INFLUENCE OF HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING ON VOCAL PHRASING AND ACCENTUATION

Abstract

Summary. The Chinese language, due to its logographic writing system and tonal nature, presents unique challenges for vocal art, defining the specificity of musical-textual organization. The lack of direct correspondence between a grapheme and its phonetic meaning influences the rhythmic-melodic structure of vocal phrasing, shaping distinctive approaches to articulation, intonation, and phrasing. The aim of this study is to identify the patterns of interaction between the graphical system, phonetic properties, and tonal organization of the Chinese language with phrase structure, accentuation, and articulation specifics that affect vocal performance in both traditional and academic genres. The research is based on an analysis of vocal phonetics, musical-linguistic interaction, and methods of composer adaptation of Chinese vocal texts. The study employs comparative analysis of Eastern and Western vocal traditions, a structural-functional approach to the examination of rhythmic-metric organization of vocal material, and stylistic analysis of works by Tan Dun, Guo Wenjing, and other representatives of the contemporary Chinese school of composition. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the systematic examination of the impact of the tonal structure of the Chinese language on musical intonation and vocal phrase organization. For the first time, the correlation between the graphical form of a character, its articulation-specific realization, and the metric-rhythmic structure of vocal performance has been examined. A classification of vocal strategies for adapting Chinese texts within academic music of the 20th and 21st centuries has been proposed. The research results indicate that the Chinese language defines a unique vocal organization distinct from European traditions. The tonal structure of Chinese complicates the integration of vocal texts into conventional European compositional models, as pitch organization in Chinese vocal performance serves not only as an expressive tool but also as a semantic determinant. A trend towards segmentation of vocal texts, driven by the rhythmic autonomy of each character, has been identified, which complicates the construction of extended cantilena lines without semantic distortion. Special attention is given to the rhythmic-intonational structure of vocal texts in the context of logographic writing, where each character functions as an independent rhythmic unit, influencing melodic progression and formal development. The study examines the adaptation methods of Chinese texts in Western academic music of the 20th and 21st centuries. In the works of Tan Dun and Guo Wenjing, intonational models that replicate the natural melodic contour of Chinese speech are observed, demonstrating the integration of traditional Chinese musical-textual structures into modern academic compositional practice. The findings contribute to expanding knowledge on the interaction between linguistic and musical elements in vocal art and may be beneficial to vocalists, composers, and musicologists engaged with the Chinese vocal repertoire.