You Have No Choice

A Chamber Music Project in Co-operation with the Ensemble Modern

Curator: Liu Sola

In 1977, following the official declaration that the Cultural Revolution had come to an end, the Beijing Conservatory reopened its doors. For the first time in many years, a class of composition students enrolled there. Many of the students had been through re-education centres or had to perform compulsory agricultural labour in the countryside. The composition class that graduated in 1983 was unique in many ways. It stands for the opening up and modernisation of China in a way that was unprecedented at the time, and has remained unparalleled since. Before the class made its mark, revolutionary pathos reigned supreme; nowadays, the laws of the market prevail. China’s currently most important composers emerged from this class. As students, they grew up and received instruction in the shadow of the Cultural Revolution: they were free spirits who had become tired of Revolutionary works and found inspiration in new developments. They travelled the world too. Their works were discussed in China with a vehemence that has seen no parallel before or since. The project You Have No Choice presents the much celebrated and criticised members of this composition class with both commissioned works and older compositions. It also follows their development since the 1980s and examines their current artistic positions and the underlying conditions. "You Have No Choice" is the title of a book by Liu Sola, a student from this class. She is now a composer and novelist, as well as being the artistic director of this project. Her book portrays the class of ’83 and its artistic search between drill and revolt, which led to its selling millions of copies. The novel still enjoys cult status among the young: it is a plea for people to be rebellious and to make an effort to understand the older generation. This project is an important part of the programme "China - Between Past and Future", because cultural memory, cultural heritage and its appropriation are questions of great importance, especially for contemporary Chinese music. Traditional Chinese music has passed through different stages: its encounter with European classical music, the establishment of Soviet-type conservatories, the Cultural Revolution with its revolutionary songs and, finally, the encounter with contemporary Western music, rock, pop and jazz. Current Chinese compositions have absorbed these sediments. The composers from the ‘83 Class found themselves in a schizophrenic situation: on the one hand, they received acclaim throughout the country for their artistic courage and were celebrated like pop stars. They were famous to a degree that we would find inconceivable for composers of contemporary music in Germany. On the other hand, they were harshly criticised by both older and younger fellow musicians. Older composers accused them of having abandoned the ideals of Communism and of composing high-handed, snobbish music that only served their own pleasure and not the glory of the peasants and workers. Today’s generation of 20 to 30-year olds criticises them for adhering too closely to the old ideals, and claims that they do not express themselves freely enough, and that they are not Western or ‘modern’ enough.

A panel discussion will be devoted to history of this composition class, its own position and criticism of the class.