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Shanshui-thought in Experimental Music Practices: China and beyond

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 November 2020

Jing Wang
Jing Wang*
Affiliation:
College of Media and International Culture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The experimental music of Chinese musicians including Yan Jun, Li Jianhong, Jun-Y Chao, Shen Piji and the Tea Rockers Quintet embodies a particular mode of thinking rooted in Chinese qi-philosophy known as shanshui (山水)-thought, which considers nature and the environment as secret and nurturing. Shanshui-thought cultivates an existential gesture of following rather than obeying or conquering; it requires tacit resonance rather than object knowing. Shanshui-thought enables us to recognise the cosmic, aesthetic and moral values of music qualities of dan (淡) (quiet and bland) and you (幽) (inward expandedness), once described as ‘poverty’ and ‘darkness’ by the composer Christian Wolff of what he calls ascetic minimalism.

Type
Articles
Information
Organised Sound , Volume 25 , Issue 3: On Phonosophy , December 2020 , pp. 292 - 301
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Copyright
© Cambridge University Press, 2020.

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DISCOGRAPHY

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