Fighting the Typhoon

Introduction

Wang Changyuan's 1965 guzheng solo depicting Shanghai dockworkers battling a typhoon

Fighting the Typhoon is a guzheng solo by the guzheng performer and composer Wang Changyuan. She wrote it in 1965, while still a student at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, after living for three months among the dockworkers of Shanghai harbour and seeing them battle a typhoon. One account says the piece was first titled Emergency Rescue and renamed later. The music depicts the workers hurrying to move cargo through the storm and their joy once the typhoon has passed. Sweeping tremolos, glissandi and unpitched sounds played to the left of the bridges imitate the wind and widened the range of guzheng technique. The 1976 film Bai Hua Zheng Yan includes a performance of the piece by the composer.

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