 Tan Hainu in 2007 |
» Biography Selbstbiografie
Early Life (pre-1998)
Xin Hai Conservatory of Music
Guangzhou, China
Tan Hainu was born in Sichuan Province, growing up in Guangdong Province, China. Her father is a versatile, professional musician and university music professor, and her mother is a professional dancer and university dance teacher. To her parent’s joy, Tan Hainu could already recite many ancient Chinese poems by the time she was 2 years old. At the age of 4, she began to receive strict musical training from her parents, and a short time later, began appearing on stage playing the piano and violin. At the age of 8, she succeeded in creating her first piano work - a piano capriccio. Moreover, at this young age, Tan Hainu had mastered many of the traditional Chinese instruments such as: Erhu, Pipa and Guzheng. In 1994, as a junior in the middle and high school attached to Xin Hai Conservatory of Music, Tan Hainu ranked first place in the entrance examinations becoming approved for higher music education two years ahead of schedule. Tan Hainu ultimately earned her six-year equivalent music composition high school diploma within four years under the highly regarded composers, Yan Dong and Cao Guangping, this, the beginning of her composing career.
Central Conservatory of Music
Beijing, China
Beijing Life (1998 - 2004)
In 1998, Tan Hainu was accepted into the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing where she continued her studies in music composition under one of China's most famous composers, Professor Guo Wenjing. The Conservatory performed her first string quartet, a sextet of woodwinds, and several large ensemble pieces. In July of 2003, she obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree earning the highest mark in music composition for her first orchestra piece, Echoes and Sparks of the Sacred Space. After graduating, she continued to study music composition as an assistant composer and manuscript proofreader under Guo Wenjing, who felt she was a very talented and promising young composer. Ultimately, though, Tan Hainu finally realized her long-time yearning to continue learning in the United States, bringing along 5000 years of Chinese music culture to share with the world.
California State University
Los Angeles, the United States
On June 12, 2004, Tan Hainu immigrated to the California United States with her family. In the August of 2004, she began her Master's Degree in Music Composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. In December 2004, Tan Hainu’s first piece was performed in the United States receiving wide acclaim. At the July 2005 California Summer Music Festival she received the highest scholarship from The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publichers for her Opera of String Quartet No. 3 Sanskrit. Tan Hainu’s fascinating Music of India music and paper presentation in November 2005 at the University of Missouri-Kansas City included Hindi musician monks performing on traditional Indian instruments. Tan Hainu has studied with Doctor Samuel Adler at the Bowdoin International Music Festival in July 2006 where she also received Bowdoin's high scholarship, her being the only Asian composer selected that year. In January 2007, Tan Hainu entered into the last year of her master's program studying under Doctor John M. Kennedy at California State University, Los Angeles. At the June 2007 Bowdoin International Music Festival, Tan Hainu studied under Doctor Roberto Sierra and Professor Simone Fontanelli. Tan Hainu auditioned at The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music in March 2008.
Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
In the summer of 2008, Tan Hainu was privileged to have studied at the Freie Universität Berlin under Professor Samuel Adler of The Juilliard School, who gave her the highest marks and complimented her indomitable work ethic. Although Tan Hainu has disparate influences due to her cultural and artistic background, her recent work has been influenced by the Second Vienna School. The string trio The Dream of Berlin, completed in the summer of 2008, expresses the emotional diversity she felt whirling about Europe. The music is aggressive and full of vitality, reflecting the astonishing art and architecture that surrounded her there. Tan Hainu’s newly completed quintet Sound of Wind is heavily influenced by the European musical tradition she was exposed to during her residency in Germany. The whole piece reflects her musical aesthetics through the wide contrast of bright and melancholy harmonies. Tan Hainu enjoys the challenge of conveying Eastern aestheticism, Western expressionism, and abstractionism through her composition technique.
In addition to her music classes, Tan Hainu also studies folklore, magical phenomena, painting, and writing poetry, and has produced several music videos. She loves to research music from different folk cultures and religions. Tan Hainu is also a devoted member of the American Composers Forum, the American Music Center, the Society of Composers Incorporated, and the National Association of Composers/USA. She intends to become a music composition professor at a professional American university with the intention of benefiting the music industry through her socio-cultural experiences. As such, she also looks forward to traveling to lecture at universities worldwide as a globally enriched representative of the United States. Tan Hainu is especially hopeful to return to lecture in Asia where students are screaming for Western music composition technique.
Boston and New York City (2009 - 2012) (to be continued)» Character
Wind Period
As a contemporary young composer in the 21st century, Tan Hainu has been composing her work in her own developing musical language and style based on traditional classical music with the hope that she can make a significant contribution to the progress and development of music. Music is born from its context and the experience of the composer. In her own experience, she focuses on composing instrumental concert music with Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Ravel, Schoenberg, and Berg being her role models. It is her belief that harmony, counterpoint, musical form, and orchestration are critical in composition. Tan Hainu has been trained strictly by the academic school of music since she was very young. From her experience with China’s Eastern verve to the Western multidimensional features, she pays great attention to the color of the harmony and pitch, clarity and flow of the counterpoint and rhythm, the varied timbre combination of the orchestration, and the mellifluence and coherence of the form in her work. Tan Hainu focuses on the overall framework of the entire piece as well as the careful depiction of the detailed phrases. Composition theories and techniques purport to serve the content and soul of music and they complement each other, which helps her develop her precise and refined, bold and flowing, elegant and stylish artistic style.
Tea Period
Eastern philosophy believes everything (wind, flower, snow, and moon) has life, whether animate or inanimate. Thus, a composer of Eastern aesthetic philosophy has the imaginative ability to reflect life functions within the arts. Flowing water expresses her feelings about her own life which Tan Hainu relate to the tender and harmonious manner of water in motion. This reflects her philosophy of art which, like music, demands purity, free-flowing thought, for never-ending inspiration. Tan Hainu sees beauty in flowing water, not only with her eyes, but in her heart and mind, and in her music. Beauty is the result of the spirit.
- Western Classical Music
- Medieval (500 – 1400)
- Renaissance (1400 – 1600)
- Baroque (1600 – 1760)
- Classical (1750 – 1830)
- Romantic (1815 – 1910)
- 20th century (1900 – 2000)
- 21st century (2000 – present)
- World Music
- Arabic Music
- Maqam system
- More notes used than in Western scales
- Vocal traditions
- Instruments and ensembles
- Music of China
- Dynastic Era (1122 BCE – 1911)
- Republic of China era (1912 – 1949)
- People's Republic of China era (1949 – 1990s)
- Contemporary (1900 – present)
- Folk Music
- Instrumental Music
- Chinese Opera Music
- Music of India
- Classical Music
- Hindustani Music
- Carnatic Music
- Light Classical Music
- Folk Music
- Popular Music
» Innovation
Wind Period
Tan Hainu’s recent works reflect a combination of Chinese articulate language, American freedom spirit, Germanic precise artistic expression, and French and Italian romantic imagery. Some examples of her pieces are: string trio The Dream of Berlin, quintet Sound of Wind for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, and woodwind quartet Dance of Differing Languages, all influenced by the Second Vienna School and the European musical tradition she was exposed to during her residency in Germany in 2008 and 2009. These three pieces reflect her musical aesthetics through the wide contrast of bright and melancholy harmonies. Tan Hainu’s newly completed duet Hunting Fireflies for flute and clarinet, and her trio Memory of Venice for clarinet, violin, and piano were influenced by the late romantic and impressionism idiom. The trio Memory of Venice expresses her emotion during her travel in Venice in June 2010. She was deeply in the mood of romance, blurred with a touch of sadness.
Tea Period
Tan Hainu received the highest scholarship at the 2005 California Summer Music Festival where her dramatic blending of, Opera of String Quartet Sanskrit, introduced singing string players, assisted by Tan Hainu's soprano folk vocals in both Hindi and Chinese. This ultimately became the festival's best received performance marking the appearance of Tan Hainu's special style reflecting the conflict and fusion of Eastern and contemporary classical Western musical and cultural backgrounds. Her trio piece, Lunar Rainbow for Flute, Cello and Piano, won the 2005 UMKC composition competition. In the second movement of her String Quartet Pyramid, her composition style is well demonstrated using the first violin cadenza to imitate the natural tone of Chinese Mandarin language. Also, in her Woodwind Sextet, Illusion third movement, there is a new design for Western composition structure with its dreamland section derived from Eastern composition tradition and philosophy, which allows a more natural, freer form. The form of her Four-Voice Fugue for Clarinet, Marimba, Vibraphone, Xylophone, Glockenspiel, Piano and Violin, incorporates an Eastern theme where Western Fugue form brings counterpoint to Eastern tradition. The B section of her Orchestra piece No. 3 Echoing Colorful Clouds and Mystic Footprints of India, brings in the traditional barbaric dance rhythm of India thickening the Indian beat through the orchestration technique. Tan Hainu's Two-Bird Fugue for Solo Piano is based on Bach’s philosophy, and also incorporates Chinese “just intonation” and Arabian 24 equal temperaments. Two-Bird Fugue introducing the vertical minor second chord into the horizontal 12 equal traditional temperaments, and in doing so, it destroys the 12 equal temperaments. Tan Hainu’s Cello Solo piece, Flowing Water, reflects Eastern aesthetic philosophy of art which demands purity, free-flowing thought, for never-ending inspiration.
» Life Values
Tan Hainu in 2008
Interview with contemporary classical music composer Tan Hainu at California State University, Los Angeles with Los Angeles writer and interviewer Kerry West on May 11, 2008. Interest has been sparked by Tan’s recent appearance in International Talent Magazine, China’s prestigious publication concerning exceptional world involvement in foreign affairs.
K. W.: Tan Hainu. Let me ask you: What precisely attracted you to become a music composer?
T. H.: You know, a friend asked me one day, “Why do you compose music?” A stunning question as my friend could not see there might be a beneficial function of music such as there is in its answers to some of the largest questions that have forever plagued the human condition. What my friend was really asking was, “How useful is music to us?”
K.W.: Could you perhaps elaborate on this a little further? How does this work to achieve such a …………….
T. H.: Of first importance, there is a clear and hugely adaptive cultural contribution underlying every aspect of every culture that has ever existed. This is, of course, an aesthetic contribution, yet, beyond that, there is a universally acknowledged level of communication that music calls into being that functions quite automatically. In this consensus, the contribution itself also becomes automatic effective.
K. W.: Could you give us an example to help us clarify in what kind of conditions we might find esthetical music functioning?
T. H.: Put to the test, music functions reliably at events like music festivals or the Olympics as a social glue binding friendships between countries. If more countries held more international music festivals than those that now exist, then productive international relationships would increase. At the same time, for the international community, music festivals increase the peaceful spaces in the world, thus, decreasing the space left for things like wars.
K.W.: So, in this sense you are saying music is a powerful communicative mechanism. How, exactly, does this effect people?
T. H.: When people from different countries gather with purpose in a manner they can mutually comprehend – and often enough we have heard that music fits this category – they can learn from each other and begin to understand their cultural differences, absorbing the natural characteristics of the “other’s” culture.
K. W.: Simple enough I’d say. And, what is your part when pursuing this cultural exchange?
T. H.: Well! At the moment, I am getting ready to leave for Germany to attend lectures in music composition by a world class master which includes a final concert to exhibit the cultural values inherent in attendees’ music. I am bringing US based Western composition technique and also 5000 years of Chinese music history to share with the world. Yet, I will also be learning from the German knowledge base and will be bringing the attached cultural enrichment back. And it is not attached just with German aesthetics as this is an international event. I sometimes like to pretend I am a sort of cultural emissary specializing in music communication through a policy of cultural transnationalism. This is my way of pulling ever-tighter together the world community.
K.W.: Switching to another subject – and forgive my using a term others sometimes try to berate you with – but, I know many are interested in the impact economics have on cultural production. Could you give us your take on the impact for music composers?
T. H.: Around the world all music cultures are highly influenced by economics. This is unavoidable of course. Precisely, though, the lower a country’s economic power, the more natural it is for oral compositions, for folk music, that is. Written tradition is rarely an option under third world conditions. Oral tradition occurs as poorer countries really only have their own feelings to work into their music. They are purer in the sense of simplicity and uniqueness, and they wind up producing their own musical languages representing their specific real life situations. Even further, the numerous small towns we see in poorer lands have more special characteristics attached to their particular music aesthetical arrangements. The benefit rich countries enjoy is the larger financial cache that allows the continued refinement of existing music and, thus, the music becomes more uniform through the introduction of controlling standards. Rich countries even systemize music educational, creating academic disciplines that work to set the standards into stone, also dictating to the populace exactly what is proper.
K. W.: Our discussion, your philosophy, seems inevitably hard bent towards the larger, global perspective. This should signal an examination of the accompanying racial issues that we do have the tendency to avoid.
T. H.: When I look at faces I can describe the variety of music that would emanate from them, that is, if this were possible. All faces are different having characteristics that radiate specific effects relatable to music. Any of these facial features or characteristics can describe the feeling gathered from an instrument or a theoretical descriptive musical component. When I see eyes that are deeply inset and appear dependent upon the bone structure surrounding them, I see them flare with the sound of brass instruments such as trumpets. Very dark eyebrows, on another hand, radiate hard timpani strikes as opposed to lighter blond brows that tend to be more in harmony with facial skin. Racially, for me, everyone is the same as they can be musically described. At the same time, all people are unique, they are different, in that their color or their sound can be defined as if each were one of a kind, each a new musical piece.
K. W.: Tan. I understand you have a somewhat keen interest in world religions which I assume are somehow related to the production of your music. Would you mind elaborating a bit about this relationship?
T. H.: Certainly, but saying “keen” is perhaps an overstatement. But, yes, there is that relationship that inexorably binds music and religion. Different religions, of course, are associated with different music and we can recognize the religion by hearing its music. The function is extremely strong. Harmony & pitch & scale are the characteristic differences at play. I feel religions work to influence, and to occasionally inspire even my own compositions, and I can not help but to be interested in all religions. This, by the way, has led me to wonder how it would work to interconnect the variety of religious philosophies by recomposing and combining their individual music styles. I feel that, then, a musical combination could be produced to spotlight, or rather to incite awareness, of the common connections. What I am driving at is that manipulating the music in a way that promotes greater tolerance, should also reduce unnecessary religious conflict worldwide.
Perseverance
K.W.: The big question I have been waiting to ask you is: “How do you do it? What kind of person is the music composer? Tan, what does it take to drive you?”
Tan Hainu in 2008
T.H.: Well, looking at all I have already said, I can tell you none of it can ever be realized without purposeful and ceaseless, bold-hearted volition. Another word for this is perseverance which clearly incorporates three maxims: you must maintain diligence, you must entirely dedicate your heart, and you must employ uninterruptible concentration on the task at hand. For example, any time we start a new piece, we should always consider ourselves as a beginner, for then, we will already expect to encounter difficulty. But, this must not be viewed negatively as a problem; rather it should be accepted as a necessary step and part of the process.
K.W.: Again, I would like to bring up the question of financial motivation and how it might affect perseverance.
T. H: To tell the truth, once we choose to become a composer, our minds are not going to think of what we will gain. It’s really about how adamantly focused we are about how we want to spend our lives. Music composition is such an exceedingly complicated project, that it is quite difficult to consider creating a work with intentions of profit. Such a connection ultimately should not exist, at least not directly, as composing itself is already so involved that it does not even leave room to completely deal with all it already entails.
K.W.: Tan. Please, if you would, give us a word on risk. How would you describe some of the problems that music composers might face?
T.H.: This is actually too large a request to fulfill at this time, but, since we were talking about perseverance I shall at least relate back to this. The number of steps as well as the number of permeations of these steps in the process for composing music is incredible; yet, a successful composer does have to conquer them all. This is a big reason why without perseverance the chances to falter are too great and can only lead to an artist’s fall and loss of direction. This is about very strict dedication. The benefit, though, falls into the spirit of the process. Bottom line is we know why we exist here. As composers, we know precisely who we are.
K.W.: Tan. It is time to close our interview, but I am compelled to finally ask you one last thing, and that would be to offer a word, any word, about what the larger, higher level meaning of all we have discussed means. I am practically asking you in the sense of, if you will, the meaning of life. Oh! I see you are grinning.
T. H.: Yes. Such a dilemma this question so often creates. But I do have a quick answer for you. Supposing, for instance, we used music to communicate with beings on other planets. I am referring to the idea of presenting ourselves, the human species, to the universe. This is actually a quest for the yet unknown, for exploration. I believe the system and style of music composition technique can still be explored and the open spaces for exploration are unlimited. The more we explore the more values we find within ourselves.
» Tributes
Tan Hainu's composition teachers in the United States include: Samuel Adler, Louis Karchin, Michael Gandolfi, Malcolm Peyton, John M. Kennedy, Chris Rozé, Chen Yi, James Mobberley, Paul Rudy, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Augusta Read Thomas, Gabriela Lena Frank, Forrest Pierce, Simone Fontanelli, Roberto Sierra, and David Tcimpidis.
Tan Hainu's composition teachers in China include: Guo Wenjing, Yan Dong, Fan Naixin, Cao Guangping, Chen Shuliu, and her father Tan Lue.