THE CONCEPTUAL SPHERE OF RITUAL RITES IN CHINESE VIOLIN MUSIC COMPOSER MA SITZONG

Abstract

The embodiment of Chinese ritual rites in Ma Sitzong’s violin music as one of the most important spheres of the national artistic outlook was reflected in several iconic compositions. They demonstrate peculiar types of programming and the specifics of the musical embodiment of the mythological-legendary sphere and religious-ritual rites. The three-part «Tibet Suite» reproduces a grandiose picture of the grandeur and mystery of the highlands with virtuosic romantic pathos in «Myths, Spirits and Deities of Tibet». Elements of the religious ritual of Buddhist monks (sonorous sounds of sacred instruments and chanting of mantras) are clearly expressed in the static and meditative «Lamaist Temple». The dynamics of the «Dance with Swords» (the beginning of the Buddhist mystery of Tsam) conveys the skill of the monks in the sacramental fighting techniques of kong fu.
The «Dance of the Dragon Lanterns» is subjected to detailed analytical consideration, where for the first time in Chinese violin music this religious-ritual conceptual sphere is embodied by the means of literal reproduction of the ritual. In this monumental composition, several idiomatic lines of sacred rites intersect. These are: a) the embodiment of direct plastic and choreographic elements of the Dance of the Dragon with folklore support through the appropriate musical design of this action; b) fondness and an attempt to recreate the symbolism and beauty of the Dragon Lanterns, which in the being of the Chinese people are one of the deep symbols of national identity, by means of impressionistic sound recording; c) the final Fireworks, as another symbol of China.
In the Taiwanese suites, Ma Sitzong demonstrates new features not only of the stylistic and expressive order, but also a new figurative and substantive sphere, plunging into the depths of the emergence of the first worldviews and religious ideas, where he will adapt primitive communal types of music-making, archaic pragenres of vegetative and hunting rites, shamanistic rituals («Sacrifice» and «Spirit Summoning» from the «Gaoshan Suite») in the dimension of universal archetypes for humanity, paving the way from folklorism to neo-archaicism, neo-mythology, gravitating towards minimalist tendencies, trying to find those impulses in primary forms, find support and the roots from which the entire intellectual world, all inexhaustible spirituality, emerges of today modern humanity.