Category Archives: Yage-Chinese Lieder

YAGE – the Chinese Lieder

 

The Definition:

Yage( 雅歌 ), a new musical term, which is originated in the Chinese language, literally means  “Elegant Songs”. Being presented in the form of the Chinese art song, it is composed of the similar elements as Lieder and Chanson (or mélodie), namely the musical setting of Chinese poetry – the classical, the modern, and the contemporary poems written by generations of great poets. The essence of Yage is to express and convey the profound inner emotions and the true spiritual world of the poets through singing, aiming to provide the listeners with the meaning of the poems as well as the aesthetic beauty of the music. In the technical scope, Yage singing requires the mastery of the bel canto technique, combined with strictly regulated articulation of the Chinese pronunciation, to create a natural fusion of the bel canto technique, Lieder style, and the Chinese poetry. Yage is normally accompanied by a piano or a chamber ensemble.

The Development:     Continue reading →

Art Song and Yage – At a Glance

Art Song – The Marriage of Poetry and Music

Poets express their thoughts and emotions through words. When words are not sufficient enough to convey the poets’ minds, music comes in. “Where words leave off, music begins” (Heinrich Heine).  When a composer is touched by a poem and adds musical notes and melody to the words, he creates an art song. Art song is not the mere combination of poetry and music, more importantly, it’s the deep understanding and connection of two minds and two souls. The marriage of this mind-and-soul yields the fruit of an art song. An art song is sung by a singer with the collaboration of a pianist, presenting to the world of this art form the highest aesthetic beauty.

As a musical genre, art song is recognized with five languages:

  • German (Lieder)
  • French (Mélodie)
  • Italian (Canzone)
  • English (Art Song)
  • Russian (Romance)   

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Birth of Yage

My Thoughts and a Declaration  —  Fan Jingma         2011

Twenty-three years have passed since I first went to Italy in 1988 to pursue my Bel Canto study and eventually became a professional opera singer. During those two decades, as an Oriental opera singer performing the Western operas on Western stages, I traveled almost the entire world. During this period of time and all the places I went, I saw that the Western vocal music (not speaking of the symphony and the other instrumental works here), from Mozart, Beethoven, to Schumann, Schubert, Mahler, to the French Fauré, Berlioz, and the Russian Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and of course, all those Italian Bel Canto art songs and folk songs, were sung around the world and appreciated by each culture, and naturally became a part of it; but our Chinese music, on the other hand, was only enjoyed within China and by ourselves. Why so? This question has been bothering me and has occupied the most of my thoughts. Continue reading →

Harmony of Poetry and Music – Carnegie Recital

– Chinese Yage Recital by Tenor Fan Jingma

As an emerging vocal genre, Yage, the “elegant songs”, is the Chinese poetry set to music. Fan Jingma, the tenor who initiated the concept, summarizes it as the fusion of the Lieder style, Bel Canto technique, and Chinese poetry. Yage, in the form of Chinese art songs, shares the same traits as the German Lieder, French Chanson, Italian Bel Canto, and Russian Romance both in spirit and in format: carefully selected poems that are set to music and accompanied by a piano or a chamber ensemble.     Continue reading →

New York Gets Taste of the Yage

Updated: 2014-05-20 11:21

 (China Daily USA)                  By Amy He in New York

Fan Jingma just wrapped up a four-city tour of Yage: A Poetic Sense of China with a performance at Carnegie Hall. Fan created yage, a new genre that combines Chinese poetry with song. Provided to China Daily

Yage literally means “elegant song” and combines poetry with song, in the tradition of French chanson and German lieder. But Fan said that Chinese audiences were indifferent when they first heard him singing it, contrasting sharply to Western audiences, like the sold-out crowd that caught Fan’s performance at Carnegie Hall on May 15.When opera singer Fan Jingma first introduced a new musical genre, yage, to audiences back home in China five years ago, they were unenthusiastic.  Continue reading →

Creating a Chinese Musical Message for a Global Audience

China Daily | Updated: 2017-01-14 07:19        By Chen Nan

Chinese tenor Fan Jingma stops mid-sentence because something is bothering him. “It’s too loud. I cannot concentrate and think,” he says of the background music being played in the lobby of a high-rise building located in downtown Beijing.

“We have so much distraction in our daily lives,” Fan says after moving to a quieter place. “We receive many messages every day, but how many of them are healthy and useful for our ears and eyes?”

Fan is in the building, where he is to give a concert along with other performers on Sunday, including China Philharmonic’s musicians, cellist Guan Zhengyue, pianist Chen Min and violinist Chen Yun.

 

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