Traditions of Chinese Calligraphy in Fang Dongqing’s Piece “Man of the Рen” for Guzheng Solo

The object of the study is the piece for guzheng solo “Man of the Рen” (2010) by the famous contemporary Chinese composer and photographer Fang Dongqing (1981). The composer interprets the concept of “man of the Рen” (“mo ka”) as the most important component of the ancient Chinese cultural phenomenon of wenren - an educated person, an intellectual who masters the arts of calligraphy, painting, poetry, and music. The subject of this study is the features of the refraction of calligraphic art in Fang Dongqing’s work. The synthesis of the spatial-visual and musical-temporal in the piece is due to the composer’s natural ability to synesthesia. The composer relies on the centuries-old traditions of ancient national art - calligraphy, guzheng music, classical poetry and the Beijing opera. The musician considers the interaction of calligraphy and music at different levels. 1. At the level of expressive means: tempo-rhythm, reflecting both the speed of the brush on the paper and the acceleration / deceleration of the metric pulsation in music; melody, determined by the smoothness and expressiveness of lines in visual and temporal arts. 2. At the level of interpretation of national literary and poetic traditions: the author refers to classical works, quoting in the preface to the work the lines “Chang Yang Fu” by the ancient Chinese poet and philosopher Yang Xiong and the poem “Banquet in the Hall of Hu Shi Yushu” by the classic of Chinese poetry Du Fu. 3. At the philosophical and aesthetic level: the process of calligraphic writing is preceded by a stage of emotional and psychological “tuning” associated with Buddhist meditation and breathing exercises. In the musical text of the work, it was possible to identify four sections corresponding to the stages of traditional calligraphic writing: immersion, coloring, dissolution and splashing of ink.

Fang Dongqing, Man of the Book, guzheng, contemporary Chinese music, academic music of China, chamber instrumental genres, musical calligraphy, traditional arts of China, synesthesia, hieroglyphs