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)
Art Song
The Format
An art song consists of four components:
- a poem
- musical melody
- a singer
- a piano
A Very Brief History
Art song originated in Germany (Lied in German, which means “song” and the plural form Lieder) and can be traced back to as early as the 12th and 13th Centuries, mainly love songs that were sung in the court and among the aristocratic class, which is known as Minnesang (love song). The terms “Lieder” and “art song” are interchangeable.
Lieder emerged from the late Classical era (late 1700s), started developing from the early Romantic era (early 1800s), and reached its peak in the height of the Romantic era (mid-late 1800s through the early 1900s). Mozart and Beethoven are considered the “founding fathers” of the art song, and Beethoven’s song cycle “An die ferne Geliebte” is recognized as the beginning of the German Lieder.
Important Lieder Composers (an incomplete list)
- German: Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Hugo Wolf, Richard Strauss
- French: Charles Gounod, Cesar Franck, Gabriel Faure, Claude Debussy, Francis Poulenc
- Italian: Paolo Tosti, Ottorino Respighi, Amilcare Ponchielli
- English: British – Henry Purcell, Frederick Delius, Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten
- American – Charles Ives, Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland
- Russian: Mikhail Glinka, Alexander Borodin, Modest Mussorgsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff
Chinese Art Song
Chinese art song is the marriage of the Chinese poetry and the Western musical tradition.
A Very Brief History
According to written records, Chinese music can be traced back to as early as the Zhou Dynasty (1122-256 B.C.), which is known as Yayue (elegant music). Musical scale appeared in the 7th Century B.C.; Shi Jing (Book of Poetry, 11th-6th Century B.A., complied by Confucius) started the earliest “sung-poetry” tradition; the golden age came during the dynasties of Tang (618-907 A.D.), Song (960-1279 A.D.), and Yuan (1271-1368), hundreds of years earlier than Europe. However, when the European art song genre welcomed a rapid development during the Romantic era, China’s sung-poetry tradition lingered at a stagnant stage. The turning point didn’t come until the early 20th Century (1920s – 1930s) during the New Culture Movement, when the pioneers of the young scholars went to Europe and North America to study or teach, among whom the most well-known composers include Zhao Yuanren, Huang Zi, Xiao Youmei, and the poets Xu Zhimo, Liu Banong, Wei Hanzhang, and Yi Weizhai, to just name a few. The result of the collaboration of these poets and composers was the earliest Chinese art songs, which display the distinctive Western influence: the first-time use of the modern Chinese language and the Western musical notation system as well as the classical musical tradition.
Yage – the Chinese Lieder
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 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 in order to create a natural fusion of the bel canto technique, Lieder style, and the Chinese poetry.
Why is Chinese art song named Yage?
The universally referenced Lieder lists five languages, as stated above:
- German (Lieder)
- French (Mélodie)
- English (Art Song)
- Italian (Canzone)
- Russian (Romance)
Chinese art song, although meets all the criteria of the Lieder definition and formed its own musical system, is not referenced, and even not mentioned anywhere, which leaves a void in the music history and literature.
In order to make the Chinese art song known by the world, to parallel it with the other five languages, and ultimately have it listed as the sixth language of the Lieder genre, Tenor Fan Jingma wanted to give it a name that will convey the precise meaning of the Chinese art song and will be easy to pronounce at the same time. He adapted the term “Yage” (elegant song) from the Book of Poetry, meaning to show the continuation of the earliest Chinese sung-poetry heritage while echoing the musical tradition from the Western music.
Expectation
As a China-Italy-U.S. trained bel canto singer, Fan Jingma believes that as he can sing opera and Lieder in the above mentioned five languages, plus Latin and Spanish, the Western singers should also be able to sing Yage in the original Chinese language. As a matter of fact, more and more Western singers have been singing Chinese songs in Chinese in recent years.
Fan Jingma believes that when the day comes that the Western singers perform the Chinese art songs in the original Chinese language on the international stages, it will be the time when Yage belongs to the world. He is eager to start a cross-the-border, cross-the-language, and cross-the-discipline conversation among artists, poets, scholars, and all who appreciate the value of art songs, and to create a musical dialogue between the East and the West. He also cherishes the dream that some day Yage will become the sixth branch of the Lieder genre and will fill the void in the world music history.