The Role of Mentality in Understanding Musical-Theoretical Definitions (On the Example of Timbre and Texture Analysis in the Works of Chinese Musicologists)
Abstract
The article considers the problem of mutual enrichment of research practices of Russian and Chinese musicology as a result of mastering the methods of music analysis developed within the framework of different scientific paradigms. The starting point of the discussion was the thesis that representatives of different cultures, characterised by different mental consciousness, have significant differences in the perception of artistic phenomena. The article considers the expressive means of music from this point of view — in particular, in terms of texture and timbral colouring — suggesting that the understanding of the meaning of timbre-textural sound colours by the European ear and the ear of representatives of Eastern cultures (China, in particular) is not the same. This appears to be due to differences in mentality, a significant characteristic of which, in the latter case, consists in the visual-figurative type of thinking as conditioned by the Chinese language system, especially its written hieroglyphic form, which presupposes the brain working with images. The visual-figurative type of thinking, in turn, determines the priority of painting among the arts. The special techniques of painting described in ancient sources were aimed at creating either deep, dense, multi-layered colours, or transparent single-layer dots and thin drawn lines. The orchestral sonorities created by Chinese composers, possessing various phonisms, are perceived as a transfer of the techniques of Guohua (国画) monochrome painting onto the musical fabric; as such, Chinese musicologists take the latter into account in the analysis of orchestral works. The experience of studying the timbre-textural features of Guo Zurong’s piano concertos using this method as featured in the present work reveals its viability, allowing for a deeper understanding of the national type of musical thinking of Chinese composers.
Keywords: mentality, timbre, texture, piano concerto, Guo Zurong, Guohua painting technique, analysis methods
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.56620/RM.2026.1.033-044
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