Wong Jum-sum loved music of all kinds, and had a particularly deep-seated passion for Western classical music.

In the 1950s, both Wong and classical music were finding their feet in Hong Kong society. The best they could do was to openly embrace the unknown.

To embrace the unknown, one needs support from all directions.

Thanks to Radio Hong Kong, Wong was able to listen to enticing music all day everyday, in that process learning to appreciate simultaneously the distinctive worlds of Shankar and Schubert.

Thanks to Leung Yat-chiu, he knew classical music held no special mystical aura. Whatever sounded good was good music.

Thanks to Wong Jum-sum himself, he learnt to read and absorb the principles and practices of making music, no matter whether they came from Bach or Beethoven.

Thanks to Hong Kong of the 1950s, he encountered a succession of visiting maestros, extending immensely his ideas about music and life.

Brahms: Symphony No.4 In E minor, Op. 98 (1st movement) (1958) (excerpt)

Wong Jum-sum was involved in making film music in the 1950s. It was a time when the film industry (in particular the Cantonese one) did not treat film music as seriously as it should. ‘Canned music’ was widely used. Classical music, unaccredited, often became part of the soundtrack.

Many films thus presented a mélange of excerpts from the repertoire, and they ironically became the entry point for many youngsters into the enticing world of classical music.

The first film that Wong was involved in was The Malaya Love Affair. The title sequence had the first movement of Brahms Fourth Symphony as accompaniment. Interesting time indeed.

Composer:
Johannes Brahms

Performers: Bruno Walter
conducting the Columbia
Symphony Orchestra