Xuetang Yuege, School Songs

School songs were collective singing in China's new schools, mostly new words set to Japanese and Western tunes, scaled up from 1904

Related

Gongche NotationPianoHarmonium

Time and place

School songs arose in the new schools of the late Qing. Shen Xingong's School Song Collection of 1904 marks the point at which they became a movement. Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing and Chinese students in Japan drove it, with Zeng Zhimin and Li Shutong among the editors. Li Shutong's Songbie, farewell song, dates from around 1915; its tune came from America by way of Japan.

What happened

New schools added singing classes and needed Chinese songs for group singing, so editors set new words to existing tunes. They drew on Japanese school songs, but also on Western hymns, marches and popular songs, writing texts about modern learning, patriotism, study and parting. The same tune could carry different texts in different schools, so variants multiplied. Numbered notation spread with the schools, and harmoniums and pianos entered classrooms, making singing a class activity.

Musical features

Most school songs are unison, with a few in two or four parts. Melodies are square, four phrases to a stanza, and divide into marches and lyrical pieces. Major keys predominate, with pentatonic touches. Harmonium or piano provides simple harmony. The range stays within an octave or so, so untrained voices can manage it. Lyrics use even line lengths and loose rhyme so that a whole class can sing together.

What to listen for

Hear the piano version of Dreaming of Home and Mother, the tune behind Songbie, with its falling endings and sense of parting. Then hear the piano variations on the Chinese national anthem, whose march frame shows the gait of collective singing. Finally hear the folk version of the Volunteer Soldiers' Song, retuned and recirculated among ordinary singers. None is an original school-song recording.

Common misunderstandings

School songs are often taken for folk song. They were products of the new school, with tunes mostly foreign and words newly written. Others assume they were all original, though contrafacture was the norm. Nor is Songbie the only one; patriotism, study, games and ceremonies each had their own songs.

Sources

• 沈心工《学校唱歌集》— 1904年初版与选曲填词方式核对，未引用
• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "China" — modern music checked, not quoted

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.