Chou Wenzhong

Chou Wenzhong (June 29, 1923 - October 25, 2019) was a Chinese-American composer. His ancestral home is Changzhou, Jiangsu, and he was born in Yantai, Shandong. After graduating from Guangxi University in 1946, he went to the United States and studied composition at the New England Conservatory of Music. He entered Columbia University in 1949 and studied musicology and composition. He obtained a master's degree in music in 1954 and became a U.S. citizen in 1958.

Mr. Zhou Wenzhong is a world-famous composer, a lifelong academician of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, associate dean of Columbia University School of the Arts, and director of the Doctoral Institute of Composition. The main works include: "Landscape", "Spring Breeze in the Flower Moon", "How Many Flowers Have Fallen", "Thinking of the World", "Walking Grass", "Fishermen's Song", "Change", "Valley Eagle", "Mountain Waves", "Floating Clouds" "wait.

On the night of October 25, 2019, Beijing time, Mr. Zhou Wenzhong passed away at his home in the United States at the age of 96.

Chinese name: Zhou Wenzhong

Nationality: United States

Birthplace: Yantai, Shandong

Date of birth: June 29, 1923

Date of death: October 25, 2019

Occupation: Composer

Graduation school: Columbia University

Representative works: Orchestral music "The Flower Moon Is Spring Breeze", etc., piano music "Yangguan Santie" etc., "How Many Flowers Have Fallen"

Life of the Character

On June 29, 1923, Zhou Wen Zhong was born in Yantai, China, and grew up in Shanghai. He is a close disciple of Edgar Varèse, a representative figure of electronic music in the 20th century and a famous French-American composer. Won a scholarship to study architecture at Yale University in the United States. However, due to his love of music since childhood, he gave up his scholarship one week after arriving at the University of Kentucky and transferred to the New England Conservatory of Music to study composition.

In 1949, he moved to New York, where he met the 20th century composer Varys, and began to study composition with him. He later became a close friend of Varys. After Waris's death, Zhou Wenzhong took on the responsibility of managing his musical legacy, including editing Wariss's works and completing his unfinished works.

Since the 1950s, Zhou Wenzhong has been involved in education, and he has devoted more than thirty years to Columbia University in the United States, serving as the deputy dean of the School of Art and the director of the Doctoral Institute of Composition.

In 1954, Zhou Wenzhong published the orchestral work "How Many Flowers Fall", which shocked the music world and won many awards, including the Rockefeller Literary Award, commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Commissioned creations, etc.

In 1964, Zhou Wenzhong taught in the Composition Department of Columbia University. His students included Chinari Weng, Zhou Long, Chen Yi, Sheng Zongliang and Tan Dun, etc., all of whom are among the world's famous composers.

In 1978, Zhou Wenzhong founded the Sino-US Art Center and made significant contributions to cultural exchanges between China and the United States.

From 1984 to 1991, Zhou Wenzhong served as the first director of the Fritz Reiner Center for Contemporary Music at Columbia University and a visiting professor at Nankai University.

In 2007, Xinghai Conservatory of Music hired Zhou Wenzhong as an honorary professor.

In November 2018, Xinghai Conservatory of Music held the "Establishment Ceremony of Zhou Wenzhong Music Research Center and Zhou Wenzhong International Music Academic Symposium".

On the night of October 25, 2019 (Beijing time), Mr. Zhou Wenzhong, a composer, educator, and cultural ambassador, passed away at his home in the United States at the age of 96.

Main Works

Zhou Wenzhong is the first Chinese composer recognized in the West, with works such as "Landscape" (1949), "How Many Flowers Fall" (1954), " "Gu Ying" (1989) and other works are considered to be masterpieces that are independent of both Western and Eastern music.

Zhou Wenzhong’s works include the orchestral piece "The Flower Moon Is in the Spring Breeze", "Two Proud Pieces of the Tang Dynasty", "Landscape Painting", "Fishermen's Songs", "Hexagrams", "How Many Flowers Fall", etc., piano The song "Three Layers of Yangguan", etc., the trumpet, brass and percussion ensemble "The Nun's Monologue", the oratorio "Sifan".

Features of the work

Since the 1940s, Zhou Wenzhong has been committed to the fusion of Eastern and Western music, opening up a unique path that will have a critical impact on the future direction of world music. His works not only reflect the artistic conception and connotation of Chinese poetry, painting and traditional philosophy, but also integrate the essence of Eastern and Western music theories and techniques.

Mr. Zhou Wenzhong combines modern Western music with Chinese classical literature and art (poems, songs, calligraphy), with profound connotations and artistic conception, and a strong oriental sentiment.

Awarding Honors

In 1963, he won the National Association for the Arts Award.

In 1965, he won the Kao Shan Lai Foundation Award.

In 1982, he was elected as a lifelong member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

In 1985, together with the famous physicist Wu Jianxiong, he won the Qingyun Award from the Chinese American Association.

In September 2004, Zhou Wenzhong was awarded the title of Honorary Professor by the Central Conservatory of Music of China.

The Chinese-American composer Zhou Wenzhong, the French-Chinese painter Zao Wou-Ki, and the Chinese-American architect Mr. I.M. Pei are known as the "Three Art Treasures" of overseas Chinese.

Character evaluation

Zhou Wenzhong is also a cultural ambassador. He has spared no effort to promote international art exchanges for decades and has made significant contributions to cultural exchanges between China and the United States. Under his recommendation, the complete guqin piece "Flowing Water" flew into space with the American "Voyager" spacecraft, becoming one of the first batches of human music culture to be transmitted to space.

Zhou Wenzhong organized a tour of American violinist Isaac Stern in China and brought Arthur Miller's play "Death of a Salesman" to China, promoting Chinese and American culture. Art exchange. He persisted in promoting the 15-year Chinese art education plan, which greatly promoted Yunnan's traditional culture, environmental protection and development, and the results of many projects benefited Cultural China.

Anecdotes

Having the habit of standing and speaking

“I have been accustomed to standing and speaking all my life”

As for Zhou Wenzhong becoming a visiting professor at Nankai University, His student Zhang Yiguo, a PhD student at Columbia University and a researcher at the Boston Museum, said: "My husband has never accepted invitations from other schools as visiting professors, and Nankai University is the only one. In my mind, Nankai University is the best university in the world." One."

And Zhou Wenzhong's acceptance speech only contained one short sentence: "It's a great honor to come to Nankai." After that, his topic immediately turned to the upcoming lecture: "I am very excited to be able to discuss the mission of Chinese culture with everyone. Chinese culture is now facing a very important turning point."

During this lecture, the 84-year-old man stood on the stage and refused the host’s invitation to take a seat. He said: "I have been accustomed to standing and speaking all my life!" His voice was sonorous and powerful, and his demeanor made all the audience admire him.

This is a "belated lecture". In June this year, Executive Vice President Chen Hong invited Zhou Wenzhong to come to Nankai University to give a speech. Zhou Wenzhong readily agreed, but unexpectedly, he was delayed by a sudden illness.

During the lecture, Zhou Wenzhong did not mention a word about this "missed fate". He went directly to the topic: "The importance of Chinese culture requires us to consider the direction of artistic creation."

"The first task is to understand the differences between Eastern and Western cultures"

Zhou Wenzhong believes , cultural and artistic creations come from human emotions, and human emotions are responses to natural phenomena. "To understand the relationship between Eastern and Western cultures, we must first understand how our emotional reactions to nature are different, and then think about how the two sides can influence each other."

Zhou Wenzhong emphasized more than once: " Each culture’s response to nature is different due to the different cultural evolution processes. Only by understanding the differences can we learn from each other; if we cannot see the differences clearly, we cannot learn from each other and contribute to the development of both parties.”

“If you ask a question: What is a line? Easterners and Westerners have different answers. Westerners and Easterners who are influenced by Western science or have received new education will immediately think of a line. Geometric lines, while almost all Orientals, including Japanese and Koreans, will respond to artistic lines with thickness, shades and order." Zhou Wenzhong used vivid examples to explain common cultural differences.

Zhou Wenzhong said that the active history of Eastern and Western cultures has a long history, and there have been many ups and downs over thousands of years. "If both sides can understand each other, and the 'geometric line' and the 'art line' know each other, then both cultures will develop greatly." The old man is full of expectations for the future.

Rooted in culture

"Valuable works are rooted in culture"

During the lecture, Zhou Wenzhong played his own orchestral piece "Mountain Waves" for the audience Excerpted and presented to everyone the word "Shan Tao" written by myself.

Zhou Wenzhong said that the "inspiration" for "Mountain Waves" came from the period of the Anti-Japanese War. He saw the rolling mountains and heard the various sounds intertwined in the air. He felt deeply about it and decided at that time to A work must be written about this "living voice". The creation of "Mountain Waves" was influenced by Chinese calligraphy, expressing the composer's ubiquitous personal emotions.

“I am not a calligrapher, but I am used to writing titles for my works,” Zhou Wenzhong said with a smile. He likes to think about the combination of calligraphy, painting, poetry, philosophy and music. He believes that “the structure, rhyme, style and rhythm in these arts are everywhere and contain musical language. These are the basic languages ????that Chinese composers need to study and master. ". He said, "Calligraphy is music without sound."

Zhou Wenzhong pointed out, "Chinese culture has a very important content, and that is the Book of Changes." "The theory of the Book of Changes is very meaningful, and I use it in music." Zhou Wenzhong believes that musical techniques are closely related to the core idea of ??"change" in the Eight Diagrams of the Book of Changes. He proposed the "Qiankun" in the Bagua as the ever-present "parental tune", and took the other six hexagrams as the subject of change, in which he spread his musical thoughts.

"Music without culture must be superficial." Zhou Wenzhong often said this to his disciples. He wants the new generation of musicians to understand that cultural skills are the basic driving force for creative spirit and artistic inspiration. The deeper the cultivation of cultural skills, the higher the realm of creation, and the wider the scope of dialogue and recognition.

Inheriting culture

“Our future is in the past”

Zhou Wenzhong solemnly said to the young students in the audience: “Your generation should start to be very serious We are faced with a problem, that is, passing on our own culture.”

He talked about a very simple phenomenon: When you get lost while driving, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? It's a return to the past. "Our future is not in the future, our future is in the past. Without the past, we cannot move forward. Only an ideal future is not enough."

Zhou Wenzhong's ideals look forward to Eastern and Western musical concepts. Re-integration, even the coexistence and equal dialogue of global cultures. To do this, Zhou Wenzhong said, "It's not just about studying in college, not just about understanding the issues I just talked about, but also about further research, and even more field research."

“Field research is not about traveling, nor is it just about studying one project, but about in-depth study of other people’s culture, or understanding of one’s own cultural foundation. It is not an inspection, but a very in-depth investigation.” Talking about this, Zhou Wenzhong spoke with sincerity: "I have said so much, just to ask you to see this clearly. I believe your achievements will be great. This is your mission and my expectation for you.

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