Video by Liu Xudong

During the recent COVID-19 pandemic in Shenzhen, Angelo Castagneto, an Ecuadorian musician, with Chinese partners composed a song named “Spring Knows All” to pay tribute to frontline workers.

The Shenzhen Daily recorded the process of the production and interviewed the main participants.

The lyrics were written by Wang Fang, the secretary general of the Green Pine Care Foundation in Shenzhen, and is sung by Liu Xiao, a young singer graduating from Shenzhen University.

The creation of the song is by chance. Wang said she met a friend who had been away from home for over one week. His residential compound was locked down and he chose to stay at work. “He said that he must stay in the frontline. His words kept ringing in my mind. I couldn’t fall asleep that night and the line ‘spring knows all’ suddenly occurred to me.”

Castagneto met Wang last year in the Shenzhen Concert Hall during the “Multiethnic Children’s Choirs in Concert” that was supported by the Green Pine Care Foundation. The Ecuadorian recalled that when he received the lyrics, he was at his home studio. “I didn’t think about anything. I went directly to the piano. I started to play and found the melody. I think the first feeling is most important. The process was very fast based on my experience creating songs for over 30 years.”

“I tried to understand the lyrics quickly; it gives people encouragement to face the problems we have, not only the pandemic in China, also the problems that affect us all as human beings,” he said.

Castagneto thinks that emotion is extremely significant when creating music. “I asked Wang Fang what she wanted to express. I understand the emotions that the song wants to convey are compassion and kindness, like the first hug. That’s why I started to create a song just with the piano because it’s my favorite instrument.”

Wang speaks highly of Castagneto’s composition. “When I finished the lyrics, the first composer I thought of was him. What surprised me was that in less than five minutes, he sent me a demo, in which he hummed a simple tune. It sounds gentle but with determination. Instantly, I felt a connection with him.” She said that Castagneto came up with something new every day, and finished writing the melodies quickly. “After listening to the full song, I felt the same emotional power that touched me while I was writing the lyrics.”

The lyrics, which have Shenzhen elements such as Bougainvillea and mangroves, came out in Chinese first and an English version was later translated by Shenzhen Daily. Talking about the expression in the two languages, Castagneto commented that the Chinese version is so beautifully written and the lyrics in English have the same power as in the Chinese version.

He said that the lyrics express the uncertainty and the questions to which people may not need a real answer directly. “Just listen to the birds, nature and the spring, you will find the answer. I hope the words can really touch everybody’s heart.”

“Just as spring will always come after winter, Shenzhen will soon embrace a spring with full blossoms,” Wang said.

Usually, Castagneto spends about one month creating a song, but not this time. “I’m so moved. How a group of strangers can come together in such a short time to create a song that is so beautiful and supportive,” he said emotionally.

Shenzhen Daily fully participated in and recorded the production of the song, and made an MV for it. As the first media institution that reported this story, Shenzhen Daily also made a bilingual video which was promoted by Shenzhen Musician Association, Shenzhen Federation of Literature and Arts Circles as well as Futian Public Culture and Sports Development Center. This music cooperation also attracted other media outlets such as web portal sina.com to cover.