A large part of China's great poetic legacy comes from literature that was meant to be sung—in other words, from the lyrics of what once were songs. Unfortunately, the music has been lost, a tragedy that can be blamed on a complicated system of notation, the low social estimation in which professional musicians and singers were held, and incessant warfare. Modern Chinese shake their heads sadly when they think of the music that has vanished: the Songs of Chu by Chu Yuan (343-277 B.C.); the romantic Lament for Vanished Youth by poetess Cho Wen-chun (of the early 2nd century B.C.); the many songs composed to praise the beauty of Yang Yu-huan, concubine of Emperor Tang Hsuan Tsung, who reigned from 713 to 756 A.D.; and the melodies of singsong girls in the Sung Dynasty (960-1126 A.D.). Music still extant includes that of a few folk songs and of the opera, which has had the patronage of the masses.
Chinese folk songs are very beautiful. Their melodies, like most of those of the Orient, are in minor mode. Lyrics have a strong local flavor. Modern popular singers often include one or two folk songs in their programs.
Chinese operas include a huge assortment of librettos and scores from each province. Separate counties may even have their own opera, each differing slightly from those of neighbors. Peking opera has come to dominate by dint of its dramatic and literary qualities. Musically speaking, it is less appealing to modern ears than many of the local operas. The recent smashing popularity of the "Yellow Plum melody" testifies to this. The Yellow Plum melody consists of opera tunes from a place known as Huang Mei (Yellow Plum) in the province of Hupei in central China. The Shaw Brothers of Hongkong adapted several Yellow Plum melodies in their film Love Eterne, which broke all box office records in Taiwan last summer. This success was in large part due to appeal of the Yellow Plum melody, which provided music for all the dialogue. In the last year, the melody has been used for some 10 other films. Everyone in Taiwan can sing or hum at least a few bars from the melody. The Parting Song and Meeting Song* from Love Eterne are found on Pages 25 and 26.
Musical qualities similar to those of Love Eterne can be found in other local operas which are yet to be set down in modern notation and popularized.
Unknown Composers
Composers of these operas and of folk songs are mostly unknown. In olden China, professional musicians were regarded as craftsmen, not artists, and accorded little respect. Music is often praised in China's literature, but there is scant mention of the composers, their lives, and their techniques of composition. China has no Mozart, no Bach, Beethoven or Brahms. Modern composers are curious about their forerunners. One of them, Huang Yu-ti of Taiwan, even went to Rome to study Medieval European church music in the hope of coming to understand how ancient Chinese music was composed.
Chinese musical attitudes changed—along with a good many other points of view-at the end of the 19th century. Young men went to Western countries to learn how to "make big guns and sturdy ships". While there, they could not help becoming fascinated by other aspects of a culture they had been taught was barbarous. Many changed their original plans and studied Western humanities and social sciences. Some took music lessons and learned to play Western musical instruments.
The year 1911 saw the founding of the Republic of China and the end of 4,000 years of monarchical rule. A rapidly modernizing nation needed a national anthem. Schools wanted songs and the armed forces music to march by. The very spirit of the new republic called for observance and celebration in musical terms. The stage awaited the rise of modern composers.
The new musicians, many of them amateurs, discarded the difficult Chinese notation system and multiple scales. They began to use Western notation and the heptatonic scale. They wrote accompaniments for piano or Western strings instead of Chinese flutes and two-stringed instruments. At the same time, this music differed from the Western model. Language and slighter stature dictated a shorter lyrical line. And Chinese song was not to escape from its relationship to a language which is also tonal and therefore musical.
Flag Song
The father of the modern Chinese song is generally conceded to be Hwang Tsu (1904-1938). He studied psychology at Tsin-hwa University and Berlin University in Germany. He was enchanted by Western music and later studied music at Yale University in the United States. During his brief years of composition, he wrote more than 50 songs. His Flag Song (國旗歌) is still used by the schools and armed forces on Taiwan when the national emblem is raised. His most famous art songs include Mountains Nestling in the Void ( 在山虛無飄渺間 ), Spring Pensiveness ( 春思 ), Three Wishes of a Rose ( 玫瑰三願 ) and Riding Through Snow-Covered Ground in Search of Plum Flowers ( 踏梅尋雪 ) . The first song is composed in the ancient pentatonic scale and is lovely. The last is a rhythmic, lively country air and a favorite of Chinese sopranos.
Another big name in modern Chinese composition is Chao Yuan-ren, who was born in 1892. Although an amateur composer, he has attained professional distinction. He is also the world's leading Chinese linguist, skilled in some 50 Chinese dialects and more than 30 other languages. A graduate of Cornell, he earned his PhD at Harvard. He has been a professor of languages at Tsing-hua University, Cornell, Harvard, Hawaii, and Yale. He is now head of the Department of Oriental Languages of the University of California.
Language Problem
Chao's best songs were written between 1927 and 1937. They include How Can I Help Missing Her ( 教我如何不想她 ) *, Climbing a Hill ( 上山 ) , Rimes About the Sea ( 海 韻 ), Flowers in a Vase ( 瓶花 ).
Chao was one of the sponsors of the movement, led by the late Dr. Hu Shih, to adapt spoken Chinese to writing and to replace the classical, stilted literary style. Chao always selected modern poems, written in the new way, for his songs. His training as a linguist also played an important role in his selection of lyrics. Chinese words are distinguished by tones which become indistinguishable in singing. Many Chinese words are pronounced with lips and teeth, and many have very short vowels. Their correct pronunciation may hamper singing. Chao Yuan-ren, therefore, made sure that the words of his songs were not easily mixed up with words of the same sound but of different tones, and also that they had open-mouthed vowels and did not depend on lips and teeth for pronunciation. Chao's songs are easy to sing and favorites of Chinese singers. His most popular song is How Can I Help Missing Her.
The lyric was written by Liu Pan-lung, a close associate of the composer. The beauty and candidness of the poetry created quite a stir, then gave rise to popular speculation about the identity of the one Chao could not help missing. This upset the composer, who was merely an innocent victim of the lyricist.
Patriotic Songs
Chen Mou-chun was another amateur who will go down in history as a one-song composer. He composed the national anthem of the Republic of China, which was chosen from among 139 entries. The melody is solemn, peaceful, and dignified.
In 1937, Japanese aggression against China burst into open conflict. Many songs were composed to stimulate the war effort. The leisurely pace of earlier compositions gave way to rhythmic and excited tones.
(Left) Hwang Tsu;(Middle) Yao Ming; (Right) Chao Yuan-ren. (File photo)
One of the best known patriotic songs composed during the eight years of war was the Ballad of the Great Wall *, composed by Liu Hsueh-an, a student of Hwang Tsu. The lyric reminded of Japanese destruction north of the Great Wall and urged the nation to fight back and drive out the invaders. It was popular with students of the time. The song is also much sung in Taiwan. The lyric has been re-written to accord with the present circumstances.
Liu Hsueh-an also composed the Chinese Air Force Song, which is a stirring march. His bsst art song is Lovesickness*.
The lyric is from the novel The Dream of the Red Chamber by Chao Hsueh-chin. Melody and the lyric are perfectly fitted; each enhances the beauty of the other.
Another patriotic wartime song was the Song of Nostalgia* composed by Hsh Tze-chiu.
The best modern pentatonic song is undoubtedly My Home Town ( 故鄉 ) by Lu Hwa-po. Its drum-like piano accompaniment gives it an "additional flavor of ancient times.
In Taiwan, the best-known art song composer is Huang Yu-ti, whose works include Azaleas ( 杜鵑花) and Cannot Go Back Home ( 歸不得故鄉 )
Movie Melodies
Another category of modern songs is more Westernized than Chinese. Looked upon by some as cheap, these lively, rhythmic songs date to the day when China began producing sound motion pictures some 30 years ago. The songs were needed to wind up love scenes or to take the place of soliloquies. Love scenes in Hollywood productions invariably end in drawn-out kisses. In Chinese and other Oriental pictures they almost always end in songs. The early popular songs The Drizzling Rain, a fox trot, and Fishing in the Twilight, a waltz, were movie theme songs, and immediately were condemned as "demoralizing" by Confucian scholars. The lively rhythms and colloquial lyrics were welcomed by the populace at large. Composers were well paid, and for a time many musical talents were committed to movie studios and record companies. The production volume of popular songs was much larger than of art songs from 1940 to 1945.
Two songs, Rose Rose I Love You ( 玫瑰玫瑰我愛你 ), and The Second Spring ( 第二春 ) were given English lyrics and popularized in the United States. The composer of the former is not known. About 14 years ago the tune became known in the United States and a number of singers made records of it. Frankie Laine's recording was a million-seller hit. The Second Spring was used in the Hollywood production of The World of Suzie Wong starring William Holden and Nancy Kwan. It became the Ding Dong Song, sung by the heroine. The composer, Yao Ming, was said to have received a handsome royalty from Paramount.
Still Popular
The biggest names in popular song writing are Yao Ming and Lin Mei. One of Lin Mei's songs has attained a place in classical repertoires. Sung by a soprano, A Swallow At Sea* stands up with the best in Western song literature.
Popular songs composed two decades ago are frequently heard in Hongkong cabarets and on the radio in Taiwan. Those that still command considerable popularity include Sweet White Orchids ( 白蘭香 ), Roses Blooming Everywhere ( 薔薇處處開 ), When the Moon Is Full and Flowers Are Fair ( 月圓花好 ), A Wonderful Night In Spring ( 好春宵 ), The Peach Flower River ( 桃花江 ), Tuberoses ( 夜來香 ), The Spring on Mount Chung ( 鐘山春 ), The Wind of May ( 五月的風 ), Shangrila ( 香格里拉 ), Listen to My Whisper ( 聽我細訴 ), Where Can I Find My Love ( 知音何處尋 ), Truth, Goodness and Beauty ( 真善美 ).
Arrangements are usually Western and in blues; fox trot, waltz, tango or rhumba rhythm. Two popular songs of authentic Chinese flavor backed up by Chinese orchestras, The Grief of Chao Chun ( 昭君怨 ) and Punishment and Confession of A Lady's Maid ( 拷紅 ) are also well liked.
Since the Communist usurpation of the Chinese mainland in 1949, the production of popular songs has centered in Hongkong. Yao Ming has continued to write, and such other composers as Do Fin and Mo Zan have emerged. But output is not so large as in the 1940s. Recent hits include Lovers' Tears ( 情人的眼淚 ), Missing You in My Dream ( 夢裏相思 ), Endless Love ( 不了情 ) * and The Spring Breezes Are Kissing My Cheeks (春風它吹上了我的臉 ).
Compositions of today are less Westernized than the earlier popular songs. It may be that composers find it difficult to adapt Chinese materials to the fast-changing Western beats—rock'n'roll, calypso, limbo, twist, bossa nova and so on. Also, these rhythms are eminently more danceable than singable. So contemporary composers rely on the Oriental touch for popular acceptance.
The Endless Love was the theme song of a musical extravaganza of the same name, another Shaw Brothers production. It was voted the best movie song three years ago at the Asian Film Festival. The music was composed by Mo Zan and lyric came from Do Ching, a director and playwright with the Shaw Brothers.
What lies ahead for Chinese popular music? Composers and lyricists see no far-reaching changes tomorrow—merely more of the same. The growing Chinese movie industry, the demands of radio and TV, and a younger generation that is conditioned to song and dance assure an expanding market for music of all varieties. Also, the Chinese mainland, now cut off from the mainstreams of normal Chinese culture, can be expected to become the biggest song outlet in the world once the bamboo curtain has been torn aside.
* Asterick indicates the song is included in the songbook on Pages 25-37.
The Sing-Along Songbook