Background of Composition

In 1936, when the Japanese fascists brought the war of aggression to China, Sun Shen, who was studying for a degree in music, threw himself into the army and joined the field service team led by the Chinese ****anese Communist Party. The life-and-death war of anti-Japanese salvation aroused his creative passion. On the eve of the outbreak of the all-out war of resistance, Sun Shen wrote the song in Shanghai.?

The author composed this song in Shanghai according to the experience and needs of the struggle life and mass singing activities in the anti-Japanese salvation movement. It was sung for the first time by an amateur choir, and was published in April of the same year in the 12th issue of the first volume of Life Knowledge, which is a special issue on national defense music.

In 1935, when the Japanese invasion forces pushed into North China, the Chinese ****production party called on the whole country to rise up to fight against the Japanese and save the country. on December 9, students in Beiping held a demonstration to demand an end to the civil war and the implementation of the resistance against the Japanese, which was responded to by students and patriotic personalities from all over the world, and formed a new climax of the patriotic salvation movement of the whole country. During the anti-Japanese salvation movement, musicians composed a large number of mass songs, which had a great impact on the masses.

Poet Zhou Gangming and composer Sun Shen wrote "Salvation in Progress" at the beginning of 1936, which expressed the determination of the whole nation to rise up to save the country and fight against the Japanese imperialists, regardless of whether they were workers, peasants, soldiers, scholars or businessmen. The appealing song inspired the demonstrators, and after it was published in April 1936 in the Defense Music Special of Life Knowledge, it quickly became popular nationwide and became one of the representative songs of the anti-Japanese salvation movement.

Song Appreciation

Salvation March is one of the representative anti-Japanese salvation songs, which greatly inspired the struggles of the demonstrating masses and quickly spread all over the motherland. The song expresses the patriotic fervor of the Chinese people at that time, who were united in their struggle for survival and salvation, regardless of whether they were workers, peasants, academics, soldiers or businessmen, and their firm determination to defeat Japanese imperialism and recover their lost territories.

This is a marching song with a fighting spirit. The rhythm of the cadence and the affirmative tone of the cadence run through the whole piece, giving it a great impetus and a resilient character. The first section consists of a firm dotted rhythm and a four-degree progression, on which the song is based and developed into a three-part structure. The rhythm is strong and powerful, as if it were a resilient and indestructible warrior. At that time, the melody of "March of Salvation" greatly inspired hundreds of millions of people to fight against the war.