(b Shanghai, 10 March 1935). Chinese composer. He studied composition with his father Chen Gexin and with Ding Shande, and then at Shanghai Conservatory (1955-60), continuing there after his graduation as a teacher, other than a period as head of the Guangxi Institute of the Arts. He has written in most of the genres of Western art music. The violin concerto Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai, co-written with his colleague He Zhanhao in 1959, was his first major success. Modelled on sonata form, this one-movement concerto, depicting a traditional tragic love story, employs material from the yueju local opera style from Zhejiang Province. His harmonic style in this and other works draws on Western precedents but, like many Chinese composers of his generation, Chen adapts these to make considerable use of pentatonic note sets. Though his later works have included traditional titles and themes, he has continued to compose absolute works and film scores.
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Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai (The Butterfly Lovers), vn conc., 1959, collab. He Zhanhao; Pf Conc., d, 1960; Chun jiang hua yue ye [Moonlit Flowers on the Spring River], sym. portrait, 1973, collab. Sang Tong and Chen Mingzhi; Vn Conc., G, 1973; Miaoling de zaochen [Dawn on the Miao Mountains], vn, 1975; Ob Conc., 1985; Guzheng Conc., gaohu, erhu, zhonghu, 1986; Vn Conc. ‘Wang Zhaojun’, 1986 |
JONATHAN P.J. STOCK