Chinese National Motifs in the Folk Song Mo Li Hua: Influence on Modern Chinese Music

The traditional music of China is well-known outside the country. Because of how they are written, Chinese folk songs can be interpreted in a variety of genres, which contributes to the popularization of Chinese traditional music. This study aims to investigate Chinese national motifs in the folk song Mo Li Hua and determine its significance to modern Chinese music. Through comparison, the study identified the following four characteristics of the song: anti-romantic moods, the melodic motion of leaps, expressiveness of musical intonation, and connectedness of melody and lyrics. Using the coefficient of intensive properties, the study revealed that expressiveness of musical intonation (0.92) was of the greatest significance for the transmission and preservation of national cultural traditions. In the Shapiro-Wilk test, the melodic motion of leaps (0.831) and anti-romantic moods (0.795) were found to be of the greatest importance for modern music-writing. Comparing the two famous interpretations of Mo Li Hua, the study found that the second version (0.937) was more valuable as a source of inspiration for composers, mostly because it told a bigger story. The practical significance of the work lies in the possibility of using research results to enhance the Chinese-style modern folk music writing process. Future research may focus on other elements of folk music, determine characteristics that different music compositions share, and investigate the role of those common characteristics in the contemporary music-making process.