On May 16, the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and the Guangzhou Museum of Art held a music salon to commemorate the 109th anniversary of Mr. Ma Sicong's birth. Mr. Chen Qing, Director of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Mr. He Ping, Dean of the School of Music and Dance of Zhuhai University of Science and Technology, and Mr. Chen Siang, Associate Professor of the Department of Composition of Xinghai Conservatory of Music, reviewed Mr. Ma Sicong's artistic achievements with the audience. The audience not only listened to Ma Sicong's works recorded by the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, but also enjoyed the performance of Ma Sicong's Violin Concerto in F major (solo and string quartet adaptation) by Zhang Yi, principal of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, and the "Fei Yue" string quartet. At the end of the event, Chen Qing, the head of the Canton Symphony Commission, presented the album "Ma Sicong's Works" recorded by Canton Symphony to the Guangzhou Art Museum.
As the orchestra of Mr. Ma Sicong's hometown, the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jing Huan, the orchestra's permanent conductor, completed the recording of Ma Sicong's Works in August 2020, and held an album launch ceremony in September at Pingshi Guanbu, the seat of Sun Yat-sen University, where Ma Sicong taught during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. The repertoire includes his Symphony No. 1, The Violin Concerto in F major and Homesick, with renowned violinist Xu Weiling as a soloist of the Concerto and Homesick.
He Ping, dean of the School of Music and Dance of Zhuhai Institute of Science and Technology, fully affirmed the reinterpretation and recording of this great work by the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, and made a vivid analysis with his in-depth study of Ma Sicong's works over the years, taking the first movement of the First Symphony as an example. Dean He said: "Ma Sicong's "First Symphony" can be said to be the first symphonic work in the history of Chinese music to be completed with a four-movement symphony structure, and the version interpreted by Jing Huan, the permanent conductor of the Canton Symphony Orchestra, is full of vitality and conforms to the aesthetics of the times. The first movement of this work repeatedly uses the tune of 'grinding scissors and kitchen knives' that originated in Shanxi and is widely spread in the northern land, so that everyone feels very lively and full of exuberance when they hear it. Chen Qing, head of the Canton Symphony League, believes that in order to commemorate a great musician, his works should first be seen again. The timing and location of Ma Sicong's First Symphony are very meaningful: due to the needs of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, in order to preserve the cultural context of Lingnan, many colleges and universities moved to Shaoguan Pingshi, and this song was composed by Ma Sicong when he moved to Sun Yat-sen University in Pingshi Guanbu, and this land with the history of Beacon Fire became the "South China Education History Research Base" in September 2020.
Born in the same year as this work was Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, which inspired the Russian people to resist fascist aggression and is very representative. Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony is certainly a very well-known work, and Mr. Ma Sicong's First Symphony is another work based on the history of the War of Resistance, so we feel very meaningful and worth digging it out.
In August 2020, Chen Siang, associate professor of the Composition Department of Xinghai Conservatory of Music, was commissioned by Canton To adapt the Violin Concerto in F major into a solo and string quartet version, and he believes that the process of adaptation is actually learning - adapting and "copying" the master's works is the most direct way to progress. Ma Sicong's Violin Concerto in F major is very large, and Chen Siang is very stressed between the trade-offs. In order to condense the essence of 30 minutes into 7 minutes, he tried to analyze the elements, such as the Cantonese music "Bird Fright" used in the first movement, and the theme of "Zhaojun Grievance" used in the second movement, all of which will make people feel the melody with Lingnan characteristics when they listen to it. Ma Sicong uses it very cleverly, not directly, but according to the mood of the music, which is a very advanced way of writing. Located in Guanbu, surrounded by the Danxia landform of Jinjiling, Ma Sicong's pen flows out notes with strong Cantonese musical characteristics, and the themes of each movement are interlinked in one go, combining Chinese style tones with flexible Western music forms, which has still influenced contemporary Chinese music creation until now, and is a rare classic example of "foreign for Chinese use".
Zhang Yi, Principal/Deputy Director of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, not only performed as a soloist in Ma Sicong's Violin Concerto in F major (solo and string quartet adaptation), but also brought fragments of "Homesick" to the audience. Ma Sicong's "Homesick Song" is his most widely known work, composed in 1937, expressing the author's nostalgia for his hometown. It was once the opening song of the Central People's Radio's broadcast to Taiwan and overseas Chinese. Zhang Yi has played "Homesick Song" with Canton Jiaotong many times, and in one interpretation after another, he fully felt Mr. Ma Sicong's deep love for the motherland condensed in the notes. In September 2020, when the album "Ma Sicong's Works" was first released, Zhang Yi played this track on the "Poetry And Music Mandao" that Ma Sicong often strolled. The rapid changes of the rivers and mountains of the motherland set off the classic charm of this work that will never fade.
At the end of the music salon, Chen Qing, director of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, presented the recording album of "Ma Sicong's Works" to the Guangzhou Art Museum on behalf of the orchestra. After the event, the guests and musicians visited the Ma Sicong Museum of Music and Art to relive the important role of this great artist and educator in the development of Chinese symphony and his significant contributions to the integration of Eastern and Western music cultures.
If you want to listen to the audio of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra playing Ma Sicong's works at any time, you can find the corresponding link in the review article on this event on the WeChat public account of the Canton Symphony Orchestra to listen to his time-honored works to commemorate the sage of the Chinese music industry and the pride of The Guangdong people.