural aspects".In an environment where music could only serve politics, piano works gradually tended to be monolithic, i.e. the content had to be revolutionary.The fact that the piano accompaniment "The Red Lantern" and the piano concerto "Yellow River" not only survived the adversity but also received great acclaim is a testament to this.In the art of composition and creative thinking, the themes of this piano adaptation are divided into these three categories: first, piano pieces adapted from the music of "model operas"; second, piano pieces adapted from revolutionary songs; third, piano pieces adapted from traditional instrumental music.
Although the subject matter is confined to these three, there is still a lot to be said about their deeper excavation.
The four classical piano adaptations of "The Second Spring Reflecting the Moon", "The Sunset Cocktail Drum", "The Hundred Birds Facing the Phoenix" and "The Three Blossoms of the Plum Blossom" will be used as examples to analyze the contemporary and nationalized musical language of the Cultural Revolution period in terms of composition structure, weaving, and harmony.
The original Erquan Yingyue is an erhu piece, which is composed of an introduction + theme + five variations, the most common structure in traditional music.The Erhu "is a piece in which the constant and the variation within the organic unity of the piece permeate and merge into one, and the music develops uninterruptedly in a single breath between dispersion and sequence, slow and fast, stillness and movement, which is the most valuable part of the structural thinking of Chinese music."The piano adaptation also applies the same approach, based on the structure of the original piece to avoid the lengthy and loose music, but with appropriate deletions and adjustments, forming the structure of introduction + theme + three variations + coda, as shown in Table .5.Each variation of the theme is an accumulation of emotions, culminating in the third variation, and the melody is deepened and expanded in a step-by-step statement.The outstanding feature of piano music works in this period in terms of weaving is the organic integration of the branched vocal weaving with national characteristics and musical expressive intentions.The melodies of traditional Chinese conceptual music are developed in a single line, and the predominantly monophonic melodies are concerned with the linear aesthetics of the music.As shown in Figure .3., the change in its content and mood is expressed through the lightness and weight of the melody, the intonation of the breath, and the vividness of the timbre imitation.The piano adaptations of the Cultural Revolution period are based on the monophonic thinking of traditional music, giving full play to the advantages of polyphonic weaving in piano music, using polyphonic thinking, equipping monophonic melodies with harmonies or using polyphony; making use of the piano's wide range and distinct intensity levels, so that the melody can have different acoustic effects when presented in each range; using ornamentation, dissonance and subtle changes in pitch intensity to give The use of ornamentation, dissonance, and subtle variations in pitch strength give the piano music a sense of ethnicity and embellishment.

THE DIVERSIFIED DEVELOPMENT PERIOD OF CHINESE PIANO EVOLUTION (1978-2013)
After the end of the Cultural Revolution in China, the enthusiasm of composers for piano music was gradually restored.With the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy in 1978, the "emancipation of the mind" brought not only economic prosperity but also the introduction of heterogeneous cultures, and the Chinese piano art was freed from the shackles that had held it for years, ushering in a great opportunity for the prosperity of Chinese piano music creation.
In the wave of "intellectual emancipation", various Western artistic trends, musical views, and compositional techniques poured into China.The Chinese music industry has gained a new understanding of traditional music and national styles through comparison and reflection.Taking the modern Western compositional techniques as a new perspective, new compositions are made for the local culture.However, composers have different understandings and practices on how to be new and how to be new, and the divergence and diversity of concepts eventually bring about diverse piano works.

-Adaptation of folk music materials
The musical adaptation of folk materials is a relatively robust and old-fashioned compositional path, a continuation of the method of composing piano adaptations of the previous two periods.It is a continuation of the two previous periods of the piano repertoire.It incorporates modern Western musical techniques while still retaining the original appearance of the folk material.This way of composition can show the strong national color more completely, has high acceptance by the public, and also has a certain degree of transcendence and novelty in the weaving and harmonizing.For example, in Chu Wanghua's "Jasmine Fantasy", the composer chose the famous and familiar Jiangsu folk song "Jasmine Flower", keeping the main melody intact and using the iambic pentameter as the basis, the overall concept also conforms to the layout of Chinese music.The harmonies of the song are also well interpreted with nationalized harmonies such as diatonic intervals, ninth chords, and superimposed chords in fourths and fifths.Since this compositional path is the usual way of adapting ethnic material, it has a solid background in mass acceptance and compositional skills, making this line of composition a relatively large part of the works.Similarly, there are works such as "Three Fold of Yang Guan" by Li Yinghai, "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" by Sun Yilin, "Under the Silver Moonlight" by Chu Wang Hua, and "In That Faraway Place" by Chu Wang Hua, in which one can detect the presence of folk melodic materials in both titles and melodies.

-Modernization of ethnic materials
The difference with the previous compositional path is that the folk music material chosen and borrowed by the composer is often incomplete.Either the core musical elements, or the based folk music tunes, have been deeply modernized, not only in a way that is different from Western music, but also in the way that the ethnicity of the piano music can be felt in the bits and pieces of material.The extent of the use of folk materials and modernization varies from composer to composer, and the trade-off between the nationalization, individualization, and diversification of piano works can be seen.For example, Zhang Chao's "Pi Huang" uses elements of Beijing opera but does not copy them, instead, he selects the core elements "C, bB, G" from Xi Pi and Er Huang and uses them as motives to develop melody and harmony.In terms of musical structure, it combines the Beijing opera's panel style with the Western sonata's three-part structure.

-Experimental creative exploration
Experimental compositional explorations do not include melodic fragments in the Chinese style but rather are experimental explorations aimed at pursuing new compositional techniques.For example, Zhao Xiaosheng composed "Taiji", which is a unique composition in the field of composition.The birth of "Taiji" is inseparable from the traditional Chinese literary work "Zhou Yi", the first of the Six Classics.Zhou Yi, the source of the Great Tao, gave the composer Zhao Xiaosheng the philosophical inspiration that "music and heaven and earth are the same".For example, Cui Shiguang's "Klaus's Birds -Seven Caricatures of American Characters in the Music Building" consists of seven small pieces such as "Big Parrot", "Owl" and "Swan".This work is a piano piece based on American characters, and it shows the Chinese composer's study and insight into Western modern composition techniques and American music, a "Sino-American" style of music composition.The details of the composition, as shown in  From the analysis of the above four creative exploration paths, we can see that the composers still focus on "nationalization", combined with the relentless exploration of new techniques and new sound effects, thus pursuing a Chinese music style different from the previous periods, reflecting the conscious identity of the new generation of composers.The differences between these four creative explorations stem from the different degrees of inclination of the composers between national and modern, and the different creative concepts.In addition to nationalization, the piano works after the reform and opening up also have the characteristics of the times such as commissioning, storytelling, and nonterritoriality, all these factors make the creation of piano works more diversified based on nationalization.

CONCLUSION
From In the 70 years since the founding of New China, China has undergone unprecedented political, economic, social, and cultural changes.However, musicians have inherited the "bones" of previous generations of musicians and have never changed in their pursuit of innovation and evolution of Chinese piano works.During the development process of creative thinking on the traditional elements of Chinese piano music, the subject matter and musical language had different characteristics in different periods.

During
the seventeen years of unprecedented prosperity of piano creation in the early years of the founding of the country, composers were enthusiastic in their creation, and nationalization and masses were well reflected in piano works.To make piano music more acceptable to the masses, the language of piano music in this period was not too complicated while leaning towards folk materials, and all the musical language served the melody.Many of the compositions are in the form of variations on the main melody, which is often used in folk music.
During the decade of the Cultural Revolution, piano works were subject to political constraints.The subject matter was limited to pianistic adaptations of model operas, revolutionary songs, and traditional instrumental pieces.Although the subject matter was narrow, it prompted composers to explore musical language in depth.In the fine instrumental adaptations of the late Cultural Revolution, the composers adopted the free variation and cycle styles commonly used in Chinese folk music for the development of the music.In the weaving, the traditional polyphonic structure of traditional Chinese music, the branched weave, brings the traditional musical thinking of "unity in contrast" to life in the piano works.
After the reform and opening up of China, many modern Western music genres influenced the creation of Chinese piano music, and the traditional music of the nation collided with the modern Western music genres, resulting in the diversification of national materials and new acoustics.During this period, composers used modernized folk materials to varying degrees, resulting in four types of compositional exploration of nationalized themes.The use of dissonant chords as acoustic material to imitate the acoustics of ethnic percussion, or the use of irregularly repeated tone cycles to maximize the potential of piano playing.Nationalization, diversity, and modernization are both dialectical and unified in Chinese piano works.
Ju Qihong and Qiao Bangli's "Reform and Opening Up and Musical Thought in the New Era", published by the Central Conservatory of Music Press in 2008, focuses on the postreform and opening-up period.The upper part of the monograph compares the development of musical trends in the postreform and opening-up periods, and the lower part discusses ten representative musical trends.The entire book is a thorough analysis of the complex post-reform and opening-up environment and the causes, effects, and implications of the musical trends.Hua Mingling's Introduction to Chinese Style Piano Music, published by Sichuan University Press in 2009, is a comprehensive review of the development of Chinese piano music composition and an in-depth analysis and study of the national styles expressed in Chinese piano works.Wang Changkui's Chinese Piano Music Culture, published by Guangming Daily Publishing House in 2010, provides an overview of the development of piano music culture in the 20th century in seven chapters from the multidisciplinary perspectives of cultural orientation, musical thought, and music education of piano music.Yang Hongbing's The Art of Chinese Piano Music, published by Tsinghua University Press in 2012, is a monograph that takes Chinese piano music as a basic carrier and summarizes the development of China's modern piano art from the perspective of our traditional philosophy, national culture, and folk art."A Preliminary Study of Chinese Piano Music Composition in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century," divides Chinese piano music composition into three periods, and analyzes the composition in terms of both genre and style of piano composition.A Trial of the Composition of Chinese Piano Works" discusses the characteristics of composition in the whole development of piano in one chapter, without doing to discuss the characteristics in periods and Traditional music in China has maintained the development of monophonic weaving for thousands of years, but the introduction of Western music in recent times, its rapid development, and the rich connotations of polyphonic weaving have made the development of traditional music a confusing prospect.Fortunately, a group of composers who love Chinese music has explored the way forward for the future of Chinese musiccomposing piano works with a Chinese flavor, and the piano has made full use of its wide range and great plasticity to add a different flavor to the use of polyphonic weaving in traditional music.As shown in Figure.1., in Variation 7 of "The Story of the Blue Flower" (example 1), the upper voice part uses the main melody of the folk song, while the lower voice part is based on the harmony of the folk pentatonic mode, and the two voices have a strong folk tonal color and authentic Shaanxi folk style.

Figure 1 -
Figure 1 -Reproduction of Variation 1 from "The Story of the Blue Flower"

Figure 2 -
Figure 2 -Reproduction of Variation 2 from "The Story of the Blue Flower"

Figure 3 -
Figure 3 -The evolution of creative thinking on the harmonic elements in "The Moon in Two Springs" The composer was influenced by the humanistic scenery of the Dong minority in Yunnan and Guizhou, the traditional musical rhythm, the polyphonic choral style of the Dong song, and the tonelessness and twelve-tone sequence of modern Western composition techniques.The main interest of the music lies entirely in the creative imagination and derivation of the composer.The embodiment of the above ideas is shown in Figure.4. and Figure. 5.

Figure 4 -Figure 5 -
Figure 4 -Example of a score with the characteristics of a piano work with ethnic material 1 Figure.6, show that the main notes of the two phrases are #g and d respectively.The melodies in different keys are juxtaposed in the same phrase and the upper voices of the lower score are in Figure.7.The upper part of the lower part of the score is in the key of b-flat to f-flat, and the lower part is in the key of e-flat.

Figure 6 -Figure 7 -
Figure 6 -Example of a pan-tonal solo piano score 1

Table 1 -
Classic piano music of the initial boom period

Table 2 -
Classic piano music of the initial boom period Homesickness

Table 3 -
Variant -The Story of the Blue Flower

Table 4 -
Reproduction of Variation 2 from "The Story of the Blue Flower"

Table 5 -
Variations -"Two Springs Reflecting the Moon Reflecting