¹ In December 1977, China restored the college entrance examination system. Large numbers of outstanding students signed up, however, necessitating enrolment expansion and, in turn, college capacity shortages. As a result, this batch of students did not begin their studies until April 1978. This ‘Class of 77’ has achieved mythic status and includes many renowned Chinese or Chinese-origin composers, such as Ye Xiaogang, Zhou Long, Chen Yi and Guo Wenjing.

² ‘A Single Stone Causes Ripples in a Thousand Layers of Waves – A Brief Account of the Seminar on Tan Dun’s Ethnic Instrumental Works Concert’, Musicology in China, 1 (1985), pp. 134–136.

³ Anguo Wang, ‘A General View of the New Trend in Chinese Music Composition’, Musicology in China, 1, no. 1 (1986), pp. 5–6.

⁴ See, for example, Dongmei Zhao, ‘The Inheritance and Innovation of Pitch Elements in Chinese Traditional Music in Modern Music Composition’ (PhD dissertation, Central Conservatory of Music, 2010) and Barbara Mittler, Dangerous Tunes: The Politics of Chinese Music in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China since 1949 (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 1997), pp. 282–283.

⁵ Sun Yi, ‘The Compositional Techniques of Tan Dun’s Ethnic Instrumental Music Chamber Works’, Journal of the Central Conservatory of Music, no. 4 (1985), pp. 61–64.

⁶ ‘Feng, Ya, Song’, in Arthur Waley (Trans.), The Book of Songs: The Ancient Chinese Classic of Poetry (New York: Grove Press, 1996), represents the three distinct sections of the first anthology of ancient Chinese poetry as categorised by region and musical style.

⁷ ‘Nanxiangzi’ originally refers to a renowned musical pattern used in classical Chinese poetry during the Song Dynasty.

⁸ The creative inspiration for ‘Dao Ji’ is derived from ancient Chinese Taoist philosophy, with a particular focus on the exploration of the concept of ‘Dao’. Taoist philosophy emphasises the harmony of nature and the unity of the cosmos, and this work manifests these ideas musically.

⁹ Music and poetry were closely intertwined in ancient China, with the rhythm of poetry and the melody of music depending on each other, jointly creating a unique artistic form. The playing techniques of ancient musical instruments such as the guqin, se and Chinese bamboo flute were closely integrated with sounds and rhymes. Different performance methods expressed changes in sound and rhyme. Many modern composers still incorporate traditional elements of sound and rhyme into their works to maintain contact with national characteristics.

¹⁰ ‘A Single Stone’, p. 135.

¹¹ Yong Wang and Zihua Qiu, ‘The Original Ecological and Natural Aesthetic Characteristics of Oriental Music’, Journal of Central China Normal University (Humanities and Social Sciences), 60, no. 1 (2021), pp. 106–110, here p. 106.

¹² See Yong Wang and Zihua Qiu, ‘Characteristics of Oriental Music’, p. 106 and Shaolin Han and Tao Yu, ‘Aesthetic Characteristics of Oriental Music’, Wuhan University of Technology (Social Sciences Edition), 28, no. 4 (2015), pp. 617–621.

¹³ The original review was published in the Kent County Daily Times (West Warwick, February 1988); this excerpt is taken from Wei Li, ‘Tan Dun’s Music in the Eyes of America’, People’s Music, no. 8 (1988), p. 37.

¹⁴ Xi zouma is a gong and drum rhythm with specific beats and performance techniques, which is commonly used in traditional Chinese operas to simulate the dynamic movement of a horse with its delicate and smooth rhythmic variations. In Peking Opera gong and drum music, the xi zouma rhythm is usually played in coordination with small gongs and clappers, imitating the light and rhythmic steps of a walking horse in rhythmic combinations that approximate the rhythmic pattern of two eighth-notes in classical music.