Fan Jingma: mixes Chinese Music and Poetry with Italian bel canto
2012-10-15 18:39:28 CRIENGLISH.com Web Editor: Chi Huiguang
Anchor:
What kind of music touches you the most? Have you ever thought about singing Chinese poems in an Italian bel canto style?
Fan Jingma, world renowned Chinese tenor artist, who specializes in Italian bel canto, is now mixing the styles by singing Chinese songs in the classical western way.
He hopes the musical union will bring more worldwide exposure to China’s cultural treasures.
Tianyi has more.
Reporter:
Here in the hall of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, people are enjoying a great performance given by Fan Jingma, the world renowned Chinese tenor who is elegantly expressing this musical fusion.
He is singing a cappella with the audience amazed by the sound of his voice, which sounds a little bit removed. You cannot touch it but you feel it. It is not loud but loud enough to attract the listeners. Fan’s eyes are closed, and it is not important exactly what he is singing because people are already intoxicated with his melodious tenor.
What he is performing is called “Ya Ge.” In Chinese Ya means elegant, while “Ge” literally means song. “Ya Ge” here means singing Chinese songs in a western way or putting Chinese musical elements into western songs. In Fan’s mind, both Chinese music and Italian bel canto are both graceful and elegant. When they are combined, there is no other name but Ya Ge.
Fan has a great love for music and Italian bel canto. He also has a strict standard about sound. In his mind, everything has its own sound, and a good voice is one that can connect different kinds of performing arts, such as music and literature.
“Why I called it Ya Ge? In my mind, a song is similar to a poem which has certain spirit inside it. The beauty of song sometimes cannot be explained completely in any kind of language. But words are different. When the words are expressed, people will understand the clear meaning. I believe some beautiful words have a deep meaning and this meaning may be expressed with the help of lovely music. That is Ya Ge.”
The idea for Ya Ge didn’t come suddenly to Fan.
Fan was the first Chinese artist to perform a solo concert in the Kennedy Center in Washington DC in 2003. His voice has been compared to Pavarotti and the legendary Beniamino Gigli.
Fan fell in love with Italian opera when he was a child. At that time he could not understand the lyrics but simply intoxicated with the melody. In his opinion, a melody was so beautiful than no language could express it.
After he graduated from Central Conservatory of Music, he went to the US to study at The Juilliard School of Music in New York. With hard work, he become skilled in performing bel canto and gradually won worldwide recognition.
But in Fan’s heart, there was melancholy. Besides the fever he finds in music, he also loves reading Chinese poems. He sometimes wished that those graceful, glorious poems could be also expressed as bel canto and then thought, why not to combine the two?
“At that time I thought I should do something to make it happen. I have been singing western opera for more than 20 years. Is it true that only the western opera can be called elegant, while Chinese music will never be heard in the world’s great music halls? I think our Chinese music and Chinese poems are fantastic. There was an inner voice telling me that I have to sing those beautiful Chinese treasures for the world to hear.”
Fan was lucky to meet a good friend Ouyang Jianghe, a poet who also loves rhythm. After Ouyang wrote a new work, Fan would read it and chose a melody he loves as background music. He says Ouyang’s poetry brings him something different, and he hears a new sound.
“It is impulse. Ouyang writes great poems. I find a voice in his poetry, which excites me. It forces me to find a proper way to express the hidden things in his poems. I was greatly moved by his poetry.”
Fan practiced a lot to produce what he wanted to express and when he discovered it, he was filled with joy.
“At that time I can’t hold my excitement when reading Ouyang’s new work. I felt my heart beat faster and faster. I chose “Requiem” to play. While the music was playing I was reading the poem for my friends. After that, my friends told me that night my performance was amazing and it had to be recorded.”
Fan says music is not only his life. It is also his nutrition that brings him energy and wisdom. He cannot leave music. He says he feels no day is full unless it is accompanied by music.
Though his singing has brought him fame, he does not believe that singing is his job. He does not sing to make money or a living. The reason he keeps singing is because he can’t leave it and he hopes through his voice, there can be more warm experiences and discoveries.
“I hope my songs will move myself and also others. And with this we can make our lives and the world better.”
Fan adds that as an artist, he can’t be selfish. Art belongs to everyone, when he is onstage, there is no one called Fan Jingma; only the music which belongs to the world.
For CRI, I’m Tianyi.
http://english.cri.cn/8706/2012/10/15/3262s727191.htm