When Chinese music meets the Western instrument - piano, what kind of sparks will be produced? At Yangpu Library, the audience was enchanted by the charm of Chinese piano music.

 

On the afternoon of November 26, Yangpu Library's "Melody & Reading" Music Promotion Program, in association with Shanghai Music Publishing House and Music Lover magazine, invited the famous pianist Xie Jingxian and her outstanding students, to present a piano show and interpret Chinese music.

 

"Yangpu is the place where I started my journey of music. I developed my interest in music here." Xie, who grew up in Yangpu, is a real Yangpu girl. It was here that she took her first piano lesson and had her first piano…At the beginning of the event, she told of her close ties with Yangpu.

 

Xie is a famous pianist that studied and lived in Germany, a doctor of piano, as well as an associate professor and master supervisor at the Department of Piano, Shanghai Conservatory of Music. As a Chinese pianist with rich experience in studying and performing in foreign countries, she has devoted herself to promoting Chinese music to the world, and added a Chinese piece to the playlist for each of her concerts.

 

In the online lecture, Xie introduced the background and classification of Chinese piano works created in different periods, as well as the key points of performance. She said many people often listen to foreign piano works, but do not know there are also a lot of outstanding piano pieces in China.

 

Chinese piano creation started between 1913 and 1948, mostly with a combination of Chinese tones with Western functional harmonies and piano textures, such as The Fancy Ba Ban and the Waves of the Xiang Jiang by Zhao Yuanren, Rainbow and Feather Garments Dance by Xiao Youmei and The Cowherd's Flute by He Luding. From 1949 to 1957, composers, based on their previous experience, used folk songs and folk tones more often, and created pieces such as Xinjiang Dance No. 1 by Ding Shande and Lan Huahua by Wang Lisan. From 1958 to 1965, piano works were based on folk songs and life, with representative pieces including Pictures from Bashu, Dancing Grains and The Sky above the Liberated Area. From 1966 to 1976, adaptations based on the model opera were more popular, with representative pieces including The Red Detachment of Women, Variations on a Folk Song from North Shanxi and The Moon Reflected on the Second Spring. Since 1997, the reform and opening up has injected new vitality for music creation, and composers have shaken off restraints to created music works boldly, opening up a new prospect for the diversified development of music creation.

 

Speaking of the key points of performance, Xie demonstrated before a piano as she explained, offering the readers a new understanding of Chinese piano pieces. She stressed that before playing Chinese piano pieces, performers must have a good knowledge of different regional humanities, different methods of folk music performance, imitation of different sounds of different traditional Chinese instruments, as well as fine traditional Chinese culture including traditional Chinese paintings and poetry.

 

As the outstanding piano graduate students of Xie, Xie Xingjian and Lyu Boyan performed Chinese piano pieces such as Chinese Rhapsody No. 2 Prelude and Dance by Huang Anlun and Ballade - Song in Praise of Herdboy Erxiao by Zhang Chao, enchanting the audience with melodious rhythm and a strong Chinese flavor.

 

As a "reading + music" promotion program, Yangpu Library's "Melody & Reading" Music Promotion Program invited musicians to promote Chinese music in the forms of lecture and performance, so as to boost the cultural confidence and national confidence of Chinese music. The event is live streamed via a streaming platform and supports playback.