Category: Uncategorized

By Xinyi Ye

One of the most politically controversial songs of twentieth-century East Asia is When Will You Return (何日君再來). In the semi-colonial space of early twentieth-century Shanghai, a new urban culture featuring films, popular jazz-hybrid music, and dance became the synonym of the city. Popular music performed in cinema, musical theaters, dance halls, night clubs, and cabarets became the new social engagements for Shanghainese people, especially women who previously did not have access to public spheres. Meanwhile, as Shanghai became increasingly recognized as a cosmopolitan city, musicians from various backgrounds brought musical elements from across the world into modern Chinese popular songs.

Chinese lyrics	English translation (by the author)
好花不常開 好景不常在	Good flowers don’t always bloom, good times don’t always last
愁堆解笑眉 淚灑相思帶	Melancholy dissolves smiles, tears shed on lovesick ribbons[1]
今宵離別後 何日君再來	After the farewell tonight, when will you return?
喝完了這杯 請進點小菜	After finishing this bottle [of wine], please have some side dishes
人生難得幾回醉 不歡更何待	There are hardly a few times to get drunk in life, so why not enjoy when you can?
今宵離別後 何日君再來	After the farewell tonight, when will you return?
停唱陽關疊 重擎白玉杯	Stop singing Yangguan Die, once again toast the white jade cups[2]
殷勤頻致語 牢牢撫君懷	Frequent and attentive words firmly touch your heart
今宵離別後 何日君再來	After the farewell tonight, when will you return?
喝完了這杯 請進點小菜	After finishing this bottle [of wine], please have some side dishes.
人生難得幾回醉 不歡更何待	There are hardly a few times to get drunk in life, so why not enjoy when you can?
今宵離別後 何日君再來	After the farewell tonight, when will you return?

The Chinese-jazz hybrid music, shidai qu (時代曲, literal meaning “songs of the era” or “modern songs”), became the representation of early twentieth-century Shanghai, and When Will You Return is one of the iconic pieces. However, because the use of the song in Japanese war propaganda, it became a taboo in China after WWII. After the normalization of China-Japan relationship in the 1970s, the song came to public popular culture again, and along with its legacy, became borrowed, covered, and represented as reflections of the complex and intricate history of twentieth-century East Asia.

When Will You Return was originally an interlude of the 1937 Chinese film Three Stars Moving Around the Moon (三星伴月), sung by Zhou Xuan (周璇), one of the most celebrated actresses and singers in twentieth-century China.[3] The song was also released in an album by Pathé Records, the leading recording company in Shanghai at the time. The song features Zhou’s thin and sweet voice incorporating clear vibrato into Chinese folk voice techniques and an accordion playing the Habanera rhythm  (also known as contradanza, a Latin American-originated syncopated dance rhythm) in split chords.[4] The Latin-American influence. Such hybrid style is an exemplar of shidai qu, a fusion of jazz with Chinese folk-song-inspired tunes and Chinese lyrics about contemporary themes popular in China from the 1920s to 1940s.[5]

Funded by entrepreneur Fang Yexian (方液先) to promote his brand Three Star (三星), the film Three Stars Moving Around the Moon tells a love story between a celebrity singer and a patriotic entrepreneur. The male protagonist is perhaps an embodiment of Fang himself and his business: Fang established his chemical plants with the vision that manufacturing industrial products made in China could strengthen the country’s economic power and ultimately help the nation gain independence.[6] The film was an incredibly successful advertisement, as the Three Star products shown in the film, from toothpaste to hand creams, became instantly popular in Shanghai.

The song is a melancholic farewell song. Every line of the lyrics consists of five characters, following the tradition of classical Chinese poetry. The choice of words in the lyrics, however, combines vernacular and formal phrases, which is also typical of the literary practices of its time. The specific composer or lyricist of When Will You Return is contested, likely because writers in Republican China usually had multiple pen names to maintain a level of anonymity. It is now believed that the melody was composed by Liu Xue’an (劉雪庵) as an unnamed tango piece when he was a student at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music years before the production of the film. The lyricist is believed to be Huang Jiamo (黃嘉謨), the playwriter of the film Three Stars Moving Around the Moon.

In 1938, Yoshiko “Sherley” Yamaguchi (山口淑子, known in China as Li Hsiang-lan 李香蘭), another popular shidai qu singer, covered When Will You Return in her album, which became a hit in both China and Japan.[7] The accompaniment in Yamaguchi’s recording continues the Habanera rhythm performed by an accordion, but the general structure of the song remains very similar to Zhou’s original album. It became so popular that the song was recorded and released twice in the 1940s in two other albums and is a representation of the heyday of shidai qu, during which the appearances and outfits of singers like Zhou and Yamaguchi led the fashion of the society.

Yamaguchi’s cover was featured as the soundtrack of Byakuran no Uta (白蘭の歌, 1939),a Japanese war propaganda film set in Japanese-occupied Manchuria. In the film, a Chinese woman Li Xuexiang falls in love with a Japanese engineer Yasuyoshi Matsumura, and they both sacrifice themselves in a battle against the Chinese troupes. The popular Chinese song When Will You Return thus serves the political purpose of dissolving anti-Japanese alliances that were forming in China by saturating the invasion with modern songs about romance.

Yoshiko “Sherley” Yamaguchi, When Will You Return, in Byakuran no Uta (1939)

Born and raised in China to Japanese parents, Yamaguchi was fluent in Chinese and started acting in Japanese-controlled Manchuria in 1937. Under her Chinese name Li Hsiang-lan as a member of the Manchuria Film Society (滿洲映畫協會), Yamaguchi performed stereotypical Chinese characters in Japanese propaganda films who surrendered to the Japanese invasion in China during WWII.[8] Though her films were controversial, her music became extremely popular and made her one of the most popular singers of 1940s East Asia, especially when she toured in Taipei and Tokyo in 1941.

After Japan lost WWII, Yamaguchi was arrested by the government of Republican China in 1945 and was accused of being a traitor for her engagement with Japanese propaganda for its invasion of China. However, her Japanese identity was discovered during her trial, and consequently, she was ruled not guilty and released to return to Japan in early 1946. When Will You Return was also scrutinized in the context of such suspicion. Afterwards, some of her songs, especially When Will You Return, became taboo in both mainland China and Taiwan for almost the following two to three decades, but these songs remained in the collective memory across the Sinophone spheres.

Nowadays when When Will You Return gets mentioned in popular culture, it is typically associated with Teresa Teng (鄧麗君). Teng’s version of recordings became so popular that she is often mistaken as the original singer of these songs even today. She covered various shidai qu, including When Will You Return and Tuberose (夜來香), another song of Yamaguchi.[9] Her recording, however, has departed from the intentional hybrid style in shidai qu, and the accompaniment is typical of the 1970s popular music in East Asia. Teng’s cover of shidai qu became popular in the Sinophone world because it evoked a collective imagination and nostalgia for the cosmopolitan Shanghai urban life during the 30s and 40s.[10] She also became a cultural icon shared across East and Southeast Asia.

Under the government of Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei 田中角栄, Japan normalized its relationship with the PRC in 1972.[11] With Tanaka and the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party’s invitation, Yamaguchi became an active politician upon successful election to the House of Councillors in 1974. Yamaguchi was deeply engaged in activist work for the acknowledgment of WWII War crimes in Japan and advocated the normalization and strengthening of the Sino-Japan relationship.[12] Her political engagements and the changing social-political environments somehow seemed to subside controversies about her identity and music.[13] In 1989, the TV series Bye Ri Kōran (さよなら李香蘭), a collaborative project of Fuji Network System (Japan) and China Central Television, narrated the story of Yamaguchi’s experience as a Japanese performing in China. The theme song, 行かないで (meaning Don’t Go), composed and performed by Tamaki Koji (玉置浩二), is refilled with both Mandarin and Cantonese lyrics and sung by Jacky Cheung (張學友), one of the most iconic Cantonese pop singers, in 1993 and 1990 respectively. The Cantonese version, titled Li Hsiang-lan, is a reflection of Yamaguchi’s cultural legacy in Hong Kong.

Today, When Will You Return, Yamaguchi, and their histories are no longer a taboo, but a popular repertoire for singers who aim to reach both Chinese and Japanese audiences. The Brazilian-Japanese bossa nova singer Lisa Ono, for example, arranged When Will You Return in an entirely bossa nova arrangement with a free-flowing rhythm and chords, enhanced by her iconic soothing voice. She frequently performs this piece in her concerts in China, which are well-attended by Chinese audiences. The simple farewell song embodies the historical complexity of the Sino-Japan relationship over the twentieth century, postwar reflections, and controversies that are still present today.

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[1] Ribbon and lovesickness are typical reference in Chinese prose and poetry: the story goes that a lady is consumed by her lovesickness and she becomes so slender that the ribbons on her clothes became too loose.

[2] Yangguan Die is a Tang Dynasty Chinese farewell song.

[3] A ripping of Zhou Xuan’s original When Will You Return from a physical disc can be accessed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F_inY97xJU.

[4] The use of the Habanera rhythm  in the composition is coherent with the claim that this song was initially composed by Liu Xue’an as an unnamed tango piece.

[5] Andrew F. Jones, Yellow Music: Media Culture and Colonial Modernity in the Chinese Jazz Age (Duke University Press, 2001). Szu-Wei Chen, “The Rise and Generic Features of Shanghai Popular Songs in the 1930s and 1940s,” Popular Music 24, no. 1 (2005): 108.

[6] Harriet T. Zurndorfer, “Imperialism, Globalization, and the Soap/Suds Industry in Republican China (1912-37): The Case of Unilever and the Chinese Consumer,” Working Papers of the Global Economic History Network (GEHN) No. 19/06, 2006. Karl Gerth, China Made: Consumer Culture and the Creation of the Nation, Vol. 224. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2003), 180–181.

[7] A ripping of Yamaguchi When Will You Return can be accessed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk79hTJe0jo

[8] Michael Baskett, The Attractive Empire: Transnational Film Culture in Imperial Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2008), 72–82.

[9] Yamaguchi’s cover of Tuberose can be accessed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_T72YgMtMI. Teng’s performance of Tuberose in Chinese can be accessed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEiHcL5RPPI. Teng’s Tuberose in Japanese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLgvB3-j5z0.

[10] Dongfeng Tao, “Teresa Teng and the Spread of Pop Songs in Mainland China in the Early Reform Era,” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 23:2, 269-287.

[11] One perspective of interpreting Sino-Japan relationship in the 1970s can be seen in: Go Tsuyoshi Ito, Alliance in Anxiety: Detente and the Sino-American-Japanese Triangle (New York: Routledge, 2003), 93.

[12] “大鷹淑子副理事長に聞く「21世紀のいま、若い人々に伝えたいこと」,” Asian Women’s Fund, 2001, https://www.awf.or.jp/pdf/news_18.pdf. For an English summary of Yamaguchi’s biography, see Paul Vitello, “Yoshiko Yamaguchi, 94, Actress in Propaganda Films, Dies,” New York Times, Sept 22, 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/movies/yoshiko-yamaguchi-94-actress-in-propaganda-films-dies.html?smid=url-share.

[13] Yamaguchi’s returning trip to China was recorded in the NHK Documentary:李香蘭と初めての祖国日本での体験（NHK特集 世界・わが心の旅「李香蘭～遥かなる旅路」NHKBSプレミアム 2014年9月24日放送）.NHK Documentary, Sept 24, 2014. Also see her autobiography: Yamaguchi, Yoshiko. Ri Kōran watakushi no hansei 李香蘭私の半生, Tōkyō : Shinchōsha, 1987.

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By Maurice Windleburn

Japanese guitarist, turntablist, and composer Otomo Yoshihide (b. 1959) has had a particularly prolific and varied career. Born in Yokohama and raised in Fukushima, he moved to Tokyo in 1979 to study with the Japanese free jazz pioneer Masayuki Takayanagi. At the same time, Otomo studied at Meiji University under the ethnomusicologist Akira Ebato, researching the political entanglements of Japanese pop music during World War II, and developments in musical instruments during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Otomo has since worked in various fields, composing soundtracks for Japanese, Chinese, and Hong Kong films, forming free jazz ensembles, and contributing to a variety of electroacoustic, improvisatory, and noise music projects. More recently, Otomo has become a minor celebrity in Japan for organising the Project Fukushima festivals, and for composing the catchy theme tune of the hit TV show Ama-chan.<1>

After meeting the sound artist Chrisitan Marclay in the late-1980s, Otomo began improvising with turntables in addition to guitar, and in 1990 he founded the band Ground Zero. <2> Initially established to perform John Zorn’s game piece Cobra, <3> Ground Zero went on to release five studio albums and perform several live shows across an eight-year period. With a rotating lineup that often featured guest musicians, Ground Zero’s music combined collaged samples with free improvisation, noise, and a rock band sensibility. In 1998, Otomo disbanded Ground Zero; having reached an aesthetic turning point, he was now interested in how turntables could be used to explore abstract textures and minimal sounds. <4> Nonetheless, Ground Zero’s albums remain as exciting exemplars of a period when many avant-garde musicians were exploring polystylism and the combination of disparate methods from free jazz, rock, and contemporary art music.

Part of Otomo’s reason for using musical samples in his work with Ground Zero was to explore issues of copyright and consumption. In several interviews and liner notes of the period, Otomo explains how, to his mind, copyright presupposes ownership and a need to exchange what one owns for money. <5> Acknowledging that ‘down with copyright’ sloganeering will not alter this unfortunate situation, Otomo nonetheless questions whether the very notion of ownership, on which copyright is based, is appropriately applicable to all music. For Otomo, musical ownership is historically tied to the written score – a readily bought and sold object – along with a predominantly Western notion that music is produced by an individual genius who subsequently owns what they create. <6> Yet, as Otomo states, ‘not all forms of creativity can be accredited to a single entity’, <7> and he goes on to suggest that, since all music stems from a tradition, perhaps no music can truly be credited to any singular owner.

This issue of multi-authorship is explored most explicitly in Ground Zero’s album Peking Revolutionary Opera, which results from a chain of temporally and spatially dispersed acts of creation. Firstly, the albumis a loose reimagining of ‘Peking-Oper’, a live performance by the Duo Goebbels/Harth, <8> recorded and initially released as the second side of their album Frankfurt/Peking (1984). <9> This performance itself consisted of improvisations built around looped samples taken from a 1970 China Record Corporation LP of the jingju yangbanxi (or ‘model revolutionary Peking opera’), Shajiabang. <10> A dual-layered process of creative reimagining hence sits behind Ground Zero’s album, something that is further complicated by the fact that the most readily available version of this album – released in 1996 and subtitled ‘Ver. 1.28’ –is in fact a remix that Otomo himself made of his band’s original 1995 version (which was released in limited edition and is now rather difficult to find). Subsequently, Ground Zero extended this reimagining process by making a highly condensed 7″ single version of the album dubbed ‘Ver 1.50’ (also released in 1996), and several, noticeably different, live performances, recorded in 1995, 1997, and 1999, respectively.

Appropriately, the track-titles for Peking Revolutionary Opera, Ver. 1.28 allude to the album’s complicated origins, suggestively combining the names of Maoist poems from Xiao Hua’s Song of The Long March with references to Japanese consumer culture. <11> The title for track five also alludes to Goebbels and Harth’s initial album, while track-titles ten and eleven mention the musical genres of enka and ‘yellow music’ (a type of pre-revolutionary Chinese pop song). Table 1 lists all of these track-titles, along with the entry times for each Shajiabang quotation in Peking Revolutionary Opera, Ver. 1.28. Also listed are the entry times for the same excerpts as they appear in ‘Peking-Oper’ and the original China Record Corporation LP. While all of the quotations in ‘Peking-Oper’ are samples, some of those in Peking Revolutionary Opera are rearrangements, newly recorded by Ground Zero. Music scholar Serge Lacasse uses the terms ‘autosonic’ and ‘allosonic’ to distinguish between these two types of musical quotation – the first involving direct, physical copying (as with samples or tape splices), and the second, the use of an abstract or ideal musical structure, like a melody (as with covers or jazz standards). <12> In lieu of scores that would otherwise make these quotations apparent, the reader is encouraged to hear the intertextuality for themselves by cross-listening to each recording. <13>

Peking Revolutionary Opera, Ver. 1.28	Location of quotation	Location in ‘Peking-Oper’	Location in Shajiabang
(1) Flying Across the JP Yen	00:05 (autosonic)	00.08	Scene 1: Making Contact (Disc 1, 01:02)
(2) Consume Mao	01:19 (autosonic)	00.08	Scene 1: Making Contact (Disc 1, 01:02)
(3) Rush Capture of the Revolutionary Opera 1	00:01 (allosonic)	06:08	Scene 1: Making Contact (Disc 1, 00:16)
(4) Red Mao Book by Sony	03:12 (autosonic)	05:28	Scene 1: Making Contact (Disc 1, 00:00)
(5) Crossing Frankfurt Four Times	00:01 (allosonic)	05:28	Scene 1: Making Contact (Disc 1, 00:00)
(6) The Glory of Hong Kong – Kabukicho Conference	02:34 (autosonic)		Scene 2: Evacuation (Disc 2, 00:04)
(7) Pariaso 1	00:19 (autosonic)		Scene 2: Evacuation (Disc 1, 08:05)
(8) Announcing Good News from the West
(9) Revolutionary Enka 2001
(10) Grand Pink Junction Ballad
(11) Crossing Snow Mountains with Yamaha Bike
(12) Rush Capture of the Revolutionary Opera 2	00:01 (allosonic)	06:08	Scene 1: Making Contact (Disc 1, 00:16)
(13) Yellow Army, Beloved of all the Nations	00:00 (autosonic)	14:18	Scene 5: Holding Out (Disc 3, 18:02)
(14) Triumphant Junction	00:00 (allosonic)	14:32	Scene 5: Holding Out (Disc 3, 19:18)
(15) International – Epilogue
(16) Paraiso 2

Table 1. Tack-titles and samples for Peking Revolutionary Opera.

Notably, the autographic samplesin Peking Revolutionary Opera are all lifted from the original Shajiabang recording and not from ‘Peking-Oper’. This is known because the improvisations made over the samples in the Goebbels/Harth recording are not heard in conjunction with the same samples found on Ground Zero’s album. Additionally, tracks six and seven quote excerpts from Shajiabang that are not at all present in ‘Peking-Oper’. Yet Ground Zero does borrow from several parts of the Goebbels/Harth recording that do not contain Shajiabang excerpts, along with samples from many additional sources. At times, this melange of quotations is rather thick and difficult to sift through. For instance, track ten combines the final section of ‘Peking-Oper’ with a sample of the noise musician Rudolf Ebner screaming and an excerpt from Jon Rose’s album Violin Music for Supermarkets. The latter excerpt itself features Ground Zero member Sachiko M reciting Japanese pornography ads, making it a kind of self-sampling. A brief list of some other samples in Peking Revolutionary Opera include theatre director Norimizu Amaya speaking on the telephone, Yumiko Tanaka playing the shamisen, the band Compostela (who blend European folk music, Japanese chindon’ya, and Communist song), and the scratched surface noise of Christian Marclay’s Record Without a Cover.

Clearly, all these quotations are what complicate the album’s creative provenance, though they also have evocative semiotic associations with the themes of political economy, consumption, and commodity. This is most evident with the album’s key source material, Shajiabang, with jingju yangbanxi being key exemplars of the Cultural Revolution’s ‘newborn socialist things’: commodities deemed appropriate for a socialist state transitioning from capitalism to communism. <14> Additionally, Goebbels and Harth were heavily influenced by Hans Eisler and his desire to combine avant-garde aesthetics, radical politics, and popular appeal. <15> In both cases, music’s commodity function is reoriented towards explicitly anti-capitalist ends, and comparable purposes can also be read into the music of Jon Rose, Compostela, and Christian Marclay.

These associations naturally raise the question as to whether similar intentions lie behind Peking Revolutionary Opera. Yet, even with Otomo’s comments regarding copyright and authorship, it is difficult to attach any direct political meaning to this album, with Otomo having since stated that he does not make music to convey political messages. <16> Instead, Peking Revolutionary Opera might be best understood as, what Otomo calls, ‘a “chopping board” of consumption and sampling’: <17> referring not only to its cut-upped and reworked source material, but perhaps also to the Japanese idiom manaita ni noseru, meaning to put something on the table (or, more literally, the chopping board) as a topic for critical reflection.<18>

Notes

<1> See Noriko Manabe, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Protest Music After Fukushima (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 106.

<2> Otomo Yoshihide, ‘Interview with Otomo Yoshihide, The Mastery of Guitar & Turntable Achieved in His Mid-60s – Part 2’, by Narushi Hosoda, Tokion (February 28, 2024), https://tokion.jp/en/2024/02/28/interview-yoshihide-otomo-part2/.

<3> Caleb Kelly, Cracked Media: The Sound of Malfunction (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009), 189.

<4> Subsequently, Otomo became a key figure in the onkyô genre; see David Novak, ‘Playing Off Site: The Untranslation of Onkyô’, Asian Music 41, no.1 (2010): 36-59.

<5> Otomo Yoshihide, ‘Consume Ground Zero!’, 1996. Translated by Yoshiyuki Suzuki. Accessed August 15, 2024, http://www.japanimprov.com/yotomo/groundzero/consume.html.

<6> Otomo Yoshihide, in Lloyd Peterson, Music and the Creative Spirit: Innovators in Jazz, Improvisation, and the Avant Garde (Oxford: Scarecrow Press, 2006), 311.

<7> Otomo, ‘Consume Ground Zero!’.

<8> A West German new music and multi-media project that consisted of Heiner Goebbels and Alfred Harth.

<9> A second performance was also recorded in 1987 and released on the 1989 album Live à Victoriaville.

<10> Jingju refers to the operatic tradition that emerged in Beijing in the late eighteenth century. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, several attempts were made to reform jingju according to revolutionary principals. In 1966, Kang Sheng announced eight yangbanxi or ‘model works’, suitable for the Cultural Revolution – five of which were jingju with revolutionary stories (along with two ballets and one symphony). For a much more detailed history of the complicated development of jingju yangbanxi, see Xing Fan, Staging Revolution: Artistry and Aesthetics in Model Beijing Opera during the Cultural Revolution (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2018).

<11> The original titles that Ground Zero borrow from include, ‘Flying Over the Dadu River’, ‘Rush Capture of Lu Ting Bridge’, ‘Crossing Chishui Four Times’, ‘The Glory of Zunyi Conference’, ‘Announcing Good News’, ‘Crossing Snow Mountains and Grassland’, ‘Red Army, The Beloved of Various Nationalities’, and ‘Triumphant Junction’.

<12> Serge Lacasse, ‘Intertextuality and Hypertextuality in Recorded Popular Music’, in The Musical Work: Reality or Invention?, ed. Michael Talbot(Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2000), 38.

<13> For Peking Revolutionary Opera, see https://groundzone.bandcamp.com/album/revolutionary-pekinese-opera; for ‘Peking-Oper’, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS-ANZy918k; for the original China Record Corporation LP, see https://archive.org/details/lp_shachiapang_china-peking-opera-troupe_1 and https://archive.org/details/lp_shachiapang_china-peking-opera-troupe. Notably, there is a third LP for this recording of Shajiabang, but it was not released until 1971 (a year after the first two LPs) and is not sampled by Duo Goebbels/Harth (presumably because they did not own it), nor, consequently, by Ground Zero.

<14> See Laurence Coderre, Newborn Socialist Things: Materiality in Maoist China (Durham: Duke University Press, 2021).

<15> Ed McKeon, Heiner Goebbels and Curatorial Composing after Cage (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022), 30.

<16> Otomo Yoshihide, ‘Interview’, by Michel Henritzi, Revue & Corrigée, December, 2001. Translated by Cathy Fishman and Yoshiyuki Suzuki, http://www.japanimprov.com/yotomo/interview01.html.

<17> Otomo, ‘Consume Ground Zero!’.

<18> Digital Daijisen, s.v. ‘俎板（まないた）に載（の）・せる’. Accessed, August 15, 2024, https://japanknowledge-com.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/lib/display/?lid=2001017396600.

Bibliography

Coderre, Laurence. Newborn Socialist Things: Materiality in Maoist China. Durham: Duke University Press, 2021.

Kelly, Caleb. Cracked Media: The Sound of Malfunction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009.

Lacasse, Serge. ‘Intertextuality and Hypertextuality in Recorded Popular Music’. The Musical Work: Reality or Invention?, edited by Michael Talbot. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2000.

Manabe, Noriko. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Protest Music After Fukushima. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

McKeon, Ed. Heiner Goebbels and Curatorial Composing after Cage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022.

Novak, David. ‘Playing Off Site: The Untranslation of Onkyô’. Asian Music 41, no.1 (2010): 36-59.

Otomo, Yoshihide, ‘Consume Ground Zero!’. 1996. Translated by Yoshiyuki Suzuki. Accessed August 15, 2024, http://www.japanimprov.com/yotomo/groundzero/consume.html.

Otomo, Yoshihide, ‘Interview with Otomo Yoshihide, The Mastery of Guitar & Turntable Achieved in His Mid-60s – Part 2’. By Narushi Hosoda. Tokion. February 28, 2024. https://tokion.jp/en/2024/02/28/interview-yoshihide-otomo-part2/.

Otomo, Yoshihide, ‘Interview’. By Michel Henritzi. Revue & Corrigée. December, 2001. Translated by Cathy Fishman and Yoshiyuki Suzuki. http://www.japanimprov.com/yotomo/interview01.html.

Peterson, Lloyd. Music and the Creative Spirit: Innovators in Jazz, Improvisation, and the Avant Garde. Oxford: Scarecrow Press, 2006.

Xing, Fan. Staging Revolution: Artistry and Aesthetics in Model Beijing Opera during the Cultural Revolution. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2018.

By Mao Mengdan and Min Lingkang

This post is part of a series on 100 modern conservatory-trained Chinese composers from 1912 onwards who wrote symphonic, ensemble, and solo instrumental music using Western instruments, as well as choral and solo vocal music, adopting Western tonality or avant-garde techniques. They are regarded as key historical figures in and drivers of modern Chinese music history.

Luo Zhongrong (1924.12.12-2021.9.2) was a distinguished composer, theorist, professor, and doctoral supervisor at the China Conservatory of Music. He was also a recipient of the Lifetime Honor Medal of the 4th China Music Golden Bell Awards. Born in Santai County, Sichuan Province, Luo began his musical studies in 1942 at the Sichuan Provincial Art School in Chengdu, majoring in violin and composition. In 1944, he transferred to the National Shanghai Conservatory of Music to continue his violin studies and also studied composition under Professor Tan Xiaolin.

Luo composed his first work, the song “Shan Na Bian Yo Hao Di Fang,” in 1947, which quickly became popular across the country. This marked his gradual shift from violin performance to composition. Two years later, he studied counterpoint under Ding Shande and taught himself composition. In 1951, Luo moved to Beijing to work in the composition group of the Central Orchestra. In 1958, he composed his first symphonic work, “Overture to the Completion Ceremony of the Thirteen Tombs Reservoir,” followed by his “First Symphony” in 1958-59. Both works, conducted by the renowned Chinese conductor Li Delun and performed by the Central Orchestra Symphony Orchestra in Beijing, achieved great success.

During the Cultural Revolution, Luo, despite being politically persecuted, composed the famous symphonic chorus “Shajiabang.” His works are known for their vibrant colors and conciseness, and even during his detainment for 2 years, Luo persisted in studying Hindemith’s “The Craft of Musical Composition,” eventually developing his unique theory of “pentatonic twelve-tone row.”

In 1985, Luo became a professor in the composition department of the China Conservatory of Music and received a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), leading to a visit to West Berlin for creative work and other musical activities. He also held a concert of his works there. In 1988, he attended the historically significant “Cross-Strait Composers Symposium” in New York. In 2004, Luo was awarded the Lifetime Honor Award of the China Music Golden Bell Awards. He passed away on September 2, 2021, at the age of 97.

His art song “Crossing the River to Pick Lotus Flowers” is Luo’s first twelve-tone work, based on a popular ancient poem from the late Eastern Han Dynasty (late 2nd to early 3rd century AD), later included in Xiao Tong’s “Anthology of Zhaoming.” The poem, a quintessential example of ancient five-character (five words per line) poetry, is known for its vivid and natural language and depiction of life. In “Crossing the River to Pick Lotus Flowers,” Luo structured the music into a binary form, enhancing the unity of the work. He designed a tone row according to the requirements of twelve-tone technique to express the poem’s remote and serene imagery. The tone row, initially presented in its original form in the introduction, is a partially tonal but overall atonal. Pentatonic influence is seen in the integration of intervals found in the pentatonic scale, and avoidance of dissonant intervals like minor seconds and augmented fourths, reflecting . Throughout the song, the tone row is used in various forms, such as retrograde, inversion, and retrograde inversion, corresponding to the “introduction,” “development,” “turn,” and “conclusion” of the poem.

In this art song, Luo’s vocal melody writing closely links the melodic direction with the lyrics and language, using both Chinese and Western melodic techniques to express phonetic sounds and convey the meanings of words. He does not pursue vocal techniques for their own sake but maintains the melodic characteristics and lyrical function of the voice. The song’s first line, “Crossing the river to pick lotus flowers,” presents a dynamic scene with a meandering descending sequence, while “The orchid marsh is full of fragrant grass” develops upward from the starting F# by a perfect fourth, bringing brightness to the music. The subsequent lines, such as “Picking them to leave to whom” and “My thoughts are with one who is far away,” use various melodic treatments to express the poem’s emotions, from the initial sadness to the final deep sigh of longing in “Sorrowful until old age.”

Here is a video link to the work: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1AB4y1A7go?share_source=copy_web&vd_source=4681f0684a5c74dd125d397ca5882ba3

By Mao Mengdan and Min Lingkang

This post is part of a series on 100 modern conservatory-trained Chinese composers from 1912 onwards who wrote symphonic, ensemble, and solo instrumental music using Western instruments, as well as choral and solo vocal music, adopting Western tonality or avant-garde techniques. They are regarded as key historical figures in and drivers of modern Chinese music history.

Sang Tong (1923-2011), born Zhu Jingqing in Shanghai, was a renowned Chinese music educator, composer, and music theorist. He served as the president and professor of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Sang began his musical education in 1941 at the then National Music Conservatory (later Shanghai Conservatory), studying composition under the German composer Wolfgang Fraenkel, but paused his studies in 1943. In 1946, he continued his studies at the conservatory under Jewish Austrian composer Julius Schloss and attended classes taught by composer Tan Xiaolin. In 1947, Sang composed the violin piece “Night Scene” and the piano piece “In That Distant Place,” which were among the earliest attempts by Chinese composers to employ atonal composition techniques. He also collaborated with Qu Xixian on the film music for “Nightclub” and “Sunny Days,” conducting the recordings himself.

At the height of the Civil War in 1948 with increasing instability in Shanghai, he moved to Northern Jiangsu and changed his name to Sang Tong to hide from Kuomintang, as he had taken part in Communist resistance against it during his youth. From the autumn of 1949, Sang Tong taught at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music for an extended period, serving as the head of the composition department, professor, vice-president, and president. In 1950, he composed the cello piece “Fantasia,” which was premiered in 1951 by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. The piece, performed by cellist Wang Lei at the World Festival of Youth and Students and later in Japan, the United States, and other places, has become part of the cello teaching repertoire in music schools.

Sang Tong’s writings include “Six Lectures on Harmony,” “The Theory and Application of Harmony,” “A Discussion on the Structure of Pentatonic Harmony,” and “An Introduction to Polytonal Writing Techniques.” He passed away on July 24, 2011, in Huadong Hospital in Shanghai at the age of 88.

One of his representative works, “Seven Piano Pieces on Inner Mongolian Folk Song Themes,” was composed in 1953, based on the melodies of Inner Mongolian folk songs. The pieces vividly portray Inner Mongolian people through poetic and picturesque musical expressions. The first piece, “Elegy,” is based on the folk songs “Sai Hen [塞很]” and “Dingker Zhabu [丁克尔扎布],” starting with a recitative style to convey the final words of a hero and ending with a solemn mass chorus of mourning. (Note: Several of these folk songs with titles that are proper names are known through their Chinese names, the hanyu pinyin transliteration of which is provided alongside the Chinese characters. We would appreciate the input of readers with knowledge of Mongolian on its transliteration using the Latin alphabet.) The second piece, “Friendship,” celebrates sincere and eternal friendship through the folk songs “Mandong Tonglage [满冻通拉格]” and “Four Seas.” The third piece, “Homesickness,” adapts the rhythm of the folk song “Xing’an Ridge” to express the deep longing for home and family. The fourth piece, “Prairie Love Song,” uses the folk song “Little Lover” in a variation treatment to depict the tender and passionate emotions of young lovers. The fifth piece, “Children’s Dance,” portrays the innocent and lively image of dancing children, based on the folk songs “Dinglangbin [丁朗彬]” and “Bengbo Cai [崩博菜].” The sixth piece, “Sorrow,” is a transformation of the folk song “Homesick,” expressing a mournful and plaintive mood. The seventh piece, “Dance,” is a lively and bold dance piece based on the folk song “Modegeng Anga [莫德格昂嘎],” creatively adapted to showcase the vibrant energy of the music. This work received a bronze medal at the 1957 World Festival of Youth and Students and has been recognized for its distinctive portrayal of Inner Mongolian folk music.

Here is a video link to Sang Tong’s music: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV13b4y1R7dj?share_source=copy_web&vd_source=4681f0684a5c74dd125d397ca5882ba3

By Mao Mengdan and Min Lingkang

This post is part of a series on 100 modern conservatory-trained Chinese composers from 1912 onwards who wrote symphonic, ensemble, and solo instrumental music using Western instruments, as well as choral and solo vocal music, adopting Western tonality or avant-garde techniques. They are regarded as key historical figures in and drivers of modern Chinese music history.

Chou Wen-chung (Zhou Wenzhong) (1923.7.28–2019.10.25) is a renowned Chinese-American composer. A world-famous composer, he was a lifetime member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Vice Dean of the School of the Arts at Columbia University, and the Director of the doctoral program in composition. His major works include “Landscapes,” “The Willows Are New,” “How Many Flowers Fall,” “Meditation,” “Wild Grass,” “Fishing Song,” “Metamorphosis,” “Eagle Valley,” “Mountain Torrents,” and “Floating Clouds.”

Chou Wen-chung was born on June 29, 1923, in Yantai, China, and grew up in Shanghai. He was a leading figure in twentieth-century electronic music and a close disciple of the famous French-American composer Edgard Varèse. Initially, he received a scholarship to study architecture at Yale University, but his lifelong passion for music led him to abandon the scholarship and switch to composition studies at the New England Conservatory of Music just one week after arriving at Yale.

In 1949, Chou moved to New York and met Edgard Varèse, under whom he began to study composition and later became a close friend. After Varèse’s death, Chou took on the responsibility of managing Varèse’s musical legacy, including editing Varèse’s works and completing his unfinished pieces.

In 1954, his orchestral work “How Many Flowers Fall” won numerous awards, including the Rockefeller Prize for the Arts, commissions from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

In 1964, Chou Wen-chung joined the faculty of the composition department at Columbia University, where his students included Chinary Ung, Zhou Long, Chen Yi, Sheng Zongliang, and Tan Dun, all of whom became world-renowned composers.

In 1978, Chou Wen-chung founded the Sino-American Arts Center, tirelessly promoting international artistic exchanges for decades and making significant contributions to cultural exchanges between China and the United States. At his recommendation, the complete guqin piece “Flowing Water” was sent into space aboard the Voyager spacecraft. From 1984 to 1991, Chou Wen-chung served as the first director of the Fritz Reiner Center for Contemporary Music at Columbia University and as a visiting professor at Nankai University.

In 2007, the Xinghai Conservatory of Music appointed Chou Wen-chung as an honorary professor, and in November 2018, held the “Chou Wen-chung Music Research Center Establishment Ceremony and Chou Wen-chung International Music Academic Symposium.” On the night of October 25, 2019 (Beijing time), Chou Wen-chung passed away at his home in the United States at the age of 96.

“The Willows Are New” (1957) is one of Chou Wen-chung’s early representative works and the first piece in which he used Western instruments to imitate the Chinese guqin. The music is based on the famous guqin piece “Yangguan Sandie,” with the piano imitating the mood of guqin music, marking an important exploration in the formation of Chou’s artistic style.

“Yangguan Sandie” was composed in the Tang dynasty based on Wang Wei’s “Sending Yuan Er to Anxi,” which describes a scene of departure with well-matched verses, beautiful phrases, and a distant mood. This is a quatrain from the poem: “The morning rain in Weicheng moistens the light dust; the guesthouse is green with new willow colors. I urge you to drink another cup of wine; there are no old friends when you leave Yangguan heading to the west.”

To maximize the unique beauty of guqin music, Chou Wen-chung used the piano to imitate the vibration of single notes in guqin music, creating sound effects through harmonic colors and delimited ranges. The original melody appears in different ranges through variations, forming contrasts in timbre, and the continuous low resonance throughout the piece, enhanced by the pedal, perfectly interprets the ancient “Chinese style” with Western musical vocabulary.

In “The Willows Are New,” Chou Wen-chung varies the melody of “Yangguan Sandie” in terms of structure, space, and time. The structure is variation form, with each variation in “The Willows Are New” corresponding to that in “Yangguan Sandie.”

“The Willows Are New” ingeniously adapts the original ornamental notes into melodies that develop horizontally in seconds and harmonically in ninths. The continuous appearance of minor second ornamental intervals vividly displays the “sliding” effect unique to guqin music; the minor ninth imitates the dissonant, melancholic color produced by fingers sliding on guqin strings; the diminished fifth interval imitates the “mo” technique of the guqin; the augmented octave and double augmented octave imitate the open and harmonic sounds of the guqin, respectively; the persistent use of minor ninth intervals in the bass part creates a deep and rich atmosphere, evoking a sense of “sorrowful separation.”

Video link:

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1bZ4y1Q7dg?share_source=copy_web&vd_source=4681f0684a5c74dd125d397ca5882ba3

By Mao Mengdan and Min Lingkang

This post is part of a series on 100 modern conservatory-trained Chinese composers from 1912 onwards who wrote symphonic, ensemble, and solo instrumental music using Western instruments, as well as choral and solo vocal music, adopting Western tonality or avant-garde techniques. They are regarded as key historical figures in and drivers of modern Chinese music history.

Zhu Jianer (1922.10.18—2017.8.15) was a renowned Chinese composer and musician, best known for his composition “Symphony No. 10, Op. 42” (1998). Born as Zhu Rongshi in Anhui, Jiang County, Zhu Jian’er developed an interest in music during his middle school years in Shanghai, teaching himself to play the piano and other instruments. In the late 1930s, he studied harmony with Qian Renkang and button accordion at Shi Renwang’s training class. In 1945, he went to the North Jiangsu Liberated Area and worked on music composition with the Middle Jiangsu Military District Frontline Troupe and the Huadong Military District Cultural Troupe.

After the 1947 Laiwu battle, his song “Da De Hao” became widely popular among the liberated area’s military and civilians. Between 1949 and 1953, he composed music for various films including “The Earth Shines Again” and “Storm at Sea” while working at film studios in Shanghai and Beijing, and Central News and Documentary Film Studios. In 1955, Zhu went to the Soviet Union to study composition at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. His piano preludes “Telling You” and “Running Water,” composed during this period, demonstrated refined musicality and a meticulous touch. His piano solo “Narrative Poem” and “Theme and Variations” showed tight logical development and rich harmonic techniques.

Zhu’s first orchestral work, “Festival Overture,” premiered in Moscow in 1959 and was archived by the Soviet Union’s National Radio. Upon returning to China in 1960, he became a full-time composer at the Shanghai Experimental Opera House. In the following years, he focused on smaller vocal works, with songs like “Taking Over Lei Feng’s Gun” and “Singing a Mountain Song to the Party” gaining widespread popularity.

Starting in 1975, Zhu worked with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. His string ensemble “Nostalgia” (1978) was his first attempt at addressing tragic themes in symphonic music. “Symphonic Fantasia – A Tribute to the Martyrs for Truth,” completed in 1980, was inspired by the tragic execution of Zhang Zhixin (a dissident during the Cultural Revolution) and won an excellence award at the first National Symphony Music Work Awards in 1981.

Zhu Jian’er passed away on August 15, 2017, at the age of 95. In accordance with his wishes, no memorial service was held, and his body was donated to medical research.

“Symphony No. 10 ‘Jiang Xue'” (1998) is one of Zhu Jian’er’s most notable works, blending the ancient Chinese guqin piece “Meihua San Nong” and the Tang Dynasty poem “Jiang Xue” by Liu Zongyuan with Western symphonic elements. This symphony, which incorporates traditional Chinese melodies and instruments, is a testament to Zhu Jian’er’s innovative approach to combining Chinese and Western musical traditions.

In this symphony, Zhu Jian’er ingeniously uses China’s rich linguistic and cultural heritage, using Chinese operatic style in the recitation of ancient poetry (of the guqin piece) within the symphonic context, thereby merging the orchestra with the guqin. The performance by Shang Changrong perfectly captures the Chinese spirit of Zhu Jian’er’s symphony. The work is structured to showcase different aspects of the poem, with Shang Changrong employing various singing styles from Peking opera to convey the poet’s sentiments, from the frustration of unfulfilled talent to the lofty and transcendent character of the poet.

You can watch a performance of Zhu Jian’er’s “Symphony No. 10 ‘Jiang Xue'” at this link: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1RE411J7JN?share_source=copy_web&vd_source=4681f0684a5c74dd125d397ca5882ba3

By Mao Mengdan and Min Lingkang

This post is part of a series on 100 modern conservatory-trained Chinese composers from 1912 onwards who wrote symphonic, ensemble, and solo instrumental music using Western instruments, as well as choral and solo vocal music, adopting Western tonality or avant-garde techniques. They are regarded as key historical figures in and drivers of modern Chinese music history.

Yuen Ren Chao (Zhao Yuanren) (November 3, 1892 – February 24, 1982) was a renowned scholar, linguist, and musician born in Tianjin, China. He was a descendant of the famous Qing Dynasty poet Zhao Yi. Chao studied mathematics at Cornell University in the United States, where he also took courses in physics and music. He later pursued philosophy at Harvard University, where he studied formal music composition and theory with notable professors such as E.B. Hill and W.R. Spaulding. Chao received his Ph.D. in philosophy in 1918 and also studied composition, harmony, and piano with various American musicians.

In 1920, Chao returned to China and taught mathematics, physics, and psychology at Tsinghua School (later Tsinghua University). He went back to the United States in 1921 to study linguistics at Harvard University and taught Chinese and philosophy there. In 1925, Chao was appointed as a tutor at the Institute of Chinese Studies at Tsinghua, becoming one of the “Four Great Tutors of Tsinghua” at the age of 33. He also served as the head of the school’s music committee and co-founded the “Qin Yun Ge Sheng Research Society” for music.

In March 1928, Chao joined the newly established Institute of History and Philology at the Academia Sinica, where he was appointed as a researcher and head of the linguistics group. He conducted extensive dialect surveys across various regions in China, collecting folk songs, traditional opera, and storytelling music. Chao was one of the earliest composers in modern Chinese history to systematically investigate and collect folk songs in the field and use that as material for composition.

In 1938, Chao was invited to teach at the University of Hawaii and later settled in the United States, where he taught at several universities, including Yale, Harvard, and the University of California, Berkeley. He was elected president of the American Oriental Society in 1960 and continued his academic research and writing after retiring in 1962.

Chao passed away on February 24, 1982, in Massachusetts, USA, at the age of 90.

One of his notable choral works is “Haiyun” (海韵), based on Xu Zhimo’s modern poem which expresses the spirit of the May Fourth Movement. Chao chose “Haiyun” for its expression of the scientific ideas of the new era and the colloquial language of the poem (as opposed to literary classical Chinese), which reflected the culture of the new era. Chao’s choral works are rich in musical imagery, with themes in “Haiyun” representing the sea waves, the maiden, and the poet, each expressed differently.

The piano accompaniment in “Haiyun” serves as an independent part, depicting sea waves and the maiden’s dance with strong rhythmic patterns. The structure of the work is multilayered, with six parts: prelude, sections one, two, and three, a contrasting section, and ending. Each part contains four subsections: chorus (poet), soprano solo (maiden), chorus (narrative), and dance (interlude).

The work employs a variation form, with careful arrangement of themes, tonality, rhythm, meter, and dynamics to vividly express different themes. The complex and changing tonality, intricate piano accompaniment, and dramatic contrasts in the music create a sense of urgency and tension, culminating in a climax that vividly portrays the poet’s sorrow.

You can watch a performance of Yuen Ren Chao’s “Haiyun” at the following link: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1nb411b7dm?share_source=copy_web&vd_source=4681f0684a5c74dd125d397ca5882ba3

By Mao Mengdan and Min Lingkang

This post is part of a series on 100 modern conservatory-trained Chinese composers from 1912 onwards who wrote symphonic, ensemble, and solo instrumental music using Western instruments, as well as choral and solo vocal music, adopting Western tonality or avant-garde techniques. They are regarded as key historical figures in and drivers of modern Chinese music history.

Li Huanzhi (January 12, 1919 – March 19, 2000) was a Chinese composer, conductor, and music theorist born in Hong Kong, with ancestral roots in Jinjiang, Fujian (now part of Quanzhou City, Jinjiang). He graduated from the Lu Xun Academy of Arts and was known for his compositions such as “Spring Festival Overture,” “Symphonic Poem on the Song of Shaanbei,” “Symphony of Vicissitudes,” film music for “Early Spring in February,” and “Selected Songs of Li Huanzhi.”

Li spent his early years in Xiamen, where he was exposed to folk music from Guangdong and Fujian, as well as hymns and organ music from Christian churches. He attended Xiamen Double Ten Middle School, where he participated in the choir and brass band, fostering his interest in music.

In 1935, Li composed music for Guo Moruo’s poem “Pastoral Elegy,” marking his entry into the world of music. The following spring, he enrolled in the National Conservatory of Music in Shanghai, studying harmony under Xiao Youmei.

In August 1938, Li arrived in Yan’an and joined the music department of the Lu Xun Academy of Arts. In November of the same year, he became a member of the Chinese Communist Party. After graduating, he continued to study composition and conducting under Xian Xinghai and remained at the academy as a teacher.

During the Anti-Japanese Invasion War, Li was involved in anti-Japanese invasion literary and artistic activities in Hong Kong as a member of the peripheral organization of the Communist Party, the Anti-War Youth Society. He co-created anti-Japanese invasion songs with poets such as Pu Feng, including “Xiamen Self-Singing” and “Defend the Motherland.” After the victory of the war, Li left Yan’an for Zhangjiakou and became the head of the music department at the North China United University’s College of Arts and Literature.

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Li served as the head of the music work group at the Central Conservatory of Music, the director of the Central Song and Dance Art Troupe, and held various positions such as executive director, secretary, and vice-chairman of the Chinese Musicians Association. He also served as the director of the composition committee of the Music Association and the editor-in-chief of “Music Composition” magazine.

In 1960, Li became the head of the Central National Orchestra. He continued to create passionately, producing numerous works throughout his life. In 1981, as the chief representative of Chinese composers, he attended the Asian Composers Conference and Music Festival in Hong Kong, where his guzheng concerto “Miluo River Fantasia” was premiered to acclaim. Li also delivered a report on “An Overview of Contemporary Chinese Music Composition” at the conference.

Despite battling late-stage cancer and deafness in both ears, Li persevered to complete his last work, the single-movement Chinese orchestral piece “Poem of the Earth,” in 1999. Li Huanzhi passed away on March 19, 2000, in Beijing at the age of 81.

“Spring Festival Overture” is one of Li Huanzhi’s most famous works, originally composed as the first movement of the “Spring Festival Suite.” The piece, initially scored for a Western symphony orchestra with a set of Chinese percussion instruments, showcases Chinese musical themes using Western compositional and orchestration techniques. The “Spring Festival Suite” consists of four movements: “Overture – Da Yangge,” “Love Song,” “Pan Song,” and “Finale – Lantern Festival.”

The suite was inspired by Li Huanzhi’s years in Shaanbei, where he became intimately familiar with the music of the region. The creation of “Spring Festival Suite” was prompted by a collaboration with dancer Dai Ailian in 1953 to collect and research musical material in Shaanbei’s rural areas for a dance work titled “Spring Festival.” Although the collaboration did not materialize, Li used the collected materials to compose the suite.

The structure of “Spring Festival Overture” follows a modified ternary form with an introduction that includes two themes. The overall structure is: Introduction – A – Transition – B – A’. In terms of tonality, the composer employed traditional Chinese pentatonic scales, such as the G do-mode (gong mode) for the first section and the G so-mode (zhi mode) for the second section.

Melodically, the piece extensively uses folk music material, such as the melody in the second section of the overture, which is derived from the Shaanxi folk song “In February.” The orchestration combines Western symphonic instruments with Chinese percussion instruments, creating a blend of Eastern and Western musical elements.

You can watch a performance of Li Huanzhi’s “Spring Festival Overture” at the following link: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1eE411979R?share_source=copy_web&vd_source=4681f0684a5c74dd125d397ca5882ba3

By Mao Mengdan and Min Lingkang

This post is part of a series on 100 modern conservatory-trained Chinese composers from 1912 onwards who wrote symphonic, ensemble, and solo instrumental music using Western instruments, as well as choral and solo vocal music, adopting Western tonality or avant-garde techniques. They are regarded as key historical figures in and drivers of modern Chinese music history.

Ma Ke (1918–July 27, 1976) was born into a Catholic family in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province. His name was inspired by Saint Mark from the Gospel. He composed over 200 music works, including widely popular songs like “Nan Ni Wan” (1943), “We Are the Democratic Youth,” “Workers Have Strength,” and “Lv Liang Mountain Grand Chorus”; yangge (Chinese) opera “The Literate Couple”; operas “Zhou Zishan” (co-composed with Zhang Lu and Liu Chi) and “The White-Haired Girl” (co-written with Qu Wei, Zhang Lu, and Xiang Yu); and the orchestral “Shaanbei Suite.”

Ma Ke’s musical journey began in 1935 at a middle school in his hometown, where he became involved in the anti-Japanese invasion and salvation song movement. In 1937, after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, he joined the Henan Resistance Against Enemy Support Association Drama Troupe and the National Government Military Commission’s Resistance Against Enemy Drama Troupe, where he was responsible for conducting and music composition. During this period, he composed over 200 battle songs, including “Guerrilla War Song,” “The Call of Taihang Mountain,” “Defend Luoyang,” and “Lv Liang Mountain Grand Chorus,” which had a significant impact among the masses.

In 1939, Ma Ke arrived in Yan’an and worked at the Lu Xun Academy of Arts Music Work Troupe, where he received guidance from Xian Xinghai and Lv Ji and recorded and organized a large amount of folk material. After the liberation, he became the vice-president of the China Conservatory of Music and was involved in music activities in the areas of resistance in Japan-occupied Northeast China.

During the Spring Festival of 1943, in response to Mao Zedong, a new yangge opera movement (based on folk song and dance) was launched in Yan’an. Ma Ke participated in the Lu Xun Academy’s yangge team, writing scripts, composing music, and joining in singing and accompaniment.

After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Ma Ke moved to Beijing to become the head of the opera department at the Central Academy of Drama, a researcher and director of the music research office, and later the president of the China Conservatory of Music and the head of the China Opera and Dance Drama Theatre. He also served as the editor-in-chief of the “People’s Music” magazine.

In music theory research, Ma Ke made significant contributions, including a study on Xian Xinghai, and addressed various issues such as the development of new opera, reform of traditional opera music, revolutionary music tradition, and mass music life. He wrote books and over 200 papers, including “Talks on Chinese Folk Music” and “Casual Discussions on Songs of the Times.”

Ma Ke made important contributions to song and opera composition and music theory. In 1978, some of his songs were compiled and published in “Selected Songs of Ma Ke.” His collective work “Requiem” (哀乐) is frequently used for funeral ceremonies in China.

Even when Ma Ke was bedridden due to persecution by the “Gang of Four,” he remained dedicated to creating new works. He passed away on July 27, 1976.

“Shaanbei Suite,” one of Ma Ke’s influential instrumental works, was composed in the spring of 1949 at the request of the Lu Xun Academy’s Music Work Troupe in the Northeast. To create this modern orchestral piece, Ma Ke extensively studied European symphonic music and drew from his personal experiences, choosing a theme familiar to him–Shaanbei’s scenery, customs, and historical evolution.

The work was originally planned as a large suite with three movements: the first depicting the joyful life of Shaanbei people; the second reflecting the civil war in Shaanbei and the final victory in the war; and the third portraying the people of Shaanbei in the construction of a new China. However, only the first two parts were completed during his lifetime, and only the first movement with two sections was formally performed and published.

“Shaanbei Suite” skillfully combines Shaanbei folk tunes, Chinese national instruments like the banhu fiddle, and folk percussion with modern orchestration, creating a symphonic picture rich in local characteristics. Ma Ke incorporated many Shaanbei folk tunes such as “Xintianyou,” “Ni Mama Da Ni,” “Renren Dou Shuo Zan Lia Hao,” folk songs “Liu Zhidan,” “Jian Jian Hua,” “Tui Xiao Che” (Zhang Lu’s folk song adaptation), and organically integrated these folk tunes into a contrasting yet harmonious two-movement suite structure.

The suite was premiered in 1949 by the Lu Xun Academy of Arts Music Work Troupe Orchestra in Shenyang, conducted by Wang Zhuo. After revisions by the author, it was published by the Chinese National Association of Musicians in 1952. In 1958, Xie Zhixin adapted it for Chinese orchestra, and the score was published by Music Publishing House.

The first movement of “Shaanbei Suite” is in a modified binary form. The work begins with a tranquil and slow introduction, leading to the first theme (G shang or re-mode, 2/4 meter) inspired by “Ni Mama Da Ni” (belonging to a song type called “Xintianyou” that has a set of rules for lyrics writing), which is melodious and lyrical. The second theme (G yu or la-mode, 2/4 meter), played by the oboe and clarinet, is lively and cheerful, and is derived from another “Xintianyou”-type song “Renren Dou Shuo Zan Lia Hao.”

The second movement starts with a short introduction, leading to an excited and passionate melody (B-flat major, 2/4 meter), a fusion of “Tui Xiao Che” and “Liu Zhidan.” This theme, when played by the flute and strings, evokes memories of the revolutionary pioneer of the Shaanbei base area, Liu Zhidan.

The entire second section is developed from variations of three similar songs, alternating between tender singing, lively counterpoint, intimate narration, and unrestrained joy. The climax is reached when the orchestra repeatedly plays the cheerful melody, depicting the labor and life of the Shaanbei people. The suite ends with a yangge dance.

You can watch a performance of Ma Ke’s “Shaanbei Suite” at the following link:

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1SE411F7Pw?share_source=copy_web&vd_source=4681f0684a5c74dd125d397ca5882ba3

By Mao Mengdan and Min Lingkang

This post is part of a series on 100 modern conservatory-trained Chinese composers from 1912 onwards who wrote symphonic, ensemble, and solo instrumental music using Western instruments, as well as choral and solo vocal music, adopting Western tonality or avant-garde techniques. They are regarded as key historical figures in and drivers of modern Chinese music history.

Jiang Dingxian (1912–2000), born in Wuhan, Hubei Province, was a prominent Chinese composer known for his works such as the piano piece “Lullaby,” the symphonic poem “Misty Waves on the River,” the symphony “Vicissitudes,” the film music for “Early Spring in February,” and the collection “Selected Songs of Jiang Dingxian.” He was deeply influenced by the revolutionary context of his time, as his father had participated in the Xinhai Revolution.

In 1930, Jiang was admitted to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where he studied composition under Huang Zi and piano, excelling in both. During his studies, he composed many songs and participated in various performances. His piano piece “Lullaby” won the second prize in a competition for Chinese-style piano pieces, organized by Alexander Tcherepnin.

In the autumn of 1934, Jiang became the music editor for the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education. Two years later, he worked with the Experimental Orchestra of the Shanghai Amateur Experimental Drama Troupe, conducting, composing, and performing piano. After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, he held various positions, including editor for the Ministry of Education’s Music Education Committee and professor of composition and piano at the Hubei Institute of Education.

In 1936, Jiang composed the song “Years Go By” (selected as one of the classic Chinese music pieces of the 20th century in 1993), the theme song “New China March” for the film “Life and Death with the Same Heart,” and music for several plays. During the war, he composed patriotic songs such as “Kill the Traitors,” “Fight the War to the End,” “For the Sake of the Motherland,” “Green Blood,” and “National Mourning,” as well as pieces like “The Cry of the Deer” (chorus), “Waves,” “Trees,” “Little Horse,” and supported students in researching, arranging, and singing folk songs, including the popular “Kangding Love Song.”

In 1950, when the Shanghai Conservatory of Music merged into the newly established Central Conservatory of Music, Jiang was appointed at the latter as a professor and head of the composition department. From 1961 to 1984, he served as the vice-president of the Central Conservatory of Music. He was a member of the fifth to seventh National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, attended the first to fourth National Congress of Literary and Art Workers, served as a member of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and was a member and executive member of the first to fourth councils of the Chinese Musicians Association. He also represented the Chinese music community internationally, serving as a judge at the World Festival of Youth and Students in Poland, attending commemorative events for Hungarian composers Béla Bartók and Franz Liszt, and participating in the Asian Composers Conference.

Throughout his 60-year teaching career, Jiang’s students spread across the world, contributing significantly to the field of music education. He was known for his broad knowledge, rich experience, and ability to inspire independent thinking in his students. Jiang also wrote articles such as “The Problem of National Style in Harmony,” “Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Birth of Hungarian Musician Liszt,” and “Commemorating Huang Zi.”

“Lullaby,” composed in 1932, is a piano piece in ternary form and one of Jiang’s award-winning works in the 1934 competition organized by Tcherepnin. The piece is notable for its use of a five-note pentatonic la-mode mode theme, creating a contemplative and melancholic atmosphere. The music is characterized by its simple and natural flow, colorful tonality, and strong Chinese style. The structure of “Lullaby” consists of a first section that introduces a lyrical Chinese-style theme, a contrasting middle section with impressionistic elements, and a final section that revisits the main theme with ornamental variations, ending the piece in a dream-like ambiance.

You can watch a performance of Jiang Dingxian’s “Lullaby” at the following link: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Wy4y1H7WJ?share_source=copy_web&vd_source=4681f0684a5c74dd125d397ca5882ba3