Algorithmic approach to sonification of classical Chinese poetry

Abstract

The classical Chinese poetry is a remarkable form of art in traditional Chinese character. However, it is difficult for people who are unfamiliar with ancient Chinese to experience the artistic content of the poetry. In this study, a sonification scheme, Tx2Ms (Text-to-Music), is proposed to extract the poetry features between lines in verses; moreover, dynamics and interval relations are modeled to map those features to the movement of multi-dimensional musical elements such as durations. This conversion is based on poetry intonation and acoustic analysis of the pronunciations of poems; and a stochastic compositional algorithm is created by applying a Markov chain. In addition, the best pentatonic mode for a specific poem is recommended according to the formants analysis. Therefore, the sonification of classical Chinese poetry not only provides a novel way for people to appreciate Chinese poetry but also enriches the state of mind and imagery in the delivery process, and the experiment results show that the proposed system is successfully accepted by most people.

Cross-Language Transfer of Reading Ability

“…Vernacular and Classical Chinese. Based on ancient forms of Chinese in variance with spoken Chinese, Classical Chinese (also called Literary Chinese) was the standard written form of Chinese until the 1920s (Hung, 1980;Tsao, 1999). After that time, Standard Mandarin, from the spoken vernacular, overtook Classical Chinese as the standard written form.…”

Integrating Classical Poetry and Its English Translation into Preschool Education: An Attempt of Creative Transformation and Innovative Development of Fine Traditional Chinese Culture

“…In contemporary era, in order to achieve the construction of China's localization theory in the field of preschool education, it is necessary to pay much attention to the current situation in the field of infant education in China, call for real solutions with real problems, draw nutrients from the fine traditional Chinese culture of preschool education concepts, and give them historical and cultural support, so that the creation of the indigenized theory of the Chinese school of animation in the field of infant education can be achieved. The classical Chinese poetry is a remarkable form of art in traditional Chinese character [15]. Although tiny poetry presents even more translation challenges as this form of poetry works by reducing the message to its essence [16], Chinese translators will spare no effort to do a good job in translation work.…”