Xian Xinghai (June 13, 1905 – October 30, 1945) (Chinese: 冼星海; pinyin: Xiǎn Xīnghăi) was a Chinese composer. Although he composed in all the major musical forms (two symphonies, a violin concerto, four large scale choral works, nearly 300 songs and an opera), he is best known for his Yellow River Cantata upon which the Yellow River Concerto for piano and orchestra is based.
Born in Macau with ancestry from Panyu (Chinese: 番禺; Pinyin: Pānyú) into ...
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Xian Xinghai (June 13, 1905 – October 30, 1945) (Chinese: 冼星海; pinyin: Xiǎn Xīnghăi) was a Chinese composer. Although he composed in all the major musical forms (two symphonies, a violin concerto, four large scale choral works, nearly 300 songs and an opera), he is best known for his Yellow River Cantata upon which the Yellow River Concerto for piano and orchestra is based.
Born in Macau with ancestry from Panyu (Chinese: 番禺; Pinyin: Pānyú) into a poor sailor family, Xian Xinghai started learning the clarinet in 1918 at the YMCA charity school attached to the Lingnan University in Guangzhou (Canton). In 1926 he joined the National Music Institute at Peking University to study music and in 1928 he entered Shanghai National Music Conservatory to study violin and piano.The same year he published his well-known essay The Universal Music. In 1929 he went to Paris(where he met Ma Sicong who introduced him to many artists there) under government sponsorship and two years later he was...
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