Zhou Wenzhong (1June 29th-20th, 9231June 25th, September) is a Chinese American composer. My ancestral home is Changzhou, Jiangsu, and I was born in Yantai, Shandong. 65438-0946, graduated from Guangxi University, and studied composition at the New England Conservatory of Music in the United States. 1949 entered Columbia university to study musicology and composition, 1954 obtained a master's degree in music, and 1958 became an American citizen.

Mr. Zhou Wenzhong is a world-famous composer, a lifelong academician of the American Academy of Literature and Arts, vice president of the Academy of Art of Columbia University, and director of the doctoral research institute of composition. His main works are: Landscape, Flowers and the Moon, I wonder how many flowers bloom and fall, Thinking of Fan, Walking Grass, Fishing Song, Change, Floating Clouds and so on.

On the night of 20 19125, Beijing time, Mr. Zhou Wenzhong died at his home in the United States at the age of 96.

Chinese name: Zhou Wenzhong.

Nationality: USA

Place of birth: Yantai, Shandong Province

Date of birth:1June 29, 923

Date of death: 2065438+2009125 October.

Occupation: composer

Graduate school: Columbia University

Representative works: Orchestral music "Flower Moon is Spring Breeze", piano music "Three Layers of Yangguan", etc. I don't know how many flowers have been broken.

The life of the character

On June 29th, 1923, Zhou Wenzhong was born in Yantai, China and grew up in Shanghai. He is a close disciple of Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varè se, a famous French-American composer and a representative of electronic music in the 20th century. Received a scholarship to study architecture at Yale University in the United States. But because I loved music since I was a child, I gave up my scholarship one week after I arrived at Yale and transferred to the New England Conservatory of Music to study composition.

1949 moved to new york, met Varis, a composer of the 20th century, began to study composition with him, and later became a close friend of Varis. After Varis's death, Zhou Wenzhong took on the responsibility of managing his musical legacy, including editing and proofreading Varis's works, and finishing his unfinished works.

Since 1950s, Zhou Wenzhong has devoted himself to education, including more than 30 years in Columbia University, serving as the vice president of the Art College and the director of the doctoral research institute of composition.

From 65438 to 0954, Zhou Wenzhong published the orchestral work "I don't know how many flowers have been broken", which shocked the music world and won many awards, including the Rockefeller Literature and Art Award, the creation commissioned by the Kusevitz Music Foundation, and the creation commissioned by the National Art Foundation of the United States.

From 65438 to 0964, Zhou Wenzhong taught in the Composition Department of Columbia University. His students include Weng Zhiren, Zhou Long, Rola Chen, Sheng Zongliang and Tan Dun, all of whom are world-famous composers.

From 65438 to 0978, Zhou Wenzhong founded the Sino-American Art Center, which made great contributions to Sino-American cultural exchanges.

From 1984 to 199 1, Zhou Wenzhong was the first director of Fritz Reiner Modern Music Center at Columbia University and a visiting professor at Nankai University.

In 2007, Xinghai Conservatory of Music hired Zhou Wenzhong as honorary professor.

20 18 1 10, Xinghai Conservatory of Music held the "Opening Ceremony of Zhou Wenzhong Music Research Center and Zhou Wenzhong International Music Academic Seminar".

20 19 10 (Beijing time)1On the night of October 25th, Mr. Zhou Wenzhong, a composer, educator and cultural messenger, died at his home in the United States at the age of 9 6.

Main work

Zhou Wenzhong was the first China composer recognized by the west. His works such as Scenery (1949), How many flowers are broken (1954) and Gu Ying (1989) are regarded as masterpieces independent of eastern and western music.

His works include orchestral flowers on the moon, The Two Wonders of the Tang Dynasty, Landscape Paintings, Fishing Songs, Hanging Fish, I wonder how many flowers are broken, etc., piano music "Three Layers of Yangguan", trumpet, brass and percussion ensemble "Nun Monologue" and oratorio "Thinking of Fan".

Characteristics of works

Since the 1940s, Zhou Wenzhong has been committed to the integration of eastern and western music, which has opened up a unique road that will have a key impact on the future world music. His works not only embody the artistic conception and connotation of China's poems, paintings and traditional philosophy, but also integrate the essence of eastern and western music theories and techniques.

Mr. Zhou Wenzhong combined modern western music with China classical literature and art (poetry, songs and calligraphy), with profound connotation and artistic conception and strong oriental sentiment.

famous

1963 won the National Federation of Literary and Art Circles Award. ..

1965, he won the Kaushalai Foundation Award.

1982 was elected as a lifelong academician of the American Academy of Literature and Arts.

1985 Together with the famous physicist Wu Jianxiong, he was awarded the Qingyun Award by the China-America Association.

In September 2004, Zhou Wenzhong was awarded the title of honorary professor by the Central Conservatory of Music.

Zhou Wenzhong, a Chinese-American composer, Zhao Wuji, a French-Chinese painter, and I.M. Pei, a Chinese-American architect, are known as the "three treasures of art" of overseas Chinese.

Personality assessment

Zhou Wenzhong is also a cultural emissary. For decades, he spared no effort to promote international artistic exchanges and made outstanding contributions to Sino-American cultural exchanges. Under his recommendation, the whole guqin song "Running Water" followed the American Voyager spacecraft and flew into space, becoming one of the earliest music cultures spread to space by human beings.

Zhou Wenzhong organized a tour of American violinist isaac stern in China and brought arthur miller's play Death of a Salesman to China, which promoted cultural and artistic exchanges between China and the United States. He persisted in promoting China Art Education Plan 15 years, which greatly promoted the protection and development of Yunnan traditional culture and environment, and the achievements of many projects benefited the cultural China.

Anecdotes of characters

Get used to talking standing up.

"I used to stand and talk all my life."

Regarding becoming a visiting professor at Nankai University, his student, Ph.D. student at Columbia University and Dr. Researcher at Boston Museum said: "Mr. Wang has never accepted the invitation of visiting professors from other schools, and Nankai is the only one. In Mr. Wang's mind, Nankai University is one of the best universities in the world. "

Zhou Wenzhong's acceptance speech was only a short sentence: "It's an honor to come to Nankai". After that, his topic immediately turned to the upcoming lecture: "I am very excited to discuss the mission of China culture with you. China culture is now facing a very important turning point. "

In this lecture, the 84-year-old man has been standing on the stage and refused the invitation of the host. He said, "I've been used to standing all my life!" " "The voice is powerful and the style is highly respected by all the audience under the stage.

This is a "belated lecture". In June this year, Executive Vice President Chen Hong invited Zhou Wenzhong to give a speech in Nankai. Zhou Wenzhong readily accepted, but he was delayed by an urgent matter.

In his speech, Zhou Wenzhong didn't mention this "missed fate". He directly cut into the theme: "The importance of China culture makes us need to consider the direction of artistic creation."

The first task is to find out the cultural differences between East and West.

Zhou Wenzhong believes that cultural and artistic creation comes from human emotion, which is a response to natural phenomena. "To understand the relationship between eastern and western cultures, we must first understand how we react to nature emotionally, and then think about how the two sides influence each other."

Zhou Wenzhong emphasized more than once: "Every culture has different responses to nature, because the process of cultural evolution is different. Only by understanding the differences can we learn from each other; If you can't see the difference clearly, you can't learn from each other and contribute to the development of both sides. "

"If you ask a question: What is a line? Orientals and westerners have different answers. Westerners and orientals who have been influenced by western science or received new education will immediately think of a geometric line, and almost all orientals, including Japanese and Koreans, will respond to a rough and orderly artistic line. " Zhou Wenzhong explained the common cultural differences with vivid examples.

Zhou Wenzhong said that the active history of eastern and western cultures is very long, and many changes have taken place over thousands of years. If the two sides can understand each other, and the' geometric line' and' artistic line' can know each other, then both cultures will have great development. The old man is full of expectations for the future.

Rooted in culture

"Valuable works are rooted in culture"

In the lecture, Zhou Wenzhong inserted an excerpt from his orchestral "Dan Tao" and presented the word "Dan Tao" written by himself to the audience.

Zhou Wenzhong said that the "inspiration" of Dan Tao came from the period of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. When I saw the rolling peaks and heard the mixed sounds in the air, I was deeply touched. At that time, I decided to write a work about this "living voice" in the future. The creation of Dan Tao was influenced by China's calligraphy, which publicized the composer's personal feelings everywhere.

"I am not a calligrapher, but I am used to writing titles for my works," Zhou Wenzhong said with a smile. He likes to combine calligraphy, painting, even poetry, philosophy and music, and thinks that "the structure, rhythm, style and rhythm in these arts are flying everywhere, which contains musical language and is the basic language that China composers should learn and master". He said, "Calligraphy is music without sound".

Zhou Wenzhong pointed out, "China culture has a very important content, that is, the Book of Changes." The theory of the Book of Changes is very meaningful, and I use it in music. " Zhou Wenzhong believes that musical skills are closely related to the core idea of "change" in the Eight Diagrams of the Book of Changes. He put forward that "Gan Kun" in the gossip is the eternal "parental tune", and the other six hexagrams are the main body of change, in which ideas are spread.

"Music without culture is necessarily superficial", which is what Zhou Wenzhong often said to his disciples. He hopes that a new generation of musicians will understand that cultural skills are the basic driving force for creating spiritual and artistic inspiration. The deeper the cultivation of cultural skills, the higher the realm of creation, and the greater the scope of dialogue and recognition.

inherit culture

"Our future has become the past."

Zhou Wenzhong solemnly said to the young students in the audience: "Your generation should start to face a problem very seriously, that is, inherit their own culture."

He talked about a very simple phenomenon: what is the first thing that comes to mind when you get lost while driving out? Is to go back in time. "Our future is not the future. Our future has become the past. Without the past, we can't move forward. It is not enough to have an ideal future. "

Zhou Wenzhong's ideal is to look forward to the re-integration of eastern and western musical concepts, even the blending and coexistence of global cultures and equal dialogue. To do this, Zhou Wenzhong said, "It is not just to study in the university, not just to understand the problems I just talked about, but to do further research and further field research."

"Field investigation is not a trip, nor is it just a study of a project, but an in-depth study of other people's cultures or an understanding of their own cultural foundation. It is not an investigation, but a very in-depth investigation." Speaking of this, Zhou Wenzhong said earnestly: "I have said so much just to let you see this clearly. I believe your achievements will be great. This is your mission and my expectation for you. "