LEGACY OF XIAO YOUMEI: PATHS TO EUROPEAN MUSIC

Abstract

The relevance of this topic is linked to the need to understand the way in which Asian countries develop theoretical musicology in active cross-cultural communication. This work examines Xiao Youmei (1884–1940), one of the most outstanding representatives of Chinese music culture in the first half of the XXth century. His contribution to Chinese music education and science include the organization of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music (1927), the upgrading of national musicology and the development of the first textbooks on music theory and history for training specialists. Of particular importance is Xiao Youmei's educational activities, related to the study of European music and the definition of the main directions in its research. The article mainly discusses the methods used by the Chinese musicologist in introducing European music to the students of the first music educational institutions in China. Theoretical and historical problems of European music are taught in Xiao Youmei’s textbooks: "Essays on the History of Western Music" (1920–1923), "General Musicology" (1928), "Harmony" (1932). They were distinguished by the following features: an overview principle of the presentation of the material, an expansion of the range of languages used by the term authors, several musical examples and a lack of scientific resources, which is explained by the stage of origin of the music educational system and scientific platform in China in the first decades of the XXth century. One of the main features of the content expressed in Xiao Youmei's textbooks is the correlation between various parameters of Chinese and European music. The paper provides examples illustrating the method of using the notions of one thinking system to explain the other (in the field of harmony, instrumental science). It is explained by the transitional stage in the formation of Chinese musicology — from the old system of notation to the new one.