"Shanghai by Night" is a song written by Fan Yanqiao, composed by Chen Gexin, and sung by Zhou Xuan, released on January 7, 1947 as an interlude to the movie "Long Xiang Si".
Song Appreciation
Shanghai by Night is a typical dance music style, accompanied by a jazz orchestra, full of "foreign flavor", but at the same time the melody is full of the flavor of the Jiangnan folk tunes, which is a masterpiece of Chen Gexin's perfect combination of Chinese and Western music.
From the above structure, the song consists of two parts: section A and section B. Section A consists of a consisting of four lines (2+2) and b consisting of four lines (2+2), and section B consists of c consisting of six lines and c1 consisting of six lines, with section A contrasting with section B. The song is written in Chinese pentatonic folk tuning, which is jazzy but full of Chinese flavor. In terms of tonal modulation, this is a Chinese folk tune, B-flat palace modulation, in which partials are added inside to change the palace, forming a hexatonic folk tune.