Classic poem gets music video
A new music video for the song Second Farewell to Cambridge, adapted from Chinese poet Xu Zhimo's famous composition, has been released by the King's College Record Label to mark Lunar New Year.
It was shot on location at King's College, Cambridge, the place Xu portrayed in his poem, which was set to music by English composer John Rutter in the summer of 2018. It was performed by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, under the baton of Stephen Cleobury, music director of the choir and features a performance by Chinese tenor Wang Bo.
The poem has been set to music before, but not by a mainstream classical composer, according to Benjamin Sheen, a graduate of Oxford University, who sang with the choir from 2012 to 2014 and now produces its recordings.
Sheen notes that Rutter, one of the foremost English composers of his generation, spent a long time researching the origins and the meaning of the poem, ensuring that the setting of the music was appropriate.
