On the Significance of the Composer’s Comments in the Scores of Guo Zurong’s Piano Concertos (On the Example of the Sixth Piano Concerto Ode to the Plum Blossom)
Abstract
The article sets out to study the meaning of the composer’s textual comments in the scores of piano concertos by the prominent Chinese composer Guo Zurong. Such remarks are interpreted as constituting a significant element of the composer’s programmatic thinking. Their multi-layered function is considered on the example of the Sixth Piano Concerto Ode to the Plum Blossom (1968). The main focus is on analysing the composer’s comments that frame the concert score. It is demonstrated that verbal explanations are not an external addition, but directly correlate with the musical dramaturgy and the system of expressive means (the use of the timbre of the pipa to personify the image of the plum, the leitmotif role of ascending passages, as well as textural and dynamic contrasts depicting the opposition of the flower and the cold). The research methodology is based on a comprehensive historical, cultural and musical-theoretical analysis. The author places Guo Zurong’s practice of authorial commentary in a broad context: from the traditions of Chinese poetic imagery with the symbolism of the plum blossom (梅花) as the embodiment of fortitude and hope to the European romantic tradition of programmatic writing. Comparative analysis with Wang Jianzhong’s piano piece Plum Blossom Melody in Three Variations (梅花三弄) reveals the commonality of the semantic complex of expressive means (arpeggiated flights, high register, dense texture) for the embodiment of this cultural archetype in music. The main conclusion of the analysis is that the author’s comments in the scores of Guo Zurong perform a multi-tasking function that manifests itself as an integral part of the composer’s artistic concept and a synthesising component of his unique style.
Keywords: Guo Zurong, piano concerto, programme music, author’s commentary, score, plum blossom (meihua), Chinese music, musical symbolism, pipa
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.56620/RM.2026.1.119-131
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