In 2010, a song "Nervous" made Gong Linna popular all over the country. At the same time as her reputation, Gong Linna found that the public's impression of her was also wrapped in the "Divine Comedy" label.
In fact, she and her husband Lao Gong have been fascinated by traditional Chinese culture for decades, pursuing serious music. "Nervous" is a difficult song that Lao Gong boldly tried. Gong Linna studied for 4 years and practiced no less than 10,000 times.
Long before "Nervous" became popular, they sang ancient poems. They are committed to activating the musical genes of classical poetry, singing the "Book of Poetry", "Chu Ci" and "Classic of Mountains and Seas", and also resurrected The Bell of Zeng Houyi and put it on the CCTV stage for performance.
Gong Linna and her husband Lao Gong
Many people have not paid attention to Gong Linna's real singing skills and adherence to national music. She graduated from the China Conservatory of Music and received rigorous and systematic professional training. After becoming popular, she and her husband still spent time accumulating music, going to various places to collect styles, learn from teachers, and capture the essence of folk art.
In 2017, she moved her family from Beijing to Dali, Yunnan Province, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, and lived a life of sunrise and sunset. A year later, a group of ancient poems and songs with the theme of the twenty-four solar terms was born. She took these songs to more than 20 cities on tour, hoping to pass on the beauty of ancient poetry and Chinese music to more people.
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(Video | Interview with Gong Linna - Companionship With Music, 1 minute and 58 seconds)
Interview with Linna Gong - Companionship Program with Music
Recently, Gong Linna brought this concert to the Guangzhou Xinghai Concert Hall and accepted an exclusive interview with reporters. Talking about singing, her tone is cheerful, singing two sentences from time to time, and it is difficult for others not to be infected by her enthusiasm. She said: "All I want to sing is a Chinese song, with a Chinese voice. ”
Concert on Ancient Poetry:
Give the audience music lessons, practice qi and chorus
South +: At the concert, you let the audience stand up, and the whole audience practiced qi and sang together. Why do you do concerts in the form of music lessons?
Gong Linna: Many people will question my concert, saying that it is all ancient poetry, and the audience can't understand it. Others will say that your songs are particularly difficult to sing. So I want to answer these two questions, that is, I will teach you to sing on the spot and take the audience to feel the artistic conception of ancient poetry.
Xinghai Concert Hall, Gong Linna's 24 solar terms ancient poetry concert scene
For poetry, it is difficult to understand by rote memorization, and when I was a child, I was afraid of ancient chinese lessons. But when it melts into the melody, when I sing it, I believe you will understand at once why this poem is beautiful. Music has such a charm that people can feel the emotions in the poem.
This kind of interaction makes the stage and offstage are immersed in the meaning of ancient poetry, and can really form a feeling of "aftersound around the beam". Especially when everyone sang "The road is long and the road is long, I will go up and down and explore", many viewers were full of tears.
South+: Concerts work with local children's choirs every time they go to a city. Is this something you specially designed?
Gong Linna: Yes, because I hope that these ancient poems can be sung, and children are a very important part. When I was a child, I learned to sing the folk songs of my hometown of Guizhou, and I have not forgotten them to this day. So I teach these children to sing ancient poems, from practicing qi, to how to open their eyes, how to devote themselves to music, I believe that they will not forget when they grow up.
This time in Guangzhou, I also participated in the "Music Companion Program" of the concert hall, and cooperated with the children of the Dongfeng Village No. 2 Primary School Choir. They are not professionally trained, but the singing is clean and beautiful. I gave them absolute trust to sing louder. Music will surely nourish them and make them happy and glow.
Linna Gong rehearsed with the children involved in the Music Companion program
South+: You mentioned that there are friends who are worried about the ancient poetry music "high and low". In the process of promotion in recent years, what are the experiences?
Gong Linna: We have found a link to make ancient poetry and songs more connected to modern life. This bond is the solar terms. Enjoy the flowers in spring, listen to the rain on summer nights, admire the moon at the autumn equinox, and watch the snow in winter. At four o'clock, the ancients had a more delicate understanding than we do.
Each solar term is time, is the climate, is the changing law of people's work and life, and is a good way to stimulate our emotional world. In the twenty-four solar terms of the year, twenty-four songs of different styles are sung, and behind each word there is its mood, character and ambition.
These 24 ancient poems, in terms of content and temperament, are also well-known masterpieces that everyone is familiar with; in terms of song melody, each song has a different style and complements each other.
Making music with artistic quality, "Nervous" is one of the masterpieces
Nanfang+: You define yourself as a "Chinese new art music singer", how do you understand Chinese new art music?
Gong Linna: In the past, each school of Chinese music had its own unique skills, and it would not be taken out into a system. Later, there was a conservatory, which needed to unify teaching materials, so it borrowed from the West, and the West had a systematic teaching material. However, when systematized, everyone will sing a unified voice and sing the same song, which lacks the personality in Chinese music.
I studied at the Conservatory of Music, and after graduating from college, I sang a lot of Guizhou folk songs, local minor tunes, and opera. However, I feel that there is a serious lack of works of art. I understand that a work of art is to be brought to the stage, such as a concert hall, with a symphony orchestra, a chinese orchestra. They are very important and represent the depth, thickness and height of the culture.
I started vocal music in elementary school, and I didn't want to go into pop music, I wanted to be able to achieve something in art music. When I met the composer Teacher Lao Gong, we both wanted to make music with artistic quality, so it was called art music.
It's called "new" because it's original and completely made from scratch. The "Nervousness" that everyone has heard is the most representative. In fact, "Nervous" is extremely skilled and artistic, and ordinary people cannot sing without training. It is a kind of art nouveau music, and everyone calls it the Divine Comedy, because it is more driving.
And "China" is because I am a Chinese singer. I sing in Chinese, and the vocal techniques I use are all learned from opera and folk songs, and I synthesize them into new songs.
I'm not a Western singer, all I want to sing is a Chinese song, with a Chinese voice.
South+: What challenges have you encountered in the search for positioning?
Gong Linna: I want to abandon a lot of academic things, and when I study folk voices, I have to break the rules.
Of course, this is the difficulty at the beginning, and the later difficulty is that after entering the market, it will indeed be questioned at the beginning. For example, "Nervous", is this a good work? Is it vulgar or elegant, beautiful or ugly?
Gong Linna sang "Nervous". This song is extremely difficult to sing.
I don't think it's necessary to define it, a song doesn't have an absolute label. First of all, it's an unconventional, artistic work that the composer rigorously writes, and it breaks your conventional perception. I'm sure time will tell.
Southern+: Would you mind the "Divine Comedy Queen" label?
Gong Linna: I don't care what people say, but I don't define myself. The "God" I understand Chinese pay special attention to the spirit of the spirit, and they all say that "the form is scattered and the god is not scattered", so "God" must be there. I sing every song very intensely and attentively, and I want to sing the "god" of each song.
Life in Yunnan: Touch the breath of heaven and earth and sing in nature
Nanfang+: After moving to Dali for 5 years, what is your daily life like in Yunnan?
Gong Linna: Every morning at seven o'clock, as soon as I open my eyes, the sun will sprinkle on my face. The sun gently caressed me, the birds woke me up, and I got up to practice singing with the birds and the little squirrels. I also often go to the mountains to sing. Pick tea in the spring, see the fallen leaves in the autumn, and pick mushrooms in the summer. Man and nature are united.
I'm usually on stage, and I have to sing with all my might. When I get home, I especially want to be in contact with nature. Here, my life is connected to a spider, a flower, a tree.
Contact with the breath of heaven and earth is very important for singers. If I sing a voice, people say "Wow, I hear the wind blowing and the forest swaying". But if I hadn't lived in such an environment, I wouldn't have been able to shape these images in my voice.
South+: How do you and Lao Gong consider the education of two children?
Gong Linna: They go to ordinary schools. The two children have acquired a lot of life skills. The eldest son can write songs, compose songs, and like rap music. He picked up a stone by the water's edge and made a ring for me. The second son can cook, pizza, dumplings, buns, all. I want them to love life, be curious about the world, and be optimistic and positive about everything.
Southern+: What impact has the pandemic had on your creativity and life?
Gong Linna: The performance will be affected accordingly, but my production is higher in creation, because I can be quiet. Being able to sing steadily makes me very happy.
Gong Linna taught the neighbors to sing
The public welfare project of "Sound Action" has not stopped, and wherever I go, I will sing and teach wherever I go. None of my neighbors are singers, and many have never even opened their voices. But now, they sing a lot of ancient poems, they can read the score, and they can sing in two and three parts. The whole family practiced with us, there was no time to quarrel, and the family's happiness was also improving, changing their lives.
[Reporter] Xu Ziming
【Intern】 Wang Yixuan Qiu Wenxin
【Shooting】Qiu Minye Intern Zhang Jiahao
【Editor】 He Zhihao Intern Zhang Jiahao
【Co-ordinator】 Li Pei
【Author】 Xu Ziming; Qiu Minye; He Zhihao
【Source】 Southern Press Media Group South + client
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