The composer of "Yellow River Cantata" is:

Composer:

Xian Xinghai was born on June 13, 1905 (the eleventh day of the fifth lunar month). He was originally from Panyu, Guangdong. His father Xian Xitai was a boatman. , died when he was born, his mother Huang Suying was a rural woman. Xian Xinghai relied on his grandfather since he was a child. His grandfather died when he was six years old. He went to Nanyang with his mother and entered an old school to study the Four Books and Five Classics. Later, he transferred to an English school run by the British to study English. At the age of 11, he transferred to a higher elementary school run by overseas Chinese and studied for two years. He then returned to Guangdong and entered the high school affiliated to Lingnan University, and then went to university. He has been working part-time to support himself.

1924 , Xian Xinghai finished his studies and worked as a typist, worker, night school teacher and music teacher at Lingnan University

Xian Xinghai

. At the age of 21, he went to Beijing to study theory and violin at the Music Transmission Institute of Peking University, and worked part-time as an assistant at the Peking University library. The following year, he went to study at the Shanghai National Conservatory of Music. In 1929, he left the National Conservatory of Music and joined the Southern Chinese Opera organized by Tian Han. society.

In 1930, the 25-year-old Xian Xinghai went abroad to Paris, France, to study violin with Oberdorfer. During his six years in Paris, he attended the Conservatoire National de Paris and the Dandy Conservatoire. (Vincent d'Indy) founded the music school, and worked as a waiter and musician in restaurants, manicures and coffee shops. His early works such as "Wind" (Trio) were obviously influenced by Paul Dukas and Dandy, whom he followed at that time.

Xian Xinghai returned to China in the late summer of 1935, changed his creative direction, participated in the surging National Defense Music Movement, began to write the First Symphony, and worked at EMI Records, but soon he was He resigned due to disagreements with the company and transferred to Xinhua Film Company as the music director of "Top Gun", "Midnight Song", "Youth March" and other films.

In 1937, Xian Xinghai composed and dubbed music for dramas such as "Sunrise" and "Thunderstorm". After the "August 13th" Incident, he joined the Second Shanghai National Salvation Drama Team and went to Zhejiang, Henan, Hubei and other places to promote; at the end of the year, he stayed in Wuhan and worked in the Third Department of the Political Department of the Military Commission, co-hosting with Zhang Shu and other *** Wuhan Anti-Japanese War Music Movement. In November of the following year, his work in the Third Hall was hindered and he went to Yan'an to serve as the director of the music department of Lu Xun Academy of Art. In early 1937, he composed works such as "Yellow River Cantata", "Production Cantata" and "Sacrifice Alliance Cantata".

In May 1940, Xian Xinghai left Yan'an to study music in the Soviet Union. In April 1945, he completed his final work "Chinese Rhapsody" while ill. He died in Moscow on October 30. , died at the age of forty. In the last five years of his stay in the Soviet Union, Xian Xinghai completed many instrumental works, including Symphony No. 1 "National Liberation", Symphony No. 2 "Holy War", Orchestral Suite No. 1 "Rear Front", Suite No. 2 "Herding Horses" Lyrics", the third suite "Celege", the fourth suite "Man Jiang Hong", the symphony "Chinese Life", three Chinese dances, violin and two piano ensemble "Armangelder", and "Chinese Rhapsody" Misfortune became his "swan song."

Lyricist:

Guang Weiran (1913-2002), formerly known as Zhang Guangnian, was born in Guanghua County, Hubei Province (now Laohekou City), a famous modern poet, literary critic, and author of Quite abundant. Born on November 1, 1913. In 1927, he participated in the first domestic revolutionary war in his hometown and joined the Communist Youth League of China in the same year. After the failure of the revolution, he worked as a shop apprentice, bookstore clerk and primary school teacher. He died at the age of 89.

His works include: authored essay collections "Problems of Realism in Drama" (1957), "Collection of Literary Debates" (1958), and "Wind and Rain Literary Talks" (1982). Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, Guang Weiran has published a collection of poems such as "May Flowers" (1960), which contains more than 30 representative works of the author before and after liberation, including the long poem "Qu Yuan" and the poem "Yellow River". Cantata", "Sanmenxia Cantata" and other famous works.

Works not yet included in the collection include the political lyric poems "The Grand Festival of the Revolutionary People" and "The Thrilling Year of 1976", as well as the long narrative poem "Heroic Drilling Team" and other lyrics "Flowers of May", the poem "Yellow River Cantata" ”, a collection of essays such as “Wind and Rain Literary Talks”, “Youth Literary Talks”, “Selected Dramas in the Light of Weiran”, “Jianghai Diary”, “Xiangyang Diary”, “Chronicle of the Literary Rejuvenation”, “The Presence of Poems in the Light of Weiran” and a collection of poems. , the paper "Socialist Literature in the New Era is Making Great Strides", etc.

He joined the Communist Party of China in 1929, and then lost his organizational affiliation with the party due to the destruction of the organization in northern Hubei. Since the 1930s, he has been engaged in progressive dramatic and literary activities. In 1936, he published the lyrics "Flowers of May" in Wuhan, praising the anti-Japanese comrades and opposing traitorous surrender. The song sings: "Flowers in May are blooming all over the wilderness, / The flowers cover the blood of the patriots. / In order to save this dying nation, / They have fought tenaciously without rest. ..." After the music was composed by Yan Shushi, it was based on The rich and profound lyrical atmosphere of deep sorrow and anger was widely sung in the anti-Japanese and national salvation activities. Rejoined the Communist Party of China in 1937. In 1938, his "Street Drama Collection" was published. In January 1939, he led the third anti-enemy drama team from the anti-Japanese guerrilla zone in western Shanxi to Yan'an. In March of the same year, after arriving in Yan'an, he composed "Ode to the Yellow River" from the "Yellow River Cantata", a group of poems praising the spirit of the Chinese nation (selected into the sixth lesson of the Chinese language book published by the People's Education Press in the second semester of the first grade of junior high school). After being composed by people's musician Xian Xinghai, it was performed for the first time in Yan'an in April. Since then, it has been widely sung across the country and has been warmly welcomed by the anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians. This group of poems is powerful, majestic, profound and profound. It is a heroic poem for the Chinese nation to resist foreign aggression, and it is also a tragic picture of reality during the Anti-Japanese War. It reflects the unprecedented awakening of the people and shows strong national integrity and unyielding fighting spirit. In terms of art, the whole poem has a complete conception and exquisite layout. The Yellow River, a symbol of the Chinese nation, is used as the running image, which casts surging passion and makes the whole poem appear powerful. At the same time, because the poet drew lessons from traditional Chinese poetry expression techniques, the poems are composed in a fast rhythm and the language is concise. After the poet arrived in Yan'an in 1939, he created a larger poem "Yellow River Cantata" in length and scale. "Yellow River Cantata" has eight movements, namely: "Yellow River Boatman's Song", "Yellow River Ode", "Yellow River Water Comes from the Sky", "Yellow River Dialogue Song", "Yellow Water Ballad", "Yellow River Resentment", "Defend the Yellow River", Roar, Yellow River". The majestic imagination and realistic scenes in the poem are intertwined to form a magnificent historical picture, singing about suffering and struggle, depicting the image of the Yellow River, and reflecting the real scenes of the heroic sons and daughters of the Chinese nation in the war of resistance. After Xian Xinghai composed the music, it became popular all over the country. Xian Xinghai praised it as "full of beauty, full of realism, resentment, and tragic emotions, making people who have never crossed the Yellow River feel the same way as those who have." The lyrics themselves have tried their best to describe the great Yellow River for thousands of years. history”. Guang Weiran was engaged in literary and artistic activities in Chongqing in 1940 and wrote a long narrative poem "Qu Yuan". Under the white terror, he used the form of poetry to express the strong demands of the people to persist in the war of resistance, oppose surrender, oppose separatism, and oppose regression in the form of poetry. After the "Southern Anhui Incident", he was forced to leave Myanmar and unite the overseas Chinese cultural circles and overseas Chinese youth to engage in anti-fascist cultural activities. Returning to Yunnan in 1942, from March 1943 to September 1944, he wrote a long narrative poem "Song of the Axi People" based on popular folk songs, and also created a long lyric poem "Green Irawaddy".

In 1944, Guang Weiran was engaged in democratic movements and poetry recitals in Yunnan with Li Gongpu and Wen Yiduo. In October 1945, he was persecuted by the Kuomintang government and left Kunming. The following year, he entered the North China Liberated Area from Peiping and successively took charge of teaching at the School of Art of North University and the School of Literature and Art of North China University. After the founding of New China, he served as the chief editor of "Script", "Literary News" and "People's Literature". After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Guang Weiran has been engaged in literary and artistic activities in Beijing.

He successively served as the editor-in-chief of "Script", "Literary News", and "People's Literature", and wrote a large number of literary and art reviews under Zhang Guangnian's signature.

These articles are rigorous in their arguments and free in style, and they have the courage to express their opinions in the face of major literary and artistic phenomena. They have written articles on the anti-historicist tendencies in historical dramas and mythological dramas, the issues of realism in the heritage of opera, and socialist realism. At the same time, he actively discussed the creation of new poetry and promoted the prosperity of Chinese new poetry creation with his own creative practice and theoretical research.

On December 30, 1984, he gave a keynote report entitled "Socialist Literature is Making Great Strides" at the fourth general meeting of the Chinese Writers Association. He is the author of essay collections "Problems of Realism in Drama" (1957), "Literary Debates" (1958), and "Wind and Rain Literary Talks" (1982).

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, Guang Weiran has published poetry collections such as "May Flowers" (1960), which contains more than 30 representative works of the author before and after liberation, including long poems. "Qu Yuan", the poem "Yellow River Cantata", "Sanmenxia Cantata" and other famous works. Works not included in the collection include the political lyric poems "The Grand Festival of the Revolutionary People", "Thrilling Years of 1976", and the long narrative poem "Heroic Drilling Team". Guang Weiran's poems are passionate and majestic, and are good at using gorgeous images to contain the rapids of the difficult and advancing era.

Guang Weiran served as Secretary of the Secretariat of the Chinese Writers Association and Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the Chinese Writers Association. And was elected as a representative of the third and fifth National People's Congress. He was formerly a member of the Central Advisory Committee of the Communist Party of China and vice chairman of the Chinese Writers Association.

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5. Behind-the-scenes story

"Yellow River Cantata" is Xian Xinghai's most representative and most familiar work. The music was born in the most tragic days before the Japanese War. It was after the fall of Wuhan in November 1938. The famous poet Guang Weiran (formerly known as Zhang Guangnian) retreated with the three anti-enemy drama teams and passed the Yellow River, triggering the The poet's creative inspiration. When he arrived in Yan'an in January of the following year, his long-simmering poetic passion exploded. He wrote the Yellow River Poems and gave a recitation performance on the Lunar New Year's Eve. In a small cave dwelling, I wrote for six consecutive days while ill. It was completed on March 31 of the same year. On April 13, Wu Xiling commanded the Third Anti-Enemy Team to premiere at the Northern Shaanxi Auditorium, and again on May 11. The Lu Xun Performance Troupe was performed by Xian Xinghai.

The famous composer Li Huanzhi, who is now the chairman of the Chinese Musicians Association, recalled the performance of the "Yellow River Cantata" in Yan'an and had this very vivid description: "In the border area where material conditions are extremely scarce, It was impossible to form a complete band. At that time, all the instruments were used as much as possible. In addition to three or four violins, they were erhu, sanxian, dizi, six-stringed harp and percussion instruments. If there was no music stand, wooden boards were used. He set it up as a music stand. If he didn’t have a bass instrument, he made it by himself. Look at the new “weapon” standing in the right corner of the band, which is a bass harp modified from a gasoline iron barrel. The sound of the metal gun singing sings the majesty of the Yellow River; if you look at the side of this new "weapon", there is another new "weapon". It is a large enamel jar with more than a dozen in it. Twenty spoons for eating. When the "Yellow River Boatman Song" is recited, "Then listen! "As soon as he finished, the conductor waved his arm, and this new percussion instrument made a "crash, clatter, clatter" sound, singing in unison with the orchestra, gongs and drums, and matching the chorus's "Ahem, row!" ...", setting off the momentum of thousands of horses galloping.

"Yellow River Cantata" is an epic large-scale vocal suite, divided into eight movements. The lyrics are written by Guang Weiran and the music is composed by Xian Haixing. Works It shows the suffering and tenacious struggle of the Chinese people during the Anti-Japanese War, and also shows the great spirit and invincible strength of our nation. It uses the birthplace of our nation, the Yellow River, as the background, and shows what happened on the banks of the Yellow River. The work is magnificent, fresh, simple and beautiful in tone, and has a distinctive national style, which strongly reflects the spirit of the times.

Beethoven said when he was dying: "I just wrote a few notes..." What am I? You are much worse than them, why don't you work harder? ”