The Legendary Four Information

The Legendary Four is a group of four composers— Tan Dun, Ye Xiaogang, Guo Wenjing, and Qu Xiaosong—who studied composition at the same time in the Central Conservatory of Music at Bejing during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. In the beginning of the revolution, they were all required to leave home and work on farms, where they gathered incomparable compositional experiences through the influences of traditional Chinese folk music.

Tan Dun

Tan Dun, Born in 1957, is a native Chinese composer who currently resides in New York City.

Biography/Life

Tan Dun was born in 1957 in the city of Changsha, Hunan province. In the year 1986, he graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China, as a graduate student of composition. In the same year, he moved to New York City to pursue doctoral studies at Columbia University. During his graduate studies in China and America, he composed a variety of pieces stretching across different genres. His string Quartet Feng Ya Song was awarded the Weber Prize in 1983, and he has received the Suntory Prize Commission in 1992. His opera Marco Polo has received a Grawemeyer Prize in 1996. His American debut concert was held at the Avery Fisher Hall of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on February 7, 1988. In 1996, he was appointed as composer and conductor by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra until 1999. ^[1] Since then, he has composed many commissioned pieces for many music organizations around the world. Due to the Oscar winning film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and his Grammy winning film score for it, his name became much more known throughout the United States. Lately, he has been active in events that embrace cultural communication with music. Considering his brilliant achievements, UNESCO named him as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador in 2013. ^[2]

Style

His compositional approach includes traditional melodies, court music, and Buddhist chants of ancient China. His works are commissioned by many well-known film directors, orchestras, and opera companies all over the world. The majority of his works uses sounds that mimic everyday life such as washing clothes in the Yangzi River. While at school, his compositions were influenced by a range of contemporary composers including Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, and John Cage. These great composers led him to compose modern music incorporating Chinese traditional language. Subsequently, he consistently uses “organic music" in his composition. ^[3] For example, he uses different shaped tire racks as percussion instruments in one of his pieces called Champion Series 2008. ^[4]

Influence

Tan Dun’s work was relatively unknown until the premiere of his ground breaking score for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. This score became his representative music to the West, which allowed him newfound popularity and success. With this success Tan Dun has devoted much of his time and work to the promotion of Chinese music. He has invited many prestigious artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Itzak Perlman, and Lang Lang to perform in his concerts that blended the music of the East and the West.

Ye Xiaogang

Ye Xiaogang (b. 1955) is a Chinese Composer who currently serves as Professor of Composition and the vice president of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China.

Biography/Life

Ye Xiaogang was born in Shanghai. He studied piano with his father at the age of four. After he graduated from middle school, he was required to work in a factory as a laborer during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. In 1978, he enrolled as a student in the composition department of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. During his study in CCOM, he had an opportunity to study with the famous British composer Alexander Goehr at the University of Cambridge in 1980. Afterward, he held his debut concert in 1981, and his composition Poem of China won the first prize of the Tcherepnin Composers' Competition in the U.S. in 1982. While the reform and opening-up policy was booming across every field in mainland China, he became the first Chinese representative to delegate the Asian Composers’ League Conference and Festival in Australia during 1984. In 1987, he was admitted to the Eastman School of Music, where he studied composition with Samuel Adler, Joseph Schwantner, and Louis Andriessen. Afterwards, he started to accept a variety of commissions and participated in a number of well-known music festivals around the world such as Beijing Modern Music Festival. ^[5]

Style

Xian Xinghai and Ding Shande are two composers who have influenced Xiaogang’s compositional style. ^[6] Both composers, like Xiaogang would, affected the progress of contemporary Chinese music history. His compositions are based on Chinese traditional melody blended with modern western music styles and techniques. He wishes to express the spirits of Chinese nationality by using folk songs.

Influence

His works are frequently performed by many Chinese symphonies. As a composer-in-residence of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, he promotes traditional Chinese music in a modern orchestra. His successful experiences encourage young Chinese composers to unveil the Chinese national character in their compositions.

Guo Wenjing

Guo Wenjing, born in 1956 in Sichuan Province, currently serves as the Director of composition department in the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

Qu Xiaosong

Qu Xiaosong, born in 1952, is a Chinese composer who used to live at New York city as a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).

References