The Development of Musicals Before the Establishment of the People's Republic of China
In recent years, due to an increasing introduction of Western musicals, Chinese audiences have learnt more about this kind of arts. Many Chinese artists also try to make musicals with Chinese characteristics so as to show the charming of the Chinese music.Golden Sand (Jinsha) and Snow Wolf Lake (Xue Lang Hu), two Chinese musicals, are two of the most impressive ones.
Writing is for carrying the way, poems are for expressing your vision, music for voicing your thoughts," it was said in the 1930s, with the beginning of the anti-Japanese war, many musicians in China redirected the purpose of composition to inspire national spirit. The most Outstanding representatives among them are Xian Xinghai and Nie Er.
After coming back to China from France in 1935, Xian Xinghai saw the sufferings of the Chinese under the oppression of Japanese imperialism, so he actively participated into the anti-Japanese movement and composed a lot of mass songs, and music for progressive films like Zhi Zhi Ling Yun (Vision and Ambition), March of the Youth, and the drama Resurrec-tion, and Great Storm. In 1938 suffering ex-treme difficulty and hardship in Yan An, he still created the immortal masterpieces such as Yellow River Cantata and Chorus of Production and other fine works.
"Yellow River Cantata" inspired by the Yellow River, describes the dramatic change of the people living along the Yellow River before and after the Anti-Japanese War, criticizing the cruelty of the enemy and the oppression that the people suffered. In the end it depicts a magnificent picture about the masses protecting their home country and fighting against the enemy. In this work, the composer integrated folk music into the piece and created many melodies with national characteristics to create the fighting image of the anti-Japanese army and people, expressing the revolutionary spirit of the Chinese people, making the work become the one of the most popular chorus works in the modern music history of China.
Nie Er was a contemporary of Xian Xinghai, and although born in a poor family, his enthusiasm for music enabled him to include daily hardships in such popular songs such as Wide Road Song,Song of the Dockers,Pioneers,New Female，Graduation Song,Song of Newspaper Selling,and Female Singer under theIr on Heel. Nie Er advocated that“Music is like other arts such as poems,novels,and dramas; it cries out for the public,and the public surely will require new musical content and performance,and require new outlooks from composers."
In along period,this view significantly influenced the establishment of a group of progressive musicians.
