"The chorus is my dream, and I have no regrets in pursuing it all my life!"
"No matter what kind of conditions people are in, they have to stick to their beliefs and chase their dreams."
Prof. Chen Jiahai has expressed his obsession with the art of choral singing and the pursuit of dreams in this way in interviews.
Chen Jiahai
Conductor/composer
Professor and master's tutor of the School of Music of Henan University. He is a member of the National Art Education Committee of the Ministry of Education, vice president of the China Choral Association (director of the University Choral Committee), vice president of the Music Education Branch of the China Education Society (director of the Choral Academic Committee), president of the Choral Association of Henan Province, and education supervisor of the People's Government of Henan Province. He is also the chief expert for the national training of choral conductor in the shortage program of the Ministry of Education, and a member of the artistic committee of the World Peace Choral Festival and the China International Choral Festival.
Main choral works
The Motherland is the loveliest", "The Sunset Loves the Yellow River", "Like a Pair of Golden Phoenix", "The Song of the Golden Warbler", the national symphonic chorus of "The Dictionary of Mulan", etc.
Theses and dissertations.
Theses and dissertations
? The main theses are "A Hundred Years of Review and Reflection on China's Choral Education", "Theoretical Reflections on the Formation of Yang's Choral Training System", "Twentieth Century Choral Music", "Reflections on the Theoretical Construction of the Discipline of Choral Conducting", "Problems and Countermeasures Faced by China's Higher Teachers in Cultivating Talents for Choral Conducting at the Present Stage", "The Level of Primary and Secondary Choral Conducting Urgently Needs to be Improved", "Bambu of Zhao and the Higher Music Education in Henan Province", "Jikang and His Sound and The Value of Mourning Music Theory", "Concept of Reform of Higher Teacher Music Teaching Content and Teaching Mode", "Examination of Henan Taikang's Taoist Emotional Flow", and treatises such as "Literature of Choral Art", "Literature of Musicology", "Selected Choral Works of Shifu", "Chen Jiahai's Choral Art Performance and Interpretation", "Conducting Design of Master Choral Pieces", "Chorus" (Chinese and Foreign Volume), "Singing China - Choral Collection", "Songs", "Choral Conductors". -Choral Music Collection", "Song Writing Basic Tutorial", "Music Exam Guidance Book", etc.
Research Achievements
Research on Music Education Mode in Urban Primary Schools in Underdeveloped Areas by the Ministry of Education, Guideline for Choral and Conducting Courses for Undergraduate Majors of Musicology (Teacher Education) in Normal Schools of Higher Education by the Ministry of Education, National Education Quality Project, Research on Innovative Experimental Areas for Cultivation of Musical Talents in the Two Stations and One Line, and so on. The "Two Stations and One Line" Music Talent Cultivation Experimental Area Research" and so on.
One
Choral art to the world?
After decades of artistic practice, Prof. Chen Jihai has greatly developed the art of choral singing by incorporating and adopting the best of both worlds. He has published more than ten important papers and several important books, and has made remarkable achievements in organization construction, academic research, choral education, foreign exchange, publicity operation, etc., which have greatly promoted the popularization and development of choral art in China. At the same time, Prof. Chen Jihai also actively plays his role in publicity and education in the professional direction of chorus and conductor, based on the fundamentals of chorus, following the laws of art, penetrating into the life, serving the masses, and letting the chorus enter into the masses and integrate into the masses. In the work of Chinese and foreign art exchanges, Prof. Chen Jihai has always taken the responsibility of promoting Chinese choral art, national music, and Chinese culture, and has made outstanding contributions to China's choral music to the world.
II
Folk Symphonic Chorus "The Diction of Mulan"
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The Diction of Mulan is one of the most outstanding poems among the folk songs of the north in the period of the Wei, Jin, and North-South Dynasties in China. The national symphonic chorus "The Diction of Mulan", composed by Prof. Chen Jiahai and China's famous composer Mr. Shifu***, uses symphonic choral thinking and dramatic musical effects to give a new interpretation to this ancient Chinese poem that is a household name.
This work is rigorous in structure, novel in approach, grand in scale and extremely dramatic. The entire piece is based on Yu opera music, with strong local characteristics of Henan. After several performances, this work won the third prize of the 17th National Music Works (Chorus and Chamber Music) Award of the Wenhua Prize in 2013, and the "Huayi Prize" and "Arrangement Prize" in the first National Micro Chorus Exhibition and Performance Competition in 2014. In 2014, the first national micro-chorus exhibition competition, including the "Huayi Award", "Arrangement Award", "Outstanding Conductor Award", "Piano Accompaniment Award" and other awards, and in the same year, won the 2014 annual National Art Fund funded projects.
In 2015, this play, which has undergone ten years of polishing, finally ushered in the premiere of the orchestra version at the Henan Provincial Art Center. This is an epoch-making performance.
The classic Mulan Rhetoric has added new Henan symbols to the music world, so that the choral career in Henan can move to a broader stage. Meanwhile, under the leadership of Prof. Chen Jiahai, the choral career in Henan is gradually improving and getting better and better.
Third
Choral art dream pursuer
Choral art is a higher level form of expression in the field of vocal music, through singing, it can give people artistic enjoyment of multiple types and styles, multiple tones, multiple voices, and multiple levels, and at the same time, it can cultivate people's souls, improve people's aesthetic ability, and sublimate people's spiritual realm, so it has its own distinctive artistic characteristics. The choral art has its own distinctive artistic characteristics.
The art of choral singing has vitality. In order to make China's choral career better and higher, Prof. Chen Jihai resolutely embarked on the road of inheriting choral culture, and this walk is more than forty years. In an interview, he once said: "I have been associated with choral art for forty years, recalling the road I have traveled, if I were to choose my professional direction again, I think I would still choose choral without hesitation. Choral art is really profound and profound, in such a temple of art, so far no one can completely figure out the mystery, you see that generation after generation of masters, giants, for which they have paid their life's work, but which one dares to say that they completely understand, mastered it? I have been engaged in choral conducting for a not too short time, and my attitude towards it cannot be said to be not serious, but as time passes, I realize more and more that my understanding of it is not yet comprehensive and thorough, and I feel more and more that my own achievements are not worth mentioning at all. As the old saying goes, "Learning is not enough", and this feeling has become stronger and stronger in recent years. Therefore, I would like to say that my special feeling towards it is that I am more and more filled with a kind of reverence towards it with the passage of time. The chorus is my dream, a lifetime of chasing dreams, I have no regrets! It seems a bit literary to say that, but it's really from my heart."
"I am a mountain climber on the road of choral career development, knowing that it has no end, I will still just keep climbing until my end, even if more bitter and lonely." It is this spirit that makes Prof. Chen Jiahai an epoch-making figure in the development and innovation of choral art.