Xian Xinghai’s name, along with the passionate melodies of “Yellow River Cantata” and “Production Cantata”, resounded throughout the land of China. This outstanding musician wrote a glorious chapter in the history of Chinese music with his outstanding musical talent and works of Chinese national style.
In 1905, Xian Xinghai was born on a broken boat of a poor fisherman in Macau. His father lives in Macau and makes a living by fishing, barely maintaining the family's livelihood. Her mother, Huang Juying, is an ordinary working woman. She has the traditional Chinese qualities of perseverance and hard work. The long-term hard training made her dare not have any extravagant hopes for life. However, fate wanted to play tricks on her, and she couldn't even meet the minimum requirements. When she was preparing to welcome the birth of a new life in her belly, her husband suddenly collapsed, leaving her with a broken fishing net and two old wooden oars. She finished her husband's funeral with tears, cheered up from the grief, and waited for the birth of the child that she and her husband had longed for. Only a child could soothe her wounded heart.
In 1905, Xian Xinghai was born. From him, the mother seemed to see the shadow of her husband. From then on, she pinned all her thoughts on her husband on her children. For the sake of her children, she endured humiliation, scolding, and misfortune, worked as a servant, and did odd jobs. She endured all the hardships silently, but her body grew older day by day. What made her happy was that the child had grown up gradually. With his dark skin and strong body, he really looked like a sailor's son.
Xian Xinghai’s grandfather spent his whole life wandering at sea and experienced many ups and downs. He saw that the mother and son, who depended on each other, were living in dire straits, and he tried his best to help them. He turned the grief of losing his son into all kinds of love for his grandson. He often played with little Xinghai and told him many good stories. The charming sea contains endless mysterious stories, turbulent waves and raging storms, magical mirages and beautiful mirages... all of which left Xian Xinghai with fantasies in his young mind. He wants to be a sailor, go against the wind and waves, and catch the waves. Life showed beautiful pictures in his pure heart. He always pestered his grandfather and asked him to tell stories about the sea over and over again. Then he curled his lips and said with infinite fascination that he would also be a sailor when he grew up.
The simple mother knew the life of a sailor very well. She knew that being a sailor was not a satisfying career, and she did not want her only son to follow the path of her husband. She secretly made up her mind to train her child into a promising person to comfort her husband's spirit in heaven. She wants her children to read. When Xian Xinghai was six years old, his mother sent him to a private school. This was a dream that generations of his family had not dared to have.
The boring "Zi Ri Poems" in the private school did not arouse the slightest interest in Xiao Xinghai. There are many children of sailors in private schools. They are born with an adventurous spirit and long for a free life. So they quietly ran out together to pick up shells and play games on the beach. When the fishermen returned in the evening, they lay on the beach and listened to the singing in the distance. In this melodious and melodious song, the fishermen who had worked hard all day talked about the sufferings and joys in life. The singing was flying back and forth on the water, lingering endlessly. The children were intoxicated by the scene and the singing. They often come to the beach to enjoy the joy given by nature. If there is anything that can be called music education in Xian Xinghai's childhood, this is the most important first lesson. Simple folk music was deeply implanted in his soul in a special way.
When Xiao Xinghai was intoxicated by the dream of the sea and the songs of fishermen, another huge disaster struck - their grandfather who cared so much for them left the lonely mother and son and passed away forever. Having lost the only relative who cared about them, the mother and son were even more helpless in their lives. The stubborn mother decided to leave this land and start a new life in Singapore with a glimmer of hope.
In 1818, Xian Xinghai moved to Guangzhou with his mother from Singapore and entered the High School Affiliated to Lingnan University. In order to reduce the burden on his mother, he supported his studies by working part-time. He successively worked as a typist, a student at the Overseas Chinese School during the summer vacation, and a teacher at the workers' night school.
Because he often participated in various evening parties organized by the school and performed clarinet solos, he was later hired as the conductor of the school band and was affectionately called the "Southern Xiaoshou" by his classmates.
In 1926, in order to learn music better, Xian Xinghai resolutely said goodbye to his mother and came to Peking alone, hoping to study music at the then Peking University Music Institute.
When he first arrived in Peking, he first studied violin at the Music Department of the Beijing National College of Arts led by Xiao Youmei. Later, with the help of Xiao Youmei, he studied violin and composition at the Music Institute of Peking University, and was arranged to He worked as a librarian in the library to solve the difficulties in his life.
In the winter of 1927, the National Conservatory of Music was established in Shanghai, with Xiao Youmei serving as its academic director and acting president. Xian Xinghai immediately came to Shanghai from Beijing to apply for the Shanghai National Conservatory of Music. Because Xian Xinghai had studied music at the Peking University Music Institute, he was allowed to enter the newly-established National Conservatory of Music without taking the examination, majoring in violin, and also studying piano and music theory.
In the summer of 1929, he was unreasonably kicked out of the school and forced to suspend school because he supported and participated in a student movement against the school authorities' unreasonable fee system.
Later, with the help of friends, Xian Xinghai found a job as a hard worker on a ship. In the summer of 1929, Xian Xinghai took a ship from Guangzhou and headed for Paris via Singapore and other places.
In January 1930, Xian Xinghai arrived in Paris, France. After Ma Sicong's introduction, he met the famous violinist Paul Obedofel and studied violin with him. At the same time, Xian Xinghai found Mr. Louis Gallon, a famous professor at the Paris Conservatoire, to learn harmony, counterpoint, etc. When the two professors heard that Xinghai was a poor worker, they both decided not to charge him tuition.
During his studies, Xian Xinghai worked in various hard jobs, such as waiter in a restaurant, busboy in a barber shop, and servant guarding the telephone. The heavy and trivial work left Xinghai with only a little time to learn the violin and practice composing music. Sometimes, he gets up at 5 a.m. and works until 12 p.m. Once, because I was very tired from class during the day, when I was carrying food upstairs for the last time while working in a restaurant, I fell down due to dizziness. The boss scolded him and fired him the next day.
From then on, Xian Xinghai was often unemployed and hungry. There were several times when he was cold and hungry, and he couldn't hold on any longer, so he collapsed on the street.
He had no choice but to endure the humiliation and go to cafes and restaurants to play the piano and beg. Once, when Xian Xinghai was begging for money with a plate after playing a piece of music, a wealthy Chinese student dropped his plate on the ground, slapped him, and said that he had disgraced the Chinese people...
Xinghai endured the hardships of life, but never gave up on learning music. In times of hardship, the nostalgia for his motherland forced him to study harder.
In the early winter of 1932, Xian Xinghai was in a dilapidated house, and the cold wind howled in through the broken doors and windows. There was no quilt, no fire, and the small oil lamp was blown out by the wind... Faced with this situation, all kinds of personal experiences and the difficult current situation of the motherland came to his mind. This uncontrollable torrent of emotions made him use the wind to express his feelings, and wrote a soprano solo song "Wind", expressing his love and longing for the motherland and the people. "Wind" was appreciated by Paul Duca, a professor at the Paris Conservatory of Music and the famous French Impressionist composer, Ravel, and the famous Russian composer Prokofiev who was teaching at the Academy at the time, and was listed as a radio broadcast in Paris. One of the performances of the new works concert at the Paris Conservatoire.
Through this, Xian Xinghai met Mr. Duka, one of the three major Impressionist musicians in the world and the great composer of the Paris Conservatory of Music, and received Duka's approval to apply for the advanced composition class of the Paris Conservatory of Music. . Xian Xinghai successfully passed the exam and received an honorable mention. From then on, his livelihood problem was solved, and with the guidance and help of Mr. Duca, he began to study composition systematically.
With the help of his teachers and school, Xian Xinghai finally graduated from the advanced composition class of the Paris Conservatoire in the spring of 1935 after hard work and strenuous study.
He resolutely decided to return to the motherland and use what he had learned to serve the motherland and the people.
In the autumn of 1935, Xian Xinghai returned to Shanghai via Hong Kong. At that time, Japanese imperialism was invading, and the Chinese nation was at a critical juncture. EMI Records hired him for music composition and film scoring. During this period, he composed "March of National Salvation", soundtracked the film "Midnight Song", and wrote the interludes "Midnight Song", "Hot Blood", "Yellow River Love", etc.
In 1938, after the August 13th Incident broke out, Xian Xinghai joined the Second Shanghai Drama Troupe led by the Communist Party, left his mother, and moved to Wuhan. He actively and enthusiastically participated in the mass singing activities here. During this period, he composed a large number of new anti-war songs such as "Defend Wuhan", "Guerrilla Army", "Go to the Enemy's Rear Area", "Taihang Mountains" and so on. Later, at the invitation of "Lu Xun Art Academy", he went to Yan'an in the winter of 1938.
After arriving in Yan'an, Xian Xinghai served as a professor in the music department of "Luyi", mainly teaching theoretical composition, and also taught music history and conducting. During his teaching period, he created some large-scale works: "National Symphony", "Military and Civilian March", "Yellow River Cantata" and so on. He was deeply respected and loved by teachers and students, and joined the Communist Party of China in May 1939.
In May 1940, the Party Central Committee appointed Xian Xinghai to the Soviet Union to compose music and conduct post-production for the first large-scale documentary "Yan'an and the Eighth Route Army" produced by Fei'an Film Troupe. After arriving in the Soviet Union, not long after, the Soviet Union's defense war broke out. During this period, he completed the "First Symphony", the "National Symphony", and created the "Second Symphony" (also known as "The Holy War"). In January 1944, he composed the symphonic poem "Armangelda" in praise of the Soviet national hero under very difficult circumstances. Later, he fell ill with pneumonia. Due to poor medical conditions at the time, his condition worsened and he died in the Kremlin Hospital on October 30, 1945. He was only 40 years old at that time.
Xian Xinghai made great contributions to our country's revolutionary music and won the glorious title of "People's Musician".