Three Wishes for a Rose Composer: Huang Zi (1904-1937) Cello: Ma Xinhua Piano: Feng Dan
If Fauré's Sicilienne finds its Chinese double in Sha Hankun’s Madrigal, then Elgar’s Salut d'Amour finds its doppelganger in Huang Zi’s Three Wishes for a Rose. While nominally a love song, Three Wishes had a second-life as a patriotic hymn. Composed on June 2, 1932 as the First battle of Shanghai raged between the Chinese and the Japanese invaders, Huang expressed his yearning for peace and his country’s survival: "Rose rose, fragrant and fragile upon the green trellis I wish that you will be safe from the rough ways of those who are jealous of me! I wish that those strangers who may see you and desire you will not pluck you from my garden! I wish to see youthful beauty preserved in a long life, as your sweet fragrance is revealed in your blossom (China).” (NOTE: The Chinese character ”Hua ” is both the word for “magnificent” or “fragrant” and an abbreviation for “China”). Huang Zi was also the first Chinese composer to be trained in the West. He studied at the Oberlin conservatory (Oberlin, Ohio) and later at Yale, with Paul Hindemith. He is credited with writing the first Chinese orchestral work, a sweepingly romantic score called in Memoriam. Regarded as the father of modern Chinese music and chief architect of the standard Conservatory curriculum, Huang is sadly, virtually unknown outside of China.
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