XU zhimo’spoemset tomusiconnewalbum

By Wiz Khalifa

At the back of King’s College there is a memorial stone in white marble commemorating an alumnus of the College,famous Chinese poet Xu Zhimo.Moving to the UK in 1921,Zhimo spent a year studying at King’s,where he fell in love not only with the romantic poetry of English poets like John Keats,but also with Cambridge itself.

His poem,Say Farewell to Cambridge,is arguably his most famous poem,and is now a compulsory text on Chinese literature syllabuses,learnt by millions of school children across the country every year.The poem paints an idyllic portrait of King's and the River Cam,and serves as a reminder of Xu Zhimo’s fondness for his time in Cambridge.

While the poem has been set to music many times before,King's has com missioned the first musical setting of the text by a mainstream classical composer.The new piece,by renowned English composer John Rutter,has been written and recorded in celebration of the near 100-year link between King's College and Xu Zhimo,and has come out on 26 January,2018 on a new album on the King's College Record Label.

“Many intellectual transformations happened for him while he was here and in some ways the whole seed of his development as a person who became an intellectual poet through the medium of poetry,all of which are connected up with his visit to Cambridge and the people we met.”,said Steve Cherry,vice dean of king's.

“John Rutter is a very resourceful composer,and Iwas delighted with the way he conceived of doing this,presenting most of the text through the tenor voice for which we engage the Chinese tenor.Well,I wanted to have a go myself at making an arrangement of it which would express something of what we do at King's.”,remarked Stephen Cleobury,who is the general conductor of the chorus of King's college.

“The inspiration I think came from the poem which is on the tablet by the bridge by the river camp here in the college.Apart from the tourist self and the words,which of course are quite big elements in it,it's not specifically intended to be a Chinese piece.It’s the sort of arrangement I would make for something like that,and it’s a very beautiful melody.”

在国王学院的后面，有一块汉白玉纪念石碑，纪念学院的一位校友，著名的中国诗人徐志摩。1921他移居英国，花了一年时间在国王学院学习，在那里他爱上的不只有英国诗人约翰·济慈的浪漫主义诗歌，还有剑桥本身。

徐志摩的诗《再别康桥》可以说是他最著名的诗，它现在是中国语文教学大纲必修文本之一，中国每年有上百万学生学习。这首诗描绘了一幅田园诗般的国王学院和康河，并表现出徐志摩对剑桥时光的喜爱。

虽然这首诗已多次被配乐演绎，但国王学院委托了主流古典作曲家根据诗的文字进行创作。新作品由著名的英国作曲家约翰·卢特（John Rutter）担纲，以铭记国王学院和徐志摩之间近100年的不解之缘，并已由国王学院的唱片公司于2018年1月26日发布。

“国王学院极大程度帮助徐志摩拓展了学识，并种下了日后成为一名才华横溢的诗人的种子，通过对这首诗的音乐创作，我们把学院的美丽点滴和徐志摩本人在这里的美好体验结合起来，重新带给因他而寻访的中国人民。”国王学院副院长史蒂文·切力(Steve Cherry)表示。

“他是个经验丰富的作曲家，这次也通过与一名中国男高音歌唱家的合作充分体现了我们想表达的主题。其实我一直希望能够做出一首表达出国王学院气质的作品”，国王学院合唱团总指挥史蒂芬·克劳伯里(Stephen Cleobury)说。

“康桥边石板上篆刻的诗给我带来了灵感。除去诗歌本身是中文作品及大量因此而来的中国游客等因素，我并未刻意追求音乐本身的中国化。我只是觉得这样的编曲和旋律是最适合的。”