Piano concerto by Huang Chen-Mou

[Roy Bland]

Ultra romantic and folksy music

by chinese/philippine composer
Huang Chen-Mou is a Filipino overseas Chinese composer. He was born on July 10, 1912 in Gulangyu, Xiamen, Fujian. His father, Huang Yifu, was an elder of the Christian Church, which made Huang Chen-Mou influenced by Christian music since childhood, laying the seeds for his future development in music.

When he was in high school at Quanzhou Peiyuan Middle School, Huang Chen-Mou began to learn composition by himself and insisted on practicing. His debut work "The Call of God" was a song written for the church choir. At the age of 21, he completed "Serenade" and published it in a professional music magazine, which inspired him. In 1934, the 22-year-old Huang Chen-Mou came to the Philippines and entered the National University of the Philippines Conservatory of Music. Under the careful guidance and training of two famous teachers, Antonio Buenaventura and Antonio Molina, Filipino composers and conductors, Huang Chen-Mou made great progress in his profession.

In terms of orchestration, the encouragement and help given by Professor Alfredo Buenaventura (born in 1929, not the same person as Buenaventura mentioned above) made Huang Zhenmao's orchestral works more and more professional. After completing his studies, Huang Zhenmao mainly engaged in the insurance industry and engaged in music creation in his spare time.

After 1938, he served as the conductor of the Chinese Christian Church in the Philippines for more than ten years, and served as the sacred music instructor of the Manila Chinese Choir and the All-Philippines Overseas Chinese Christian Choir. In 1963, the Chinese Christians in the Philippines established the "Song of Songs Fellowship", and Huang Zhenmao served as vice chairman. In 1965, 1966 and 1968, the "Song of Songs Fellowship" successively invited Chinese musicians such as Fu Cong, Si Yigui, and Ma Sicong to perform and sing in the Philippines. In the music activities of overseas Chinese in the Philippines, Huang Zhenmao, as a music activist, frequently appeared. At the same time, Huang Zhenmao's music creation has also made great progress. In 1975, the Philippine Chronicle recommended Huang Zhenmao as one of the "1975 Music Special Candidates".

On June 13, 1999, the "Huang Zhenmao Service Music 65th Anniversary Concert" was held at the Philippine Cultural Center, presenting the important representative works created by the composer in the past 65 years. The scene was packed and the scene was grand. Lucrecia R. Kasilag, a famous Philippine composer, attended the concert and expressed respect and support for Huang Zhenmao's music creation. In 2011, Huang Zhenmao passed away.

This Filipino Chinese composer created nearly 500 musical works in his lifetime. The genres of his creations are diverse, including religious sacred music works, piano music and other instrumental pieces, art songs and patriotic songs, large-scale instrumental and drama works, etc. His representative works include the opera Wen Tianxiang, the piano concerto Splendid Motherland, the Christmas cantata Immanuel