Using Symphony to Show the Poetic and Pictorial Meaning of Chinese Culture, Gong Tianpeng's Three New Works premiere in July. Gong Tianpeng | China | New Works
In the rehearsal hall of the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, an original symphonic concert called "Poetry and Painting" is being intensively rehearsed. On the evening of July 9th, Gong Tianpeng, a young composer born in the 1990s, composed three original works: "Tang Song Suite", "Piano Concerto" Midnight Bell Sound ", and" Chinese Painting Symphony "based on Chinese Tang poetry, Song lyrics, and famous paintings, which will premiere at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center.
A few days ago, General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at the cultural inheritance and development symposium, emphasizing that "we must strengthen cultural self-confidence, assume the mission, work hard, and work together to create a new culture that belongs to our era, and build a modern civilization of the Chinese nation." Encouragement and inspiration.
Over the past decade, Gong Tianpeng has rooted himself in the fertile land of traditional culture, constantly innovating and exploring how to tell Chinese stories well in the world language, from the piano concerto "Records of the Chinese History" that showcases the long history of Chinese civilization, to the oratorio "Yanhuang Qu" that retells the myth of Chinese creation, to the symphony "Fantasy of Peking Opera" that depicts the beauty of national essence, to this "poetic and picturesque" concert.
Gong Tianpeng, who has shown astonishing talent in music since childhood, is also quite obsessed with Chinese classical culture. How to integrate Chinese poetry and painting art into his creations has been a topic he has been contemplating and exploring in recent years. A year ago, as a resident composer of the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, he proposed a bold idea to the orchestra, which is to start with Tang poetry, Song lyrics, and world-renowned paintings, and interpret the beauty of traditional Chinese culture with a pure instrumental symphony of nationalization. After several discussions, this idea ultimately gained the support of the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, with Vice President and Permanent Conductor Zhang Liang leading the world premiere of the "Poetic and Artistic" series of three works.
The concert will be divided into two halves, the first half for poetry writing and the second half for painting. The first work of the first half was based on four classic poems: Li Bai's "Looking at the Waterfall of Mount Lu", Du Fu's "Looking at the Mountains", Li Qingzhao's "Cutting Plum Blossoms", and Su Shi's "Water Tune Song Head". Gong Tianpeng introduced that these four well-known poems correspond to the romantic, realistic, graceful, and bold schools of Chinese poetry.
Another piano concerto, "The Midnight Bell," is Gong Tianpeng's personal interpretation of "Night Mooring at Maple Bridge," based on his true experience of accidentally staying overnight in Luxiang Village, Suzhou. After the ups and downs and the ups and downs, music ends in tranquility.
The inspiration for the creation of the second half of the "Chinese Painting Symphony" comes from the "Luoshen Fu Tu", "Han Xizai Night Banquet Tu", "Qianli Jiangshan Tu", and "Qingming Shanghe Tu", which are among the top ten famous paintings in China. These works not only horizontally consider different themes such as characters, landscapes, and customs, but also traverse different historical dynasties such as the Three Kingdoms, Southern Tang, and Northern Song, showcasing the long history of Chinese culture through panoramic writing techniques. In the fourth movement "Along the River during the Qingming Festival", Gong Tianpeng used for the first time a combination of multimedia audio and live performance, symbolizing the relationship between ancient and modern times, tradition and innovation.
Gong Tianpeng said, "These famous poems, poems, and paintings not only have strong musicality, storytelling, and symphony, but also contain the personal experiences and inner world of these great authors. If they can be composed into an internationally recognized symphonic language, it can not only help the audience understand the ideological and artistic conception of the original work more intuitively and three-dimensional, but also inspire modern people with the patriotism and national spirit of ancient literary and artistic masters."
In his creation of "poetic and picturesque", Gong Tianpeng saw from the ancient sages and sages of China the profound influence of the ideological concepts, humanistic spirit, and moral norms contained in excellent Chinese culture on contemporary art creation. A line that goes, "For the sake of human nature's seclusion, there is a beautiful line that is not surprising but never stops." This was not only the self motivation of Du Fu, the sage of poetry, but also the creative realm pursued by Chinese literati for over a thousand years thereafter. During the creative process, Gong Tianpeng discovered that Du Fu's regulated poetry was pure and natural, delicate and profound. Not only did he have originality in expressing artistic conception, but he also paid special attention to rhythm, poetic style, and sentence structure. This meticulous attitude towards creation touched Gong Tianpeng. How to express the poet's ultimate pursuit of art has become another core proposition in his creation.
Gong Tianpeng, who has been seeking breakthroughs in "structure" over the years, gained artistic inspiration in Zhang Zeduan's "Along the River during the Qingming Festival" during the Northern Song Dynasty. As he approached the various pedestrians, livestock, vehicles, ships, and buildings in the painting, he found that the charm of the painting lies in the rigor and cleverness of its structure, which is complex but not chaotic, long but not redundant, with a prominent main body that echoes from beginning to end, creating a seamless whole. Gong Tianpeng also incorporated this artistic characteristic into the creation of the Chinese Painting Symphony.
"The 'Poetic and Artistic' series of works took three years to complete. Gong Tianpeng said, 'Over a thousand years ago, it was the meticulous and persistent efforts of these literary masters and masters that left so many artistic treasures for future generations. Today is undoubtedly the best era, and we should stand on the shoulders of our predecessors to see the world. We should strengthen our cultural confidence and leave more peak works for this era.'"
