Butterfly Lovers: East and West Meet in the Enchantment of Fairy Tale and Love. He Zhanhao and Chen Gang’s Violin Concerto, Between Tradition and Contemporaneity

Abstract

The article highlights the interconnections between the socio-political and cultural context and the genesis of the work, situating them in relation to the Western art-music tradition. The discussion explores both the encounter between Chinese popular culture and the “cultivated West,” and the role that folk musical tradition continues to play in contemporary Chinese compositions—not as a simple folkloric quotation, but as an active component of a creative language. The study also analyzes the reasons that led the composers to choose the subject (a popular legend/fairy tale) and the main stylistic and compositional decisions, framing the creative process within the cultural climate of China in the 1950s and 1960s. This perspective takes into account both cultural dynamics within the country and the ways in which Chinese culture engaged, in that period, with Western models and practices. From this viewpoint, the Butterfly Lovers concerto is examined by identifying the musical elements most shaped by this approach: the use of traditional instruments, the employment of performance techniques specific to Chinese music and their adaptation or reinterpretation within a Western-based writing framework. Compositional devices typical of the Chinese tradition also remain central, such as pentatonic scales and specific graphic signs designed to achieve sound effects tied to the popular domain. The conclusions point to further research on the authors and, more broadly, on musical cultures from an intercultural-comparative perspective, emphasizing the opportunities offered by academic internationalization programs. In this view, musical culture becomes a democratic space of inquiry, capable of overcoming linguistic, cultural, political, and religious barriers, while promoting the individual and the context that gives voice to them.