Look for the infinite possibilities of Chinese symphony in nationalization

【Hot Spot Observation】

Author: Zhang Shanshan (Lecturer, School of Music, Linyi University) Liu Xiang (Associate Professor, College of Literature, Linyi University)

On April 8th, the symphony concert of "National Style and Elegant Rhyme", which exudes a strong Chinese style, kicked off the first "Spring of Chinese Music" art festival of the National Centre for the Performing Arts. This spring, there are many symphony performances like this. Zhengzhou, Lhasa, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hangzhou and many other cities have held symphonic performances in different forms (online or offline).

When it comes to symphony, many people's first impression is "tall" and think that it is difficult for them to approach it. Symphony is indeed an elegant art, but with the development of mainland art and the popularization of art by the whole people, this elegant art has gradually stepped out of the palace and come to ordinary people. According to incomplete statistics, there are currently at least seventy or eighty symphony orchestras in the country. Symphony orchestras have not only become the standard in major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, but also began to appear in some county towns, and even villages such as Beidou Village in Yinglong Town, Nan'an District, Chongqing City, have formed peasant pipe bands.

In recent years, many orchestras have formed a relatively complete music season system, and the audience group of symphony music is steadily expanding. At the same time, the audience of the symphony is getting younger and younger. For example, symphony fans account for more than a third of the 430,000 members of the National Centre for the Performing Arts. Among the audiences who watched the symphony at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, 69% of the audience under the age of 45, of which the 26-35 age group bought the most tickets. With the rapid development of symphony in China, the call for "symphony nationalization" is also getting higher and higher.

On April 8th, the Central Chinese Orchestra kicked off the first "Spring of Chinese Music" Art Festival of the National Centre for the Performing Arts with a specially planned "National Style and Elegant Rhyme" symphony concert. Bright pictures

Copying foreign symphony techniques does not work

The history of the development of human symphony is nearly 300 years, and the symphony has only been in China for about 100 years. For a long time in the past, due to the small number of orchestras, the difficulty of appreciation, and the fact that most of the works were foreign themes, symphony music always belonged to a relatively niche music category in the mainland, and could not be widely popularized and breakthrough development.

In order for symphony to achieve great development in China, we must work localization and nationalization, as the famous composer Fu Gengchen pointed out, Copying foreign symphony techniques will not work, and our musical language should be nationalized.

In fact, since the day it was introduced to China, symphony has begun to explore localization and nationalization. Xiao Youmei's "New Neon Dress Feather Dance" and Huang Zi's "Nostalgia" are representative works of this period. However, from the 1920s to the founding of New China, the symphonic works created by mainland composers were not very mature in both technical and artistic terms, and the whole had a distinct European color.

The 1950s and 1960s was a period of rapid development of the mainland national symphony, with a number of outstanding composers such as Li Huanzhi and Wang Yunjie emerging, as well as excellent works such as "Liang Zhu" and "Spring Festival Suite". Among them, "Liang Zhu" can be described as a landmark work of the National Symphony, which perfectly and harmoniously integrates Chinese opera art into the Western music form, and the two complement each other and obtain amazing artistic effects.

Since the 1970s and 1980s, with the development of social economy and the increase of cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, the Mainland Symphony has embarked on a new journey of integrating nationality and internationality. By combining modern composition techniques with Chinese national spirit, musical culture and aesthetic style, ethnic musicians have created excellent works such as "Naxi Yiqi" and "Impression of Taihang Mountain", opening up new space for the nationalization of symphony.

In recent years, the music groups represented by the Central Chinese Orchestra have made bold innovations and continuous breakthroughs, not only breaking the tradition of folk music always embellishing symphonic concerts in a single form of solo, but also continuing to inject Chinese elements into the symphony, creating classic works such as "Impression Chinese Music", "See Chinese Music Again", "Red Makeup Chinese Music", etc., so that folk music and symphony can play the sound of harmony and beauty.

Combining the ancient and modern, integrating East and West

Frankly speaking, in the past hundred years, although Chinese symphony musicians have been exploring on the road of localization and nationalization, they are still doing "red" work more often. It is necessary to learn from foreign playing techniques and creative experience, but the problem is how to use them for oneself after learning, and how to achieve localization and nationalization.

From the century-old development history of symphony in China, we can see that most of the excellent national symphony works bravely absorb the artistic essence of Chinese national folk music, and can organically integrate the national spirit and national culture into the symphony playing techniques. Therefore, to promote the localization and nationalization of symphony, the general principle should be that the creation should be integrated with China's reality, rooted in China's excellent traditional culture, good at leveraging the national music language, and at the same time observing the aesthetic tastes of Chinese audiences. At the technical level, the author thinks that it can be explored from the following aspects.

First, in the selection of topics, we can draw materials from Chinese history and traditional culture. Whether it is "Liang Zhu", or "New Neon Dress Feather Dance", or "Overlord Unloading Armor", they are all based on traditional Chinese stories, and from the name alone, they have distinct national characteristics, which can greatly close the distance between the symphony and the local audience culturally and emotionally.

Second, in terms of structure, we can learn from the ancient genealogy of mainland traditions. The value of ancient notation is to music as the value of ancient books is to history. It inscribes the fleeting ancient tune in a special way, so that future generations can partially restore the original song. The creation of national symphonies can sometimes be "replayed in the old tune". However, the music on the ancient score is different from the modern symphony after all, so when creating the national symphony, if you borrow and use the ancient score, you must take its essence and give up its shortcomings.

Third, when composing music, it can be properly integrated into the tone, timbre and melody of Chinese national folk music. For example, when Zhu Jian'er composed works such as "The Second Symphony" and "The Tenth Symphony", he creatively used traditional Chinese instruments such as guzheng, guqin, gong, and gong in the symphony orchestra, and also cleverly used Peking Opera and Kunqu Opera, which are highly Chinese cultural musical resources. The creative experience of Zhu Jian'er and others tells us that only by deeply absorbing the nourishment of Traditional Chinese music and folk music can we achieve the deep integration of Chinese and Western music culture.

Although these are technical operations, they are by no means easy to do. Only when composers are proficient in the techniques of Western symphony music and deeply understand the artistic connotation of Chinese national folk music can they truly combine the modern and the ancient, integrate China and the West, and truly realize creative transformation and innovative development.

In addition to sounding good, it is also necessary to enhance the cultural connotation and spiritual temperament

"The Sound of Nature" should not only be good to hear, but also have cultural connotations. To promote the nationalization of symphony, we must not only work the content, form and melody of the work, but also strive to enhance the cultural connotation and spiritual temperament of the work.

In recent years, many local musicians have created many symphonic works that tell Chinese stories, believing that their works have been nationalized and localized. In fact, these people's understanding of the nationalization of symphony is not comprehensive. As the famous composer Guan Xia said in an interview with the media: "Some of the works we often hear are just folk music themes, which are simply repeated or varied at will. They simply use folk music materials and play them with national instruments, which is far from nationalization. ”

The nationalization of symphony contains a lot of content, in addition to the melody of the song to have national characteristics, more importantly, through the deepening of the composer's creation, so that the work exudes the unique spiritual temperament of the Chinese nation from the inside out. To this end, in addition to mastering advanced creative techniques and rich national folk music elements, the creators must also temper themselves in a colorful and complex life, because the spiritual temperament of the work is like a sword and blade, which can not be obtained simply by adding some materials, but must be repeatedly quenched by fire and water.

In recent years, many orchestras have stepped up their efforts to live. For example, the China Symphony Orchestra has established a number of wind collection and creative practice bases in Yunnan, Fujian, Chongqing, Inner Mongolia and other places, often organizing composers to collect styles in various places, and creating a number of symphonic poems with local customs and national characteristics, such as "Impressions of Hani", "Fantasia of YiXiang Love", "Hani Memorial Album", "Rhapsody of Mount Ailao", and "The Second Suite of "South of the Clouds"" and so on. Rooted in Wuyue, the Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra has created a large number of symphonic works based on the local customs and customs of Zhejiang, such as "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", "The Road of Tang Poetry", "Social Drama" and so on. These creative practices have given voice to China, told Chinese stories, and are a vivid portrayal of the nationalization and localization of symphony. However, some composers are still a bit impetuous, in order to quickly produce national symphony works, they take the style and look at the flowers, the creation is in the form, and the works lack a deep observation of the national history and culture of the country. Therefore, particularly excellent national symphony works are still relatively scarce.

In short, the majority of artists should rely on Chinese culture and experience, boldly absorb foreign concepts and techniques, abandon disease-free groaning and mysterious reasons, and integrate their own thoughts on the times, nation, destiny and human nature into their works, only in this way can symphony embark on the road of "Chinese creation".

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily