Sunlight Shines on the Red Scarf: A Collection of Children's Songs by He Yajie

Author: He Ping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: He Yajie (1926-1998), native of Jining, Shandong. Child music composer, music educator, and child music theorist. In 1944, he enrolled in Beijing Fu Ren University (the predecessor of Beijing Normal University). After graduating from university in 1948, he began his music career, serving as the head of the publicity section at the third People's Cultural Center in Tianjin. In 1949, he started his music education career, successively teaching music at Tianjin Experimental Primary School, Tianjin Heping District Normal School, Tianjin Xinhua Part-time University, and Tianjin Kindergarten Normal School. During this period, from 1957 to 1959, he studied for two years in the composition class at the Central Conservatory of Music under the guidance of the Soviet expert Professor Kanchinsky. In 1980, he furthered his studies in the graduate program of the composition department at Tianjin Conservatory of Music.
Before his passing, he was a senior lecturer at Tianjin Kindergarten Normal School, a member of the China Music, and had served as the vice chairman of the Tianjin branch of the China Music, as well as a member of the theoretical composition committee and the education committee. He was also the director of the Tianjin branch of the China Democratic League and the head of the selection group for outstanding primary school music teaching demonstrations in Tianjin. Additionally, he served as the vice chairman of the committee for evaluating senior professional titles in Tianjin's secondary vocational schools. He was involved in the establishment of the Tianjin Teachers' Choir and held leadership positions within it.
Since the 1950s, He Yajie has composed and published over 300 musical works, including the outstanding representative piece "Never Waste a Minute," which have won awards and had a wide impact both nationally and in Tianjin. He has also published numerous articles on music education theory and music criticism. Among his students, many have become leading figures and backbone members of China's music industry, while others have become internationally renowned musicians.