Pedagogical Approaches to Mastering Polyphonic Cycles by J. S. Bach and D. D. Shostakovich in the Piano Class by Students of the People’s Republic of China

Abstract

In the article the problems of mastering the binary cycles by J. S. Bach and D. D. Shostakovich included in large-scale polyphonic collections of the composers (“Well-Tempered Clavier” and “Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues”, opus 87) by the Chinese piano students are considered. It is shown that these problems are caused by the features of the Chinese system of music education based on the characteristic features of national culture (monodiality, the dominant role of the pentatonic-modal system, the intonation dictionary and the logic of the deployment of content, fundamentally different from the European interpretation) and also by a low level of theoretical knowledge of students about polyphonic music and the traditions of its interpretation. According to the authors, an important step to understanding and professional interpreting the polyphonic heritage of the composers by Chinese students may be the intonation, civilized and paradigm-pedagogical approaches. The consistent transition from national patterns of polyphony to European polyphonic works, their study through the prism of the proposed pedagogical approaches allowed students to understand the phenomenon of polyphony in the musical art, to trace traditions and innovations in it. This has a positive effect on mastering polyphonic opuses by students.

Keywords

• creativity of j. s. bach and d. d. shostakovich
• piano class
• polyphonic cycle
• mastering
• chinese students
• intonation
• civilized and paradigm-pedagogical approaches
• methods for studying the polyphonic repertoire