Impressive choral songs include "Spring Journey", "Farewell", "Yellow River Cantata", "Ussuri Boat Song" and "Song of the Yangtze River".
1, "Spring Journey"
In 1911, the music educator Li Shutong (Venerable Hongyi) returned from his studies in Japan, and two years later, he published a three-part choral piece, "Spring Journey," in pentatonic score, which is considered to be the first choral work written in modern China using Western compositional techniques.
The song's melody is catchy, and the lyrics, in the form of an ancient Chinese poem, describe the beauty of spring in just a few strokes: "The spring wind blows the face thinner than a veil, and the spring people's attire is lighter than a painting. Spring travelers walk in the painting, ten thousand flowers fly under the spring people." The words are full of reverie for spring.
2. "Farewell"
The lyrics of "Farewell" are in the form of long phrases in ancient Chinese poems, but the semantics are plain and easy to understand without losing the elegance of classical poems, from writing scenery to lyrics, and finally lamenting the shortness of life as if it were the setting sun, which is full of chilling feeling. Soon after the completion of his work, Li Shutong left the world and converted to Buddhism.
3. "Yellow River Cantata"
In 1939, at the critical juncture of the national crisis, under the call of the times, "Yellow River Cantata" was born with lyrics written by Guang Weiran and music composed by Xian Xinghai. This epic vocal suite stirred up the blood of the Chinese children, and it soon spread throughout China like a "roar for the war".
4, "Ussuri Boat Song"
In the northern part of China, where the Hezhe people live, there is also a chorus arranged according to the local folk songs, which is "Ussuri Boat Song" sung all over the country in the 1960s. The Ussuri River area is one of the ancestral homes of the Hezhen people, where people have been fishing for generations and retained many unique customs and habits. The Ussuri Boat Song is adapted from the local traditional folk tune "Marrying Lincuo", which has become a cultural symbol and icon of the Hezhen people.
5. Song of the Yangtze River
After the reform and opening up, China's choral career ushered in a new opportunity for development, with all kinds of musical elements competing to enter the national field of vision, and different musical styles colliding with each other, making the formal structure of the choral works richer and more varied, and the artistic conception more daring and novel. The choral song "Song of the Yangtze River", composed by Wang Shiguang and lyrics by Hu Hongwei, was used in the large-scale TV documentary "Talking about the Yangtze River", and the song accompanied the documentary in the 1980s, which became popular throughout the country.