Xian Xinghai

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Xian Xinghai at about 23 years old in Shanghai in 1920s.

Xian Xinghai (June 13, 1905 – October 30, 1945) (Chinese: 冼星海; pinyin: Xiǎn Xīnghăi) was a Chinese composer. He is best known for his Yellow River Cantata, upon which was based the Yellow River Concerto for piano and orchestra (arranged by Yin Chengzong).

Born in Macau with ancestry from Panyu (Chinese: 番禺; Pinyin: Pānyú) into a family of a poor sailor, Xian started learning clarinet in 1918 at the YMCA charity school attached to the Lingnan University in Canton. In 1926, he joined the National Music Institute at Peking University to study music. In 1928, he entered Shanghai National Music Conservatory to study violin and piano, and in the same year, he published his well-known essay, The Universal Music. In 1929, Xian went to Paris and, in 1931, he was admitted to the Paris Conservatory to study composition. While there he studied both with Vincent D'Indy and Paul Dukas. During this period, he composed Wind, Song of a Wanderer, Violin Sonata in D Minor, and other works.

Xian returned to China in 1935. During the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), Xian composed vocal works that encouraged and motivated the people to fight the Japanese invaders, and the works included Saving the Nation, Non-Resistance the Only Fear, Song of Guerrillas, The Roads Are Opened by Us, The Vast Siberia, Children of the Motherland, Go to the Homefront of the Enemy, On the Taihang Mountains as well as others. In 1938, he assumed the position of dean in the Department of Music at Lu Xun Institute of Arts in Yan'an. In his spare time, he composed the famous Yellow River Cantata and Production Cantata.

In 1940, Xian went to the Soviet Union to compose for the documentary film Yan'an And the Eighth Route Army. Before departure, Mao Zedong invited him to dinner. In 1941, the German invasion of the Soviet Union started and disrupted his composition. He attempted to go back to China by the way of Xinjiang, but the local anti-communist warlord, Sheng Shicai, blocked the way, and Xian got stranded in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan, and it was here that Xian composed symphonies Liberation of the Nation and Sacred War, the suite Red All Over the River and Chinese Rhapsody for winds and strings. He developed pulmonary tuberculosis due to long-time overwork and malnutrition. After the war, Xian went back to Moscow for medical treatment, but he was not completely cured, and he died in October of 1945 in the hospital in the Moscow Kremlin at the age of 40.

Xian composed over 300 works. In addition, he also published 35 papers, including Nie Er--the Creator of New Chinese Music and On the National Styles of Chinese Music. His influence in Chinese music won him the title People's Composer.

During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) when all Western art was forbidden in China, the pianist Yin Chengzong arranged the Yellow River Cantata into a concerto for piano and orchestra, the Yellow River Concerto (1969).

After China opened its door to the world in late 1970s, Yin planned to resume the performance of the concerto. There was a debate whether the melody of The East Is Red, which Yin had merged into the concerto, should be removed. At the end, it was decided that the work itself was a cultural legacy of the time when it was created, and the melody reminds listeners of that period and creates a unique sense of history. So the work remains intact as it was originally arranged.

Beginning in the 1970s, the Yellow River Concerto has been heard in the West, often performed by Yin Chengzong himself.