Fu Lei on Music

Author: Fu Lei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-05-01
Features: Fu Lei (1908-1966), a renowned Chinese literary and artistic translator, art critic, and connoisseur. In his early years, he studied in France and was deeply influenced by Roman Rolland, developing a passion for music. By the mid-1930s, he had already made significant studies in both Chinese and Western music history, and over time, his expertise in musical art grew even deeper. His music reviews, compositions, and correspondence with Fu Cong and other world-class musicians are all insightful and reveal profound understanding. A letter home from him is even celebrated as the "best reading material for cultivating artistic apprenticeship," captivating generations of readers and remaining a bestseller. Fu Lei was trained in art history, and his studies in Paris were also focused on European art history. His enthusiasm for music was entirely personal, and his musical cultivation was self-taught, grounded in European art to appreciate European music, occasionally incorporating the aesthetic perspectives of Chinese literati. Thus, some of his reviews and viewpoints are quite "humanistic"—blending European art, music, and Chinese poetry to form a syncretic musical art perspective. Reading his translations of Beethoven: The Master and His World and John Christopher leaves everyone amazed at his musical art. Fu Lei's specialized works on music, apart from his early Beethoven: His Life and Works, are scattered across various periodicals from different eras. However, what truly reflects his musical art philosophy and allows people to fully appreciate his profound musical expertise is his Letters from Fu Lei, published fifteen years after his tragic death. This book selects limited surviving materials from the Cultural Revolution era, compiling discussions on musical art and artistic cultivation into four parts: "Music Reviews," "Music Appreciation," "Music Letters," and "Conversations with Fu Cong About Music." One piece, The Development of Music History, was discovered at the end of last year. This article shows that as early as the mid-1930s, Fu Lei not only loved and appreciated music but had also made significant studies in the history of both Chinese and Western music. A large portion of the book consists of excerpts from his letters on music, including two to Xia Yan, eight to Zhevitzky, five to Menuhin, and eighty to his older brother. The section "Conversations with Fu Cong About Music" includes Fu Lei's Musical Notes, which contain his personal insights into musical art as well as research materials on certain composers that he translated and annotated, sending them all the way to his son to help Fu Cong grow from adolescence to adulthood. Not only did Fu Cong become an internationally renowned pianist, but he also became a respected artist of both talent and virtue.