Composer Yang Zongnan
Screenshot of the video "Let's Sing a Song Together"
Yang Zongnan, Fang Wenshan, Du Sumin (from left to right)
Recently, a song "We Sing a Song Together" has spread all over the Internet, and it has received a response from the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, calling it "a New Year's gift from musicians on both sides of the strait to everyone." ”
"We Sing a Song Together" is composed by Fang Wenshan, composed by Yang Zongnan, and sung by Xiao Jingteng, Ouyang Nana, Chen Linong, 3 Taiwanese singers, and Yuan Yawei and Zhang Jie, two mainland singers. The song is based on the background of the three brothers and sisters in Taiwan who went to Fujian to find their ancestral homeland after the death of their grandfather, and the lyrics are combined with Mandarin and Hokkien dialect, which fully demonstrates the family affection of Taiwan compatriots who are homesick and look forward to reunion, and the blood of compatriots on both sides of the strait is thicker than water.
Composer Yang Zongnan is a native of Quanzhou, Fujian Province, and his understanding of "the two sides of the strait has always been one." In an interview with the Beijing Youth Daily reporter, he told the experience of creating the song. This is the most unusual creation he has ever created in the industry, and the first collaboration with his friend Fang Wenshan is full of fun.
The original intention of the creation
Nostalgia and reunion are the themes
Melody with "Chinese style"
As a post-80s musician, Yang Zongnan has created many excellent musical works, such as "Walking the End of the World", "The Streets and Alleys of Blossoms", "A Touch of Sunset", "Have You Ever Heard" and so on. In recent years, Yang Zongnan's creation has returned to the feelings of home and country, and more emotional expressions have been poured into the longing for his hometown.
Yang Zongnan's ancestral home is Quanzhou, Fujian Province, and his childhood experience of living on the shore of the strait also gave him a special feeling for his compatriots on the "other side". As early as 2018, he created a song "The Streets and Alleys of Flowers", which tells the homesickness of wanderers and has also touched many people, including Du Sumin, who is planned by the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Program Center of the Central Radio and Television Corporation, and du Sumin, editor-in-chief of the Taiwan Strait, and this time "We Sing a Song Together" was initiated by the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Program Center. In July 2021, when Du Sumin, also from Quanzhou, approached Yang Zongnan and expressed his desire to create a song with the theme of "singing cross-strait reunions", Yang Zongnan felt that this coincided with his own ideas.
"We have known from a young age that the other side of the strait are our compatriots, and when I composed "The Streets and Alleys of Flowers", I also hoped that this song could spread to Taiwan and overseas, evoking their homesickness. I would also like to create works of this kind of subject, which is equivalent to a one-shot fit. Everyone agreed that when mentioning compatriots on both sides of the strait, the first thing that came to mind was nostalgia and the same root, so they decided to take "nostalgia" as the theme, "At that time, we all thought of the poem "Nostalgia" in the afterglow, 'When I was a child, nostalgia was a small stamp, I was here, and my mother was there. So at that time, the theme of our lyrics was determined to be nostalgia, reunion, and hometown. ”
And the melody of the song, Yang Zongnan has long been aware of it, "because in the hearts of every Chinese, the most recognized mode is the five-tone scale, which is also a particularly popular Chinese style music in recent years." Different ethnic groups have their own musical forms, as long as people of their own nationality hear this music will have a strong sense of identity, because this music is integrated into the blood, and whether it is a mainlander or a Taiwan compatriot, they are all descendants of Yanhuang and shed the same blood, so the tune is set to a five-tone scale. ”
Air cooperation
Fang Wenshan's cheerful "leading the task"
Arrogantly put the words "I can fill in"
Determining the theme and direction of the song, Yang Zongnan also thought that this song should be co-created with Taiwanese musicians in order to resonate with compatriots on both sides of the strait and highlight its profound meaning. So he proposed to invite Fang Wenshan to write lyrics, not only because he and Fang Wenshan had been friends for many years, but the latter's achievements in creating Chinese songs, especially his study of Chinese culture and his love for traditional culture, meant that he was suitable and fully qualified for the creation of this song.
The connection between Yang Zongnan and Fang Wenshan is that in an activity to promote traditional Chinese culture, "he has a very deep affection for the culture of the Chinese nation, and has been in exchange for many years, and they have this sense of cultural identity with the same roots and origins, but they have not cooperated in music."
This is the first musical collaboration between the two in 9 years of acquaintance. Yang Zongnan said, "I thought it was reasonable that Fang Wenshan would agree, but unexpectedly, I didn't expect him to agree so cheerfully, almost in seconds, he said it was very no problem, we must create this song well." ”
Because it was the first time to cooperate, Yang Zongnan asked Fang Wenshan's creative habits, whether to compose the music first and then fill in the words, or to compose the music first, what Yang Zongnan did not expect was that Fang Wenshan replied: Brother Zongnan, you can write it well, I can fill in.
"When he said this, he immediately provoked my fighting spirit, and I wrote it exactly as I thought." So Yang Zongnan planned to complete his composition work in no more than two weeks, and then record it as a sample and send it to Fang Wenshan.
Yang Zongnan filled in the word proposal
Specify the number of words, elements
Because a lot of preparation work has been done, Yang Zongnan paid special attention to the news of the entire Fujian region, looked over the photos of his life in Quanzhou when he was a child, and also watched some movies and books about the cultures of the two places. The next day after communicating with Fang Wenshan, Yang Zongnan drove out, and inspiration suddenly came to the road, and a picture suddenly appeared in his mind: the typical building in southern Fujian- Dacuo, which is the "red brick house" mentioned in the lyrics, which is also Yang Zongnan's childhood memory, a group of children jumping and reading the Three Character Sutra. So Yang Zongnan parked the car on the side of the road and wrote down some melodies along this screen, which are the A part of the song, all of which are three words stringed together.
"It can be said that it was all in one go, I sat in the car, recorded the A part with my mobile phone, and then the melody of the chorus came out, and I was going to go out to run errands, so I quickly turned around and went home and made a sample." This sample is different from the small sample that Yang Zongnan has made in the past, and it is very unique, Yang Zongnan himself filled in the words first, and the content is the requirements for Fang Wenshan to fill in the words.
"I sing these lyrics, for example, Brother Wenshan, you fill in the lyrics in Mandarin, and then the chorus part I sing in Hokkien dialect. In fact, I also gave him a problem, generally speaking, the filler words may be based on the melody of the music, some words have two notes, some words have one note, but the sample I gave him is equivalent to the number of words, where to use Mandarin, where to use Hokkien. ”
In addition, when communicating with Du Sumin about the theme and direction of the song before, it was determined that the lyrics should be integrated into the characteristic elements of Fujian and Taiwan, such as red brick houses, tea, etc., including the spirit of "love to fight to win", Yang Zongnan also wrote into the sample, "I sang it in a very humorous way, I said that you are the person of the red brick house, I am the person next door, I sang some some nonsensical words, but sang my ideas about this song to Wenshan." He couldn't laugh when he received the sample, saying that it was the first time in his life that he had seen such a special sample. ”
When making a small sample, in order not to lose inspiration, Yang Zongnan did not eat from morning to night, so he sang a sentence "I know you are working hard, I am also working, we can't eat enough at noon", and then write a variety of eat together (make a line to eat). Yang Zongnan recalled that he was indeed hungry at that time, "Now it seems quite interesting." ”
Fang Wenshan "Lose people do not lose"
Bilingual and top is a pleasant surprise
For such a "propositional composition", Fang Wenshan received it all according to the order, and sent the lyrics a week later. Seeing Fang Wenshan's words, everyone felt that this was a big surprise.
The song is bilingual in Minpu, and the lyrics are available in Hokkien and Mandarin. In Yang Zongnan's view, it is difficult to fill in the words with these two words, and it is more difficult to connect the two words naturally and smoothly. Because it's not just two words together, it needs to have the same rhyme. Fang Wenshan also adopted the top-truth technique in the rhetoric of the lyrics, the adjacent sentences are connected head to tail, and it is very interesting to pass up and down, which not only makes the song singing more emotional, but also represents the wish for the close connection and reunification of the two sides of the strait.
"Then we did a connection, we didn't meet when we wrote this song, he was in Taipei, I was in Beijing, we were working together over the air. We have known each other for so many years, the first video call, usually do not meet is WeChat voice, text, never video. That time in the online chat, he said that he was stimulated by me, he used Hokkien dialect to 'lose people do not lose', I listened to it and felt very kind, this is a sentence I often said when I was a child, he saw such a creative sample, the morale was aroused, felt that it must be completed and done well. In fact, at first I was provoked by him, he said I can fill in whatever you write, and then I made so many requests. This is a kind of mutual motivation between creators and each other. ”
Singer acted
Zhang Jie and Yuan Yawei pronounce the Hokkien dialect accurately
Chen Linong strives for excellence
The song was sung by Xiao Jingteng, Chen Linong, Zhang Jie, Yuan Yawei and Ouyang Nana, and Yang Zongnan said that although the singers had not cooperated before, they felt that their interpretation of the song was very good.
During the recording, he participated in the teaching of Hokkien dialect by several singers. At that time, hearing Yuan Yawei's first recorded song, Yang Zongnan was shocked that her Minnan dialect was so standard, very rare, only two words Yang Zongnan gave a little advice. Zhang Jie was recording in other places, when they set up a WeChat group, after each recording, will be sent to the group, by Yang Zongnan to correct the pronunciation of Minnan dialect, often at one or two o'clock in the middle of the night, Zhang Jie is still in the group to ask whether his Hokkien pronunciation is accurate.
Chen Linong is a Taiwanese, but the pronunciation of Hokkien is also very strict, "He knows that I am from Quanzhou, Fujian, in fact, the pronunciation of Hokkien in Quanzhou is different from that in Taiwan, and even the pronunciation of Hokkien in different parts of Taiwan is also different." Chen Linong spoke to me by voice, confirming how a few lyrics were said on my side, and whether he needed to sing with a unified accent, but coincidentally, the few sentences he did not dare to confirm, I sounded the same, I said according to your singing method. ”
On the stage of the CCTV New Year's Eve party on the evening of December 31, 2021, Xiao Jingteng and Yuan Yawei sang this "bilingual" song "We Sing a Song Together" on the spot, which aroused a lot of attention, and netizens in addition to expressing their love for this song also said that the song had a strong resonance. A Taiwanese netizen left a message saying that he listened to the song very carefully, and the culture, history, and local feelings contained in it aroused a strong sense of nostalgia and was very touched.
Text/Reporter Shou Penghuan Coordinator/Man Yi