Matteo Ricci’s contribution to the history of Sino-Western musical exchanges

Matteo Ricci (Macerata, 1552 - Beijing, 1610), a Jesuit missionary, resided in China for almost thirty years. The clavichord he contributed and the Eight Songs for a Western String Instrument he composed substantially enhanced the early musical interactions between China and the West. The research purpose of my work is to elucidate and exemplify the significance and modern relevance of Ricci's tangible and intangible musical contributions within the history of Sino-Western interactions. The importance of my examination of Ricci's musical contributions lies in revitalizing his image, which is entrenched in the collective consciousness, through a musicological lens. It aims to establish a historical precedent for mutual learning and mutual appreciation in the 21st century's Sino-Western global and local musical exchanges. My study has four principal research sections: musical texts, historical soundscapes, musical experiments, and a conclusion framed within a glocal musicology perspective. In Chapter 2, pertaining to the analysis of the musical text section, I will employ an exhaustive approach for the first time to perform a comprehensive examination of all music-related texts in Ricci's Chinese writings. In Chapter 3, I primarily employ Cantonese as method and poetico-musicale concepts to delineate the early historical soundscape of Ricci. Chapter 4 presents a musical experiment on Ricci's Eight Songs, employing linguistic musicology techniques grounded in the historical soundscape framework established in Chapter 3. The final chapter is the conclusion. I formulate the new concept of glocal musicology grounded on the principle of thinking globally, acting locally, to cohesively integrate the study findings from the preceding chapters. The aim is to demonstrate the glocal characteristics of Riccian musicological research and to concisely evaluate and integrate Ricci's musical contributions in a novel way. 利瑪竇（Matteo Ricci, 馬切拉塔, 1552 - 北京, 1610），耶穌會傳教士，在中國居住了近三十年。他所貢獻的擊弦鍵琴和他所創作的《西琴曲意八章》，大大促進了中西方早期的音樂交流。我的研究意圖在於闡明利瑪竇在中西交流史上的有形與無形音樂貢獻的重要性與現代意義。我對利瑪竇音樂貢獻研究的重要性在於使集體觀念中根深蒂固的利瑪竇形象透過音樂學的視角重新复活。而其研究目標在於為21世紀中西方全球與本土音樂交流中的互學互鑒建立歷史先例。 我的研究有四個主要部分：音樂文本、歷史音聲景觀、音樂實驗，以及在『全球在地音樂學』視野下所構築成的研究結論。在第二章， 關於音樂文本的分析，我將首次採用穷尽性分析法，全面檢視利瑪竇中文著作中所有與音樂相關的文本。在第三章中，我主要運用『粵語作為方法』和『詩意音樂』的概念來勾勒利瑪竇早期的歷史音聲景觀 。第四章則是利瑪竇《西琴曲意八章》的音樂實驗，運用語言音樂學的技法並以第三章所建立的歷史音景架構為基礎。最後一章是結論，我以『全球思維，在地行動』的原則為基礎，提出『全球在地音樂學』的全新概念，以連貫整合前幾章的研究成果，旨在展現利瑪竇音樂學研究的『全球在地化』特徵，並以這種新穎的方式簡明地評價和整合利瑪竇的音樂貢獻。

Grantor dc:publisher

University College Cork

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Liang, Yaoshen

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Marshall, Melanie L
• Stock, Jonathan

• Matteo Ricci
• Contribution
• Musical exchanges
• Sino-Western

Statement dc:rights

• © 2025, Yaoshen Liang.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10468/18446

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:cora.ucc.ie:10468/18446