Xian Xinghai

Xian Xinghai was a Chinese composer, educator and cultural ambassador. He was also a student of Edgard Varèse and later his literary executor. Xian composed in all the major musical forms (two symphonies, a violin concerto, four large scale choral works, nearly 300 songs and an opera), and is best known for the Yellow River Cantata upon which the Yellow River Concerto for piano and orchestra is based. Xian was born in Macau in 1905, to Tanka parents whose ancestors were from Panyu, Guangdong. He moved frequently in his early life with his mother as his father had died before Xian was born. Xian started learning the clarinet in 1918 at the YMCA charity school attached to the Lingnan University in Guangzhou. In 1926 he joined the National Music Institute at Peking University to study music and in 1928 he entered National Shanghai Conservatory of Music to study violin and piano. The same year he published his well-known essay The Universal Music. In 1929 he went to Paris and in 1934 became the first Chinese student to be admitted to the Paris Conservatory to study senior composition with Paul Dukas. During this period he composed Wind, Song of a Wanderer, Violin Sonata in D Minor, and other works. Xian returned to China in 1935 to the Japanese occupied part of the country. Using his music as a weapon to protest the occupation, he took part in patriotic activities. During the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), he wrote vocal works that encouraged the people to fight the Japanese invaders, including Saving the Nation, Non-Resistance the Only Fear, Song of Guerrillas, The Roads Are Opened by Us, The Vast Siberia, Children of the Motherland, Go to the Homefront of the Enemy, and On the Taihang Mountains, among others. In May 1940, Xian went to the Soviet Union for a final-period manufacturing and background musical composition of the full-length documentary Yan'an and the Eight Route Army. In the Soviet Union, Xian led a hard life and was poorly treated. He attempted to go home via Mongolia but was detained and left destitute. He was rescued by a girl from the Soviet Union who later became his wife. Due to his exposure to the hard life, lack of nutrition, famine and suffering, Xian died of pulmonary disease on 30 October 1945 in Moscow. He was 40 years old. His death caused a wave of grief and mourning across China, and his funeral was attended by thousands of people. He was buried in Moscow, but his remains were later moved to Beijing in 1956. His music remains popular and influential to this day, and he is regarded as one of the greatest composers of China. He was a pioneer of modern Chinese music, combining the essence of western music with the spirit of Chinese folk music. He developed his own theory of Variable Modes, influenced by concepts found in the theories of Yin-yang and the I Ching, Daoism, brush calligraphy and qin music, as well as early and modern European theories. He composed works for orchestra, chamber ensemble and solo instruments, often incorporating elements of traditional Chinese aesthetics and musical idioms. His works have been performed by prominent orchestras and ensembles around the world, and he has received numerous awards and honors for his contributions to music and cultural exchange. He also mentored many acclaimed composers from different cultural backgrounds, such as Tan Dun, Zhou Long, Chen Yi and Bright Sheng. He was a visionary who foresaw a flourishing of creative output, benefitting from a confluence of many cultures, but grounded in an understanding of the history and traditions of each.