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UNITED NATIONS, ) -- Youth of China, the third album of a
Chinese classical literary song trilogy, was released Monday
at the UN headquarters in New York, the first working day
after
the International Youth Day that fell on Sunday.
The album was composed by You Jingbo, a Chinese American
artistic director at the American National Music Center, and
sang by Jing Mengtao, a vocal performance student at the
University of the Arts, Philadelphia.
"We worked very hard and made sure that we see both Chinese
and Western elements in this project," said You at the
release ceremony, recalling their eight months of
collaboration together.
He explained that the songs' lyrics are Chinese classical
poetry, and their melodies are composed with traditional
Chinese music notes, but their presentation styles are
mostly Western, including rap, folk and R&B.
The 10 songs in the new album included Ospreys, a love poet
from China's Book of Songs dating back to over 2,000 years
ago, and Song of Mulan, a folk song about a female soldier
in disguise of a man in
North Wei (386-534 BC), whom the Disney cartoon Mulan was
based on.
"A country's strength depends on the country's youth. I hope
that, by sharing my appreciation and understanding of my
culture, I can inspire and encourage more teenagers to
embrace the beauty of
their own culture," Jing said.
He also hopes to "help contribute in a small but meaningful
way, the spreading of ancient Chinese civilization and
legacy across
an international platform."
Before making Youth of China, You recorded two other albums
of Chinese classical literary songs, with their lyrics
selected from Tang and Song Dynasties' poetry.
The three albums as a trilogy will be made available soon in
about 180 countries around the world on digital music
distribution platforms such as QQ Music, Kougou, Amazon
music, Spotify and Deezer.
You hopes these songs could help promote Chinese classical
literature education among the new generation of children,
and that the Chinese immigrants around the world could
relate to or resonate with these songs.
At the ceremony, the World Harmony Foundation presented the
Award of World Youth Harmony Ambassador certificates to a
group of Chinese music teachers and their pupils, who had
put on a performance singing one of You's works, in
recognition of their musical teaching or performance "in a
way that spreads traditional Chinese music globally" and in
celebrating the International Youth Day. |