Bamboo Flute, Jamu Nian and the Orchestra "Jiangyuan String Song"

"Harmony and Harmony", Chapter 3 of Common Homeland

Original national music epic The Forbidden City

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Shanghai National Orchestra. In recent years, Shanghai National Orchestra has been committed to presenting the international expression and contemporary temperament of national music, creating many excellent original plays of Shanghai style folk music, vividly practicing the creative transformation and innovative development of excellent Chinese traditional culture, and stereoscopically displaying the root and soul of the Chinese nation to the world with contemporary art.

Pay tribute to the Chinese civilization,
National Music Sings of the Wonderfulness of China

From October 6 to 8, the Shanghai National Orchestra's "National Music Chanting China" concert was performed continuously in Shanghai Grand Theater. The concert narrated China's wonderful and Chinese stories from a new perspective full of historical depth. On the occasion of the victory of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, it chanted China's wonderful with folk music.

The concert of "National Music Chanting China" draws artistic inspiration from the five thousand years of Chinese civilization, gives full play to the open and inclusive artistic characteristics of Shanghai style folk music, and is divided into five music chapters: the first chapter "Spring and Autumn Festival" expresses the thickness and brilliance of the five thousand years of Chinese civilization; The second chapter, "Drunken Mountains and Rivers", tells about the aesthetic spirit of "great joy and harmony" and "mountains and waters and common" in Chinese art; In the third chapter, "Bringing Hundreds of Rivers", more than ten distinctive musical instruments of different nationalities, such as Jiayaqin, Dongbula, Sixian Qin, Lusheng, Satar, Xianzi and Mashiqin, took turns to play, demonstrating the broad mind and vision of the Chinese nation; In the fourth chapter of "Heavenly Walk", three groups of bamboo flute, erhu and pipa players relay the double concerto to show the Chinese nation's strong and unyielding life power; Wu Zhang expressed his respect for Chinese civilization and his love for his motherland.

Digging deeply into regional characteristics,
Present the cultural charm of the Chinese national community

The music scene of the Shanghai National Orchestra "Drinking the River Together, Gathering Chinese Love" is the latest achievement of the protection and inheritance of Shanghai's national culture and the innovation and integration of various national cultures. The play won the "Best Drama Award" of the Dream Fulfillment Award in the Sixth National Ethnic Minorities Literature and Art Festival hosted by the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, the Central Radio and Television and the Beijing Municipal People's Government, and was awarded the Shanghai Literary and Artistic Creation Boutique of 2020-2021.

The concert selected music elements from Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Yunnan, Qinghai, Guizhou and other places for collection and creation to show the colorful cultural charm of the Chinese nation community. The Tibetan traditional musical instruments Zhamunian, the Yueqin Lusheng in Yunnan Guizhou Plateau, and the Tanbul in Xinjiang blend and talk with bamboo flute, Malimba, Sheng, Pipa and other musical instruments. The stage form of the multimedia music scene brings the audio-visual experience of "changing the scene and immersing yourself in the scene". The pure land sounds of nature on the snow covered clouds, the green fog and golden wind on the south of the colorful clouds, and the brilliant clouds on the desert Silk Road all appear in front of you.

Broaden the boundaries of creation,
Dialogue and blending of Shanghai style folk music and world music

The live performance of the Shanghai National Orchestra's "Common Home" music was held in 2018. It participated in the 20th and 21st Shanghai International Art Festival, the 19th "Meet Beijing" Art Festival, and the 6th Silk Road International Art Festival. It also performed in the "Asian Culture Show" on the occasion of the Asian Civilization Dialogue Conference, which was widely praised by audiences at home and abroad.

Focusing on the concept of building a "community with a shared future for mankind", the performance innovatively integrates contemporary Shanghai style folk music with a variety of representative music from five continents, demonstrates the integration of human historical changes and the development of civilization, and appeals to all mankind to work together to build an open, inclusive, and shared earth home. In the four chapters of "the source of all things", "the voice of civilization", "harmony" and "common homeland", Chinese national instruments open their arms and have a passionate dialogue with the world's national instruments, such as the South Asian Tabla drum, the Irish tin flute, the Spanish guitar, the Russian deltoid, and the African drum. The ingenious integration of music and multimedia vision brings rich audio-visual experience and shows the broad artistic vision of Shanghai folk music.

Explore the pulse of civilization,
Exhibiting traditional culture
Contemporary inheritance and innovative development

In 2020, with the special support of the Palace Museum, as one of the commemorations of the 600 years since the completion of the Forbidden City, the Shanghai National Orchestra will launch the original national music epic "The Forbidden City", which will open a tour about the connotation and spiritual beauty of Chinese culture, and stimulate the thinking on the innovation and inheritance of traditional culture in the contemporary context.

The concert presents rich and diverse sound images with national orchestral music and its various combinations. National orchestral music and chorus "Oriental Miracle" show the grand panorama of the Forbidden City; Chime bells, drums and the band "Chinese Ritual Code" present the solemn and elegant Chinese ritual music with the ancient chime bells beating the distant sound of gold and stone; The plucked music and the band "Hui Mu Shi Yin" depict exquisite wood structure buildings, eulogizing the spirit of craftsmanship in great countries; Guanzi and the band "wind and rain vicissitudes of life" look back on history and the ups and downs of the Forbidden City for six hundred years; National orchestral music and chorus "Light of Civilization" tell about the innovation and creation of the Forbidden City today. In order to interpret the beauty of the seasons and the tension of life in the Forbidden City, the interlude "Spring", "Summer", "Autumn" and "Winter" are inserted into each chapter.

Focus on the city spirit,
Expand the new dimension of international exchange of Chinese folk music

Shanghai Odyssey · The Bund Story is a national orchestral concert created by German composer Christian Youster under the joint commission of the Shanghai National Orchestra and the Shanghai International Art Festival of China. It has toured in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and entered Peking University, Shanghai Jiaotong University and other universities, which is deeply loved by the audience.

The play is the first national orchestral work commissioned by the Shanghai National Orchestra to be composed and directed by foreign composers. Focusing on the cultural customs and unique charm of the Bund, the work shows the vitality of Shanghai, an international cultural city, through the joint cooperation of Chinese and German artists. The concert consists of five chapters: "Oriental Charm", "Pearl of the Pujiang River", "Bridge of Eden", "China's First Street" and "The Bund". Starting from the Bund of Shanghai, the concert comprehensively demonstrates Shanghai's historical heritage, urban style and cultural connotation. The music of the works expresses the habitual thinking of breaking away from the creation of national music. The music language is full of rhythm and picture sense. It reflects the Shanghai city spirit of "embracing all rivers, pursuing excellence, being enlightened and wise, being generous and modest", and expands the new dimension of international exchange of Chinese national music.

Shanghai style folk music has a promising future. The Shanghai National Orchestra will continue to work with an open and inclusive artistic attitude to promote Chinese national music to radiate new vitality, constantly pursue the contemporary value of Shanghai style folk music, integrate the Chinese spirit, Chinese value and era temperament into the creation of national music, play the rhythm of this era, and arouse the spiritual resonance between Shanghai style folk music and every contemporary audience.