China's Music Theory Education under the Framework of Western Musicology

Musicology is the study of music, which comes from the west. When Mr. Xiao founded the Shanghai National Conservatory of Music, he introduced the European music education system that continues to this day. However, the curriculum of musicology is relatively late in China's music education. There were few musicology courses before the founding of New China. Even after the founding of New China, musicology courses in most professional conservatories were offered very late. With the exception of 1954, which established the Conservatory of Music of China Academy of Fine Arts earlier, and 1956, which established the Central Conservatory of Music earlier, the musicology major of other conservatories was established later. Shanghai Conservatory of Music and China Conservatory of Music set up music departments at 1978 and 1980 respectively, and Wuhan Conservatory of Music set up music departments at 1986. However, Tianjin Conservatory of Music, Xi Conservatory of Music, Shenyang Conservatory of Music, Sichuan Conservatory of Music, Xinghai Conservatory of Music, etc. are all music departments listed and established after the 1990s. Later, musicology majors in several conservatories were approved as master's and doctoral degree awarding points. 1982 central conservatory of music was awarded master's degree and 1988 doctoral degree. Shanghai Conservatory of Music approved the master's degree awarding point 1982 and the doctor's degree awarding point 1989.

In our western music teaching and research team, many scholars are cultivated in the social and living environment of western culture. We have made a lot of achievements in the dissemination, teaching and research of western musicology. However, it may not be an exaggeration to say that musicology is a young subject in China, which is also reflected in many people's understanding of musicology in the past and today. For example, we have been asking people who study music to have a "good foundation" and a "good foundation". The so-called "good foundation" and "good foundation" mainly refer to "music technology" and "music skills" in most cases No matter the students majoring in performance or even composition, only the ability of "music technology" and "music skills" is enough. As far as musicology is concerned, people who study and study should not only have the ability of "music technology" and "music skills", but also have the "foundation" of literature and history cultivation and writing ability, and have the thinking ability of music theory. That is to say, for those who are engaged in musicology professional work and research, they should not only master the knowledge of music itself, such as musical forms and techniques, but also master the knowledge of social science and culture, such as Chinese and foreign history, literature, language, religion, customs, literature and classics, and have two basic skills. This seems to have been known for a long time, and it seems to be a very simple question. However, it has not been implemented in the actual teaching of musicology in China, at least it is not enough. Moreover, before we have a clear understanding of the original western musicology, there are many other western music research theories, as well as some new fields and new knowledge of music research, which have made our country, a very young discipline, suffer different degrees of impact. For example, the systematic explanation of new disciplines and new concepts such as ethnomusicology, W0rld music, multi-cultural music, and the relationship with the original musicology; Wait a minute.

As far as the current teaching and research situation of musicology in China is concerned, it is urgent to think about how to establish an education system and teaching system that conforms to the development history of China's music, the present situation of China's music culture life and the present situation of China's music theory study and research while learning from the western musicology discipline system and digesting other mature western music theory systems. That is, how to establish a musical theory research discipline with China characteristics in the existing musicology education in China, in the cultivation and training of musicology students, in the teaching guiding ideology and training objectives, in the academic system and curriculum.

Second, the significance of setting up musicology major in the attached middle school

The major direction of musicology should be set from the attached middle school, at least in the high school stage of the attached middle school. We should think about the curriculum that conforms to the direction of musicology major in the affiliated middle school, and supplement musicology common sense courses for other majors such as performance and composition. Judging from the development of musicology in the past 20 years, it will be of great significance to the learning atmosphere and research level of music theory in China if musicology is set up in the attached middle school. As far as the educational significance of setting up musicology major in the high school attached to the middle school is concerned, it will have the following two meanings:

First, the conceptual significance.

I don't know when it started, but there was such a fallacy: "If you can't learn acting, you must learn composition; if you can't learn composition, you must learn theory." In addition to thinking that people lack understanding of musicology and music theory research, whether they should review their own problems.

The formation of this situation, on the one hand, should be related to the requirements of the music department. The music department has always regarded the students who entered the music department after other majors in the affiliated middle school were eliminated as "lineages" and regarded them as backup teachers. However, the key point is that most of these people don't like the course of Music Theory and don't study it as a special knowledge. Even some people simply look down on the teaching and research of music theory, and the result can be imagined. We don't jump to conclusions, and we don't doubt that many people have the ability to engage in teaching and research, and their IQ is very high. But unfortunately, they really don't have any research results published internationally, and few papers are known by their peers. As we all know, scientific research and teaching complement each other. Without the level of scientific research and research-oriented teaching, it is not clear what will happen. Many people look down on musicians for historical reasons and artificial understanding. This has become a well-known thing. Even some teachers who have taught musicology for many years often say that they used to study other majors and are ashamed of the teaching of musicology now. Therefore, it is of great significance to set up musicology major in the affiliated middle school, which is to cultivate students' aspirations. This is a big problem to be determined. "Determined" to study and study musicology is definitely not empty talk, nor is it a big talk. The music department should not regard the students who entered the music department after being eliminated from other majors as the "lineal" for training, and should not regard those who have certain music skills but don't like music theory courses as "treasures". In fact, if you can't learn acting and composition well, it's even more impossible to make a difference in music theory. The dilemma of music theory teaching and research in some conservatories has been fully proved. If we want to fundamentally change people's wrong understanding of musicology and music theory research and change others' understanding, we should first start from ourselves and let students aspire to study and study musicology. It is necessary to set up the major direction of musicology in the attached middle school, so that our students will be determined to study musicology from the beginning of entering the Conservatory of Music and establish a big research direction. In this way, it is a fundamental problem for undergraduate students of music department who have been upgraded from junior college to undergraduate college to change their inferiority complex into their determination to study and study musicology.

On the other hand, in today's published music theory papers, there are indeed many lack of research on music ontology, which makes people mistakenly think that the research of musicology is only a matter of writing, and that the basic skill of musicology is to recite several books on music history. This also has its historical reasons. At present, many members of the teaching, research and learning team of musicology have studied other majors. Some of them have received long-term training in foreign languages, history and literature, or have a high level and strong ability in other cultures, and so on. These people use their own advantages to engage in musicology. For example, people majoring in Chinese and China history compile and interpret ancient music documents in China, or engage in the work of music history in China, which lacks musical morphology research; Those who specialize in foreign languages or are proficient in foreign languages are engaged in the translation of western music documents, or engaged in the work of "Le Shu is not music, but musical instruments are not music" mentioned by Qi Ling, the Qing Emperor. Objectively speaking, some of these scholars have made great contributions to the study of music theory in China and completed a lot of basic work in musicology. The study of musicology needs the participation of other culturists, and musicologists also need to have the knowledge of culturology, but they should not be too biased. Now it's going too far, so people have a wrong understanding of musicology. This may be an inevitable stage in the development of musicology in China.

Second, the significance of ensuring the quantity and quality of undergraduates.

At present, it is generally believed that there are insufficient students in musicology, and the quality of students is even less satisfactory.

On the one hand, in order to expand the number of students, some music colleges have greatly reduced the admission criteria and even shortened the undergraduate study time of musicology to attract students. On the other hand, many musicology teachers complain that the current musicology examination questions are too simple and think that the students' quality is poor. Imagine that if high school students who have never studied musicology theory are asked to take the examination questions of musicology major in the Conservatory of Music, the effect will definitely be bad and the level will definitely be very low. Even those "piano children" and "geniuses" who have been exposed to music since childhood may know little about musicology theory. You can't get good grades if you haven't studied anything; Without a systematic musicology education mechanism, the quantity and quality of students will not be guaranteed. Therefore, I think that to fundamentally solve the above two contradictions, we must set the general direction of musicology from the attached middle school stage, or negotiate and choose some schools in ordinary middle schools to offer musicology courses at fixed points. Because many of the current candidates have not been systematically studied and trained in musicology, the simple questions in the eyes of teachers are also very difficult for candidates, and both teachers and students are not good at grasping the depth and difficulty of the examination questions. If the direction of musicology major is set from the attached middle school stage, it can not only ensure the number of students entering musicology undergraduate, but also stabilize the number of undergraduate students. But also can ensure that these students have a higher level of quality and ability in musicology. If students have learned the common sense of musicology in middle school, the examination questions for upgrading to undergraduate course can naturally go up a step, which is naturally difficult.

We often argue about whether to let students in the undergraduate stage of musicology choose their major. However, if musicology is offered in the attached middle school, students can choose their major in the second year after several years of musicology training. In this way, the overall quality and ability of students majoring in musicology will be greatly improved, and the education, learning and research level of musicology in China will be truly improved and developed. At the same time, it also puts forward higher requirements for teachers engaged in musicology teaching. The teaching and research of music theory should be forward-looking and backward in teaching, which will make us fall behind in the research of music theory. We should test the knowledge structure and academic experience of today's musicians according to the above standards, and demand to improve the professional ability and quality of team members engaged in musicology work and research. In the past, our understanding of this subject was not comprehensive, and we didn't think much about the construction of musicology, especially the curriculum of musicology. It should be made up as soon as possible in the future, and this phenomenon cannot continue.

Thirdly, the reasonable connection between secondary and undergraduate courses and musicology professional education.

If the middle school attached to the Conservatory of Music and even other ordinary middle schools can offer musicology courses, then these courses should be basically connected with the contents of undergraduate recruitment. Some courses offered in the undergraduate stage of musicology major should, to a certain extent, be the continuation of musicology major courses in affiliated middle schools and ordinary middle schools. So the course is very important. At present, the so-called specialized courses offered by musicology major in Conservatory of Music are considered as the study subjects of musicology. It allows students of this major to think that these courses are the learning content of musicology as soon as they enter this major. However, whether these disciplines of musicology really reflect the content that musicology should contain remains to be discussed. From the study and research of China traditional music, the course of China traditional music needs to add a lot of content. For example, the reconstruction and establishment of China's traditional music theory system lacks the foundation of philology. China's traditional music philology is an integral part of China's traditional music theory and the basic work of establishing China's traditional music theory. For students majoring in musicology, it is very important to master music literature, and the understanding of music literature and books is the premise and foundation of learning. This aspect is very lacking in the current curriculum. In other words, people who study western music should probably study "Western Philology" or "Introduction to Knowledge" courses like "Western Literary Criticism" first. These courses are not offered in musicology education at present. Starting from the middle school stage, we should pay more attention to the systematic, scientific and hierarchical nature of the course. Besides many courses of middle school music culture have their own characteristics, we should also consider the systematicness of undergraduate courses of musicology. We need a systematic and reasonable curriculum system that conforms to China's music theory education. It is important that we continue this system into the undergraduate musicology education and teaching system, and pay attention to the connection between music major and culture and other courses. In other words, once students choose the learning direction of musicology during their middle school study, they must learn some basic courses and contents in the undergraduate enrollment. For example, the music department of every conservatory now offers courses such as introduction to musicology, China music history, western music history, China traditional music, music aesthetics, harmony, polyphony, composition analysis, piano and so on. Of course, it is impossible to offer all these courses from the middle school stage. Even those courses that can be offered must be limited in number and degree. The specific curriculum and teaching content should be widely consulted and discussed theoretically. In addition, we must consider the problem of level education in this discipline here. For a long time, China's musicology major lacked level education. At present, there is not much difference between undergraduate students and graduate students, or even doctoral students in the entrance examination of musicology in China. This is related to the lack of hierarchy in the curriculum and educational content of musicology in China. We haven't worked out a set of examination standards for undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral examinations in terms of subjects, contents and level positioning. It should be said that the research on the curriculum and different levels of musicology major is not only conducive to the formulation of learning subjects, directions and contents of musicology major, but also of great significance to musicology learning of non-musicology major. Therefore, the first thing we need to solve is the hierarchical education of musicology. About the level education of musicology, we can do the following levels: First, the basic level of music.

Second, the level of professional knowledge and skills.

Third, the level of cultural literacy.

Fourth, the methodology level.

Moreover, different levels must have different stages, and different courses of different disciplines and different musicology contents must be solved by stages. Therefore, level education is combined with stage education.

For example, in the primary stage, it may be necessary to have an introduction to Chinese and western music and a basic education in perceptual knowledge; Basic knowledge of Chinese and western music theory and basic education of music skills and techniques; Basic education of Chinese and western literature, history, culture and language. In the second intermediate stage, an introduction to musicology should be given; An introductory course in other musicology disciplines. In the third advanced stage, you have to enter the stage of research on so-called professional topics, research on professional direction and writing musicology papers. In these different learning stages, what courses to learn, what content to learn, what level to learn and what level students have reached are all important issues. For example, while emphasizing the parallel of music ontological skills and basic musicology skills, and paying equal attention to music major courses and cultural basic courses in middle schools, we should also take into account the primary nature of these courses. That is to say, while cultivating students majoring in musicology with basic musical knowledge and skills, we should also strengthen the cultivation of Chinese and foreign historical and cultural knowledge and language ability. Personally, I think that musicology is a special subject based on music technology, skills and music culture. Therefore, if it is not the basic education of musicology in the ordinary middle school affiliated to the Conservatory of Music, it should be placed on the study of music ontology. For students majoring in musicology, they should first have basic skills such as music ontology technology, skills and musicology foundation. If you don't understand the musical form itself, it will be difficult to study musicology in depth in the future. Today, many students who have not studied systematically in the Music Department of the Conservatory of Music may lack some basic knowledge and skills in music. Today, for example, we all admit that those students who graduated from the Music Department of Normal University and who are not majoring in music in other art colleges have better comprehensive cultural knowledge and ability than those in the Conservatory of Music. At the same time, it is also pointed out that it is indeed a fact that these students lack understanding of music ontology and their music skills are low. Moreover, this situation may still exist for a long time. This is the key problem to be solved in the development of musicology in China. In this case, it is necessary to make up for this deficiency to enter the postgraduate stage. It is necessary to distinguish between courses and music graduates. This is also in line with the educational concept of "teaching students in accordance with their aptitude". Due to historical reasons, there are a large number of non-musicology graduate students, especially non-conservatory graduate students, who need to make up courses that require more musical skills. Make a study plan according to the specialty of undergraduate course and the situation of graduate students. Justifiably strengthen the supplementary learning of music skills. Moreover, because the proportion of students who can enter the postgraduate stage is not large, the main courses and contents of musicology should be completed in the undergraduate stage. In particular, the course of music skills and technology should be completed at the undergraduate level, because it is difficult to conduct in-depth musicology research without understanding the music form itself. On the one hand, if the research papers on music theory are only the accumulation of a large number of music examples, there is nothing to talk about, or they all talk about the big truth and the old truth, then it will not work. However, on the other hand, it would be even more ridiculous if we only talk about a lot of music in theory and culture, but can't prove their scientificity and rationality with practical examples of music, and even the music examples or scores listed in the paper don't agree with their theories. Therefore, it is extremely important to establish a systematic and hierarchical musicology teaching course. It is necessary to adjust and supplement the existing musicology teaching courses. For example, some courses belong to musicology, but they are far from the music itself. Music philology belongs to such a course. Higher education should teach the systematic teaching content of music philology. In fact, compared with the study of China traditional culture, there is a set of systematic methods and a set of mature philology. It is naive to dwell on the discussion of the research object and direction in the study of music theory. After understanding the basic methods of philology, we have to think about how to apply this method to the study of musicology and how to establish music philology. Philology is a methodology, and how to apply this method to the study and research of music theory is worth thinking about. Even in the teaching of music ontology, the teaching content of musicology major today lacks some important categories. For example, direct contact with folk music, an indispensable teaching content, should be placed at the corresponding level. Under the guidance of new music research ideas and concepts, the collection of folk music is carried out with new ideas and means. What is the new idea of music research? What are the new ideas and means of folk music collection? This is the thought and method of ethnomusicology. Folk music in today's social music and cultural life not only refers to the music in Shan Ye, but also includes the music culture in the city. Moreover, in the curriculum, we should consciously pay attention to the curriculum of China's music theory.

Four. conclusion

Under the framework of western musicology, the professional education, curriculum and teaching content of musicology in China are not perfect.

If musicology major can be set up in affiliated middle schools or ordinary middle schools, and make it systematic, systematic and hierarchical, I believe its function and influence will be more obvious and far-reaching.