Conductor Zhang Yi and the symphony orchestra of the National Ballet of China in a rehearsal of the new music piece, The Earth's Red Ribbon, in Beijing on Aug 28.

The new music piece will have its premiere in Beijing on Sept 12, marking the 90th anniversary of the victory of the epic Long March (1934-36).

More than 900 images once told the story of the Long March (1934-36) on paper. Now, those images are finding new life through sound.

On Sept 12, a new symphonic work, The Earth's Red Ribbon, will make its world premiere at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.

Created to mark the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March, the epic retreat by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China and a defining event in Chinese history, the work transforms a celebrated novel and an epic picture-story series into a sweeping orchestral journey.

The Earth's Red Ribbon is a landmark five-volume lianhuanhua, a traditional Chinese illustrated series, based on the novel of the same title by renowned Chinese writer Wei Wei (1920-2008). Adapted by Wang Su and illustrated by artist Shen Yaoyi, the series took six years to complete, from 1988 to 1993.

Featuring 926 illustrations, the work is widely regarded as a landmark of the revival of lianhuanhua in China during the 1980s, bringing one of modern Chinese history's most dramatic journeys to life through a vast visual narrative.

For conductor Zhang Yi, music director of the National Ballet of China and conductor of the premiere, the project has been years in the making.

He first encountered Shen's monumental illustrated series as a student. Decades later, while visiting an exhibition of Shen's work in 2016, he was struck again by its visual power. After reading Wei Wei's original novel, Zhang began to wonder: could these images transition to the concert stage?

"When I learned that there was not already a stage production, I felt a responsibility to take it on and create a symphonic version," Zhang said in Beijing on Aug 28, during an open rehearsal of the musical piece.

That idea has now become a twopart work created by young composers Shang Peilei and Luo Maishuo. The National Ballet of China jointly commissioned the project with the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, the Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra, and the Sichuan Philharmonic Orchestra.

The collaboration extends beyond the page.

For the Beijing premiere, musicians from the four orchestras will form a joint ensemble. After the Beijing premiere, the work will travel to Shanghai; Hangzhou, Zhejiang province; and Chengdu, Sichuan province, with each orchestra taking turns as the core ensemble while musicians from the other groups join them.

For Shen, historical authenticity lies in the details. The different ways people in Hunan and Jiangxi provinces carried their belongings — with shoulder poles or back baskets — may seem insignificant. Still, such details give history its texture and human reality. He believes that only art created with genuineness can convey genuine beauty.

To Shen, the emotional power of the Long March goes beyond its sweeping historical narrative. It is also found in the resilience and simplicity of the ordinary people who endured extraordinary hardship. As he once put it: "To understand modern China, one must understand the Long March — and every generation has its own Long March."

For him, revisiting history is not simply about retelling the past. It is about making historical memory tangible and relevant, allowing people today to understand its meaning and carry its spirit forward.

Zhang sees the model as a way to give the new work a longer life.

"Joint commissions are common internationally," he says. "They allow a work to be performed more intensively in different places, rather than being limited to one orchestra and one city."

The first half of the work, Singing Along the Long March, was composed by Shang and follows the historical trajectory of the Long March through five movements.

The journey begins with the Battle of the Xiangjiang River, continues through The Four Crossings of the Chishui River and other pivotal episodes, and ends with the Victorious Meeting (of the Red Army's major forces).

For Shang, the musical landscape of the regions the Red Army traveled through became an essential part of the score.

"Every place the Red Army passed through had its own folk music," she says. "That musical language is like a sonic marker — it gives the audience a direct auditory memory."

The score incorporates folk melodies from different regions, including the folk songs from Jiangxi province, music from Guizhou province, and songs of the Tibetan ethnic group in Sichuan province.

"I hope young audiences are encouraged by the work and find strength in their own journey through life," Shang says.

Luo takes a more concentrated approach in the second half, The Dawn of Heroes.

Rather than attempting to retell every event of the Long March chronologically, Luo selected four essential ideas: marching, battle, reunion, and victory.

One of the work's most theatrical moments comes from his depiction of the crossing of the Dadu River in Luding county, Garze Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Sichuan. The Red Army's crossing of the Dadu River was one of the Long March's most important events.

Six trumpets will be divided into two groups across the stage. Three, fitted with mutes, represent distant calls from the far banks of the river. The other three answer without mutes, creating a musical dialogue across an imagined battlefield, says Luo.

"The two groups of trumpets will be seated far apart on the stage," Luo says, allowing the audience to both hear and see the distance between the opposing sides.

For the young composer, however, the challenge went beyond illustrating historical scenes.

"We already had the words and the pictures," he says. "The difficult question was, how do we turn them into music?"

His answer was not to make music the final destination.

"I was thinking about how to present our generation's understanding of the Long March," Luo says. "If someone hears this work and then wants to read the novel, look at the picture-story series, or watch a documentary, that would already be something very meaningful."

Before composing the work, the creative team visited Shen's studio, where the artists immersed themselves in the painter's decades-long exploration of the Long March.

For conductor Zhang, seeing that visual world gradually transformed into an orchestral score has been one of the most moving parts of the project.

"It began as an idea," he says. "Then, little by little, with support from different people, I watched these pictures become musical notes."

The response from the creators of the original works has given the project further momentum. Wei Wei's son granted permission to use the title, while illustrator Shen visited rehearsals and heard his visual epic transformed into sound.

According to Zhang, Shen was deeply moved.

"He said that before coming to the rehearsal, he could never have imagined what sounds his paintings might become."

For Zhang, the work is also part of a larger question facing Chinese symphonic music. Western classical music has been in China for only about a century, he notes, and the development of a distinctive contemporary repertoire remains an ongoing task.

"The foundation of every great musical tradition is its works and its composers," he says.

Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn