THE ORIGINS OF POLYPHONIC CHORAL SINGING IN CHINESE MUSICAL CULTURE

Abstract

The article summarizes the cultural and ideological factors of the continued preservation of the unanimous singing tradition in Chinese music culture as a reflection of the aesthetic, cultural, and philosophical needs of the nation. In the course of development from the end of the XIX century in Chinese music, the practice of singing with a vocal chorus has spread, and since the mid-1960s, the professional art of conducting a choir has emerged in the process of expanding the curriculum of Chinese music institutions. It has been researched that the introduction of the forms of group polyphonic singing to the musical life is due to the gradual rooting in the territory of China of the influence of foreign singing traditions. The integration of early forms of polyphonic choral singing into Chinese musical culture revealed the polyphonic performance of works of church and secular music of the East and West. It is the religion of the very distant Eastern and Western civilizations that became the first impetus for the gradual development of intercultural contacts. The influence of the West is related to the activities of European Christian missionaries: Italian M. Ricci, Frenchman J.-F. Gerbillon, a Portuguese T.Pereira, and Ukrainian I. Lezhaysky, who founded Christian churches in China and maintained the traditions of Christian worship, accompanied by polyphonic choral singing. The influences of the choral culture of neighboring Japan were determined, in accordance with the ideas of Taoism, in the affinity of views on the essence and purpose of music; in listening to the Japanese collective and secular songs and religious hymns-litany, dedicated to the worship of the Buddha. In the early twentieth century. Important was the import of enlightenment from Japan Sheng Xingong і Li Shutong European choral "school songs" and introducing them to China's educational system. Acquaintance with the techniques of western music polyphony facilitated the creation of professional songs by the first composers of Chinese folk songs for choral performance.