If you have ever listened to the Yellow River Cantata , you will surely be attracted by its bold tune, majestic melody and unconstrained spirit. You may get the impression that the Yellow River has played an important role in the Chinese history and culture. The composer and writer of the Yellow River Cantata presented an excellent masterwork to the musical history. Xian Xinghai, the composer, has completed hundreds of musical works and lots of musical theses in his short lifetime.

Xian Xinghai was born in Fanyu of Guangdong Province in south China. When he was in the middle school of the Lingnan University, he took part in a band and played violin and clarinet. He went to the music department of Beijing Technical School of Art for violin studying in 1926 and went to Shanghai Conservatory to study violin and piano in 1928. He was a student of D'Indy & Dukas when studied in France in 1930. He passed the examination for the Paris Conservatory in 1931 and went back to China in 1935.

Xian was one of the great one-hit-wonders of 20th century music. He composed a lot of vocal scores for the anti-Japanese war from 1935 to 1938. When in 1938 Guang Weiran written the lyrics of the Yellow River Cantata, he composed the score as soon as possible. Xian Xinghai went to Moscow at the end of 1940. The war between Russia and Germany started at the second year, so he couldn't go back. Due to the bad health and the hardship of life, he died in 1945, 40 years old. For his great contribution to the musical composition, he was reputed as the People's Musician.