Bayleg
Bayileg, Mongolian, young horse-head violinist, teacher of the Conservatory of Music of Northwest University for Nationalities, distinguished teacher of Xi'an Conservatory of Music. He has won many national, provincial and ministerial professional awards, visited and exchanged performances in many countries in Europe and Asia, and held solo concerts in China for many times. In 2010, he founded the Chaoge Group and served as the lead singer of the Chaoge Band, whose musical style is mainly world music. In 2019, he was invited to participate in the "Shanghai Tiandi World Music Festival" and in 2021, he was invited to participate in the "Long Island North Island Music Festival".
The horsehead is a representative instrument of the Mongolian ethnic group and is one of the national musical instruments that people like to hear. We often hear its melodious sound at large parties, the sound of the horse's head piano is sometimes like crying, sometimes heroic and exciting, as if people are in the empty grassland, smelling the fragrance of wild grasses, riding horses, listening to the shepherds tell moving stories... That kind of unbridled romance is difficult for contemporary people living in a fast-paced life to feel. As a unique national musical instrument, ordinary people know very little about the horse-head piano. Therefore, the reporter recently interviewed the young horsehead piano player Bayileg, who is a young teacher of the horsehead piano and the inheritor of the horsehead piano, and he told the reporter about his indissoluble relationship with the horsehead piano.
Born in Northern Suzhou, Bayileg has a natural love for the horse head qin from the national gene since he was a child, but he suffers from the lack of special institutions and teachers to let him get professional learning. When Baeleg was in elementary school, the god of luck favored him. He said: "My horsehead qin enlightenment teacher is called Erdene, he is the first inheritor of the horsehead piano education in Subei, I studied with him when I was a child, without his presence, I would not be able to get acquainted with the horsehead qin." After years of hard training, Bayleg was admitted to Northwest University for Nationalities with excellent results, under the tutelage of Professor Albinda, and completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies under the careful guidance of Professor Da. In his junior year, he formed a band called "Chaoge Group", he told reporters that "Chaoge" means "the hottest point in the flame" in Mongolian, hoping that through music, the hottest point in the heart of each listener can be stimulated and burned, which also represents our love for music.
Baylegg is both the lead singer of the band and the band's horsehead player. "We only have Mongolians in our group, the other members are Han Chinese, our group expresses its music in the form of singing and playing, through a variety of forms of excavation, expand the connotation of national music, so that people can understand national music and modern music through our music." Baylegg told reporters.
On the basis of traditional ethnic music elements such as Humai, Tobshur, Matouqin, Tuva drums, etc., the Chaoge group adds modern music elements such as guitar and cello, so that more young people can accept and like Mongolian music. Since then, Baylegg and his band have traveled from stage to stage and to festival. They use music to communicate and express their inner world. Bayileg said: "In this way, with ancient Mongolian folk songs, in the form of a combination of interpretations, we hope to be accepted by more young people." In their songs, the most sincere persistence and the purest dreams flow. ”
Where there is music, there must be happiness, and there will be stories. The reporter had the privilege of visiting the scene to feel the live charm of the Chaoge Band, and the theme at that time was "Hearing the Grassland Look Back at The Hometown". Bayileg played the horse's head piano while singing with his own natural, magnetic voice, and the audience was also moved by his highly recognizable voice and the music of the strong national mood, and his singing voice seemed to lead the audience through time and space, so that people could close their eyes and see the endless prairie and galloping horses.
Speaking of the origin of the horse head, Bayileg told reporters that the Mongolians are nomadic people, and in the long-term nomadic life, by imitating the sound of nature, the instrument of the horse head piano has slowly appeared. Judging from the records in the "Secret History of Mongolia" and "History of yuan", during the period from Genghis Khan to Kublai Khan, the Mongolian national musical instruments were still mainly plucked instruments, and the Mongolian soldiers and herders of the Yuan Dynasty were good at playing fire and thinking, and liked to dance collective songs. When the grassland nomadic music developed rapidly, the horse head qin, a stringed instrument, was born out of the world, was widely popularized, and eventually replaced the status of plucked instruments, becoming the most grassland folk instrument of the Mongolian nation.
Learning the horse's head piano is not an easy task, and Baylegg frankly says that if it is not based on enough love, it is actually quite difficult to stick to. Especially for stringed instruments such as the horse head qin, the overall learning difficulty is high, so the learning process is more repetitive and boring, only through repeated practice and performance, carefully feel its fingering and strength, in order to slowly explore the playing skills. It is most appropriate to use the phrase "a millimeter of difference, a thousand miles" to describe the playing of the horse's head, if the fingers produce even a millimeter deviation, the sound is different, so when playing, it is necessary to merge with the body and feel the fluctuations of the strings with the mind.
Because of his outstanding professional achievements, Bayleg stayed on as a professional teacher of the horse's head after graduating from graduate school. During his time at the school, Baylegg represented the school in performances around the world. "When playing the horsehead piano abroad, the mood is not the same as at home, although the language of the audience is not the same, but when playing the horsehead piano, you can feel the interaction with me from their eyes, and even see the touch and resonance in their eyes, which makes me very moved." In different cultural contexts, the national music of the horsehead is a very superior tool for communication and communication culture. Bayileg said.
In addition to his own work, Bayleg also collected many folk traditional songs for secondary creation. In the process of creation, Baylegg excavated these long-lost folk song works, plus elements of modern music, that is, to reconstruct the arrangement, which attracted the love of many young people. "I want to be a bridge between tradition and innovation, creating music that is suitable for all ages and that everyone loves to listen to." Baylegg said.
As a professional horsehead piano teacher, Baylegg's requirements for his students are multifaceted. He said: "I think that first of all, we should let them understand the historical origin and professional skills of the horsehead piano, and after understanding the original horsehead culture, we should broaden their musical ideas and understand more about the cultural background and playing methods of other music, which is more helpful to their profession." In addition, he cannot limit himself to the campus, as a performer, if he does not have a face-to-face communication with the audience through live performance, then his musical path is incomplete and not fresh. After our students graduate, employment has become a real problem that must be faced, so I hope that they will be versatile and find a more suitable development direction. ”
Talking about the recent plans, Bayileg hopes to continue to improve his studies, pursue doctoral students in the field of violin, and establish the Gansu Provincial Horsehead Organ Association within this year. He said: "Although this matter is full of difficulties, I think I have an unshirkable responsibility, because our province, as a province inhabited by ethnic minorities, has not yet had a professional horsehead piano association, so I want to integrate resources through my own efforts to establish the first horsehead piano association in our province, on the one hand, through the association to reserve horsehead piano talents, on the other hand, through teaching and performance and other interactive modes to inherit and carry forward the horsehead piano culture, so that more people like the horsehead piano." ”
As a studious player and a conscientious horsehead teacher, Bayleg did not limit his vision to one field. In addition to the horse-head piano, Bayileg also took the time to learn the musical singing style unique to the Mongols, Namei and Chao'er. At the end of the interview, Bayleg said: "The city of Lanzhou is very inclusive, different musical styles can find their own place, and the fusion of ethnic music and modern fashion has its unique taste." As a professional matouqin teacher, with the best teaching resources in the university, coupled with the practical experience of live performances, I will do my best to forge the dream path of matouqin. ”
Hua Jing, all-media reporter of Lanzhou Daily
Edited by Ann Zhou Cream