A Study On Solo Songs Composed By Xian Xinghai

Solo songs are the important integrant of Xian Xinghai's music, although he has composed a large number of other musical pieces, including symphonies, symphonic poems, orchestral music, and those small-scale instrumental compositions, plus well-known large-scale vocal pieces like Yellow River Cantata, and many chorus (solo), unison and ensemble songs. It is his solo songs, which composes only a small part (1/10) of his vocal pieces, that embodies the beginning of his musical creation, develops during his whole lifelong creation, and finally concludes his excellent musical career. With creative musical language and form, and unique musical style, aesthetic taste and cultural spirit, Xian's solo songs enjoyed special distinctiveness among other Chinese solo songs in the first half of the 20th century. His pursuit in modern music style and his rich application of French artistic songs are typically the most important explorations in his solo songs, which bears a certain initiative status in the creation of Chinese solo songs in the first half of the 20th century. In this sense, Xian's solo songs are an indispensable part of Chinese solo songs in the 20th century, and accordingly have an important historical status. As they are"lyrical songs", Xian's solo songs possess those artistic qualities and cultural characteristics that can be found in artistic songs (i.e., solo songs in concerts).