Exploration on the Foundations of Contemporary Education and Ethnic Music Education from the Perspective of Traditional Chinese Musical Instruments

With the rapid development of multicultural arts,music education has become an important component of the educational research system.However,the teaching of traditional Chinese folk musical instruments,as an essential branch of music education teaching,has been neglected.This paper discusses the significance of Chinese folk musical instrument education from three aspects:the history of Chinese folk musical instruments,the development of folk musical instrument teaching,and the integration of modern musical instrument education with folk musical instrument education.

Visual exploration of latent space for traditional Chinese music

Generating compact and effective numerical representations of data is a fundamental step for many machine learning tasks.Traditionally,handcrafted features are used but as deep learning starts to show its potential,using deep learning models to extract compact representations becomes a new trend.Among them,adopting vectors from the model’s latent space is the most popular.There are several studies focused on visual analysis of latent space in NLP and computer vision.However,relatively little work has been done for music information retrieval(MIR)especially incorporating visualization.To bridge this gap,we propose a visual analysis system utilizing Autoencoders to facilitate analysis and exploration of traditional Chinese music.Due to the lack of proper traditional Chinese music data,we construct a labeled dataset from a collection of pre-recorded audios and then convert them into spectrograms.Our system takes music features learned from two deep learning models(a fully-connected Autoencoder and a Long Short-Term Memory(LSTM)Autoencoder)as input.Through interactive selection,similarity calculation,clustering and listening,we show that the latent representations of the encoded data allow our system to identify essential music elements,which lay the foundation for further analysis and retrieval of Chinese music in the future.

Duan Jingfang Shar Chinese Music with the Worls

PROFESSOR Yuan Jingfang has many titles: Dean of the Music Department, Central Conservatory of Music; Tutor of Doctors; Vice-president of China’s Traditional Music Society; Member of the National Music Committee of China’s Musicians Society; and Council Member of South China’s Music. Yuan truly carried on national music traditions and has persisted in disseminating them. Yuan is from Yueyang, Hunan Province. Her love of music was not influenced by her family, unlike other performers of national instrumental music. Yuan’s father is an engineer and her mother a nurse. Her desire to perform and study national music was fostered by the vigorous and grand scene she witnessed of performers beating waist drums to celebrate the founding of New China.

The Unique Chinese National Musical Instruments

The Chinese-made musical instruments, qin, zheng, bamboo flute and xiao, enjoy an irreplaceable position in the international instrument market, for their time-honored history, unique musical effect and delicate craftsmanship. Ancient zheng, named after its sound, is one of the oldest musical instruments of China. According to ancient records, zheng was popular in the Qin region (Shaanxi today) in 400 B.C. At that time, a zheng had 10 swings and was made of wood. In 900 B.C., the

Current Situation and Cross-Cultural Influence of Live Houses in China

Live houses emerged in China during the 1990s as the country’s rock music scene began to flourish.Today,live houses can be found in almost every major city in China and have become an essential part of the country’s music culture.The growth of live houses in China has been driven by changing consumer tastes,the expansion of the music industry,and a desire for new and innovative forms of entertainment.These venues offer a unique and intimate setting for music lovers to experience live performances,fostering a sense of community and connection between artists and audiences.The cross-cultural influence of live houses in China has been substantial,with international musicians and audiences increasingly drawn to the country’s vibrant music scene.Chinese live houses have hosted a diverse range of international artists,providing opportunities for cross-cultural exchange and collaboration.As a result,live houses have become a hub for promoting Chinese culture and soft power,enhancing global cultural diversity,and increasing the visibility of Chinese artists on the international stage.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation Combined with Chinese Medicine Five-Element Music on Depression for Cancer Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Objectives： To evaluate the effects of progressive muscle relaxation training （PMRT） combined with five elements music therapy of Chinese medicine （CM） for improving anxiety and depression of cancer patients. Methods： From June 2015 to March 2016, 60 cancer patients were included into the study. The patients were randomly assigned to a control group and a treatment group by envelope randomization, receiving PMRT and PMRT plus CM five elements music therapy, respectively, for 8 weeks. Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale （HADS）, Benefit Finding Scales （BFS）, Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual （FACIT-Sp）, and Intervention Expectations Questionnaire （IEQU） were adopted to assess the depression of the two groups before and after the treatment. Results： Four cases dropped out during the study, and 29 cases in the treatment group and 27 in the control group were included in the final analysis. Prior to the treatments, the baselines of the 4 questionnaires in the two groups showed no difference. After the 8-week treatment, the treatment group presented better levels of HADS, BFS and FACIT-Sp scores compared with the control group （P〈0.05）. Among the single items of HADS, 4 items involving vexation, feeling fidgeted, pleasure and prospecting the future in the treatment group were improved compared with the control group （P〈0.05）. Conclusions： As a simple and reliable and effective intervention, PMRT combined with five elements music therapy mitigated anxiety and depression of cancer patients. Cancer patients have been found to respond well to psychological intervention in areas regarding stabilisation of emotions, disease awareness, and therapeutic compliance. This brings about a great difference in improving their quality of life and psychological state, offers an effective approach to better self-management in cancer treatment.

An ensemble with the Chinese pentatonic scale using electroencephalogram from both hemispheres

To listen to brain activity as a piece of music,we previously proposed scale-free brainwave music（SFBM）technology,which translated the scalp electroencephalogram（EEG）into musical notes according to the power law of both the EEG and music.In this study,the methodology was further extended to ensemble music on two channels from the two hemispheres.EEG data from two channels symmetrically located on the left and right hemispheres were translated into MIDI sequences by SFBM,and the EEG parameters modulated the pitch,duration and volume of each note.Then,the two sequences were filtered into an ensemble with two voices：the pentatonic scale（traditional Chinese music）or the heptatonic scale（standard Western music）.We demonstrated differences in harmony between the two scales generated at different sleep stages,with the pentatonic scale being more harmonious.The harmony intervals of this brain ensemble at various sleep stages followed the power law.Compared with the heptatonic scale,it was easier to distinguish the different stages using the pentatonic scale.These results suggested that the hemispheric ensemble can represent brain activity by variations in pitch,tempo and harmony.The ensemble with the pentatonic scale sounds more consonant,and partially reflects the relations of the two hemispheres.This can be used to distinguish the different states of brain activity and provide a new perspective on EEG analysis.