Performers › Composers
Xian Xinghai
Macau-born composer of Panyu, Guangdong descent, trained in Paris, who set Guang Weiran's poem as the cantata Yellow River in 1939.
Mural of the cultural record “Chinese Works for Western Instruments”, which this person is tied to.
Also known as Also known as Huang Xun · Also known as Kong Yu
- Roles
- Composers
Xian Xinghai, also known as Huang Xun and Kong Yu, came from a Panyu, Guangdong family and was born in Macau on 13 June 1905. He studied at the Lingnan University middle school and the Peking University music institute under Xiao Youmei, and in 1928 entered the National Music Academy in Shanghai. In 1929 he went to Paris to study composition with Vincent d'Indy, Paul Dukas and others, entering the Paris Conservatoire in 1934. Back in China from 1935, he devoted himself to composition. In March 1939 he set Guang Weiran's long poem in six days as the cantata Yellow River, premiered that April; he later added an overture and a full orchestral score. Other works include the orchestral suite Man Jiang Hong and the symphonic poem Amangeldy. He died of illness in Moscow on 30 October 1945, aged forty.
Life and times
Dates 1905–1945