"Xiao Youmei is not only a pioneer in the creation of new music in the mainland, but also a well-deserved leader. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the collision of Chinese and Western cultures was triggered by the "gradual study of the West from the East", and in the face of the proposition of "where did Chinese music go in the 20th century", there was a trend of thought of "total Westernization" and "nationalism". At the same time as the emergence of these two opposing extreme currents of thought, the idea of "eclecticism" has gradually formed, which advocates taking advantage of each other's strengths in Chinese and Western cultures and exploring the method of mutual integration in practice. This trend of thought has effectively contributed to the formation of a new Chinese culture in the 20th century, and the "New Music Movement", represented by Xiao Youmei, Zhao Yuanren and Liu Tianhua, has clearly put forward the idea of "eclecticism" in the discussion of the question of "where is Chinese music in the 20th century" and practiced it from both theoretical and practical aspects. The "East meets west" conception they advocated and the "New Music Movement" developed from it became the mainstream of Chinese music in the early 20th century.
Known as the "father of modern Chinese music education", Xiao Youmei was born in 1884 in Guangdong to a family of poetry and books, and his family moved to Macau in his early years. In Macau, the Xiao family and the Sun Yat-sen family became acquainted and interacted, and Xiao Youmei paid a tribute to Sun Yat-sen's uncle.
When Xiao Youmei was seventeen or eighteen, he studied in Japan, studying philosophy, piano and vocal music. At that time, Sun Yat-sen was hunted down in Japan, and Xiao Youmei hid him in her home in Tokyo for more than a month. Later, after the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution and Sun Yat-sen became the President, Xiao Youmei was also appointed as the secretary of the Grand Presidential Office. After Yuan Shikai came to power, Xiao Youmei resigned.
▲Xiao Youmei, principal of Shanghai National Music College
Later, with the help of Sun Yat-sen and Cai Yuanpei, Xiao Youmei went to the Leipzig Conservatory, leipzig University, and the University of Berlin in 1912 to study music. He received his Ph.D. on October 22, 1919, becoming the first person in China to receive a Ph.D. from a foreign university. In 1920, Xiao Youmei returned to China and founded the Department of Music and Physical Education of the Beijing Women's Higher Normal School, and served as the director of the Music Institute of Peking University and the director of the Music Department of the Beijing National Art College. In June 1927, after the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China suspended the music majors of all national colleges and universities in Beijing on the grounds of "harming social morality" and "wasting national money", the Peking University Music Institute was dissolved. Xiao Youmei resigned and went south with Cai Yuanpei (who was also the director of the Peking University Music Institute at the time). At the end of 1927, with the support of Cai Yuanpei, Xiao Youmei established the first professional higher music education institution in China, the National Conservatory of Music (now the Shanghai Conservatory of Music), which was the first institution of higher learning in mainland China dedicated to professional music education.
▲Group photo of the orchestra formed by Xiao Youmei
Xiao Youmei's music composition can be roughly divided into three stages according to the period: the period of studying in Germany from 1913 to 1920, the period of teaching in Beijing from 1920 to 1927, and the period of Shanghai National Music College from 1927 to 1940.
According to its creative genre, it mainly includes vocal works such as solo singing, heavy singing, and chorus, as well as instrumental works such as piano solo, cello and piano, string quartet, brass ensemble, and orchestral ensemble. Compared with the first generation of mainland composers Zhao Yuanren, Liu Tianhua, Qing Lord, Li Jinhui and others, Xiao Youmei can be regarded as the composer with the largest number of works and the widest range of genres. Xiao Youmei's String Quartet in D major, composed in 1916 while studying in Germany, is the only string quartet he composed in his lifetime, and the first chamber music work created by a mainland composer. It shows Xiao Youmei's ability to grasp the structure and instrumental method of Western music. In the compositions of Xiao Youmeiliude's period, the influence of European music from the 18th to the 19th century can be clearly seen, and most of these works are more neatly written, showing that the author's mastery of Western composition theory techniques has reached a certain level.
▲ Band
In March 1920, after traveling to many countries in Europe and the United States, Xiao Youmei returned to China to begin his music education career of more than 20 years. From 1920 to 1927, he successively composed the national anthem of the Republic of China, "Qingyun Song", "Huaxia Song", "Zhuyin Alphabet Song", "Folk Song", the song collection "The First Collection of Present Music", "The First Collection of New Songs", "The New School Singing Textbook" and other vocal works, as well as the orchestral music "New Neon Dress Feather Dance" and so on.
The creation of this period is obviously dominated by vocal works, the vast majority of which are created for the needs of music teaching, considering that the singers are mostly primary and secondary schools and music teachers, so most of these works are relatively simple and easy to understand. It is worth mentioning that in the 1920s, there were still very few songs created by the Chinese, such as Xiao Youmei, who composed in five lines and accompanied by a simple piano, which was a pioneering initiative.
In 1927, since the establishment of the National Music College, Xiao Youmei has devoted herself to the cause of music education. During this period, he devoted his main energy to teaching and management, not only presiding over school affairs, but also worrying about the safety and survival of the school at all times. He writes applicable music textbooks for his students and teaches them personally, while also undertaking heavy social work. Therefore, Xiao Youmei did not create many music in this period. Songs such as "The Dissolution of the Music Department of Wenyi College", "Love", "National Difficulty Song", "National Shame", "National Revolution Song", "The World is a Public Song", "Yang Hua", "Summer Day Garden", "Military Song", "National Music College School Song", the four-part chorus "Spring River Flower Moon Night" and so on are the creations of this period.
Xiao Youmei's music creation started on the basis of almost a blank gap in modern professional music creation in the mainland, so his music creation has a more obvious meaning of experimentation and exploration. In Xiao Youmei's creative achievements, he practiced his own proposition of "borrowing from Western music, transforming old music, and creating new music", which can be clearly reflected in the chorus suite "Spring River Flower Moon Night" and the piano suite "New Neon Dress Feather Dance".
▲Statue of Xiao Youmei
In the 1920s and 1930s, Xiao Youmei was not only a pioneer in the creation of new music in the mainland, but also a well-deserved leader. Under his planning and influence, professional composers such as Zhao Yuanren, Liu Tianhua, Qing Lord, Zhou Shu'an, Ying Shangneng, Ma Sicong, Li Weining, He Luting, Chen Tianhe, Jiang Dingxian, Liu Xue'an and their creations have laid the foundation for the development of new music in the mainland. In Xiao Youmei's era, the ideal of "new music" was no longer the beautiful vision of the early song theorists who stayed on the literal level, nor was it the foot sound of Uncle Li and other people in the music works, but a prelude to a "great symphony" that was about to sound, and the main composer and chief conductor of this symphony was Xiao Youmei.
Editor: Hu Jiaxin
Preliminary: Liu Peng
Final: Marco