Exploring the ‘New Sound’ in Ensembles for Zheng and Western Instruments

During the 1960s in the West and the 1980s in the China, composers began exploring ‘new sounds’, a description which refers to the novel combination of elements from different compositional periods and traditions. A number of books and academic sources have already utilised this phrase, including New Sounds, New Stories: Narrativity in Contemporary Music by Meelberg Vincent and Paul Griffiths’ book New Sounds, New Personalities: British Composers of the 1980s in Conversation with Paul Griffiths, as well as John Heiss’ journal article ‘The Flute: New Sounds’. Furthermore, I believe that a Chinese phrase “新音响” can be translated as ‘new sounds’ or ‘new acoustics’, and this term has been used in the journal article [Research on Compositional Techniques of the New Sounds in Contemporary Chinese Folk Music] and the doctoral dissertation [Exploration and Practice of New Sounds in Contemporary Chinese Ethnic Instrumental Music Composition]. Currently, there are few contributions regarding ‘new sounds’ as they relate to the combination of zheng and Western instruments. In this thesis, I will provide an overview of the zheng and its history, examine representative chamber and concerto compositions by other composers, as well as create and analyse a number of my own works.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Music

Grantor dc:publisher

ResearchSpace@Auckland

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Zheng, Lin

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Holmes, Leonie
• Sutcliffe, Dean

• Guzheng
• Composition
• Music Performance
• Cross-cultural Music
• Chinese Instrumental Music

Statement dc:rights

• Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2292/75567

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/75567