Research on the Compositional Characteristics of Chinese Piano Works in the 1990s—Taking Zhang Zhao’s “Dian Nan Shan Ballad” as an Example

The 1990s marked a pivotal period of social and cultural transformation in China, accompanied by a shift in artistic creation concepts. Against the backdrop of deepening reform and opening-up and increasingly close cultural exchanges between China and the West, Chinese piano music composition entered a new phase pursuing profound integration and autonomous expression. Works like “Dian Nan Shan Ballad” signify the deepening and maturation of the “nationalization” process in Chinese piano music, laying a solid aesthetic foundation for its diverse development in the 21st century. This paper aims to examine the compositional characteristics and aesthetic orientations of Chinese piano works during this period by analyzing the musical substance of “Folk Songs from the Southern Mountains of Yunnan,” a piano suite composed by Zhang Zhao in 1992.