Music, in a broad sense, I think it should be an extension of culture and a crystallization form of the essence of culture. In this sense, China traditional music is a rich aesthetic experience accumulated by the Chinese nation in the long historical activities, which is obviously different from western classical music (mainly symphonies) because of the differences in the breeding soil (complicated culture). We can verify this from the following examples:

The melody of a song "Mountain Flowing Water" is simple, elegant, beautiful and deep; The rhythm is smooth and stretched; The timbre is lingering, soft and beautiful; Reflect the beauty of women.

The Symphony of Destiny has a bright rhythm, a wide range, a clear tune, full of vitality, passion and great verve. Reflect the beauty of masculinity.

Therefore, if you extend it to China traditional music and western classical music, you will find that the above is not only the style difference between the two pieces of music, but also the embodiment of the cultural background difference between the East and the West in music aesthetics and artistic expression.

Speaking of the difference between China traditional music and western classical music, we can look at it from the following two aspects:

On the technical level, western classical music is theoretical and standardized, with a large number of text and audio documents, which are easy to spread; However, China's traditional music, without a complete set of composition theory and rules, is easily lost. China's traditional music is dominated by lines, while western classical music pays more attention to harmony. China traditional music pays more attention to breath, while western classical music pays more attention to rhythm. The biggest technical difference between them lies in timbre and playing method.

On the artistic level, China's traditional music mainly expresses Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, emphasizing understanding and wisdom, so it is subjective.

Western classical music emphasizes aesthetics and functionality, so it is more objective. The performance characteristics of China's traditional music realm are different from those of western classical music. Western classical music is famous for its profound seriousness, highlighting the opposition between subject and object, and most of it is full of drama or tragedy, which embodies the "grandeur" of an artistic spirit. China's traditional music is profound, emphasizing the blending of "emotion" and "scenery" and the unity of subject and object, which embodies a spirit of "harmony" and "beauty".

In the final analysis, the biggest difference between art lies in aesthetic orientation and values.

So, this is not surprising-westerners love to play symphonies, and the more musicians and musical instruments on the stage, the more imposing they are; People in China can achieve the same artistic effect without this. A pipa can pop up a tragic encirclement, a guzheng can play the spring tide of the sea, and a Gu Xun can blow out the ups and downs of meditation.

In short, due to the different social and cultural backgrounds, there are differences in music creation techniques and aesthetics: learning from each other and promoting each other on the basis of maintaining the original style will be the only way for them to develop and prosper in the future!

Aesthetic differences

Socrates is one of the figures in the Axis Age. In the history of western cultural thought, he was the first to break away from the external "fate" and realize the ultimate concern of life. His questioning of "beauty itself" marks the aesthetic consciousness and the possibility of aesthetics, which has a far-reaching impact on the development of aesthetics in later generations. Heidegger made a meaningful memory of his thoughts. In the history of western aesthetics, Socrates' aesthetics turned to the problems of man, subject and consciousness. His contribution to aesthetics is first manifested in his search for the universal definition of beauty. His humanistic aesthetics is also reflected in his artistic consciousness. Confucius and Socrates are the earliest great educators in the history of education in the East and the West. They left behind many incisive and valuable educational thoughts and experiences, such as "teaching without distinction", "inspiring teaching" and "teaching students in accordance with their aptitude". There are many similarities between the educational thoughts of two great educators in the East and the West. Analyzing and comparing the educational and teaching thoughts of the two sages is still of guiding significance to our educational work and practice today. Plato's stern questioning and difficult answer to "what is beauty" opened the precedent for Chinese and western aesthetics to ask "where is beauty" and "what is beauty", which has far-reaching influence. He believes that "rationality" is an eternal independent spiritual entity outside the real world. It is the essence and prototype of perceptual things in the real world. The beauty of all things is the result of sharing "beauty itself" in the conceptual world. Observing and understanding beauty itself is the process that the soul recalls the upper bound of beauty from the concrete beautiful things in front of him in a crazy state. Beauty is puzzling, it is a hesitant, free and shining shadow, and it always escapes being mastered by definition. -Goethe. "What is beauty?" Besides, in every new aesthetic work, there is a new saying ... In the past 150 years, thousands of scholars have discussed the meaning of the word "beauty", but it is still a mystery. The turn of contemporary aesthetics from ontology, epistemology to linguistics, and the indifference of contemporary aesthetics to the ontology and essence of beauty may show the escape and helplessness of aesthetic research to the ontology and essence of beauty. Throughout the history of aesthetics, there are three main starting points for the speech and discussion of beauty: 1. From the spiritual world, beauty is rational (Plato), beauty only exists in the mind of the viewer (Hume), beauty is the perceptual manifestation of ideas (Hegel), beauty is the full objectification of will (Bergson) and benevolence is beauty. Starting from the objective world: "Beauty is harmony" (Pythagoras) Beauty lies in "order, symmetry and clarity" (Aristotle), "Beauty is the attribute of objects" (Bok), "Beauty is life" (Chernyshevski), "There is great beauty in heaven and earth without saying it" (Zhuangzi) "Beauty is a free practice" (Li Zehou) "Beauty is the objectification of human essential strength. What poetry describes is universal, and what history describes is individual. It is debatable to regard Plato as the pioneer of western aesthetics on the road of metaphysical rational thinking on the grounds of "what is beauty". Ignoring Bertrand's sigh and helplessness about "beauty is difficult". Plato's aesthetics develops in two dimensions: rationality and sensibility. Later generations often only attach importance to the former and ignore the latter. In fact, there is a perceptual brilliance everywhere in his aesthetic thought, but this brilliance is covered by the net of reason, which is caused by two reasons: First, Plato's aesthetics is under his philosophical system and cannot but be wrapped by philosophical reason; Second, the confusion of his thoughts led to the rational interpretation of future generations and put on an inappropriate rational coat. Under this cover, traditional aesthetic research always constructs a theoretical system within the framework of pure speculation, ignoring the value and personality characteristics of aesthetics. The aesthetic thoughts of Confucius and Plato laid the paradigm of eastern and western aesthetic thoughts. Confucius' aesthetic view is full of ethical content. Plato's aesthetic education thought is subordinate to its political purpose. Zhuangzi and Plato were two famous philosophers and aesthetes in ancient China and ancient Greece respectively. Their aesthetic thoughts prominently reflect the characteristics of ancient Chinese and western ideology and culture. Not only at that time, some of their views still have certain practical significance today. The difference between Chinese and western classical aesthetics lies in expression and reproduction. On the premise of both, China's classical aesthetics tends to be expressive. It is a philosophy of seeking goodness, while western classical aesthetics tends to reappear and is a philosophy of seeking truth. But in any case, we can't forget that Plato's questioning about "what is beauty" awakened people's confusion about self-knowledge, distinguished "beautiful things" from "beauty itself" for the first time in the history of aesthetics, and opened a precedent for questioning the essence of beauty. Although he gave an unsatisfactory answer, it doesn't matter. What matters is this. If you are not satisfied, you can answer again. As long as we have the answer, we can avoid the spiritual crisis, and human wisdom can look for beauty. Without Plato's solemn question "What is beauty", there would be no such colorful and bizarre answers and answers as "Where is beauty" and "What is beauty", and there would be no such rich and brilliant achievements of western aesthetics. Plato put forward in the Republic (Volume 10) that each of our miscellaneous individual things has its own theoretical basis. All souls are immortal, because things that move forever are immortal ... We can affirm without hesitation that the essence of soul and logos (definition) is self-movement. Philosophers who recall in the sacred glory of reason are often regarded as crazy by mortals, but in fact, they "recall the real beauty of the upper world when they see the beauty of the world, so they regain their wings and are eager to have new ones." However, the heart wants something, but it is not enough. It is like a bird, staring at the high place with its head held high and turning a blind eye to everything in the lower world, so it is accused of being crazy. Hippias' second answer is: "Beauty is nothing but gold." Even ugly things look beautiful as long as they are set with gold. Socrates was not satisfied: the eyes, face, hands and feet of the Greek sculptor Athena were not made of gold. The significance of Kant's aesthetics lies in subverting traditional aesthetics with a set of "Wei phenomenological methods". An important aspect of this subversion is that Kant's aesthetics rebelled against the epistemological tendency of traditional aesthetics from three levels. This is not only the aesthetic standpoint that traditional aesthetics equates beauty with truth, but also the aesthetic standpoint that traditional aesthetics equates aesthetic activities with cognitive activities. In addition, it also rebelled against the aesthetic position that traditional aesthetics equates aesthetics with science. This latest interpretation of Kant's aesthetics from the perspective of phenomenology puts modern Kant's aesthetics in a broad modern cultural background, thus highlighting the modern significance of Kant's aesthetics, breaking through the existing pattern and traditional understanding of Kant's aesthetics research, and providing hope and entrance for us to have a new academic dialogue with Kant's aesthetics. Kant believes that beauty is by no means a single dimension. It is an aesthetic and cultural process with multiple attributes. In this way, Kant liberated art from the definition of authenticity or morality in traditional literature and art, and obtained the essential provisions of aesthetic activities. When art is established as an aesthetic activity, the study of the essence of beauty transcends metaphysical philosophical presupposition and logical deduction and enters the field of art. Art makes the essence of beauty really return. Kant actually completed the most important theoretical construction of literary aesthetics. Western classical aesthetics can be said to be tragic aesthetics. Tragedy and sublimity are a series of aesthetic categories, which mean that things are in a state of conflict, opposition, contradiction, struggle and uncompromising. China's classical aesthetics, such as China's classical literary theories "Wen Xin Diao Long" and "Wen Fu", and the creation of China's ancient literature, all pursue the beauty of harmony, that is, to maintain the harmonious and unified relationship between things and elements within things, rather than the fierce struggle of conflicts and contradictions. China ancient literati pursued a quiet and indifferent state of mind, not an inevitable pursuit. Sublime and harmony can be unified, because the sublime tragedy is only a process, and the ultimate tendency or result of her development is harmony. The contradiction, struggle and opposition of all things will eventually lead to harmony and unity. We know that aesthetics and philosophy are closely related. China's ancient aesthetics was deeply influenced by Confucianism and Taoism. It can be said that Confucianism and Taoism are the aesthetic foundation on which China's art depends. China's ancient philosophy's understanding of nature is different from that of western philosophy, which also leads to different aesthetic tastes between China and the West. Taoism values "mind" over "things" and regards the unity of man and nature as the highest realm of creation. The west is another scene. Influenced by Christianity, they believe that sacred values exist outside people and the world and need to be seen and heard. According to the understanding of Christianity, the artist's accurate and perfect expression of external beauty is to complete his closeness to God and make a contribution to God. These aesthetic thoughts are reflected in different cultural fields in the west. It has different aesthetic values. It can be said that Chinese and western classical aesthetics stand at two different peaks in the history of world art. There is no fundamental difference between the two, but the aesthetic difference is caused by different concepts, but it also gives us a variety of choices.