Preface
Lv Yisheng,
 Chairman of Beijing Dancers’ Association,
 Former President of Beijing Dance Academy

 

In the circles of musical, many people hold that Wen Shuo is “alien”. It is often the case that Wen Shuo controversially says no when the majority hail some musical. Often busy with work, I have little time appreciating articles in various media by him. It is until I was invited to give a preface for his new book Wen Shuo's Perspectives on Musical  that I managed to spend some of my spare time on his learning and opinion in the past three years.

 

After reading the manuscript, the most praiseworthy point is that Wen Shuo is doing academic work not only for academic purposes, and that he is trying to do theoretical exploration during the course of developing dance for mee, the first musical movie in China. Therefore, many conclusions in the book are, thanks to their practical bases, very convincing. What he is trying to establish is a theoretical system with much practical utility for musical plays. It should be admitted that his understanding and analysis of various ungraspable, complicated musicals in different countries are quite clear. I agree more and more with him that artists engaging in China’s musical plays should get away from musical in Britain and France, and look for nutrition in the American “golden age” of musical development from 1940s to 1960s. This period may not be familiar to common researchers and artists. If a person should have no knowledge of two decades between Oklahoma! (l943) and Fiddler on the Roof (1964), he would have much difficulty understanding the essential part of American musical, which play a dominant role in singing and dancing practices all over the world. Here the “dominant” is referred not only to American, but also to worldwide, and it means we must learn from the previous masters first and then develop our own creative ideas.

 

It is really a pity that, in China, presently, teachers in colleges, performance companies, and even the whole society lay stress only on contemporary British and French singing and dancing play  knowledge, represented by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Claude－Michel Schonberg, and neglect the cultivation of appreciation and thinking capabilities to inherit from American musical. As a result, the orthodox thinking of musical plays is not well continued in China. Neither the flicker of books and librettos nor the wit of songs and dances is given full play to.

 

Book Musical is the most majestic and splendid concept among singing and dancing narrative traditions, and the most beautiful, glittering and nourishing flower in the tree of human singing and dancing narrations. I think it quite scientific that the author bases on it his structural study of musical theories. In the book, we can find the exploration of assumption, essence, goal and concept of musical, seeking of musical factors and integration mystery, and uncovering of musical  ideology, unveiling of a good many classical musical cases and pursuit of orthodox musical  by the musical movie dance for me , rays of reason of American masters in the field of musical and witty spark of traditional Chinese dramas. From this point, the book is not just a book on musical  theory, but a book on musical practices; not just a book on the history of musical, but a book on the comparative study of musical.

 

A scholar named Zhang Ming in Song Dynasty has left an inscription that “we should establish our thinking for the scope of universe, make our pursuit for the people, continue our research for previous masters and create a peaceful world for all ages”. In our musical field, this group of researchers and practitioners, who persist in applying theory to practical work, in face of academic mountains in the history of musical, “show respect to high mountains, and follow suit when aboveboard deeds in sight, and even if I could not reach that point, I am yearning to do so”. As said by many, the exploration path of musical means destruction. Then, even if there were a slim chance, we would do our best to fight our way for musical theory. So, I want to employ the inscription by Zhang Ming to encourage and applaud those who untiringly pursue and develop musical theories and who seem to be lonely but actually lead a full life. Musical plays will become even richer and more mature with their effort.