How does the music exemplify “the socialist realist style that predominated in China from the 1940s until the early 1990s”? How does the composer show close ties to European classical music”?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• Under the socialist realist style music along with the other arts was supposed to "inspire social change by providing positive images of the new [communist] society toward which reform aimed . . ." Art was not to be created for art's sake and was to be open to the understanding of the normal people. There were several overlaps with national music in expressing a Chinese theme and use of modern methods and techniques.
• The music presents a simple theme that continually repeats (with some modification); the stated "program" of the music is the positive image of "a village band merrily playing and people enjoying the festive atmosphere the program."
• Liao's systematic use of 24 pentatonic-based modes in a set of piano preludes—the piano itself is a Western invention—parallels sets of preludes by European classical composers such as J. S. Bach, Chopin, and Debussy that explored each major/minor key in a systematic way.