2002bmmf

New Hope for Future of Chinese Modern Music 

—Beijing Modern Music Festival 2004

Author:Xie Mei

In the evening of May 31, Beijing Modern Music Festival 2004 was closed in beautiful melody at the Concert Hall of Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

Beijing Modern Music Festival (BMMF) 2004 was a grand feast of exchange and demonstration of Chinese modern music. It was presented by Central Conservatory of Music, Theory and Creation Division of Chinese Musicians Association, for which President Wang Cizhaoof Central Conservatory of Music acted as producer and composer Xiaogang Ye as music director. BMMF 2004 included a exchange meeting of latest creations, three open composition lectures, two composition teaching and music creation seminars, multiple special performances of symphony, Chinese traditional orchestral music, Chinesetraditional chamber music, chamber music, piano solo, electronic music and folk music in Southwest Shandong, 16 world premieres, 32 China premiers and 13 Beijing premieres of 100-plus works by Chinese and foreign composers… As a result, BMMF 2004 intensively displayed Chinese modern music in an all-round way since 1980s and showed us achievements, confidence and future of Chinese modern music in its trek and growth history.

Break away from simple imitation of western modern techniques

Thanks to great efforts of presenters, BMMF 2004 offered us an opportunity to listen to works of world-famous modern music masters – most works including Six Bagatelle***y Gyorgy Ligeti, Boulevard Solitude by Hans Werner Henze, Poems Pour Miby Messiaen, Five Epigrams by Peter Ruzicka and Themamitvier Variationen by Paul Hindemith were premiered in China. At the BMMF 2004, many works including Jade (for pipa and quartet) by senior respectable modern music explorer and composer Zhu Jian’erand national chamber music Shao II by Professor Gao Weijieat China Conservatory of Music showed different advantages and techniques in excavation of cultural connotation, development of Chinese traditional instrument performance and application of modern creation techniques. Moreover, music works by young composers such as violin tone poem Ji by Zhang Shuai at Central Conservatory of Music and wind music ensemble Northern Green Basket by XieXin demonstrated inspiring glories and pursuit of traditional folk music culture in China. We became confident in BMMF 2004 after listening to each concert because it broke away from imitation and gradually consciously formed unique creation style and individual style of modern Chinese music and all composers.

Get out of simply exploring concept and techniques

At the BMMF 2004, there was hardly work simply showing “techniques” without connotation and a variety of novel techniques supported thoughts, emotions, realm and connotations expressed by composers in their works such as

Beijing Connects the World and Starts a “Troika”

Beijing Modern Music Festival (BMMF) 2005 was an international music event at which the “troika” was started. The first horse of the troika was a set of concerts, with a focus on performance of Chinese and foreign modern music works supplemented by special introduction to and performance of folk and traditional music. The second horse was composition teaching series reports and visits of international masters, and the third one was the National Harmonic Theory and Teaching Seminar, which fostered a stronger academic atmosphere for the BMMF 2005.

Let modern music break away from expressioni*** and get close to life

BMMF 2005 was opened by the “American Work Concert” by China Youth Symphony Orchestra of Central Conservatory of Music. The 2005 Avant-garde Concert held on the same day highlighted new works by young composers including Huang Ruo (American), Zou Hang (Chinese) and Lucas Feigin (French) and students such as Wang Tao (Chinese). The Contemporary Work Premiere Concert was presented by New Music Orchestra of Central Conservatory of Music and Liu Sola and her friends. The American Milwaukee New Music Orchestra Concert showed works reflecting the artistic pursuit and spiritual outlook of contemporary American composers. The Special British Work Concerthelped musiciansin Chinese Mainland learn more about British music, which was conducted by former alumnus Shao En who led Macao Symphony Orchestra to Beijing.

The Sino-Korea Dialogue–Contemporary Works Concert demonstrated creation achievements of contemporary composers in China and Asia.

As one of important activities of the closing ceremony, the China Youth National Music Orchestra Concertpresented new works of modern national music by teachers at music colleges and conservatories in the Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong as well as overseas Chinese composers. Special folk and traditional music concerts and lecturers such as the China Inner Mongolia BajunMorinhuur Ensemble Concert, Korea Aura Kayagum Orchestra Concert and Vietnam Special Classical and Folk Music Concert expressed Asian musicians’ beautiful aspiration for carrying forward their national tradition. Opposite to the folk and traditional music, there were also New Electronic Music Work Concert, American Pianist Theresa Micron Solo Concert and Northern European Jazz Concert. Zhou Long combined piano solo with percussion of Beijing Opera, which represented a new music concept and attempt.

Vietnamese folk music concert

Wide concepts and diversified forms of Chinese art songs

The China Contemporary Art Song Concert performed art songs in early times including How Could I Not Miss Her (1925, composition by Zhao Yuanren and lyric by Liu Bannong), art songs reflecting patrioti*** and hope for resistance against Japan such as On the Jialing River (1939, composition by He Luting and lyric by DuanmuHongliang) as well as a large number of excellent art songs created after the founding of New China such as Sending-off Devil Plague(composition by Jiefu and lyric by Mao Zedong) and Azalea (composition by Fu Gengchen and lyric by Lu Guozhu), demonstrating art song creations of different contents, forms and styles over the past eight decades. The art song Look for Afterlifecreated by MijiuDanzeng, a freshman of Tibet Class of Central Conservatory of Music was a very exciting new work.

Gear composition teaching to the world

The lecturer opening ceremony of World-famous Master Class was presided over by professor Xiaogang Yeat Central Conservatory of Music. Afterwards, Dean of Composition Department at Eastman School of Music and otherAmerican composers, German composer Armin Koller, Chinese composer Yu Jingjun who resides in Austria and other domestic Chinese composers and compositionexperts at conservatories of music jointed gave lectures and Master Classes. The special lecturers by masters also involved some topics related to musicology such as “Adaption Right and Interest of Composers in Early 21^st Century”, “American Music – Mirror of Soul

Feel True Essence of Modern Music

—TheThird Beijing Modern Music Festival

Text and photo by journalist Shang Dao

The third Beijing Modern Music Festival (BMMF) presented by Central Conservatory of Music was successfully held during May 26-31, 2006. World-famous modern musicians were invited to perform contemporary works by internationally known composers at the BMMF 2006 which also featured a series of performances of original folk music, Music under 25 Concert for composers below 25 years old and Percussion Marathon Concert.

“Original music is a kind existing in the society that we do not know very well and are not familiar with, which is crucial to our music creation, performance and life. Take it for instance, the Sihu (a four-stringed bowed instrument)music from Inner Mongolia; theHuangmei operafrom Anhui for which afamous artist Ma Lanwell integrated the new and the old,the traditional and the modern in this time’s performance; the Cantonese music Variations fromthe South of the Five Ridges presented by Guangdong Song& Dance Theater based on modern orchestration. And the Gamelan music from Bali of Indonesia is original music from overseas. The concept of introducing original music represents an attempt to expand music varieties of BMMF in an all-round way,” said famous composer Xiaogang Ye.

Performance of master-level contemporary music works represents an important element of BMMF. The works by Boulez, Ligeti, Ades, etc. have been premiered at the BMMFthis year, as well asworks of Chinese contemporary composers whichdemonstrated the overall strength of these composers. The Music under 25 initiated by famous composer Xiaogang Ye attracted wide attention. The one-week BMMF offered nearly 10 concerts of modern music works,many of which were their premieres in China.

For academic speeches, in addition to those on music, famous scholar Yu Qiuyu also delivered a speech entitled Modern Overview of Traditional Art, stirring up another climax.

BMMF is aimed to vigorously develop culture of modern Chinese music, boom modern music creation in China and present wonderful modern music works based on international standards to facilitate international music and cultural exchanges, promote multi-diversified, multi-leveled and multi-dimensional international music exchange, and care for and support young musicians. BMMF will endeavor to build a good platform for international music dialogues, promote international learning and exchange and jointly play an important role in facilitating music and artistic creation, teaching practice, theory and popularization.

Source: Tai Sheng 2006/7

 An Overview of Beijing Modern Music Festival 2007

Author: Ding Xudong and Yang Guoli

On June 3, 2007, the grand masterpiece of Wagner opera — Tristan and Isolde — put a successful end to the nine-day 5^th Beijing Modern Music Festival (BMMF) 2007. BMMF 2007 set historical record in number of activities, scale, level and number of participants. Dozens of performance groups from America, Germany, Japan as well as Beijing, Hong Kong, Macau, Fujian and Yunnan in China held 35 wonderful concerts. A dozen of world-famous scholars and experts including famous Mathias Osterwold, Art Director of Berlin March Music Festival, American Professor Severine Neff, Shinichiro Oga from Japan and Changjiang Scholar - Professor Chen Yi at Central Conservatory of Music gave special lecturers on modern cutting-edge academic issues such as modern music, Schoenberg’s philosophy of music and creation of modern chamber music in Europe. Famous cultural scholars Yu Qiuyu, Professor Tang Yijie at Peking University and famous writer and musician Liu Sola delivered speeches and reports on issues of social focus such as traditional Chinese culture, cultural creative industry, art and life and environmental resource, etc. Many scholars including Professor Wang Cizhao, Professor Yang Liqing, presidents of main conservatories of music in China, directors of Chinese music research institutes, as well as deans and professors of composition and musicology, participated in the appraisal of Special Schoenberg Academic Paper Competition, appraisal of National Orchestration Competition for Art Colleges as well as special seminars on Traditional Music and Future Society, such as National Orchestration Teaching Seminar, Schoenberg Seminar, Tradition in Future. In addition, the launch ceremony of the New Wave Music Album of Modern Chinese Music and disc and book of Composers graduated in 1977, as well as Yang Zhiqiang Photography Exhibition and Fang Lijun Painting Exhibition were also held. The achievements of BMMF 2007 were mainly embodied by various concerts and academic seminars.

Academic Journal, 07/4

 Inherit the Tradition and Make Innovation

An Overview of Beijing Modern Music Festival 2008

The 5^th Beijing Modern Music Festival (BMMF) 2008 which lasted for six days from May 25 to 30, 2008 was closed. Compared with BMMF 2007, the present Festival had fewer programs, butactively explored inheritance of tradition and innovation.

BMMF 2008 featured numerous special modern music concerts, including BMMF Welcome Concert – “Seattle Sound” Modern Works Concert, Luisa Sello Modern Flute Works Concert, Vienna Modern Jigsaw Ensemble Concert, the 10^th Oriental Century – Sino-Korea Composers’ Works Concert, Andrew Zohn Modern Guitar Work Concert andBMMF Closing Concert – Modern SymphonicWorks Concert. The Taoi*** Concert of Wang Village in Xinzhou, Shanxi Province was the only traditional concert at BMMF 2008. In terms of innovation, cappella oratorio The Peach Blossom Fanat the opening concert was characterized by novel form and diversified chorus. The new concept experimental Kun opera Hide:Escape featured a grand atmosphere and profound connotation.

Source: People’s Music, by Wang Shengfu and Wang Yongzhen

Live performance by students from music colleges in China and relevant comments at BMMF 2008

Closing Concert of Beijing Modern Music Festival 2008

 Beijing Modern Music Festival 2009 Was Held

The Six-day Beijing Modern Music Festival from May 20 to May 26opened at Beijing Concert Hall at 19:30 on May 20, 2009. This year, the National Ballet of China was invited to perform Rock Ballet adapted based on rock and roll of Pink Floyd at the BMMF 2009, and students majored in composition from 12 famous art colleges participated in the 1st Chinese Debate Competition for Composition Students at Art Colleges. Audiences could experience a wide variety of skillful creation ideas and exquisite performance techniques of outstanding musicians in various countries at the BMMF. While making active and pioneering explorations, BMMF also vigorously upheld the continuation and development of traditional culture and presented many concerts themed at gagaku in Japan, gamelan in Indonesia, experimental Kun opera and Dongjing music (a kind of Taoist music) in Yunnan Province. Moreover, BMMF 2009 also actively organized many national symphony concerts, performed symphony works of well-known Chinese composers including Dun Tan and Tang Jianping and presented nearly 100 new works by young composers and students majored in composition on the stage.

Source: National Music, 2009/05, by Li Huilin

  

 

Beijing Modern Music Festival (BMMF) 2010 sponsored by Central Conservatory of Music will open on May 22. On the afternoon of April 27, the sponsor’s representatives held a press conference in Beijing to introduce its main programs and highlights.

“School Songs”Project supported art education

According to the sponsor, BMMF 2010 will launch 22 wonderful performances, including four symphony concerts, 18 chamber music concerts and one multi-media experimental theatre performance. Moreover, BMMF will also organize the China’s International Forum on Culture, Fine Arts & Human Development to invite famous experts, scholars and entrepreneurs in China to discuss the development of aesthetic education in China. As an important activity of aesthetic education, the “School Songs” Project would support art education in poverty-stricken areas by providingpublications of school songs for students in those areas.

Tour lectures for young students

BMMF 2010 will last from May 22 to May 28. BMMFCommittee will arrange Xiaogang Ye, YongyanHuand other artists to give tour lecturers at universities including Peking University, Tsinghua University and Renmin University of China to most directly target at young students and realize BMMF’s important function of guiding and cultivating audiences.

By Huang Ling

 Have the Future in View and Pursue Excellency – Beijing Modern Music Festival 2011

Sources: ifeng.com, sohu.com

Beijing Modern Music Festival (BMMF) 2011 will be held in Beijing from May 21 to May 27. It was a grand national-level art music event supported by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture and presented by Central Conservatory of Music. After nine years of development, BMMF has matured and grown into a large-scale modern music event and cultural event with great influence in China amidst constant explorations and has gradually become one of the most high-profile modern music festivals in the world.

BMMF 2011 will continue its concept of spreading spirit of modern music. On the initiative of President and Professor Wang Cizhao and Artistic Director Xiaogang Ye, BMMF 2011 continued to keep its academic and forward-looking natures, closely link art and social progress, gradually target at the general public and spread the spirit of modern music in a more acceptable way.

Guided by the new concept of pioneering and innovation, BMMF 2011 will include Fine Works Concert,Tibetan Project, “School Songs” Project, Young Composer Project (YCP), Young Chin, Master Classes and Lectures, China’s International Forum on Culture, Fine Arts & Human Development to be held for several times in a good order.

World-famous composers have been also invited to make up YCP jury committee at the BMMF 2011.

News conference of Beijing Modern Music Festival

Cultural counselor Maciej of the Polish Embassy delivered a speech

     Opening Concert of Beijing Modern Music Festival 2012

On May 19, 2012, the 10^th Beijing Modern Music Festival, supported by Ministry of Education and Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China and presented by the Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM), started at National Center for the Performing Arts.

At the opening ceremony concert in yesterday evening, five contemporary symphonies by composersfrom China, Germany, the Unites States and Thailand were performed by the Orchestra of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, with LvJia as the conductor and piano accompaniment of pianist Christopher McKiggan.Major repertoire included Blue, Blue Sky by Chen Yi (U.S.A.), Illuminations by NarongPrangcharoen (Thailand), At the Edge of Time by Enjott Schneider (Germany), The Color of Beijing by Zou Hang (China), and Piano Concerto by Robert Beaser (U.S.A.).

At the ceremony, five Outstanding Contribution Awards of Beijing Modern Music Festival were granted. Award-winning organizations and individuals included: Chinese Literature Foundation (CLF), China Symphony Development Foundation, China National Symphony Orchestra (CNSO), conductor Mr. Zhang Yi, and composer Mr. Du Mingxin.

Sticking to the developmental mode with the characteristics of “performance, education and exchange”, Beijing Modern Music Festival 2012 fell into nine modules such as Fine Works Concert, Young Composer Project, Young China, China's International Forum on Culture, Fine Arts & Human Development, Tibetan Project, “School Songs” Project, and Musical Document Preservation. The Music Festival will take the concept of promoting the spirit of modern music, highlighting social cultural development and pushing forward the popularity of art education and cultural inheritance so as to bring about a big music feast.

 “Wing of the Dream”－ Opening Concert of Beijing Modern Music Festival 2013

Author: Xu Rui

On May 18, 2013, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra initiated in the Concert Hall of the National Centre for the Performing Arts Wing of the Dream—opening concert of Beijing Music Festival 2013 with the Double Chorus created by American composer Robert Beaserin 1990. Mr. Yongyan Hu conducted the concert.

The first piece of music is the Double Chorus by American composer Robert Beaser in 1990. With complicated and profound musical structure, this work showed qualities of Hollywood’s epic films, fully representing the mainstream style of American culture. Next, the flute concerto Wing of the Dream was then played, which was a work of Ms. Kaija Saariaho, an outstanding representative of Finnish contemporary composers. This beautiful and ethereal work sounded a little loosely structured, just like a long scroll of Chinese landscape painting. But in fact, it was complicated, showing characteristics of multi polyphony. The performance of the flute player Camilla Hoitenga was really fascinating. The third program was Xiaogang Ye’s Song of Sorrow and Gratification (for bass baritone and orchestra), which was composed in 2012 on the basis of seven poems of Li Shutong (Buddhist master Hongyi, 1880-1942). With the bass-baritone, the composer properly represented the sadness of the poems. Starting from serious and profound music of cello and contrabass, the composer applied the atonal composition to make the tonality change ceaselessly, which tallied with the unreal and disoriented status in the poems.

Three compact works were performed in the second half of the concert: Big Beautiful Dark and Scary by Julia Wolfe, artistic director of Bang on a Can; Pierced by David Lang; and Rewriting Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony by Michael Gordon. All these three works were jointly performed by six musicians from Bang on a Can and Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra. Their shining dresses and astonishing hair styles indicated a new wave and individuality of music.

According to my interviews after the concert, audiences have different comments on the works. A famous Chinese musician said the first half of the concert could be summarized as “very excellent”, but the music of the second half was too monotonous. On the contrary, some foreign audiences thought that the music of the first half was serious and traditional while that of the second half was very interesting.

The ancients once said that only music could not cheat. Whether you like or not, these works were all created by composers with their real feelings. Modern music shows strong character through its fashion-forward taste and creation means. Therefore, it is fresh or somewhat unacceptable for most audiences familiar with expressions of classical music. The famous Chinese scholar FeiXiaotong once said “if everyone has his preference while admires others’, all could be live in harmony”. I believe it is a felicitous summary of the comments on the concert.

 “Opening a New Road”

—Reflections on the Three Concerts of Beijing Modern Music Festival 2014

Author: Xiang Xiaogang

Though Beijing Modern Music Festival 2014 ended last Thursday, I am still deeply impressed by the musical works of composers both at home and abroad at the three concerts which were: Poems of Love and War—Opening Concert of Beijing Modern Music Festival 2014” in the evening of May 16, The ladder of the Demon—Concert of the 20^th Century Piano Worksin the afternoon and The Song of the Earth—Closing Concert of 2014 Beijing Modern Music Festival in the evening of May 22.

Reviewing the concerts of the opening and closing ceremonies of this Beijing Modern Music Festival, the writer inadvertently caught a message: more and more music composers, both at home and abroad, no longer indulge themselves in “audio staffing”, “conceptual music” and “number games”. Nor are they narcissistic. Instead, they have more actively explored a new road between “modern” and “traditional”, hoping to realize the interaction featuring “elegant and popular in style” so as to “have fun with the common people” in the real sense. This is especially true for the composers who have reached middle age!

May 27, 2014   First draft

May 28, 2014   Revision

At Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM)

About the author:

Xiang Xiaogang（1972－）, male, associate researcher of CCOM, Doctor of Chinese contemporary music (Beijing 100031).