Shanghai depicted in music: odes to joy celebrating the rapture of the city

How does one depict a city with music? Composer and pianist Luo Wei's answer comes in his most recent album entitled "Aria di Shanghai."

Created along with the bel canto group Vocal Force, the "Aria of Shanghai" album combines both classical and pop music to convey the idea of experiencing the city through listening.

Most of the pieces in the album are titled with landmarks of the city, such as "A Stroll on Huaihai Road," "Fenyang Road Vocalize" and "Garden Bridge Intermezzo."

"It's like a diary in the form of music," said the Guangdong-born musician, who has been living in Shanghai for 17 years. "I wanted to turn streets in the city into songs and music."

Luo, 35, is known for his "piano essays," which resemble diaries in the form of piano pieces. He has also composed music for movies and games, including theme songs for the MSI Mid-Season World Championship of the game "League of Legends."

Luo told Shanghai Daily that initially he had intended to title the works in the new album as journal entries – with names like "November 23rd, Shanghai, Overcast" – to unfold the emotions and stories of a specific day. Later, however, places instead of days started to become his inspiration.

He was born into a musical family. His father is a choir conductor and once a vocal instructor at a music conservatory in the city of Guangzhou, and his mother is a violinist. Luo began learning the piano at age 5, and later attended the prestigious Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

In his compositions, he initially adopted the perspective of an observer. One piece exemplifies his enchantment with the intersection of Fuxing W. and Huashan roads, where he frequently used to have coffee and observe people around him.

"I might come up with ideas like 'The End of Fuxing Road W.' or 'The Long Huashan Road,' and then I'll start imagining the passers-by outside the window," he said. "I imagine what these people are doing. Have they just left school? Are they rushing to watch a play? Such imaginings inform my creations. As soon as I sit down at the piano in the recording studio, I start reminiscing about the ambience of that street."

From Luo's personal perspective, the city's image is probably not quite the same as its commonplace promotion as stylish, fashionable, and exciting. To him, the core of Shanghai is always "classical."

Luo still remembers what Wukang and Anfu roads were like a decade ago when he worked at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center on Anfu Road. There was not much of today's nightlife back then; he enjoyed a different style of night there.

"Back then, I often rode my bike around midnight in those areas, when the whole city felt quiet and serene," he said. "During those peaceful moments, there was a sense that I was the only person in the city. and it felt good."

Luo introduces musical instrumentation beyond just the piano to capture the "classicism" of the city. The English horn was used in "Aria di Shanghai" to manifest a morning in Xuhui and Huangpu districts.

"Shanghai's early mornings are somewhat cool and refreshing," he said. "To express that in sound, I wouldn't use something straining like an oboe; rather, it would be a sound that brings relaxation. So I spontaneously thought of the English horn."

He added, "When composing about places like the Huangpu River, I instinctively use a lot of stringed instruments because I feel that they create a sense of flowing and winding."

Nowadays, Luo is no longer content to be just an observer. He said he wants to include more "people" in his music about Shanghai, which at least partly explains why Vocal Force joined the production of "Aria di Shanghai."

In truth, it's challenging to depict people through music, according to Luo. Describing architecture or elegance is less difficult with the piano because one can always find a suitable angle. But when it comes to depicting people and their conversations, it can all become quite abstract.

Luo said that he is now working on a new album themed on Hongkou District.

"A piece among the piano concerto works that I recently composed was inspired by a time when I went to watch the sunrise from the Zhapu Road Bridge in Hongkou," he said.

It was 6am, he recalled. He unexpectedly encountered many people who had gathered on the bridge to photograph the sunrise. The bridge, which was just emerging from the tranquil envelop of darkness, suddenly bustled. And once the shutterbugs left the bridge, the serene ambience of early morning instantly returned.

"This kind of ebb and flow was quite amazing, and I wanted to capture it in music," he said. "And then I strolled along Zhapu Road and came to the front of a century-old movie theater, where I saw people riding bicycles and sending their kids to school. And I wanted to include that in the work as well."

Another piece about Hongkou District is entitled "Letters to the Distant Horizon," which is dedicated to the General Post Office Building in Shanghai, which will celebrate its centennial this December.

"The scenario I imagined was a foreign tourist arriving in Shanghai by cruise ship," Luo said, reliving an image in his mind's eye. "Suppose he visits the Shanghai Postal Museum in the building and decides to send a postcard to his relatives back home. "What would he write on this postcard? Perhaps he has just witnessed the sunrise over the Zhapu Road Bridge like I did. How would he share his feelings of that moment? I think it would be a truly wonderful moment to be captured in music."

Meanwhile, Luo also expects to include more laborers in his works. A piece called "Saying Thanks When the Streetlights Go Out" is one example. The work was inspired by the time that he arranged to play piano throughout the night on the Bund.

"When I finished, the streetlights on the Bund's viewing platform went out," he said. "I think it was around 5:30am, and a bus drove past me. I somehow felt like I had come back home after being away."

He added, "When I stopped playing your music, I started to hear various sounds – sounds of sanitation workers cleaning streets, sounds of buses. Sounds that I may not have noticed before but became suddenly audible. When the streetlights went out, most people were still at home sleeping, while others who keep the city running had already started their workday."