Composer gives folk music an electric take

When composer Qian Qi was commissioned to write a piece of music about Dunhuang in Gansu province — an important hub on the ancient Silk Road, where cultures from the East and the West met centuries ago — he was inspired by the images in the ancient cave murals, such as Buddhist statues, camels and Flying Apsaras, female gods of song and dance.

"I have traveled to Dunhuang many times and each time I went, I was captivated by the Mogao Caves, the renowned UNESCO World Heritage Site, and stories about the ancient Silk Road," says Qian.

The piece was featured in one of the gala performances celebrating the 2023 Beijing Culture Forum, which was held on Sept 14 and 15.

The two-day event, hosted by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the CPC Beijing municipal committee and the Beijing municipal government, took place in the capital — itself an ancient city and national cultural center — to promote cultural exchange and deepen mutual learning among civilizations.

The opening gala was held at Big Air Shougang, a landmark of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Titled Dunhuang Flying Apsaras, the performances combined music, dance, and lighting. Audiences were amazed by the show, which also featured 1,000 drones programmed to form the images of Flying Apsaras.

"Composing a piece of music for Dunhuang is challenging because I have to use music to portray images full of complexity," says the composer. "What made this composition even harder was that I needed to fit the music with the whole show, which had ballet dancers, traditional Chinese dancers, lighting effects and drones."

Over the course of a month, Qian revised his composition about seven times. A range of musical elements were used, including symphonic music, Chinese folk music, world music and choral singing. The show is about four minutes long, and Qian wanted to capture the audience from the first second.

"If you close your eyes, you can see the scenes of Dunhuang, its desert, murals, and travelers along the ancient Silk Road," says Qian. "Through visual technology, the audience was able to enjoy the culture and history of Dunhuang as part of an immersive experience."

It was not the first time the composer had been commissioned to write music about Dunhuang. He also composed music for large national events, among them the torch relay of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, and the China Central Television's Spring Festival Gala, one of the most-watched TV galas in the country.

Born into a musical family, the 43-year-old began learning to play piano when he was 3 and graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music with a major in composition.

As a professor at the Music AI and Information Technology Department of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, Qian is dedicated to the research into modern electronic music compositions. When the school established the department in 2019, which involved three majors, Qian was assigned to lead the composition major at the modern electronic music center.

"Research into electronic music composition offered me a broader vision of music," he says. "The latest technology allows me to make unique sounds, which are very different to traditional music."

However, he also notes that technology only supports musicians in realizing their musical ideas and that the core of music still lies in creativity.

He recalls a memorable trip to the Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture in Sichuan province, when he was invited to write songs for a musical, titled Braided Soul, by working with an art troupe from the prefecture.

He spent two months living in the mountainous area, which allowed him to record folk songs performed by residents, and especially elderly Tibetans and Qiang people.

The musical premiered in 2019, and is based on the true story of the 2,000 Tibetan and Qiang soldiers who fought against foreign invaders in 1842, and features about 120 minutes of his music.

The compositions combine the folk songs and musical instruments of the Tibetan and Qiang ethnic groups, with contemporary music, like electronic music, and portray the bravery and sacrifice of the soldiers. The musical has toured nationwide since its premiere and, so far, has been staged over 70 times.

"I really enjoy going out to listen to different music because the country is so big, and has a long tradition of music. That music, original and raw, has a spirit of its own. What I want to do is to use technology to bring it to life and make it fit into the contemporary world," says Qian, who now is working with the Beijing Dance Academy on a new project about Lin Huiyin (1904-55), a noted 20th-century architect and intellectual.