The Paradox and Approach of the Development of China's Symphony in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

The deep integration of artificial intelligence technology is reshaping the creative paradigm, performance forms, and dissemination logic of China's symphonic music. However, beneath the mainstream narrative of "technological empowerment," there lies a deeper cultural anxiety in the development of China's symphonic music: when the carrier form of Western classical music encounters the expressive demands of China's aesthetic spirit and is further intervened by artificial intelligence, a complex cultural tension arises among the three. Based on empirical investigations of the 2025 World Symphony Beijing Forum, the Major Research Project on Music Artificial Intelligence at the Central Conservatory of Music, and the Shanghai National Orchestra's "Zero·One|China Color" concert, this paper reveals the "triple aphasia" dilemma faced by China's symphonic music in the age of artificial intelligence from three dimensions: creative subjectivity, aesthetic evaluation rights, and cultural discourse power. The study argues that the key to resolving this dilemma lies not in catching up at the level of technical tools, but in achieving a paradigm shift from "technological empowerment" to "cultural reconstruction" -by constructing a Chinese national music corpus, reconstructing the ethical framework of human-machine collaboration in creation, and establishing a localized aesthetic evaluation system-to safeguard the cultural subjectivity of China's symphonic music in the gaps of algorithms.