-A Music Night in the Graduation Season
Stars, breeze, light and songs, for the pre-graduates at Wuhan University, this is a night to remember. Fierce rock, emotional blues, trendy pop and romantic ballads, so close to graduation, nothing tells their mixed feelings better than music. On the last night of May, hundreds of students gathered on the Meiyuan sports ground to watch the Pre-graduated Band Valedictory Show, celebrating their last days on campus with original music telling their personal stories of youth and campus life.
The Pre-graduated Band Valedictory Show was held by Wuhan University Original Music Association, a club that gathers talented song writers, independent bands and singers around the campus. Despite regular activities such as releasing albums, they organized shows on the theme of graduation since 2011. This year’sshow invited bands and singers in senior years both on-and-off campus.
The show began at nightfall. The first band set the stage on fire with heavy metal music. The crowd yelled and danced to the rhythm. Four independent student bands then gave performances of various styles. Grassy Garden was the first. This is a band formed by 5 students from different majors of Wuhan University, two of whom are going to graduate this year.
The band mixes traditional Chinese ballad with rock. Qinfeng,Wuyi is the name of the song they performed on the Valedictory Show. Its lyrics derive from the Book of Songs, a collection of ancient Chinese poems and ballads, while its music style is typical modern rock. “The ancient poem Wuyi sings about good morale and the brotherhood of soldiers in the battle field, however, we adapt it to sing about our deep friendship on campus”, said the singer.
They also seemed expert in adapting the stage to their show’s needs. At the end of their jam, they lit up the whole atmosphere with a rock version of the WHU school song, which came as a unique way of expressing their love for the university.
（Singers from different bands giving impressive performances）
The second part of show consisted of solos given by pre-graduated singers. Students from various schools sang their favorite pieces. Unlike the bands preferring heavy rock music genders, solo singers tended to choose gentle pop or ballads. Their emotional voices touched the audience deeply.
Zhang Keru, one of the graduate singers, has written many popular campus folk songs in the past few years. In 2014, he launched an album called The Cherry Blossom Castle, which is named after the well-known sight at WHU every spring time. He brought the audiences a few songs from the album on the Valedictory Show “This is my last time on the stage at Wuhan University. Wherever we are in the future, I hope we’ll all return to the Cherry Blossom Castle someday, ” he said.
（Zhang Keru, taking a picture with the audiences and crying “Happy graduation!” together）
Singer Zhou Baizhou is a student at the School of Journalism and Communication. He played his guitar on stage many times during college years. “I’d like to address many thanks to Wuhan University and the Original Music Association for providing me with so many opportunities and resources! The open campus atmosphere allows us to create our own music, freely.”
(Zhou Baizhou, singing soulfully on the stage)
The night ended with a chorus performance of all the pre-graduate singers. They sang the song Group Photo (Hezhao) from the album Luoying by Wuhan University Original Music Association. “Friends in the group photo/Things we used to know/Flower blossoms while the time flies/Old days where I find you......”Sentimental lyrics spoke out the truehearted words of all the pre-graduates.
“Original music touches me most. I’m sure to be back for the next show,” said Zheng Jinming, a philosophy student who’s going to graduate next month.
(Edited by Diana & Sijia Hu)
