Wang Xilin

Wang Xilin

Wang Xilin (1936 -) is one of the most solid and profound Chinese composers. Born in Kaifeng, Henan Province in 1936, he was a middle-level official of the Kuomintang. In 1957, he was admitted to the composing Department of Shanghai Conservatory of music. In 1962, he graduated from the composing Department of Shanghai Conservatory of music and studied under Liu Zhuang, Ding Shande, Qu Wei and Chen Mingzhi. In 1963, the third work Yunnan Yinshi was created by using the national music materials of the Central Radio Symphony Orchestra. It was premiered in 1978 after 15 years. The Fourth Movement "Torch Festival" has become one of the most popular Chinese symphonic works with the most performances in the world.

Character experience

Wang Xilin's father died when he was 12 years old. In order to lighten the burden on his mother, he joined the Chinese people's Liberation Army literary and art troupe which passed by his home. The encounter with western music was accidental, but it determined his life's fate. Before joining the army, he had learned organ and staff in the poor and remote Church Primary School in Pingliang County, Gansu Province. In the army, he taught himself the basic music theory, played the huqin, accordion and various brass instruments, and gradually began to arrange instruments and music for small wind bands. In 1955, Wang Xilin was sent to the military music Command College of the Central Military Commission in Beijing. Because of his excellent study, he was sent to the school's preparatory school for teachers in Shanghai two years later.

He loved literature and music since childhood. When he was studying in Shanghai Conservatory of music, he was called "Wang Symphony" because of his outstanding skills among his classmates. When he was 25 years old in 1962, the first movement of his graduation work the first symphony reflected the author's broad mind for human destiny and history, which was appraised by his tutor Qu Wei as "the work has symphonic drama, broad layout and full of emotion". Later, he suffered severe political persecution because of his fierce criticism of the literary and art policy at that time. He was transferred to Changzhi of Shanxi Province for 14 years, during which he was imprisoned, controlled, servitude and criticized. Nevertheless, Wang Xilin regarded music as his life. He had a deep understanding of Shangdang Bangzi, puju and other local operas in Shanxi. Later, he managed to lead the local orchestra to create and perform arduously and tenaciously. During the past 14 years, he created six works under the extremely difficult material and spiritual environment. At the end of 1977, with the help of Li Delun, he was rehabilitated and transferred to the unknown Beijing Song and dance troupe. Up to now, the music concept is not allowed by the conservative atmosphere of the regular Conservatory of music, and he has never been able to teach in the Conservatory of music. Life is very simple.

In 1995, ralov, the chief conductor of the Petrograd Symphony Orchestra, said: "if aliens came to the earth 100 years ago and spent an hour to learn about human history, ask them to listen to Beethoven's Symphony No. 9; if aliens come to the earth now and want to know about human history, ask them to listen to Wang Xilin's Symphony No. 3." It can be seen from the high evaluation of Wang Xilin's music works by the professional circles.

Representative works

Symphony No.3 Op.26

Wang Xilin's Violin Concerto (op. 38), which is called "the worthy successor of those greatest Violin Concertos" by Swiss violinist egidius Streiff, seems to be an exquisite sketch of this great composer's works.

This work has gone through a long process of creative brewing: as early as 1968, during the "Cultural Revolution", he was in adversity and was escorted to various counties and villages to criticize. During the journey, he had the idea of sprouting. In the early 1980s, he began to prepare, started writing in early 1989 and finished in September 1990. On March 10, 1991, it was premiered in the concert of Wang Xilin's symphonic works (1) at Beijing Concert Hall. Central Symphony Orchestra, Han Zhongjie conductor. The music consists of four movements and is played for about 58 minutes. The work has grand momentum, rich colors and philosophical connotation based on the composer's deep experience. The tone of the music is solemn and deep, which expresses the composer's deep concern and serious thinking about the national history and human destiny. It is also a personal lyric tragic and epic untitled symphony.

After listening to the third symphony, kholopova, Professor of Moscow Conservatory of music, announced: "I have discovered here the real and vivid development of the tradition of our great compatriot Dmitry dmitriyevich shostakovic, which has not yet been discovered by the world music world The tragic fates of the two great nations are linked together. "

The first movement, Adagio. It is played slowly from the bass string in the form of semitone up and down, creating a prisoner like image of struggling, wandering, searching and struggling on the long road, which can be called "trudging theme". The first theme is written in twelve free notes, with the order of 1-9 notes as the core of the theme. There are many repeated notes between the 9-12 notes. The second theme is played by the British Orchestra, which is desolate, bitter, cold and depressing, and can be called "bitter theme". After the two themes are presented respectively, the tension of music has experienced two growth processes: sometimes it is begging in sorrow, sometimes it is pouring out in anger, sometimes it is crying out in passion, sometimes it is fighting in grief, and it is full of tragic appeal and eloquence. When the music reaches the second climax, it expands and continuously strengthens at the climax point to become the climax area. After giving people a huge saturation and satisfaction, the band stops dead (section 168)! The two themes repeat coldly, which is not so much the reproduction of the theme as the afterwave of the high tide. Just as after experiencing great impact and twists and turns, we can observe the past life experience and the future road more clearly and think calmly. But the first movement, which has been 15 minutes long, is only the preface of the whole piece. The following is the real development of the play and the conflict.

The second movement, Allegro. This is a large-scale variation of fixed bass. The composer borrows the ancient pasacalia form and makes symphonic development on fixed music materials. Its introduction theme and fixed bass theme are derived from the first movement "bitter theme". With eight bars as a basic unit, the fixed bass has made 39 variations. In this growing up music layout and capacity, the composer deliberately portrayed the image of grotesque, absurd, rough and arrogant, as if a group of noisy clowns in the casino were exposed. Here, the free, fluent and arbitrary use of modern music performance techniques such as color block music and rhythm counterpoint greatly expands the performance range of this ancient genre of pasacalia, which makes people feel breathtaking, solemn and stirring!

After bar 336 is the end of the movement, and the speed is doubled. As the preface of the first movement, the theme of trekking is played by the bass string with a weak instrument. Then, the theme of bitterness of the British solo as a counterpoint overlaps with it, which is more profound and sad. Near the end, the Allegro speed inherent in the Scherzo of this movement is speeded up. The fixed bass theme is accompanied by irregular percussion chords and brass semitones, which gather into a strong sound stream and roar away with a strong momentum!

The third movement, broadleaf. This is a deep elegy, using a single theme unfolded with two parts of the ending musical structure. There is a sharp contrast with the second movement in music material, structure, speed, strength, unfolding technique and music emotion. The composer designed a theme for this movement, which was played by the baritone flute. Its breath is long, the tone is sad, the broad breath and the coherent sentence make the theme which is complementary to the stretching and the frustration particularly emotional. It has the artistic appeal of singing while crying, but wants to cry without tears. It can be called "sad theme". The string music group with a microphone depicts the background of emptiness, desolation and coldness; the fan-shaped sound block is sandwiched with a strong and weak tremor, which is like the tremor and palpitation of the soul. In the second part of the movement, the high overtones of the string group are played briefly to produce a sound similar to sobbing, and the method of "tape counterpoint" is used to deal with it. It seems that the "sobbing sound" of ghosts and the ghost fire of phosphorus come and go one after another, making people feel like they are in a cemetery. But this is only the background, and the theme appears in the background. The bass statement of cello is like the desolate lament of the old man of history. Then it winds up, the semitones in the order of string music group appear, three times set off sound waves, forming the climax of indignation and advancing step by step, fully demonstrating the power of tragic protest and accusation. In the end, the music came to an end after the transition of the gentle rolling of the xylophone. In the sound blank of the band, the "sad theme" of the baritone flute reappeared, but it was brilliant. The artificial overtones of the solo cello played above it, making the theme of the monologue more profound. The orchestration here can be described as ingenuity Very delicate and unique

The fourth movement, Allegro. This is a unique finale. In addition to the introduction and the ending, the main part of more than 400 bars has no music theme of common significance, but through the long-term continuation of "fixed rhythm block"; the increase and decrease of music materials attached to this main line; the change of rhythm and texture; the rise and fall of sound intensity, etc. The author said: "this Allegro movement, which has grown up in length, is based on the structural principles of minimalist music, with the main body of" sound pattern texture "and completely changed the harmony language, thus greatly enhancing the internal tension of music." it is like the rage, eyes and canthus split, braying and river surging. In addition, the fluctuation of sound intensity is the main reason for the structure of this movement As an important dynamic means, its sound intensity has gone through the changing process of initial falling, rising again and falling again, rising three times and falling three times, and it is more powerful and clear every time

Chinese PinYin : Wang Xi Lin