Performers › Composers
He Fang
Composer and choral conductor from Tianchang, Anhui, who in 1957 reworked the Liuhe folk song Xianhua Diao he had collected into the now familiar Jasmine Flower.
In a palace music hall, a frame of tiered bronze chime bells hangs from dragon-carved beams, with one person standing with their back turned holding two mallets before it; a large red drum and a rack of red knotted cords stand to the left and a stone chime to the right, in evening light.
Also known as He Xiaoyuan
He Fang, born He Xiaoyuan in He Village, Tianchang County, Anhui, in February 1928, joined a performing troupe as a teenager and in those early years collected the folk song Xianhua Diao in Liuhe near Nanjing. He graduated from the music education course of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1951, later trained further in choral conducting, and spent his career with a song and dance ensemble as composer, choral conductor and artistic director. In 1957 he reworked Xianhua Diao, narrowing its three flowers to the jasmine alone and polishing the tune, into Jasmine Flower, which premiered that year and went on to be sung at home and abroad. He died on 21 September 2013.
Life and times
Dates 1928–2013