"The Yellow River" -- A Garbage Work of Gilding the Lily!
2006/7/19 16:22:48
Compared to "The Butterfly Lovers," which at least has some ideas, the piano concerto "The Yellow River" -- one of the so-called twin jewels of Chinese concertos -- is a complete garbage work of gilding the lily! And compared to the "Yellow River Cantata," the piano concerto "The Yellow River" is a dwarf next to a giant, a firefly beside the sun. The "Yellow River Cantata" is one of the very few pioneering great works in Chinese modern music, comparable to certain classics of the nationalist school on the world stage. The piano concerto "The Yellow River," however, is the most nauseating fly on this white jade!
The background of how the piano concerto "The Yellow River" was concocted needs no elaboration. The reason I say "concocted" rather than "composed" is that it doesn't even meet the requirements of musical composition. There are many pop music arrangements these days, and this work can roughly be described as one: a malicious arrangement that dismembers the "Yellow River Cantata" with a conceptual, non-musical attitude for certain political purposes and personal boot-licking needs. Those unfamiliar with music need only compare it with "The Butterfly Lovers," which is based on Yue opera musical material, to understand the difference between arrangement and composition.
Even from an arrangement standpoint, from a purely musical-technical perspective, almost 99% of the melodies in this work come directly from the "Yellow River Cantata" without any development. Plainly put, it selected four songs from the "Yellow River Cantata" and made slight changes to the harmonic texture using piano -- it fundamentally cannot be called a piano concerto. Piano concertos have very clear formal requirements -- for example, the double exposition sonata form of the first movement -- but this so-called piano concerto is simply a crude product made by replacing the vocal parts of the "Yellow River Cantata" with piano. If this can be called a work, their skin is so thick that even shamelessness can't penetrate it!
Of course, against the backdrop of China's generally low musical literacy, the piano concerto "The Yellow River" once became a so-called model work for political reasons. And because China has barely any piano concertos, it continues to be trotted out as a stopgap to this day -- truly the greatest tragedy of Chinese music. If you really love the Yellow River, then listen to the "Yellow River Cantata" -- that is the real "Yellow River." As for the piano concerto "The Yellow River," let it be buried in history's garbage heap as the nation's musical literacy gradually improves!
Comments
Chán Zhōng Shuō Chán 2006/10/7 17:38:40
Of course it's one person!
Chán Zhōng Shuō Chán 2006/7/19 22:20:40
[Anonymous] Wuxin
2006-07-19 20:27:44
The singing competition on CCTV3 every night lately -- I'd like to hear your comments.
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Sorry, stopped watching after the bel canto segment. The scoring in the bel canto section is very problematic -- too many backdoor deals, too many factions. Not interesting.