Zhu Jian'er (; born Zhu Rong-shi, October 18, 1922 – August 15, 2017),

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theobald ...

Zhu Pu-chen, was a Chinese symphonic composer and songwriter.

Biography

Zhu was born in

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

, China. In his early years, his grandfather moved his family to

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

. His family consisted of flour millers, and his father died when Zhu was three. Out of admiration for Nie Er, Zhu Rong-shi changed his name to Zhu Jian'er. He began composing in 1940 and pursued composition studies at the Moscow Conservatory in 1955. He was a professor at the

Shanghai Conservatory The Shanghai Conservatory of Music () was founded on November 27, 1927, as the first music institution of higher education in China. Its teachers and students have won awards at home and abroad, thus earning the conservatory the name "the crad ...

. He composed for both Western and Chinese instruments and his works have been performed around the world. In 2000 he was commissioned by Yo-Yo Ma's

Silk Road Project Silkroad, formerly the Silk Road Project, Inc., is a not-for-profit organization, initiated by the cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1998, promoting collaboration among artists and institutions, promoting multicultural artistic exchange, and studying the ebb and ...

to compose ''Silk Road Reverie''. His 1950 revolutionary work ''Days of Emancipation'' (翻身的日子, Fānshēn de Rìzi; for '' banhu'' and Chinese orchestra) is well known in the West from its appearance on the 1981

CBS Masterworks Sony Classical is an American record label founded in 1924 as Columbia Masterworks Records, a subsidiary of Columbia Records. In 1980, the Columbia Masterworks label was renamed as CBS Masterworks Records. The CBS Records Group was acquired by S ...

compilation ''Phases of the Moon: Traditional Chinese Music''. Zhu died on August 15, 2017 in Shanghai.

List of major works

Orchestral: *节日序曲(Festival Overture), Op.10 (1958) *Symphony-Cantata:英雄的诗篇 (Poems of heroes), Op.14 (Original:1959 - 1960; First Edit:1964; Second Edit:1993) *Ballet Music:南海长城 (Great Wall beside the South China Sea) (1965) *怀念 (In Memoriam), for Strings, Op.18 (1978 - 1988) *交响幻想曲:纪念为真理献身的勇士 (Symphonic Fantasia:a Commemoration to the Brave sacrificed for verity), Op.21 (1980) *交响组曲:黔岭素描 (Symphonic Suites:Sketches of Mount.Qian), Op.23 (1982) *蝴蝶泉组曲:二胡与管弦乐队 (Suite for Erhu and Orchestra:Butterfly Spring), Op.24 (1983) *交响音诗:纳西一奇 (Symphonic Poem:Wonders of Na'xi), Op.25 (1984) *交响诗:百年沧桑 (Symphonic Poem:Vicissitude of a century) *朱践耳 ZHU Jian-er Fishermen's Ballade, Suite No. 1 Op. 16 (1965/2003) Symphonies: *Symphony No.1 *Symphony No.2 *Symphony No.3,"Tibet" *Symphony No.4,"6.4.2-1", for Dizi and Orchestra *Symphony No.5, for China Drum and Orchestra *Symphony No.6,"3Y", for Tapes and Orchestra *Symphony No.7,"天籟、地籟、人籟 (Sounds of paradise, earth and mankind)" *Symphony No.8,"求索 (Seek and Quest)", for 16 percussions and a Cello *Symphony No.9, for Boy Choir and Orchestra *Symphony No.10,"江雪 (Snow on river)", for Guqin (Tape), Chantrt (Tape) and Orchestra

Students

* Wenchen Qin

External links

Zhu Jian'er page
from Silk Road Project site

References

1922 births 2017 deaths 20th-century classical composers Educators from Tianjin Musicians from Tianjin People's Republic of China composers 21st-century classical composers Chinese classical composers Chinese male classical composers Chinese film score composers Moscow Conservatory alumni Academic staff of Shanghai Conservatory of Music Male film score composers 20th-century male musicians 21st-century male musicians Chinese expatriates in the Soviet Union {{China-composer-stub