He Xin Nian (贺新年)

(This post is part of a series in conjunction with Chinese New Year 2017)

He Xin Nian

(贺新年)

Title translates to
"New Year Wishes".

A Chinese New year favourite.
Lively melody with interesting harmonization possibilities.
A surprise to discover that this song was around as long as 70 years ago.

Fan Zhang - Vocals (1948)
Very early recording of this piece.
Early 20th century Shanghai music saloon (shidaiqu) style.
Simple but non-trivial harmonization.
Spot the "Jingle Bells" easter egg!

Liu Wen Zheng - Vocals (1981)

 Dixieland-style setting with steady swing and jazzy riffs.
Some unexpectedly pleasant chord substitutions and
interesting bassline in the chorus.

Victor Wong - Vocals (2011)

Refreshing jazzy take.
Quiet jazz trio in the verse, and big band style chorus.

Some interesting reharmonization in the chorus.

Kirana Kay and Associates (2016)
Upbeat jazzy version.
Lively piano comping and very fast chromatic walking bass.




Malaysians Abroad - Acappella (2016)
Interesting take with some advanced reharmonization.
Close-harmony barbershop alternating with Chinese beatboxing.
Subtitles provides useful translation and transliteration of lyrics.






The Geometric Pianist - Piano (2017)
Piano Paraphrase inspired by the piano transcriptions of Rachmaninoff.
Maintains melodic and temporal fidelity.
Subtle reharmonization to liven things up.