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Alan Charlton is a
freelance composer
and has written
numerous lesson
resources for Music
Teacher, including
material on the IB
set work El Salón
México.
Xian Xinghai Yellow River Piano Concerto
by Alan Charlton
Introduction
Xian Xinghai’s Yellow River Piano Concerto is one of the two prescribed set works for IB HL and SL for examination in 2013–14, the other being Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony. As the Yellow River Piano Concerto is a
new set work – and quite unusual in style and structure – this resource builds on Music Teacher’s April 2012
resource, offering more detailed analysis of the work.
Knowledge and understanding of the set works is tested in Section A of paper 1 (the listening paper). In this
section, three questions are set, from which students have to answer question 3, comparing the two set works,
and then choose from either question 1 or 2, which are on the respective individual works. Students have clean
scores of the set works with them in the examination. Each question carries 20 marks, so the set works account
for 40 out of 140 total marks for the paper at higher level and 40 out of 120 marks for standard level.
IB set works tend to be selected to highlight links between different musical traditions and Xian’s Yellow River
Piano Concerto, with its strong Chinese and European influences and inseparable relationship to Chinese
political and social concerns, is no exception. This resource will therefore approach the work from this angle,
with the musical elements being explained in this context.
Background
China in the Twentieth Century
As with its neighbour Russia, China experienced great political and social upheaval in the twentieth century
that encompassed war, revolution, famine and political repression. Since the 17th century, China had been
ruled by the Qing dynasty, whose vast empire included Tibet, Mongolia and Turkestan. Its power had gradually waned, with Western powers gaining considerable influence over trade in the nineteenth century. Further
weakened by the Boxer Rebellion of 1899-1901, China became a republic in 1911-12 with the abdication of
the last emperor.
This gave rise to a period of instability during which rival groups sought to wrestle power from Sun Yat-sen’s
leadership, with the Communist Party in particular becoming a growing threat.
In 1925, Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist party, the Kuomintang, gained control, initiating a civil war with the communists. Then in 1931, Japan invaded, starting a gradual occupation that lasted until the end of the Second
World War. During this period, Mao Zedong became the Communist leader (1934), establishing a base in
Shaanxi Province, before temporarily uniting with the Kuomintang against the Japanese in 1937.
After Japan’s defeat at the end of the Second World War, (1945), the civil war between the Nationalists and
Communists resumed, with Mao declaring victory in 1949, founding the People’s Republic of China. As Stalin
had in Russia, he established an authoritarian regime and set about forcibly redistributing land from landlords
to people’s communes, and developing huge infrastructure projects. The first such economic drive (the “Great
Leap Forward”) in 1958 had to be abandoned after it resulted in famine and millions of deaths. Political isolation, followed with growing threats from both Russia and the West. Concerned that China was increasingly
becoming ruled by an intellectual elite, Mao launched the Cultural Revolution of 1966, in which intellectuals
were moved out of the cities into the countryside to be ‘re-educated’ by the peasants, or in other words forced
to carry out hard manual labour. This period saw the closure of schools amid a climate of fear presided over
by the violent groups of young men known as Red Guards. The worst period of violence ended in 1969, but
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the Cultural Revolution lasted until Mao’s death in 1976. After this, Deng Xiaoping assumed control, bringing
with it a less repressive climate and opening the country up to the outside world. Although human rights continued to be a considerable issue, the Tiannamen Square massacre of 1989 caused worldwide outrage. Since
then, China has continued to become more open, prosperous and Westernised and is now one of the leading
economies and superpowers in the world.
Why is the above history lesson important? Because the Yellow River Piano Concerto is inseparably linked to
political events in China, in an even more extreme way than Shostakovich’s works were affected by Stalinist
Russia.
Unlike most western classical works, it was composed by no fewer than five people over a period of over 32
years. The original version (Yellow River Cantata) was completed by Xian Xinghai in 1939, when China was at
war with Japan and still divided by civil war between the Communists and Nationalists. This music was then
reworked into the Yellow River Piano Concerto (the IB set work) by four musicians in 1971 during the Cultural
Revolution, when Western culture was considered dangerous and subservience to Chairman Mao and his
entourage was paramount. The influences of these two different periods can be seen very clearly in the music,
so a knowledge of them is essential to it.
Music and politics in 20th century China
The political upheaval affected the performance and creation of music in a profound way. Two main strands of
music were involved, which went in and out of favour according to the politics of the time.
Populist music: mass songs, e.g. political songs, workers’ songs
Cosmopolitan music: Western classical music, e.g. Beethoven, Chopin
Chinese musicians were torn between the last two of these, not least because the Communist Party frequently
changed its stance on the type of music it wanted to promote. At the time of the composition of the Yellow
River Cantata (1939), the Communists tolerated cosmopolitan musicians; musicians who were influenced by
Western music and who sought to emulate Western compositional techniques into their own music. However,
they also wanted to use music as a means of educating the masses in Communist ideals and ultimately to attract their support. In order for this to happen, it had to be popular. Xian Xinghai, composer of the Yellow River
Cantata was widely regarded as the Chinese composer who most successfully combined these two strands.
When the Communists came to power in 1949, the role of music changed from being a revolutionary force to
a means of maintaining order and establishing loyalty towards the regime. The party wanted to create a new
type of music to mark the beginning of a new era and help to define China as a great nation; traditional music
had two many associations with China’s past to be used.
Initially, it was thought that the answer lay in combining political music (Communist songs, marches and so on)
with a Western classical music-influence technique (i.e. western-style harmonisation, instrumentation, forms,
etc.). Cosmopolitan musicians, who had perhaps been musically educated in Europe, were best placed to
write this sort of music as they were the most skilled. Additionally in the 1950s, cosmopolitan Chinese musicians such as the pianist Fou T’song received great acclaim outside of China for their performances, and were
thus valued by the regime, since they enhanced its influence and prestige. At the time, China had close ties
with its communist neighbour Russia, so its artistic influence extended to Eastern Block countries such as
Poland, where Fou T’song won third prize in the Chopin Competition.
However, China fell out with Russia, and this, coupled with Mao Zedong’s movements of Great Leap Forward
and the Cultural Revolution, led to an anti-cosmopolitan climate and the repression of intellectuals, who included musicians. During the Cultural Revolution, the heads of China’s musical conservatoires were persecuted by
the Red Guards, with for instance the Shanghai Conservatoire president He Luting, known for his championing
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of European music and criticism of mass song, having his home ransacked and being publicly beaten by Red
Guards. Traditional Chinese music was also attacked.
This led to a musical problem: as European music was effectively banned, many Chinese musicians were out
of work, having nothing to play. There was thus a need to create new works that could be performed but which
also conformed to the ideals of the regime: for a while the only works that had official approval were ‘model
operas’ combining Beijing opera singing and western instruments, such as Yin Chengzong’s ‘The Red Lantern’. It was to provide additional party-approved music that the Yellow River Piano Concerto came into being.
The genesis of Yellow River Piano
Concerto
Xian Xinghai (1905 –1945)
Xian Xinghai composed the original incarnation of the work, called Yellow River Cantata. This was a choral
work in eight movements composed from 1938–9 during the war with Japan while Xinghai was based at the
Communist headquarters in Yan’an.
Xian had humble origins, being born into a family of boat people. After being introduced to western music
and taking up the clarinet and violin during his time at a school attached to Lignan University, he went on to
study at various Chinese music conservatoires, including Canton, Beijing and Shanghai. In 1930 he travelled
to Paris, where he studied with the French composers Paul Dukas (Composer of ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’)
and Vincent D’Indy. Living in extreme poverty, he nevertheless encountered the impressionistic musical style of
Debussy and others, which must have influenced his approach to orchestration and harmonisation. Returning
to China in 1935, where he became involved in the Communist-backed ‘National Salvation Song Movement’,
whose purpose was to create mass songs with political messages, designed to politicise the workers and thus
gather support and influence for the Communists. Having composed over 400 of these songs, with titles such
as “Battle Song of Resistance against Japan”, in 1938 Xian was appointed head of the Lu Xun Arts Academy at
Yan’an, the Communist party headquarters. While here, he composed four cantatas, two operas and a further
600 mass songs. In 1940, Xian left for Russia to work on music for documentaries, but was unable to return to
his homeland and died of pneumonia in 1945.
Yellow River Cantata
Xian’s best known work (Chinese title ‘Huanghe’) was written to aid the war effort during the Sino-Japanese
War. The Yellow River of the title is known as ‘Huang He’ and is used by Xian in the work to symbolise the spirit
of the Chinese people, whose first civilisations were established on its banks. The eight movements, based
on texts by Guang Weiran, are each introduced by a narrator and explore different aspects of the river. (The
following summaries are based on the translations in Shan Bai, The Historical Development and a structural
analysis of the Yellow River Piano Concerto, University of Pretoria, 2006).
1. Song of the Yellow River Boatmen
Describes the perils of crossing of the Yellow River, incorporating a work-chant and with rapid scales and
flourishes depicting the turbulence of the water
2. Ode to the Yellow River (baritone solo)
Pays homage to the greatness of the Yellow River, nurturing and moulding the Chinese people into a
large and powerful civilisation
3. Ballad of the Yellow River
Describes how the river has been harnessed to make the land more fertile and how an enemy invasion
has disrupted this and created devastation
4. Dialogue Song by the Riverside
Personal accounts of exiles who have been displaced by the war (based on a Shanxi folksong)
5. Lament of the Yellow River
Expresses the suffering of Chinese woman at the hands of the Japanese during the war
6. Defend the Yellow River
A call to the Chinese to rise up against the Japanese
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7. Shout Aloud, Yellow River
A further call to arms, exhorting the river to draw on its own natural power
Xian’s original version of the work was composed for the scant forces he had available to him in Yan’an. In
addition to the narrator, choir and solo singers, his instrumentalists included a guitar, the Chinese instruments
of the erhu (2 stringed violin), a dizi (bamboo flute), drums, bugles, a bass string instrument made out of an
oil drum and a new percussion instrument filled with spoons. When in Russia, Xian reorchestrated the work for
large orchestra, also renotating it in western 5-line staves (the original used a different form of notation used
by local musicians). The work is considered to be one of the most successful fusions of Chinese music with
Western harmonic, structural and instrumental practices.
An important point to note was that Mao Zedong and his wife Jiang Qing attended the first performance in
Yan’an, on April 13, 1939, before Xian left for Russia. Mao was so impressed that he gave the composer a
present of a pen and ink and Xian was subsequently admitted to the Communist Party.
Students need not study the Yellow River Cantata in detail. However, an awareness of the nature of the work
and the circumstances of its composition are important, particularly the following points:
it has a strong programmatic element (an ability to summarise the story is desirable here)
it uses populist material based on folksongs and mass songs, which was important if it were to serve its
purpose
the propaganda element in the work is very prominent, especially the call to arms to resist the Japanese
much of the melodic material is vocal and intended to be sung by untrained singers, so is both lyrical and
simple
the orchestration of the version scored for western orchestra is significantly different to the piano concerto
version. There is much use of percussion instruments, the textures are fuller and more complex, with a
greater use of colour, showing the influence of French impressionist music. This complexity is passed to the
solo piano in the piano concerto version
Background to the composition of Yellow River Piano Concerto
Xian became something of a cult figure in China after his death, although his major works were little performed.
The populist and the cosmopolitan sides to his music were both used as musical role models by both the left
and the intelligentsia as the balance shifted between these two forces at different times. He was seen as representing the authentic modern Chinese musical voice, with a populist appeal rooted in Chinese folk music and
work songs married to European sophistication and technique. With the banning of foreign culture during the
Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), the revolutionary associations of Xian’s music presented a way for performers
to bypass the censorship of Mao’s regime.
Jiang Qing (Mao’s wife) had been influential in defining new guidelines for the type of music supported under
the ideals of the Cultural Revolution. She wanted peasants and workers to be at the forefront of operatic and
concert performances, rather than stories about dead emperors and performances of foreign works. She was
central in the creation of the ‘Shajiabang Symphony’ for the Central Philharmonic (a Beijing-based orchestra
and collective of musicians founded in 1956), a 1965 work based on a recent populist opera celebrating the
Communist heroism during the war with Japan. Although pianos were frequently destroyed by the Red Guards
during the early years of the Cultural Revolution and virtuoso pianists were imprisoned, forbidden to play or, in
Yin Chengzong’s case, sent to the countryside for re-education, Jiang Qing liked the instrument, having had
lessons in her youth.
Yin Chengzong (born 1941) had enjoyed considerable success as a piano virtuoso prior to the Cultural Revolution, studying in Russia and winning second prize in the 1962 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition and, having
been sent to the countryside, attempted to rehabilitate the piano in China. In 1967, he and other members
of the Central Philharmonic performed piano music from the back of a truck in Tianenmen Square and made
piano arrangements of a ‘model opera’, ‘The Red Lantern’ (‘The Red Lantern with Piano Accompaniment’)
which he sent to Jiang Qing. He was successful in persuading the leaders of the Cultural Revolution that the
piano was an acceptable instrument for communicating their ideals and by 1969 had become something of
a celebrity.
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Jiang Qing suggested that the Yellow River Cantata be reworked into a piano concerto and in 1969, oversaw
the formation of a team of musicians to compose this new version of the work. In addition to Yin Chengzong,
this team included three to five other members of the Central Philharmonic:
Liu Zhuang (b.1932), a pianist and composer who studied in Russia and taught at the Shanghai Conservatory
Chu Wanghua (b.1941), a pianist and composer and lecturer at the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing
Sheng Lihong (nothing known)
(perhaps also Shi Shucheng? (pianist and conductor)and Xu Fei-Sheng)?
In preparation for the work, the musicians went on retreat to the caves of a former revolutionary base next to the
banks of the Yellow River. Here, voluntarily emulating the Cultural Revolution’s preoccupation with reeducating
intellectuals, they interviewed peasants who had survived the war with Japan, listened to bamboo flute music
from the Shaanxi region, studied communist literature and helped boatmen with their work.
Completed in 1970, the finished work condenses the Yellow River Cantata’s eight movements into four, includThe East is Red
was composed in
1942 by Li Youyuan
(1903–55) and was
performed frequently at Yan’an. Based
on a North Shaanxi
folk melody, it fell
into disuse after the
Revolution, but was
resurrected for the
Cultural Revolution,
its text glorifying Mao Zedong,
being ideal for this
purpose.
5
ing a piano part greatly influenced by composers in Yin Chengzong’s repertoire, notably Rachmaninoff, Chopin and Liszt. In deference to Mao’s regime, the fourth movement culminates in a climactic statement of ‘The
East is Red’, the anthem of the Cultural Revolution.
The concerto was immediately successful and, because so few pieces were allowed to be performed, it, together with The Red Lantern with Piano Accompaniment and the Shajiabang Symphony, was a more or less
permanent feature of the Central Philharmonic’s programmes over the next two-three years, being played
about eight times a month. After Mao’s death and the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, Yin Chengzong
quickly fell out of favour, eventually emigrating to the USA in 1983. The concerto also disappeared for a while
from the Chinese repertoire, although it has since been resurrected. It has become well known in the west, the
first performance there dating from 1973, and its populist appeal, together with its promotion by soloists such
as Lang Lang and Daniel Epstein as well as the championship of Yin Chengzong himself, have ensured that it
has been widely performed and recorded.
Music Teacher June 2012
Musical features of Yellow River Piano
Concerto
Form
In order to have the work cleared for performance, the composers of Yellow River Piano Concerto were careful
not to use forms that resembled too closely those of Western classical music. Therefore, although there are
similarities to classical forms, the structures are looser than might be found in classical concertos. The Yellow
River Piano Concerto also has four rather than the traditional three movements.
1st Movement
bar nos.
section
material used
Tempo
key
1–16
A
a (flourish) (1–5); b (mordents) (6–11); a (12–
15); pno cadenza (16)
fast ( = 168)
D maj
17–24
B
c (call and response)
slow ( = 66)
D maj
25–38
A1
a (24–28); b (29–38)
fast ( = 152)
D maj
39–50
B1
c; b (47–50)
moderate ( = 84)
D maj
51–74
C
d (8 bar phrase), repeated 59–66; b (67–74)
fast ( = 144)
B min – C maj
75–83
A2
a (75–80); pno cadenza (81–83)
fast ( = 152)
modulates
84–92
B2
e (lyrical melody derived from c)
slow (  = 52)
D maj
93–103
D
material similar to c
fast (  = 144)
D maj
104
A3
b (104–109); a (110–113)
fast (  = 144)
D maj
Notes:
loose rondo form structure, section A being the rondo theme
very little modulation – almost all in D major apart from bars 51–83
economical use of melodic material
sectional juxtaposition of cells of material, esp.
call and response: based on a Chinese folk singing style known as duikou chang
sectional, block-like form: note the use of different tempi to accentuate the section starts
piano scales represent waves: struggle of boatmen crossing the river?
based on first movement of Yellow River Cantata
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2nd Movement
bar nos.
section
material used
Tempo
key
1–35
A
a (melody) (1–16); a repeated in piano in a
varied form (17–35)
Adagio (  = 52)
Bb maj
36–49
B
b (new melody, derived from a), with faster
L.H. acc.
piu mosso
Bb maj
50–54
C
c (4/4 melody), with thick piano octaves/
chords
(allargando)
Bb maj
55–59
D
d (4/4 melody), piano triplets
piu mosso
G min
60–66
E
e (melody accompanied by piano block
chords); quote from March of the Volunteers
(61–64, hn 1)
 = 69
Bb maj
67–73
Coda
f (pentatonic descending figure)
 = 88
Bb maj
Notes
March of the Volunteers was composed
in Yan’an by Nie
Er, a revolutionary.
It was originally an
anti-Japanese song
but became China’s
national anthem
after the revolution.
During the Cultural
Revolution, it was
replaced by The
East is Red.
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The opening of March of the Volunteers is used twice by horn 1/trumpet 1 in bars 61–4.
mostly in B  major
rhapsodic style: a freely developing melody, with new material being introduced as the movement progresses
apart from the restatement of the opening 16 bar melody, only tiny snatches of material are subsequently
repeated
the phrase structure is unusual, with changes between 3/4 and 4/4 and, apart from bars 1–9 and 17–25, little
use of conventional question-answer phrases
the orchestra mostly accompanies the piano, which plays figuration based on the underlying harmony
there are textures for orchestra alone: bars 1–15 and 67–73; and for piano solo: bars 17–23 and 27–30
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3rd Movement
bar nos.
section
material used
Tempo
key
(1)
Intro
a (bamboo flute solo - pentatonic); piano solo
(based on 4 notes);
free
Eb maj
2–53
A
b (pentatonic folk melody: pno solo, 2–31);
repeat of 2nd half of b with pno figuration
(orch, 32–47);
codetta (orch, 48–53)
moderate (  = 80)
Eb maj
54–72
B
c (4/4 9-bar melody (54–63)), repeated by
pno in style of pipa (64–72)
slow (  = 44)
C min –- Eb maj
73–81
bridge
d (2 bar melody developed sequentially)
moderate (  = 96)
Eb maj – modulates
82–88
C
e (new 3/4 melody on piano)
agitato
B maj
89–105
D
f (new melody on orch, then developed in
solo piano passage in 92–105)
agitato
Db maj
106–134
E
g (new 3/4 melody on piano, with L.H. triplet
then sq (119) figuration, then quaver triplet
chords (128–134))
agitato
Bb min – Db maj –
Bb min
135–156
A
b on orch, with piano figuration; coda from
149-end
 = 76
Eb maj
Notes
basically in ternary form (ABA): the B section has many themes
the reason it contains many themes is because it was constructed from three separate movements from the
Yellow River Cantata
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8
4th Movement
9
bar nos.
section
material used
Tempo
key
1–8
Intro 1
The East is Red (4–7); pno cadenza (8)
Allegro (  = 138)
C maj
9–18
Intro 2
x (15–18)
Presto (  = 176)
A maj
19–39
A
a (theme)
Animoso
A maj
40–49
bridge1
b1
A maj
50–71
A1
a: variation 1 (repeated quavers in orch,
crotchet bass line in pno l.h.)
A maj
72–93
A2
a: variation 2 (running bass in octaves in
pno)
A maj
94–115
A3
a: variation 3 (imitation at one bar’s distance)
A maj
116–132
bridge 2
x (125–132)
A maj
133–153
A4
a: variation 4 (imitation, accented chords on
crotchet beats)
D maj
154–163
bridge 1
b1
D maj
164–180
bridge 2
b2; x (171–180)
D maj
181–196
A5
a: variation 5 (augmentation, chromatic
scales from mvt 1 flourish)
Bb maj
197–216
A6
a: variation 6 (sq figuration in piano, dactyllic
rhythm in strings)
C maj
217–237
A7
a: variation 7 (theme in dotted notes,
semiquavers in violins)
F maj
238–270
bridge 3
b3 (based on material used in bridge 1);
piano solo (263–270)
F maj then
modulates
271–302
A8
a: variation 8 (piano triplets): a is developed
to provide a link to the next section
Bb maj then
modulates
303–326
coda part 1
The East is Red (303–326); piano repeated
chords and scales in quaver triplets (303–
319) and leaping chords (320–326)
molto meno mosso
D maj
(  = 56)
327–366
coda part
2: A9
a in imitation; a combined with The East is
Red (345–360); final statement of The East
is Red (361–366), combined with quote from
The Internationale (hn 1, b.361)
presto
D maj
367–381
coda part 3
section to close the work, with piano triplet
figuration.
presto (  = 84)
D maj
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Notes
theme and variation form
the introduction anticipates the climactic appearance of The East is Red
there are nine variations on the theme
two bridge passages link the variations in certain places: these contain antiphonal ideas, recalling Chinese
call and response choral singing
The quotations from The East is Red and of the final phrase of the Internationale, the international anthem
of socialism, were included at the request of Jiang Qing: these were essential for the work to be approved
for performance by the censors
The climactic appearance of The East is Red in the final movement has the effect of transforming the
concerto into a glorification of Mao Zedong; its lyrics compare Mao to the sun. The quotations have been
retained after the end of the Cultural Revolution despite proposals by some musicians to remove them.
Programmatic aspects of Yellow River Piano Concerto
The Yellow River Piano Concerto can be placed into a tradition of programmatic works stretching back to the
early 19th century. Specifically, there are many examples of programmatic music about war, revolution and
rivers such as those in the list below:
Beethoven’s Battle Symphony (1813): an early programmatic work, with musical depictions of the
English defeat of Napoleon’s army at the Battle of Victoria in 1812. It includes the Rule Britannia, ‘God
Save the King and Malbrouck’s s’en va-t-en guerre
Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture (1880): an account of the Russian victory over the French: includes
quotations of the French and Russian national anthems, and cannon effects
Shostakovich Symphony no.7 in C major (‘Leningrad’ )(1941): musical depiction of the siege of the
Russian city of Leningrad by the Germans during the Second World War. Composed at the height of
the siege, it has strong parallels with the circumstances surrounding the composition of the Yellow
River Cantata in 1939
Smetana Ma Vlast (1874–9): meaning “my homeland”. This is a set of six tone poems based on landmarks
from Smetana’s Bohemia. The second of these, Vltava, is the musical depiction of the River Moldau,
using similar depictions of flowing water to those in Xian’s work.
As well as in communist China, programmatic works, particularly cantatas, were encouraged in the 1920s and
30s in another communist regime, Russia, where they were seen as an effective medium for communicating
political propaganda to the masses. As Yellow River Piano Concerto was itself reworked from a programmatic
cantata, it has inherited the programmatic features of that music. Its movement titles describe what the music
is intended to evoke. Additionally, in the original score, there are Chinese inscriptions above certain passages
of music (such as “War horses are galloping, valiant fighters engage the enemy” above bar 181 of movement
4), omitted in the Eulenberg score, which describe what images the music is meant to be evoking.
Examples of programmatic elements in Yellow River Piano Concerto include:
I, scales of opening section: used to represent waves
I, call and response ideas: represent workers by imitating a form of mass song
II, Quote from March of the Volunteers: perhaps used to recall the resistance against Japan, or to recall
pre-Cultural Revolution glory
II, water boatman’s song: represents those who make their living from the river
III, use of bamboo flute and musical representations of the Chinese lute and Chinese zither: recall the folk instruments of China and therefore the ancient, traditional culture of the peasants living near the Yellow River
IV, main theme (b.19): military-sounding theme might represent the mobilisation of the Chinese forces to
defeat with Japan or a similar militaristic idea
IV, bar 181: galloping rhythm of quaver-two semiquavers to imitate galloping horses
IV, quotations of The East is Red and the Internationale: used to represent the triumph of Mao’s Communists
(see also under Communist influences below)
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Influences of Traditional Chinese Music
While Chinese folk music was suppressed during the Cultural Revolution, as it might have generated nostalgia
for the old empire, there are nonetheless many Chinese features, many of which have survived from the Yellow River Cantata, originally scored for Chinese instruments. Traditional Chinese features of the work include:
pentatonicism (most of the melodic material)
call and response musical ideas (from duikou chang, an antiphonal folk singing style) (e.g. I, bars 17–24)
metrical changes (e.g. 2/4 v 3/4) that probably come from the rhythm of the original words
use of Chinese bamboo flute in III (bar 1)
imitation of strumming of the guzheng (a Chinese zither) in III (piano cadenza in bar 1 and figuration in bars
2–39)
imitation of repeated notes of the yangqin (Chinese hammered dulcimer) in III, bars 64–72
use of traditional North Shaanxi folksong – the province in which Yan’an and the Yellow River are located
(The East is Red is based on a folksong from this region, ‘Riding a White Horse’)
use of other melodies that are new but similar to folksong
free, narrative form and free approach to melodic development
phrase structure is unusual in places (e.g. 3 bar phrases in III, bars 64–72)
as the cantata was originally written for choir and traditional Chinese instruments, the melodic and accompaniment material is generally simple and tends to avoid chromaticsm
Communist/Socialist Realist musical influences
The desire to placate the communist leadership is central to almost every aspect of the concerto: unlike in
Western music, there was almost no room for concerns such as personal expression. Some of the more obvious effects of the tough censorship of the leadership of the Cultural Revolution include:
quote from The East is Red – IV, bars 303–326: Mao’s anthem
quote from The Internationale (last phrase) – IV, bars 361–366, trumpet 1/trombone 1: worldwide socialist
anthem
quote of March of the Volunteers (opening phrase) – II, b.61–64, hn 1/tpt 1: this was the Chinese national
anthem prior to the Cultural Revolution, composed by Nie Er at Yan’an
inclusion of piano – favoured by Mao’s wife
theme of work – defeat of Japanese, text of original work presumably promoted Communism/socialism
idea of a programmatic nationalistic/political work follows models from Soviet Russia and China, for instance
Shostakovich’s Symphony no.7 in C major (Leningrad)
movement titles – help spread propaganda by stressing Chinese greatness and glorifying the war against
Japan
joint authorship: a collective of composers rather than a single composer was more in tune with communist
ideology, which placed the many over the individual
avoidance of Western traditional forms such as sonata form: the forms which are used (variation, ternary,
etc.) are obscured so as not to draw attention to their Western origins
Western influences
Although Western culture was banned during the Cultural Revolution, the model for Chinese music was a
combination of party-approved Chinese elements (i.e. mass song) with techniques and instruments from the
western classical tradition: in 1964 Jiang Qing had written of the superiority of western instruments over native
Chinese ones “National instruments still need many years of reform, why can the already developed Western
instruments not be used? We should use foreign things to serve China.” Furthermore, Xian had received a period of western musical training at the Paris Conservatoire, and Yin Chengzong’s writing for piano was heavily
influenced by Western works in his repertoire, by Rachmaninov, Liszt and Chopin.
Therefore, with the exception of melody, most of the musical features of the Yellow River Piano Concerto are
Western-influenced by nature, especially the harmonic writing, instrumentation and musical forms.
General features of the work are listed below: all those not previously mentioned as Chinese influences are in
all likelihood Western influences.
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Harmony
chromatic passing notes:
I, 75–81 – bass line desc.
II, b.43 – bass line
III, b.62
IV, b.209–212, 259–263 – bass line desc.
chromatic inflections:
II, b.37: G sharp – A in D minor chord
III, 56 – B natural against F min chord
augmented chords:
II, b.40, beat 3
added sixth chords
II, b.64; III, b.17
III, b.128 – added note chords
dominant seventh chords
III, b.22 – Eb 4th inversion
ninth chords
I, b.16, pno – Amaj 7 and b9
III, b.129
III, b.146, beat 2
major seventh: II, b.41
enharmonic moves
III 76–77: passes chromatically from chord of F minor 2nd inv to to B major
diminished seventh
III, b.100–101
4 note chords (quartal harmony) of Bb, C, Eb, F
III, opening up to fig 1
pentatonic modal harmony:
III, fig 1 – bar 10 use only notes Bb, C, Eb, F, G (pentatonic scale on Eb)
parallel fifths
III, b.13 beat 2 – 14 beat 1; III, b.40
Melody and melodic development
(these last two
features are associated with Chinese
music, but can also
be found in Western
composers such as
Ravel, Debussy and
Vaughan Williams)
pentatonic scales
most melodies are pentatonic, e.g. the opening melody of II.
hexatonic scales
IV, opening of piano cadenza – uses a hexatonic scale of CDEFGA
diatonic scales
IV, scale just before fig 1 is E major
chromatic scales
III, b.60, beat 3
III, b. 115, beat 3 and in following 3 bars
IV, b. 187 (reference to 1st mvt?)
imitation
at the unison, III, b.50–52
melodic sequence
I, bars 51–58 are repeated at a different pitch in bars 59–66
IV, bars 213–216
rhythmic augmentation
(IV – b.185–193, hn)
repetition of short cells
I, e.g. 71–74
truncation of cells
I, b.23 is reduced by a beat and used in 25
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Rhythm, metre and tempo
dotted rhythms
IV, bars 217–247
3/4 alternating with 2/4
IV, bars 164–171
dactyllic rhythms (quaver, 2 semiquavers) (influence of Shostakovich?)
IV, bar 181
syncopated rhythms
IV, b.205
groupings of 3+3+2 quavers
IV, bars 9–10, 13–14
triplets
IV, bars 254–258, 271–295
use of many different tempi in each movement (e.g. 1st movement)
use of dramatic accelerandi (I, bars 41 and 71)
Texture
almost entirely melody-dominated homophony
monophony
III, bar 54, beat 2
octaves
III, bar 82 beats 1–3; IV, most of the cadenza in bar 8
imitation
III, 48–53; IV, bar 94
antiphony
I, 17–24 and 39–46 (this texture is from a call-and-response Chinese singing style known as duikou
chang); IV, bars 238–242
Instrumentation
Generally the orchestral writing is functional and conventional, with the orchestra mostly playing an accompanying role when the piano is playing. There is some use of dialogue between different instrumental groups at
times (e.g. brass alternating with wind/strings in IV, 238–242). Apart from the bamboo flute, the orchestra used
is a standard symphony orchestra. The following techniques are used:
harp glissando (I, bar 1)
timpani roll (I, bar 1)
cymbal roll (I, bar 75)
con sord trumpets and trombones (with mutes) (III, b.55)
hand-stopped horns (III, bar 58)
pizzicato (cellos and basses, III, bar 64)
sul G on violins (III, bar 119)
divisi violins (III, bar 128)
trills (IV, flutes, b.259)
tremolo (IV, b.259, strings)
double strokes (IV, b.15–18)
The solo piano writing is almost entirely in a Western-influenced virtuoso style, the piano being a Western instrument. Strong influences are Rachmaninov, Liszt and Chopin. The only passages that could be thought to
display a Chinese style of piano writing are those imitating Chinese folk instruments in the third movement. The
concerto displays a wide range of virtuoso piano textures and techniques: one theory was that Yin Chengzong
was trying to keep virtuoso pianists in practice until the Cultural Revolution had ended. Techniques include:
rapid arpeggios in 6ths, I bar 16
different numbers of notes in each hand during rapid figuration (I bar 75)
rapid alternating octaves (I bar 81) and chords between the hands (I bar 83) see Rachmaninov Piano Concerto no.2, III, 10 bars before the end
florid inner parts (I bar 88) and exploitation of the high register
glissandi (I bar 92)
thick harmonies created by streams of chords (II bar 50)
frequent duplets v triplets (II bar 50)
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excessive ornamentation (III bars 2–15, etc.)
crossing of hands in rapid arpeggios, with L.H. playing top note (III bar 36)
martellato (“hammered”) (III bar 54)
rapid repetition of single notes (written as trem, III bars 64–72)
rapid figuration in 10ths (III bars 89–91)
trills and tremolos (III bar 95)
rapid contrary motion scales of chords (III bars 133–134)
line doubled in four octaves (IV bar 8) (see Liszt Piano Sonata in B minor bar 9)
ostinato bass line in octaves (IV bar19) (see Chopin, Polonaise in Ab major op.53, E major section
octaves in staccato quavers (IV bars 72–92) (similar to a passage in Shostakovich Piano Concerto no.2,
1st mvt
rapid repeated chords (IV bar 263)
repeated chords for added resonance (IV bar 303) (see Liszt Piano Sonata in B minor, first “Grandioso”
section)
Practice essay questions
The critic Harold Schonberg, writing in the New York Times described the Yellow River Piano Concerto as
“movie music. It is a rehash of Rachmaninov, Khachaturian, late romanticism, bastardised Chinese music and
Warner Brothers climaxes.” Drawing from examples from the score, evaluate to what extent his criticisms are
valid.
To what extent did Chinese 20th century history influence the composition of the Yellow River Piano Concerto?
Use examples drawn from the score to support your answer.
The Yellow River Piano Concerto can be thought of as a fusion of Chinese and European musical styles. Identify two musical elements derived from Chinese music (traditional or otherwise) and two features of European
music. Demonstrate and discuss how these elements contribute to create the work’s overall style.
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