Thick beard, long hair, wide glasses flashing wise eyes, reciting scripture cadently, and sometimes shaking his head from time to time because he is too intoxicated. Xiaosong Qu, just like a well-read poet, is reading some chapters of the Diamond Sutra.

As one of the most active and influential composers in China since 198s, Xiaosong Qu finally chose to return to China after ten years of overseas life. In his own words, living abroad is always like being a guest. As a musician, "Professor of Shanghai Conservatory of Music" is his second status at present. Whether in beijing music festival or Shanghai Art Festival, the name "Xiaosong Qu" is one of the artists with the highest exposure. In this Shanghai Art Festival, the "Master of Silence" brought the audience a new percussion work "Running Grass". In this work, Xiaosong Qu's handling of the ending sounds is a must. Each note bursts out of the instrument, strong, faint and weak, until it dies ... Every link changes witness the passage of sound.

Xiaosong Qu's face lit up naturally when he talked about this masterpiece. He recalled that an abnormal speed playback made this "alternative music". "Slow double speed, slow double speed, and then to quadruple speed, it's wonderful! When the notes are infinitely elongated, I can't recognize any of the pitches. So I just sat there and waited quietly, waiting for the second sound to appear, waiting for the music to come in gently and slowly disappear. " Staring at the composer's gradually intoxicated expression, the reporter seems to have been unconsciously brought into the mysterious silence. "The best thing is the silence between the two bass, which implies a permanent silence behind the sound. The existence of the two voices before and after is almost to remind the value of silence. Sound comes from silence, so it will eventually return to silence. It's like when we look at the blue sky, the clouds will drift by, but the clouds will always disperse, but the blue sky will always exist. "

However, others have quite different views on this work. Because each note lasts too long, it is a bit boring. At the first smell of this evaluation, Xiaosong Qu was stunned. After a few seconds, his face was calm, and it seemed that all this was understandable. "Experts' opinions often have many limitations, because they pay too much attention to details, have too much interest, too much memory and too much knowledge. And these things are like a cage, which forms a fixed pattern when they enjoy music, so that they have a fixed expectation. Once any unexpected musical elements appear, they will lose their original perception. This is not for technical reasons, because the real feeling is that it takes so long. " As a composer who constantly explores music, he always hopes to restore the most authentic side of music to the audience through his own attempts at new elements of music. However, in the face of such external doubts, he was helpless and even saddened. For a long time, he spit out a sentence: "There are many insiders and outsiders." "Because people outside the industry are not in the industry, they will not entangle their attention in details and skills, so what he hears is the most essential thing of music. In the industry, the reason why they think music is too long is because they have a fixed pattern in their minds. On the contrary, for outsiders, because they have no fixed expectations, music can naturally wander in their ears and gradually penetrate into their hearts. In fact, knowledge is the gate. When your reason is judging, your heart is closed. " Xiaosong Qu, who was born in Guiyang, Guizhou Province, jumped the queue to work as a farmer in the Miao mountainous area in southeastern Guizhou before learning music. For that free rural life, Xiaosong Qu is still vivid. "The natural environment in the countryside inspired my wildness, and the duet of Miao children also gave me very vivid musical inspiration."

Xiaosong Qu was one of the first students enrolled by the Composition Department of the Central Conservatory of Music after the Cultural Revolution in 1977. Perhaps no one expected that it was this "78th Session" that propped up the sky of "Modern Composition in China". Guo Wenjing, Xiaosong Qu, Tan Dun, Ye Xiaogang, Liu Suola, Chen Qigang ... Today, they are active in the international music world, representing the highest level of composition in China today, so they are also praised as the "golden generation" in China's composition world by the music world. Compared with other musicians, Xiaosong Qu is a generalist. He has made great achievements not only in the field of opera, but also in indoor works. In addition, he also provided music for films such as Youth Sacrifice, king of the children, horse thief and Walking and Singing. In 24, his first novel "Stumbling All the Way" was published, which recorded his ups and downs along the way. His love for nature and life can be felt between the lines. Xiaosong Qu believes that no matter what people are doing, the important thing is the state of life. He likes simplicity, naturalness, freedom, and charity. He said that for so many years, the deepest philosophy he realized was compassion. "The universal love put forward by the Renaissance is people-oriented, but I think the true compassion should be the equality of all beings, and this compassion is the broadest love." Xiaosong Qu once said that he liked the words of Swedish director ingmar bergman-"All art is insignificant." Xiaosong Qu said, "I heard this sentence, too. If you want to ask, you have to go to the ocean to ask him." But if a person has heaven and earth and a universe in his heart, his time state and sense of proportion will be very different. Perhaps it is precisely because of such a broad artistic conception that this sentiment will be realized. I can not recognize the true face of Lushan, because I am in Lushan. In the mountains, you can see flowers, grass, trees, roads and mountains. Stand far away, have a distance, be outside, and know that mountains are mountains. Seeing the whole prototype of the mountain, we can see the land where the mountain is located, the emptiness of the mountain and the earth. If you jump out of the door of art, perhaps from the whole time and space, it really doesn't matter.

Xiaosong Qu mentioned his Buddhist scriptures and Zen more than once. He said that he believed in Buddhism, but he denied that he was a Buddhist. Once upon a time, a German media commented, "Qu is an unclassified walker." Xiaosong Qu seems happy to accept this statement. "I found that everything I do is not a standard individual." Indeed, he is a composer, but he is full of Zhuangzi. He likes to study ancient philosophy, but he has repeatedly stressed that his composition will not be influenced by these ideas ...

When talking about the current education system, Xiaosong Qu suddenly became sharp-tongued. "In all artistic creation, freedom is the first. Without freedom, there is no individuality, and without individuality, there is no creation. At present, music teaching regards 3 years of brilliant achievements in Europe as the only music. I don't know what a narrow world this is. " Music is like nature. There are African plants in Africa and Asian plants in Asia. Their living conditions and ecosystems are completely different. He explained that each era has its own aesthetic orientation, so these so-called techniques are artificial and exclusive, which will more or less wear away some musical elements that were not accepted by the mainstream at that time. However, at present, some conservatories teach this content as the only music process. In fact, any skill is the product of the times. Skills are changing, and none of them are out of time. Composition is not a law, there is only one criterion. Music is a living art. You need to rely on the creator to express and interpret through inner feelings. Too many rules and standards will only obliterate many musical possibilities. "