Educated at conservatories in Shanghai and Paris, Xian Xinghai blended Western polyphonic composition with traditional Chinese modes. In wartime China he composed patriotic symphonic and choral works, including the defiant Yellow River Cantata, which he wrote for minimal orchestration at the revolutionary base in Yan’an in 1939. In both its fully orchestrated form and a later piano concerto adaptation by Chengzong Yin, the piece remains enormously influential.