XI on Music Theory Print

Xian Xinghai

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Xian Xinghai or Sinn Sing Hoi (; Yale Romanization: Syǎn Syīng-Hǎi; 13 June 1905 – 30 October 1945) was a Chinese composer. He was among the first composers in his country to draw on western classical music and has influenced many later Chinese musicians. Xian composed in 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 Piano Concerto is based. 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. That year, Xian went to the Soviet Union to compose the score of the documentary film Yan’an and the Eighth Route Army. * Production Cantata, Op. 8 (1939) * Suite No. 4 “Man Jiang Hong”, Op. 15 (1943) * Symphony No. 2 “Holy War”, Op. 17 (1943) * Chinese Rhapsody, Op. 26 (1945) Personal life Xian developed pulmonary tuberculosis due to overwork and malnutrition. After the war, Xian returned to Moscow for medical treatment but died of pulmonary disease on 30 October 1945 at the age of 40. In May 2019, a movie titled The Composer directed by Xierzhat

Xiao Shuxian

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Xiao Shuxian (Simplified Chinese: 萧淑娴; Traditional Chinese: 蕭淑嫻; Pinyin: Xiāo Shúxián; sometimes spelled Hsiao Shu-sien) (April 4, 1905 – November 26, 1991) was a Chinese composer and music educator. Life Xiao was born in Tianjin into a highly cultural Chinese family, some of her relatives were known people in Chinese history. After a period of music studying in China, she went to the Royal Conservatory at Brussels, winning a prize there in 1932. From 1935 to 1954 she was married to Hermann Scherchen, a conductor; their daughter, Tona Scherchen, became a composer. Xiao spent 14 years working in Switzerland, where she helped to promote Chinese culture with her music and writing. Her 1938 Chinese Children’s Suite for voice and piano was among the first works by a Chinese composer to become known in the West, as was her suite for orchestra, Huainian Zuguo (A Commemoration of My Homeland). In 1950, motivated by a desire to help her homeland’s development, and a wish to have a career of her own, Xiao returned to China with her three children, not knowing that she herself would not be able to see her husband ever again. From then until her death she taught in Beijing at the Central Conse

Xiao Youmei

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Xiao Youmei (; formerly transliterated Shio Yiu-mei; 7 January 1884 – 31 December 1940) was a noted Chinese music educator and composer. He was also styled as and . Life Xiao was born in Zhongshan County, Guangdong to a musical family. From an early age in Macao he experienced firsthand Western music. In 1899, he enrolled at Guangzhou’s Shihmin Junior High School (). In 1901, he studied abroad in Japan, studying pedagogy, piano, and voice. In 1906, he joined the Tongmenghui. In 1910, he returned to China, where he achieved the degree “recommended man” (juren 擧人) on the imperial examination for students who studied abroad. Not long after, he studied abroad again, this time in Germany, at Königliches Konservatorium der Musik zu Leipzig (now the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig) and Leipzig University, where he completed the Ph.D. His doctoral thesis was “Eine geschichtliche Untersuchung über das chinesische Orchester bis zum 17. Jahrhundert (Historical Research on the Pre-Seventeenth Century Chinese Orchestra)” (1916); it was translated into Chinese only in 1990. Hugo Riemann was his supervisor. In October 1916, he entered the philosophy department of Berlin University where h