The Influence of European Music in China
----With special reference to Orchestral Music in China
LIU Ching-chih
Hon Fellow of the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences,
University of Hong Kong
Introduction
The influence of European music throughout the 20 th century in China manifests
mainly in the following three aspects, namely the authorship of musical works, the
musical language employed in compositions and the taste for aesthetic qualities of
musical ideas and beauty. Authorship in traditional Chinese music is mostly
anonymous as evidenced by the folk derivation of musical sources. Even the official
court music of a given dynasty was also a recreation from anonymous folk
material.(Liang Mingyue 1985: 13) Throughout the centuries, music has been
transmitted through oral and written notations, however, “by word of mouth” and
“by sound of instrument” have been the main ways, with written notation as the
supplementary measure. Furthermore, the majority of musical pieces are re-created
from existing musical sources, including well known 琴 qin works and 曲牌 qupai of
regional operas 戲曲 xiqu. The performer has a duty to improvise part of the work
and the performer acts a co-author of the work. Therefore the performer as a
co-composer has a dual role, Mei Lanfang, a Peking opera performer in the 20th
century serves as a typical example. In the Chinese musical tradition up to the
mid-20th century, an outstanding performer was highly regarded as there was no
“composer” in the European sense. In fact, there was no “composer” as such in
China before the 20th century.
Musical language on the other hand is a complicated issue. “Musical language”
means the various elements that constitute a piece of musical work, namely pitch,
note, rhythm, melody (the musical phrase), harmony, counterpoint, formal structure,
orchestration, instrumentation, etc. A student studying “composing” at a
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conservatory of music needs to master the craftsmanship of harmony, counterpoint,
formal structure and orchestration. In the 18th and 19th centuries, composers like JS
Bach, Handel, Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven were all well versed in keyboard
harmony and improvisation. They were virtually able to compose on the keyboard
with well structured forms and rich textures of harmony and counterpoint. Such a
comprehensive set of the musical theoretical package took several hundreds of years
to develop and perfect, from ancient Greece and ancient Rome, through to the
Middle Ages, Ars Nova and the Renaissance, the Age of Humanism, the Age of
Enlightenment, Romanticism and the Modern Age. In short, the groundwork of the
philosophy of music was laid during the time of ancient Greece and of ancient Rome,
the foundation of the craftsmanship of musical language was nurtured by the church
during the Middle Ages and the art of music was developed during the Renaissance,
the Ages of Humanism and Enlightenment down to the Modern Age. (The New
Oxford History of Music Volumes I to X 1957-1990)
In China, the development of music has been entirely different. In ancient China,
music was included in the six Arts: rituals, music, archery, charioteering, writing and
arithmetic. The concept of the educated man consisted of a moral citizen who would
serve his ruler faithfully, recognise his duty towards the people over whom he had
authority, and be equipped with the administrative skills required for the task of
government. It was believed that the promotion of the six Virtues and the six Good
Actions should come through the study of the six Arts. (The New Grove’s Volume 22:
615) It is obvious that in Chinese traditional values, music was intended to enhance
the rituals, not a gift from God nor as regarded by Plato and Aristotle as a gift from
God or to be a noble tradition. As a result, music was not included in the curriculum
in schools during the long history of Chinese culture and was not regarded as an art
of aesthetic value. Furthermore, there was no strong church or temple influence and
there was no Renaissance, no Reformation, no Industrial Revolution, no Ages of
Humanism and Enlightenment. There has not been any strong factor which could
enhance the development of music in China. It is understandable that with the
introduction of music curriculum to schools, there has been an increasingly stronger
influence of European music, religious and secular, and there has been a growing
tendency in employing the craftsmanship of European music.
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After more than a century and after more and more young people who were
educated and trained abroad, the taste for the aesthetic qualities of musical idea and
beauty have been cultivated with more and more inclination toward European music,
the well designed structure resembles the Baroque architecture and the formal
beauty of classical works, and for the sophisticated contrapuntal harmonic texture
displaying profound human emotions. This has been true of urban dwellers in big
cities such as Shanghai, Bejing, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Xiamen, etc, where there were
more opportunities to get in touch with European music and where there were
pianists, violinists and even chamber musicians as well as orchestral players. With the
increasing exposure to European music, citizens in these cities gradually cultivated a
taste for European music with works by JS Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert,
Chopin, etc. With the establishment of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1927
and other music establishments in big cities in the early 20th century, there was an
increasing number of music lovers of European compositions. This means that music
lovers in China’s big cities started to develop their taste for aesthetic awareness and
for the fine qualities and beauty of European music.
Authorship: Composer as a Profession
During the long cultural history of China, there was never a profession called the
“composer” in its true European sense, i.e. people engaged in creating music as their
profession as J.S. Bach, who was employed by the church to write music , to conduct
a choir and to play the organ for church services; or as Ludwig van Beethoven, who
composed music to his own emotional satisfactions and at the same time earned
some income to balance his monthly expenditure in addition to his private piano
tuition. In China, it is folk songs and instrumental music which have been passed
from generation after generation. There was no mention of the authorship of these
vocal and instrumental compositions before the 20th century.
Teacher-composer
When the Civil Examinations ceased to function after 1905, more and more new
types of schools were set up and the curricula in these schools were modeled on the
school curricula of Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The
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curricula included subjects such as Chinese, English, mathematics, history, chemistry,
physics as well as arts (painting), music, handicraft, etc. This means that for the first
time in the history of China’s curricula, music, physical education and handicraft were
given their rightful places. In the early 20th century, quite a number of young people
went to Japan to study sciences, arts and music, including 曾志忞 Zeng Zhimin,沈心
工 Shen Xingong and 李叔同 Li Shutong. There were also people who went to the
States and Continental Europe to study music and a few even majored composing,
such as 趙元任 Zhao Yuanren，蕭友梅 Xiao Youmei，黃自 Huang Zi, and others. A few
of these came back after completing their studies and taught at the Shanghai
Conservatory of Music and departments of music at other institutions in Shanghai
and Peking during the “May Fourth Movement” period. However, these people were
mainly teachers at musical institutions and their main duties were teaching. They did
compose songs for teaching and for fighting against the Japanese invaders during the
period 1930s to 1945. Therefore they were not professional composers, i.e. not
taking composing as a full-time career. They were actually full-time teachers of music
and they composed songs during their leisure time. We can say that up to 1949,
when the People’s Republic of China was founded, 99% of musical compositions was
vocal music composed by teachers of music in their leisure time. After 1949, cultural
troupes were set up extensively throughout China and many of them engaged full
time composers. However, composing activities were still mostly carried out by
teachers during their leisure time.
There was no professional composer in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan till the end of
the 20th century. In recent years there have been composers, though very few,
earning their living entirely by composing, mostly from commissioned works from
arts organizations such as the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the Fine Arts Channel of Radio
Television Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra and others. It is therefore
very fair to say that the profession of a “composer” in its real sense was borrowed
from Europe and that it was not a “musical product” of China. This is the first aspect
of the influence to China from Europe.
Musical Language
Harmony, Counterpoint, Form and Orchestration
4
The second aspect of the influence from Europe on Chinese music was obviously
the European “musical language” employed by composers since the early twentieth
century in China. Before the twentieth century, people either enjoyed their folk
songs and regional xiqu, which were entirely passed on from generation to
generation 口傳心授 verbally by memory, as compared with those written by
composers in Europe. During the several hundred of years of the Middle Ages, the
Renaissance, the Reformation, the Baroque, the Classic and the Romantic periods in
Europe, a well structured musical language system was developed and established.
Such a system included the contrapuntal device, the harmonic system, the
instrumentation and orchestration, the formal structure of the mass, the oratorio,
the cantata, the keyboard and instrumental suite, the opera, the sonata form, the
symphony and the symphonic poem. During the industrial revolution, the
importance attached to music and music education by the peoples of Europe was
due to their philosophical heritage stemming from the ancient Greek and Roman
traditions. Christianity also enhanced the development of music in continental
Europe. There was no such a development in China over the same historical periods.
Well-structured songs with accompaniment
After the introduction of the new type of schools in China, the “May Fourth
Movement” and the Anti-Japanese War during the first half of the twentieth century,
there was an increasing demand for the school song and songs for fighting against
the Japanese invaders. As a result, trained and untrained song writers started to
write songs in binary and ternary forms for the consumption of the schools and
soldiers. The quality of the songs produced during this period of time were quite
inconsistent, some were well structured and musically admirable, with properly
designed tonalities and piano accompaniments; others were written in a rough and
slipshod manner, in numerical notations without modulation and piano
accompaniment. Obviously the former were written by composers who were familiar
with the musical language of Europe, as they studied composition abroad or at
conservatories in China, among them were 趙元任 Zhao Yuanren (1892-1982) and
蕭友梅 Xiao Youmei (1884-1940) , who holds a PhD (Music) from Germany, the
founder of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.
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Orchestral works
During the first half of the twentieth century, compositions were almost entirely
vocal, solo songs and choral works. China in those days was so poor that musical
instruments were scarce. There was only one properly established symphony
orchestra in Shanghai and it was under the management of the expatriates for the
expatriates. When 冼星海 Xian Xinghai premiered his Yellow River Cantata in Yen’an
in the late 1930s, he could not find the needed Western musical instruments for the
orchestra, he had no choice but to employ the erhus to substitute for the violins and
violas. The period after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 to the
beginning of the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” in 1966, was a particularly
successful period for Communist historians who claim it as “the seventeen years
after the founding of the People’s Republic of China”, a peaceful and settled time
such as has been rarely seen in China. In actual fact this was only true of the first
seven years or so. Between 1949 and 1957, in comparison to previous years, there
was marked progress in many different areas—social order, education, the economy
and the standard of living, as well as in morality. As a result, more instrumental and
orchestral compositions were composed and more orchestras established. According
to lists of works composed during the years 1956 to 1966 compiled by 李煥之 Li
Huanzhi (1919-2003), works composed during these eleven years were: Symphonic
Music 44, Orchestral Music 33, Cantata 23, Opera 22，Dance Drama 12, Music for
Chinese Orchestra 16, Music for Strings 25, and Music for Piano 25, totaling 200
pieces of works. (Liu 2010:771-779). As we can see from these incomplete lists of
works composed between 1956 to 1966, apart from those for the piano and the
strings, a large number were composed for the orchestra, quite a progress as
compared to the works written prior to 1949.
During the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” between 1966 to 1976, under the
leadership of Madam Jiang Qing, there appeared two batches of “Revolutionary
Model Works” (yangbanxi) which included five Revolutionary Modern Peking Operas,
two Modern Dance Dramas and one Revolutionary Symphony in the first batch and
six Revolutionary Modern Peking Operas, two Revolutionary Dance Dramas, two
piano works and one Revolutionary Symphony in the second batch.(Liu 2010: 886)
The following are some characteristics of these works during the Cultural Revolution:
6
First of all these yangbanxi were adapted from existing Peking opera and dance
dramas; secondly the accompanying instruments for the Peking operas included both
Chinese instruments as well as European orchestral instruments; thirdly the
revolutionary dance dramas were largely modeled on the European ballet; fourthly
the revolutionary symphonies were not in the sonata form or the sonata allegro form
as most European symphonies written during the periods from the classical period to
the twentieth century.(Liu 2010: 377-481)
Musical language of the classical and romantic schools
The musical language of the works written during 1949 to 1976 was essentially
within the scope of the musical language of the classical and early romantic schools,
similar to the compositional techniques employed by Schubert and Schumann (art
songs and choral works), or by Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven (instrumental and
orchestral works).
From the late 1970s, many middle-aged composers managed to bridge the gap left
by the destructive Cultural Revolution and composed a succession of works in
original styles and brimming with new ideas. To name a few, 陳培勛 Chen Peixun
(1922-2007), 朱踐耳 Zhu Jian’er (1922- ), 羅中鎔 Luo Zhongrong (1924- ), 杜鳴心
Du Mingxin (1928- ), 金湘 Jin Xiang (1935- ) and 王西麟 Wang Xilin (1937- ). Since
the end of the 1970s, they demonstrated their talents and displayed their creativity,
and the works they have produced have not only enriched the connotations of New
Music in China but have also opened up more ground for this variety of music. In the
relatively liberal environment of the 1980s, a younger generation of composers
began experimenting with innovative techniques and concepts in their musical
compositions and developed a whole wave of composition in new styles. By the mid
1980s, music historians and musicologists were referring to it as a “New Wave” (xin
chao). These “New Wave” composers were predominately from the class of 1978 at
the Central Conservatory of Music: 瞿小松 Qu Xiaosong (1952- ), 周龍 Zhou Long
(1953- ), 陳怡 Chen Yi (1953- ), 葉小綱 Ye Xiaogang (1955- ), 陳其鋼 Chen
Qigang (1955- ), 郭文景 Guo Wenjing (1956- ), 蘇聰 Su Cong (1957- ), 譚盾 Tan
Dun (1957- ).(Liu 2010: 483-544) The dates of the composers in China from the early
20th century beginning with 賀綠汀 He Luding (1903-1999) to the “New Wave”
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range over half a century, but in terms of composing techniques they span almost a
whole century, and in style they cover perhaps a century and a half. Though
techniques and styles are affected by the age in which the composer lives, the
make-up of the individual composer’s character is even more important. The French
composers Saint-Saens (1835-1921) and Debussy (1862-1918), for instance were
composing during the same period, but in the techniques they employed and in the
style of their works they belonged to two completely different schools and two
different periods. In China, 譚小麟 Tan Xiaolin (1911-1948) and 丁善德 Ding
Shande (1911-1995) and Tan both studied in France, however, the technique and
style of the former shows more of a feel for the period than those of the latter,
indicating that some composers are ahead of their times.
If 1949 was the dividing line between the vocal works of the first half of the 20th
century and the instrumental and orchestral music after 1978, then the ten-year
Cultural Revolution could be classified as an extraordinary period of time in the
history of China, during which two batches of yangbanxi—revolutionary Peking
operas, revolutionary modern dance dramas and revolutionary symphonies
appeared. During these periods, the musical languages employed were within the
scope of the classical and early romantic formal structures, harmony, counterpoint,
instrumentation and orchestration. There appeared a rapid progress in the
compositional devices displayed in the “New Wave” compositions. However, the
harmony, counterpoint and orchestration employed were nevertheless of the tonal
system, far away from breaking down the whole concept of key (tonality) in the
so-called chromaticism of Schoenberg and atonality of Berg and Webern—the three
members of the second Viennese School.
The traditional structures of music had been inextricably linked to the harmonic
system, and the collapse of the latter led to problems with the former. (Mark Morris
1996: xiii-xxxv) However, this was a problem in Europe, but not in China. The
increasingly globalization during the end of the 20th century has effectively offset the
strong inclination of nationalism in literature and arts in China. Chinese composers
residing in the States and Europe have been trying their best to compose works to
the taste of the audience there rather than those in China. Therefore the works
8
written by Chinese composers living in the West employ contemporary musical
language, such as atonality and multimedia presentation, invariably dotted with
some Chinese flavour such as a phrase from a well known Peking opera or from a
traditional Chinese piece of music.
From the above, we understand that beginning in the early 20th centuryChinese
musicians who were not properly trained and later those composers who were
better trained employed the musical language of the European’s classical and early
Romantic schools to write both vocal and instrumental works. After more than a
century Chinese living in big cities have more or less acquired a taste for
EuropeanClassical and Romantic music, such as art songs (German Lieder), Italian
operas (Bel Canto), Classical and Romantic orchestral works, including symphonies
(Sonata form and Contrapuntal harmonic textures). What was important was the
inclusion of music as a subject of the curricula in primary and secondary schools, and
the establishment of professional conservatories of music and departments of music
at tertiary institutes throughout China.
A Taste for European Classical and Romantic Music
Aesthetic qualities for musical ideas and beauty
The development of music in China has been entirely different from that of European
countries, especially in Italy, Germany and France. In China, there was no Greek and
Roman heritage, nor had there been the Dark Ages, the Renaissance, the
Reformation, the Industrial Revolution, the Enlightenment or the Baroque, the
Classical,the first Viennese School, the Romantic and the second Viennese Schools.
In the beginning of the 21st century, with the rapid development of globalization,
citizens living in cosmopolitan cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, are
used to the bel canto style of Italian operas and the German operas, the sonorous
orchestral tone colours and the texture of the horizontal and vertical textures of
strings, woodwinds, brass and percussions. However, the vast lovers of Chinese folk
songs and folk instrumental music as well the diversified regional operas (xiqu)
without doubt outnumber those European music lovers throughout China. But
resources and authority have always been in the hands of powerful civil servants and
9
influential administrators who were educated at universities and conservatories in
continental Europe and in the United States. A classical example was the founder of
China’s first professional conservatory of music in Shanghai in November 1927, Dr.
蕭友梅 Xiao Youmei, a PhD holder from the Department of Philosophy at the
University of Leipzig in 1916. His doctoral thesis was entitled A Study of Ancient
Chinese Musical Instruments. Another example is the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra
which was established in 1977 by the Hong Kong Urban Council. This orchestra
consists of string, the wind and percussion families. (30th Years of the Hong Kong
Chinese Orchestra 1977-2007: 216-219) The string family comprises the gaohu, the
erhu, the zhonghu, the gehu and the bass gehu, resembling the violin, the viola, the
cello and the double bass of the European orchestra. There are also other
instruments
which
remind
people
of
the
shadow
of
the
European
orchestra—soprano sheng, tenor sheng, bass sheng, soprano suona, alto suona,
tenor suona, bass suona, etc. Such divisions of instrumental voices are for the
European harmonic system and contrapuntal texture, as well for the orchestration
effect. Since the European musical language has been the result of several centuries
of development and experiment in philosophy, in religion, in instrumentation and
orchestration, in theory and practice, in craftsmanship, in aesthetic values and in
style, it is obvious that the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra needs another philosophy
and craftsmanship in orchestral organization.
The elite class, though in the minority, mostly educated in the States or Europe are in
high positions in government, universities, conservatories, arts organizations (such as
opera houses), concert halls and performing arts centres. In fact, they are the policy
makers and the holders of the purse strings. 蕭友梅 Xiao Youmei was a graduate of
the University of Leipzig and studied at the Leipzig Conservatory, and it was natural
that he should model the Shanghai Conservatory of Music on the Conservatory of
Leipzig; the people responsible for the cultural affairs and for the establishing the
Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra were lovers of European classical music, and it was
logical that the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra was modeled on the European
orchestra. 蕭友梅 Xiao Youmei overlooked the fact that the cultural and religious
background of the Chinese was entirely different from the historical and cultural
background of Germany, the motherland of Martin Luther–– the great religious
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Reformer and an outstanding composers of chorales.. Those who were responsible
for the establishment of cultural life of the Hong Kong Chinese overlooked that it
took several hundred years for the European orchestra to go from the instrumental
ensembles of the Baroque to well structured trios, quartets in sonata form and from
chamber music to full orchestral tutti of the Classical and romantic. They also ignored
the fact that it also took several hundred years for the string instruments and wind
instruments (wood, brass as well as the keyboard), to go through improvement
procedures. The sonorous, colourful and diversified effects of the European orchestra
are the result of several hundred years of experiments and efforts in expressing
human emotions and agonies, with distinct European characteristics. The elites in
China fully appreciate the strength and beauty of musical compositions,
unfortunately they have been taking a too simplistic an approach toward the great
masterpieces of European composers and ignoring the inner philosophical, religious,
social and aesthetic elements of these musical works. Composers in China
throughout the 20th century started by copying and imitating European musical
works and lately by transplanting the harmonic system and orchestration of the late
Romantic school. (Liu 1999: 571-623)
The taste and aesthetic preference of the lovers of European music in cosmopolitan
cities in China are confined to the compositions of composers from JS Bach and
Handel of the Baroque school; Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert of the first
Viennese School-- the classical and early romantic schools; Chopin, Berlioz,
Schumann, Brahms, Verdi, Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler, Stravinsky and Richard Strauss
of the middle and late romantic schools; Debussy and Ravel of the impressionistic
school as well as Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Dvorak, Borodin,
Rimsky-Korsakov and Bartok of the nationalistic school. They also accept the styles of
Sibelius, Respighi, Scriabin, Grieg and even Shostakovich. That is from 1600 to the
mid-20th century, for around 350 years. But it is doubtful that many are interested in
the works of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern, let alone Hindemith and Stockhausen. It
is easy to understand the reason behind the lack of interest in works that came after
late romanticism and the nationalistic schools. It is because of the destruction of
tonality by the second Viennese School, namely the works of Schoenberg, Berg and
Webern. Given the late introduction of music curriculum in schools and the attitude
11
toward music as an art, it may take another century for Chinese lovers of music to
appreciate musical works composed after the mid-20th century.
Influence Reflected in Musical Works
There are of course other aspects of influence of European music in China.
However, the essential aspects which changed the ecology of music in China are as
referred in the sections above, namely (i) authorship from un-named collective
authors to one or more than one authorship; (ii) music language from mono-melody
to a polyphony of contrapuntal harmonic textures for choral as well as orchestral
compositions; and (iii) the changes listed in (i) and (ii) above greatly molded the taste
and aesthetic preference of the lovers of European music in China and as a result this
new trend took centre stage in the musical life of cosmopolitan cities in China.
It has been argued that “New Music” is actually the works of Chinese musicians that
use European compositional techniques and musical idioms. The essential facts
about European music or, to be more accurate, the music of central, western, eastern
and southern Europe, are that it was based on Christian traditions, but was also
influenced by the post Renaissance spirit of humanism, and developed from the
music of the Baroque period and the Classical school to that of the Romantics of the
nineteenth century and the Modernists of the twentieth. Since the religious and
humanist spirit was, of course, precisely opposed by communism and socialism the
study of Europeanised Chinese music cannot but involve conflicts of principle that
are hard to resolve. (Liu 2010:3-4) This is an extremely important point to
musicologists and music historians to ponder upon. During the 20 th century
composers in China did a good job in mastering the European musical language and
the technicalities of composing music, and they did an excellent job in mastering the
complicated harmonic and chromatic systems, the contrapuntal harmonic textures
and the orchestration techniques. Unfortunately, they lack the spirit of the religion
and of the humanism that are the soul of the European musical works. This is the
reason for the author to remark that the influence of European music to China during
the 20th century and beyond has been strong but superficial. It has been strong,
because the whole of China worships European music; it has been superficial,
because the music Chinese composers composed lack substance—religious and
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humanistic feelings. This is the very factor which differentiates Europeanised Chinese
music from European music.
A few composers in China composed religious music. For example, 江文也 Jiang
Wenye (1910-1983), a professor of composition at the Central Conservatory of Music
in Beijing, wrote two volumes of Melodiae Psalmorum , Prima Missa, and Psalms for
Children, which have been published by the Catholic Association in Hong Kong.
Jiang’s 64 Melodiae Psalmorum are sung during the services at the Catholic Cathedral
and churches in Hong Kong. 馬革順 Ma Geshun (1914- ), a devoted Christian and a
professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, specialized in choral training and
conducting. He also composed religious choral works for church choirs in Shanghai.
Both Jiang and Ma were in favour of writing religious choral works in Chinese style. In
fact, Jiang’s religious works are quite different from those at chapels and churches in
Europe.
The author of this article compiled a paper entitled “Orchestral Works in China--A
historical perspective”, which provides the different stages of development of
orchestral compositions in China, from the 1930s-1940s through the 1950s-1960s
and the 1966-1976 (the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution) and the “New Wave”
Movement from 1978 to the 1980s; further developments started from the 1990s to
the early 21st century. The paper also proposes a programme for an orchestral
concert of compositions by Chinese composers, which in a way summarises the
achievements of the Chinese composers in the area of orchestral works and which
may also be considered as an indication of the influence of European music to China
during the 20th century (see Appendix I: Orchestral Works in China—A Historical
Perspective).
There is another appendix of a list of six recorded musical examples to illustrate the
orchestral works written during the late 1980s to the 1990s.
Appendix I：Orchestral Works in China—A Historical Perspective
1930s - 1940s
1. During the early years of the 20th century, there were very few full orchestral
works written by composers in China for the following reasons :
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1.1. Before the founding of the Republic of China (1912-1949 on Mainland China,
from 1949 to present in Taiwan), there was no “composer” as a profession in
the sense of “composer” in Europe. Thereafter, teachers of music in
Shanghai, Peking and other places composed vocal music, first solo songs
and later choral works for educational and anti-Japanese invasion purposes.
1.2. Due to the poor financial and economic conditions, China was unable to
afford orchestras, nor were these teacher-composers able to write works for
the orchestra.
1.3. Audience in China was not familiar with the instrumental texture of the
European orchestra and there was no market for orchestral performances.
2. According to the orchestral works composed by Chinese Composers before the
founding of the People Republic of China (1949), there were only a handful of
composers in China, Japan, and the United States of America who wrote
orchestral works of reasonable quality, including :
2.1. 黃自 Huang Zi (1904-1938) : 《懷舊》序曲 In Memoriam, Ouverture for
Orchestra, 1929, an undergraduate thesis for his B. Mus. Degree of the Yale
University Music College (Liu 2010: 117-118,131-132+ ME: 134-138). This
work was composed and priemered in the States in 1929.
2.2. 江文也 Jiang Wenye (1910-1983). Jiang Wenye won several prizes for his
compositions while he lived in Japan, as follows :
(i)
《臺灣舞曲》Taiwanese Dance (Op. 1 for Orchestra, 1934).
(ii)
《白鷺的幻想》White Egret Fantasia (Op. 2 for Orchestra, 1934);
(iii) 《盆誦主題交響組曲》Symphonic Suite on a forward theme (Op. 5 for
Orchestra, 1935);
(iv) 《賦格序曲》Prelude to a Fugue (for Orchestra, 1937);
After Jiang returned to China, he wrote the following orchestral works :
(v) 《孔廟大晟樂章》Music of the Confucius Temple (Op. 30 for Orchestra,
1939) (Liu 2010: 234-235 + ME: 247-248)
2.3. 周文中 Zhou Wenzhong (1923 - ) , who migrated to the States in late 1940s,
composed orchestral and chamber music which attracted international
attention – his orchestration is exceptional and his artistic conceptions
extremely elegant. (Liu 2010: 618). It is therefore strongly recommended
that his works be considered for inclusion for performance. It is also
recommended that attention should be paid to his other works for
consideration.
2.4. Of the three composers who wrote orchestral works during the 1930 and
1940, 黃自 Huang Zi composed his In Memoriam – Ouverture for Orchestra
in the States ; 江文也 Jiang Wenye wrote five orchestral works which
earned awards in Japan between 1934-1937 as well as a few other orchestral
works in China after he returned to Peking from 1939 to 1978 ; and 周文中
Zhou Wenzhong wrote all his works for orchestra in the 1940s in the States.
In short, most of the orchestral works written by these composers took place
outside China, for the obvious reason that there was a lack of market for
orchestral compositions in China during the first half of the 20 th century.
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1950s – 1960s
3. During the period 1950s-1960s, especially from 1956 – 1966, there was a bumper
harvest in a variety of musical compositions, including symphonic suites,
orchestral music, cantatas, operas, music for dance drama, chamber music, etc.
(Liu 2010: 771-779). Of the Symphonic Music, 丁善德 Ding Shande’s Long
March, 羅忠鎔 Luo Zhongrong’s Symphony No 1 and Symphony no 2, 辛滬光
Xin Huguang’s Gada Meilin, Qu wei’s Monument to the People’s Heroes, 辛滬光
Xin Huguang’s Grassland, 馬思聰 Ma Sicong’s Qu Yuan, 吳豪業 Wu Haoye’s
Ambush from all sides, 翟維 Qu Wei’s The white haired Girl, Qu Wei and 曹鵬
Cao Peng’s Red Guards of Hong Hu, etc. were frequently performed in those days.
Of the orchestral works, there were fewer well-known ones and were not
frequently performed in concerts. However, 丁善德 Ding Shande’s Xinjiang
Dance Nos. 1 and 2, Ma Sicong’s Dance Beyond the Frontiers, 賀綠汀 He
Lüting’s Five short Pieces and Mao Yuran’s Golden Flowers and Violets can be
pleasing to the ear.
1966-1976
4. During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), only the
“revolutionary modern Peking Operas”, “revolutionary modern dance dramas”
and “revolutionary symphonies” were allowed to be performed. There were two
batches of these revolutionary works : the first batch comprised five operas, two
dance dramas and one symphony (Shajiabang) ; the second batch comprised six
operas, two dramas, two piano works (The Red Lantern and Yellow River
Concertos) and one Symphony (Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy). (Liu 2010:
886, 378-481).
For the period, there are four orchestral works which can be considered for
concert repertoire :

Shajiabang (Symphony)

Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy (Symphony)

The Red Lantern (Piano Concerto)

Yellow River (Piano Concerto)
From 1978
5. During the late 1950s, there were young composers who were born between the
1920s and the 1940s and who had already experimented on the western
compositional techniques. (Liu 2010: 483-484, 484-510). Of these composer, the
following are worthwhile exploring :
5.1. 陳培勛 Chen Peixun (1922-2007) : Memorial Sacrifices to Qing Ming, op. 22
5.2. 朱踐耳 Zhu Jian’er (1922 - ) : To be selected from the many orchestral works,
eg. Symphony No. 10 River Snow.
5.3. 羅中鎔 Luo Zhongrong (1924 - ) : To be selected from his many orchestral
works, eg. his symphonies.
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5.4. 王西麟 Wang Xilin (1937 - ) : His latest symphonies.
5.5. 楊立青 Yang Liqing (1942 -2013) : Desert Dusk (1998)
New Wave composers
6. After the cultural revolution, Deng Xiaoping started the “Reform and Open”
Policy in 1978 which ended the “Mao Zedong Era” and began the revival of China.
As a result, a “New Wave Music” movement took place and a group of “New
Wave” composers appeared. The backbones of these composers were in the
class of composition students at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.
There were “New Wave” composers from other provinces. They employed the
techniques of the late romantic period and used both Chinese instruments and
western instruments. Their orchestral works departed from their teachers and
composers of the old generations and produced a shocking effect in the musical
circles in China. Western musicologists, composers and music critics seemed to
be receptive to the “New Wave” music as compared with those non “New Wave”
musical works in China. The representatives of these “New Wave” composers
included
6.1. 翟小松 Qu Xiaosong (1948 -) : Mong Dong (Music example 6 in A Critical
History, p. 519)
6.2. 譚盾 Tan Dun : Intermezzo for Orchestra and three Tone-colours (Music
example 13 in A Critical History, p. 530)
6.3. 張千一 Zhang Qianyi: Northern Forrests (Music example 15 in A Critical
History, p. 533).
6.4. 徐紀星 Xu Jixing : Contemplating the Hua Shan frescoes (Music example 15
in A Critical History, p. 535)
Many of the “New Wave” works were written for solo instruments and
chamber orchestra. Please refer to A Critical History, pp. 510-544.
New development
1996 – 2006 and from 2006 to present
7. Many of the “New Wave” composers went to the States and France during the
1980s and many stayed in China. Some returned to China from abroad and a few
have always been living in China. 譚盾 Tan Dun, 陳怡 Chen Yi, 陳其鋼 Chen
Qigang, etc now living in the States and France frequently travel to China to have
their works performed in China. Most of them continue their composing career.
(Liu 2010: 637-654). Their works written after 2006 can be obtained on line.
Taiwan and Hong Kong
8. It is advisable to include some orchestral works written by composers in Hong
Kong and Taiwan for two reasons: (i) “China” should be considered in its total
cultural entity rather than view them separately by political, geographical and
ideological means; and (ii) the styles and texture of the orchestral works by
composers in Taiwan and Hong Kong are also worthwhile to explore as compared
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with those on the Mainland China. For details of the composers and their
orchestral works, please refer to (a) Liu 2010: 545-585; and (b) Liu 2013:
192-255.
Concluding Remarks
9. The foregoing paragraphs provide a background information on the composers
and their representative orchestral works in a chronological order for the
following periods : (i) 1930s-1940s ; (ii) 1950s-1960s ; (iii) 1966-1976 ; (iv) from
1978 ; (v) New Wave Composers ; and (vi) Taiwan and Hong Kong. Of these
composers and compositions, quite a few orchestral concerts can be organised.
However, the playing times need to be calculated: for the first part of the concert,
orchestral pieces of 3 minutes to 10 minutes should be chosen; for the second
part, there are symphonies which last for 45 minutes to 60 minutes.
A proposed Programme
10. All my orchestral scores and recordings have been donated to the University of
Hong Kong Libraries “The CC Liu Collection of New Music in China” (There is a
catalogue edited by Helen Wu, published by the Hong Kong University Press,
2005. Furthermore，donations have also been made to the Hong Kong Central
Library and it is called “The CC Liu Collection” (Liu Jingzhi Wen Ku, a
comprehensive catalogue is due to be published in June 2015). Therefore it is not
possible for me indicate the playing times. The following is my proposed
programme for an orchestral concert of about two hours, for reference only.
The combinations of the works can be changed:
Part I : Short Pieces
These are
pre-1949 works
1.
2.
3.
4.
Jiang Wenye : Taiwan Dance, op. 1
Jiang Wenye : Music of the Confucius Temple, op. 30
Huang Zi : In Memoriam – Ouverture for Orchestra
Zhou Wenzhong : Cursive, or The Willows are new, or
And the Fallen Petals.
New Wave
5. Qu Xiaosong : Mong Dong.
(There are many other short orchestral pieces that can be considered)
Part II (Symphonic Music)
These are post 1949
works
6. Ding Shande : Long March (Symphony)
7. Luo ZhongRong : Symphony No 1 or No 2
8. Wang Xilin : one of the symphonies
9. Chen Peixun : Memorial Sacrifices to Ching Ming
10. Tan Dun / Chen Yi / Chen Qigang and a few other
composer’s works can be considered
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Pool of orchestral works

Butterfly Violin Concerto

Yellow River Piano Concerto

Orchestral works by composers in Taiwan and Hong Kong

Selection of works discussed by Barbara Mittler in her PhD thesis
Dangerous Tunes – The politics of Chinese Music in Hong Kong, Taiwan
and the People Republic of China (Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1997).
References
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition edited by Stanley
Sadie, Executive Editor: John Tyrrell, Volume 22, London and New York: Macmillan
Publishers Limited, 2001, p. 615.
The Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra: 30th Years of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra
1977-2007, Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, 2007
Liang Mingyue: An Introduction to Chinese Musical Cultural, New York:
Heinrichshofen Edition, 1985
Liu Ching-chih: “Copying, Imitating and Transplanting: Three stages in the
development of New Music in China”, Lingnan Journal of Chinese Studies, New Series,
No. 1, October, Hong Kong: Research Centre for Literature and Translation, Lingnan
University, pp. 571-623
------A Critical History of New Music in China, Hong Kong: The Chinese University
Press, 2010
-----A Critical History of Music in Hong Kong---Cantopop, Serious Music and
Cantonese Opera, Hong Kong: The Commercial Press (Hong Kong) Limited, 2013
Morris, Mark: The Pimlico Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Composers, London:
Pimlico, Random House, 1999
The New Oxford History of Music, London: Oxford University Press
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Volume I
Ancient and Oriental Music, edited by Egon Wellesz, 1957
Volume II Early Medieval Music up to 1300, edited by Dom Anselm Hughes
1954
Volume III
Ars Nova and The Renaissance 1300-1540, edited by Dom Anselm
Hughes and Gerald Abraham, 1960
Volume IV
The Age of Humanism 1540-1630, edited by Gerald Abraham, 1968
Volume V
Opera and Church Music 1630-1750, edited by Anthony Lewis and
Nigel Fortune, 1975
Volume VI Concert Music 1630-1750, edited by Gerald Abraham, 1986
Volume VII
The Age of Enlightenment 1745-1790, edited by Egon Wellesz and
Frederick Sternfeld, 1973
Volume VIII The Age of Beethoven 1790-1830, edited by Gerald Abraham, 1982
Volume IX
Romanticsm 1830-1890, edited by Gerald Abraham, 1990
Volume X
The Modern Age 1890-1960, edited by Martin Cooper, 1974
Appenix II: Recorded Musical Examples
for “The Influence of European Music in China”
List of recordings
(In chronological order of the years in which these works were composed)
CHEN Qigang (1951- )
Yuan （Origines）（1987-1988）（16‘50“）
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (Commissioned)
Sony 1997 MFA Musique Francaise Radio France
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1993
CHEN Yi (1953- )
Sparkle (1992) (12:03)
For Flute, Piccolo, E-flat Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Bass and Percussion
Composers Recordings, 1999
New Music Consrt
LAW Wing-fai (1949- )
Sphere Supreme（1992）
（9：49）
（Commissioned by the HK Composers Guild）
Russian Philharmonic Orchestra
Hugo Production (HK) Limited, 1995
LAM Bun-ching (1954- )
The Child God (1993)
For Tenor, Narrator, Xun/Di, Pipa/Zheng, Bass Clarinet, Cello and Percussion
Seven songs: 1. No Cha’s Song; 2. Dragon King’s Song; 3. General & Mrs. Li’s
Song; 4. Song of Heaven; 5. Farewell Song; 6. Lost Soul Song;
7. Lotus Song.
Tzadik, New York, 1998
GUO Wenjing (1956- )
Wolf Cub Village, a four-act Chamber Opera
1.
2.
3.
4.
Dusk. A street in Wolf Cub Village.
Evening. The Madman’s Study.
Midnight. The candle-lit hall.
Dawn. The study, dimly lit with candles.
For Tenor, Baritone, woman(alto), girl(soprano), Doctor He(Bass),
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Tenants(Baritone), Passers-by(Baritone, Bass, Bass, Soprano) and
Ghost(soprano)
Nieuw Ensemble (Commissioned)
Premiered: 24 June 1994, Amsterdam
Live Recording of the performance on 26 June 1994
Zebra Records, 2001
TAN Dun （1957- ）
Symphony 1997：Heaven
Earth
Mankind
Cello: Yo Yo Ma
Yip’s Children’s Choir
Imperial Bells Ensemble of China
Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra
Sony Music, 1997
4 May 2015 Hong Kong
7,574 words
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