On August 15, 2015, at the invitation of the Association for Austria-China Cultural Exchange and the International Association for Music and Dance Promotion, as a council member of the Chinese Association for International Understanding, with heartily enthusiasm and love for music and strong responsibility for the cause of the Chinese vocal music, I organized and staged the concert by Daibin and her students themed “the Oriental Beauty” in Theater of Boys Choir of Vienna, Austria. Vienna is a sacred and beautiful place and it was the first time for us to step into this city. In Vienna, the atmosphere of music could be felt everywhere, and the architecture, surroundings and people’s temperament there all exude the taste of an artistic and cultural city Vienna is worthy its name of the cradle of music. Vienna is a city shinning the light of music and it is a fascinating palace of art for each people who breeds the dream of music. In Vienna, with sincerity and enthusiasm, my students and I presented a splendid art feast. The concert was composed of four parts, namely purity, fragrance, gorgeousness and blossom, with diversified programs, original songs and performance jointly contributed by the teacher and her students. With both original national temperament and unique ancient voices, the concert provided the audience with a chance of feeling the merits of the Chinese music and culture and experiencing the appealingness of the Chinese folk songs.

 

About this event of international exchange, I have many personal feelings to share. The natural views of Vienna obsessed me, the cultural sense there attracted me, and what’s more important, the great strength of music there amazed me. Music could surpass all boundaries, such as time, space, national border, nationalities and languages. With their visit to Vienna, my students broadened their horizons, increased their knowledge, and improved their abilities----it is therefore a valuable opportunity of art practice. International exchange was of indispensable significance to art students it is not only helpful for them to better absorb and learn from excellent foreign culture, but also beneficial to the inheritance and development of the Chinese traditional culture. Meanwhile, international exchange can not only strengthen the friendship among peoples of different countries, but also boost our pride and confidence in the Chinese vocal music.

 

As a teacher and practitioner of vocal music, I have been always, with acute perception, accurate insight, strong sense of ethnic responsibility and historical mission, striding forward on the road of inheriting and developing the Chinese vocal music. With my years of performing and teaching experience, by improving the understanding of performers on song spectrum and deep-seated connotation, and via recreation extruding creativity and unique features based on first-stage creation, I gradually formed my unique insights and teaching characteristics in terms of forms of artistic presentation, especially the cohesion and unity of essences, regular patterns, modes and means of songs. In recent years, I have been devoting to vocal music teaching and theoretical research, and by innovating teaching concepts and methods, gradually bulit a theoretical system featuring high-level, multi-dimensional, scientific and practice-oriented, as well as innovated insightful research achievements surpassing the artistic ontology of vocal music. With extensive and in-depth investigation, by tracing the origin of vocal music, drawing nourishments from a lot of original works of different regions, ethnic groups and phases, walking into the grass-root society and daily life, I selected and developed into a lot of works with ethnic characteristics, performatic styles and creative representativeness. With new media as the carrying agent, I finished the recording of the first three volumes of series of vocal music teaching CD-ROMs by Dai Bin. The emergence of this series of CD-ROMs, filled the blanks in terms of stereoscopic appreciative teaching of national vocal music, and they are therefore of immeasurable academic value and demonstration significance to national vocal music teaching in China.

 

As a council member of the Chinese Association for International Understanding, I have always been thinking about what contribution the Chinese vocal music could make in terms of foreign exchange. First, we should entrench our confidence in the Chinese vocal music. With its thousands of years’ history, the Chinese nation has formed a profound cultural accumulation of music and the Chinese vocal music is very outstanding both in performing skills and in theoretical research. We should have ample confidence to inherit and carry forward the Chinese vocal music and demonstrate the brilliance of the Chinese vocal music at the international stage. Second, we should stick to reform and innovation. While adhering to our own characteristics, we should also learn from the advanced performing skills of western vocal music, and realize the deep integration between western bel canto and the Chinese vocal music with the aid of innovation. The national culture is an indispensable part of the world culture, therefore, we should embrace and encourage the diversified development of the Chinese vocal music. Third, we should strengthen the publicizing of the Chinese vocal music. At home, we should create a positive atmosphere and environment for the development of the Chinese vocal music. At abroad, we should widely publicize and promote the Chinese vocal music so as to make more foreign friends know about the Chinese vocal music and strive to make it a popular art form abroad. By making the most use of the cultural exchange platform of Confucius Institutes, we should broadly carry out the Chinese vocal music teaching abroad and bring the Chinese vocal music into the promoting program of the Chinese culture so as to realize the widely spreading of the Chinese vocal music abroad.

 

Human beings have never stopped their pursuit for beauty. With the rising of China and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, the Chinese vocal music is bound to be more prosperous and become a beautiful flower in the garden of the Chinese art and culture. People working in the field of the Chinese vocal music will better grasp the scientific, artistic, national and periodic feature of the Chinese vocal music, create and perform more works excellent both in forms and content, thus promoting the prosperity of the Chinese vocal music both at home and abroad.

 

    (Dai Bin, Council Member of the Chinese Association for International Understanding, Director of Office of National Vocal Music Teaching and Research, China Conservatory of Music)