The Cultural Covenant | 7,000 hours of musical "absolute sound"

Up to 7,000 hours of musical "absolute"

The digital platform for traditional Chinese music recording archives was officially launched

The "Precious Recordings of Zeng Houyi Chimes" is collected in the archives of traditional Chinese music recordings, and the Chinese ritual music civilization in the 5th century BC can be reproduced and circulated. The Zenghou Yi chime is a large-scale ritual instrument in the early Warring States period, representing the great achievements of China's pre-Qin ritual music civilization and bronze casting technology. (File photo)

In 1986, in order to make the "underground music hall" that had been sleeping for more than 2,000 years shine again, it was specially approved by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and played with the original chimes and chimes of Zeng Houyi excavated. The picture shows Li Dakang (left) recording the ancient song of Zeng Houyi chimes in Wuhan, Hubei Province. (File photo)

The Chinese traditional music recording archive is not only the first precious archive in China to be selected for the Memory of the World Register, but also the first recording archive project in the world.

Recently, the digital platform "Memory of the World - Traditional Chinese Music Recording Archives" collected and built by the China Academy of Arts was officially launched. This traditional music recording archive, which has been systematically collected by the older generation of music workers since 1950 and protected by more than 20 years of digital rescue, has been able to open the door of the music treasure house to the public at home and abroad.

This is a precious audio document that lasts more than 7,000 hours, and it is also a "masterpiece" of the history of Chinese music - the erhu song "Erquan Yingyue" played by the blind Ah Bing before his death, the full set of twelve muqams sung by the old Xinjiang artist Turdi Ah Hong before his death, more than 1,500 folk songs collected from the Loess Plateau River Song, and more than 270 guqin songs played by 86 guqinists across the country who were alive in 1956...

Because of Yang Yinliu, Ah Bing's "Two Springs Reflecting the Moon" was able to become famous in the Chinese and foreign music scenes

The melodic sound of the famous Erhu song "Erquan Yingyue" has flowed year after year in the north and south of the great river, as if people can see the moon reflected in the night of the small town in Jiangnan. This piece is an excellent work of Chinese music at home and abroad, many people know that it is the life of the blind Ah Bing, in fact, if there is no Yang Yinliu, this famous song may be lost.

As the first director of the Music Research Institute of the China Academy of Arts, Yang Yinliu is recognized as a generation of masters who have studied chinese and Western studies, and he is full of affection, rooted in the cultural soil of the motherland, and excavates and analyzes the true meaning of traditional Chinese music culture.

Yang Yinliu and Ah Bing's relationship lasted for 40 years. At the age of 18, Yang Yinliu studied pipa with The Taoist priest Ah Bing of the Lei Zun Temple. On the eve of the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Yang Yinliu returned to his hometown from other places, and after learning about Ah Bing's blindness and falling into street art, he visited him from time to time.

In 1949, Yang Yinliu received a letter from a friend in his hometown, mentioning Ah Bing's ability to play Erhu, which promoted Yang Yinliu's homesickness, and he wanted to record for Ah Bing and organize and study his musical art. So in the summer of 1950, Yang Yinliu and the pipa master Cao Anhe returned to Wuxi with a steel wire recorder that was rare in China at that time. He found Ah Bing and recorded the moving music of the folk musician's true feelings completely and faithfully. After recording the three erhu songs of "Erquan Yingyue", "Listening to Song" and "Cold Spring Wind Song", Yang Yinliu brought the recording equipment to ask Ah Bing to record three pipa songs: "Big Wave Taosha", "Dragon Boat" and "Zhaojun Out of the Plug". Yang Yinliu returned to the Central Conservatory of Music at that time with the audio results of the recording, and when the experts heard Ah Bing's wonderful performance, they were all shocked by the profound artistic connotation of folk music. At the end of the year, Ah Bing passed away, and these six pieces became the last song.

According to Cao Anhe, who was at the recording site at the time, Ah Bing said to Yang Yinliu: "The first time you and I met was during the Qing Dynasty's Xuanun dynasty. At that time, you played the three strings, I pulled the erhu, and together we played a song "Three Six". With a flick of a finger, several dynasties have changed, and we are all over half a hundred years old, so why not play a song "Three Six" in ensemble now, and keep it as a souvenir? So, Yang Yinliu picked up the instrument, and the exquisite ensemble of the two people fascinated the people present. Cao Anhe later recalled: "The two ensembles of 'Three Six' interpreted the music vividly and variedly, and I have never heard such a good improvisational cooperation, which shows the superb performance skills of the two people. ”

If there is no Yang Yinliu, it is difficult for future generations to hear the touching and heartfelt sound of "Two Springs Reflecting the Moon". The recording was recognized by the musicological community as a model for rescuing outstanding folk music heritage.

In 1978, the world-famous conductor Seiji Ozawa was invited to serve as the principal conductor of the Central Orchestra, during which he conducted and performed Brahms's Second Symphony and the string ensemble "Two Springs Reflecting the Moon". At the time, he didn't say anything. The next day, Seiji Ozawa came to the Central Conservatory of Music to listen to the original song "Erquan Yingyue" played by Jiang Jianhua, a student of the academy, playing with erhu, and he was moved to tears: "If I had listened to this performance, I would never have dared to conduct this repertoire yesterday, because I did not understand this music, so I am not qualified to conduct this repertoire... This kind of music should only be listened to on your knees. ”

Since then, "Two Springs Reflecting the Moon" has crossed the ocean and has been highly praised by the world music scene.

Zeng Houyi chimes the recording, and the Warring States music that has been sleeping for more than 2,000 years replays brilliantly

On the chinese traditional music recording archive digital platform, we can see a column of "Zeng Houyi Chimes Precious Recordings".

CCTV's "If National Treasures Can Talk" program, in an episode featuring Zeng Houyi's chimes, a original audio record without narration and soundtrack made many netizens hear tears: "This is an immortal sound spanning thousands of years", "I feel that they are knocking on my soul"... This is the chime music of Zeng Houyi, who was praised by netizens as "coming out with BGM (background music)".

The Warring States Zenghou Yi Chimes, the "Treasure of the Town Hall" from the Hubei Provincial Museum, once again amazed the world more than 40 years after being excavated.

Zeng Houyi chimes are a set of large-scale ceremonial music heavy instruments of Zeng Guojun in the early Warring States period, which is the set of chimes with the largest number of discoveries, the best preservation, the most complete rhythm and the most magnificent momentum so far, representing the great achievements of China's pre-Qin ritual music civilization and bronze casting technology, and has produced a huge impact in archaeology, history, musicology, science and technology history and other fields.

Since its excavation in 1978, the Zenghou Yi chimes have only been played three times. And its first recording, among the participants was Li Dakang. Li Dakang, who is now a professor at the School of Music and Recording Arts of the Communication University of China, a first-class sound recordist, and a director of the China Recording Engineers Association, recalls the recording of Zeng Houyi chimes three times.

The first recording was in 1986, in order to make the "underground music hall" that had been sleeping for more than 2,000 years shine again, it was specially approved by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, and played with the original chimes and chimes of Zeng Houyi excavated, plus imitations of musical instruments such as sergeants, harps, chi, and 埙 unearthed at the same time, and recorded them into two records, "Ancient Sounds" and "Ode to Joy".

The second recording was in 1992, when the "first bell under heaven" Yongle Bell was played with replicas of Zeng Houyi's chimes and chimes, and the court music that reflected the prestige of the past and the traditional songs that were famous at home and abroad were recorded. The third recording was made in 2001 in the concert hall of the newly built museum in Hubei Province, using a replica of Zeng Houyi's chimes and chimes to record the "Chimes Suite of Pao Xiulalan".

Of the three recordings, only the first recording used the original chimes of Zeng Houyi. This precious recording is collected in the chinese traditional music recording archive of the China Academy of Arts, and the Chinese liturgical music civilization in the 5th century BC can be reproduced and circulated.

The digitization of cultural heritage allows more people to feel the profound power of Chinese civilization

"The Chinese Traditional Music Recording Archive is the result of years of systematic field recordings in almost all provinces and regions of China, covering the traditional music of more than 50 ethnic or cultural groups. The musical heritage of ancient China is usually passed on by word of mouth, and these recordings have allowed ancient Chinese music to be passed down through generations. This is the reason given by the International Advisory Committee of the "Memory of the World" project when the Chinese traditional music recording archive was selected for UNESCO's "Memory of the World" project and was included in the first batch of the "Memory of the World" list.

More than 7,000 hours of precious audio archives, with irreplaceable artistic and academic value.

In this regard, Tian Qing, honorary director of the Institute of Music of the China Academy of Arts and an expert on the protection of intangible cultural heritage, sighed: "Without this recording file, without the pioneering of Yang Yinliu, Cao Anhe and a group of musicologists such as Yanlu Lanyi, there is no inheritance from generation to generation of researchers, I don't know how many folk artists like Ah Bing, Turdi Ah Hong, and how many wonderful songs like "Two Springs Reflecting the Moon" are produced in the folk and then dissipated with the wind. ”

As a precious cultural heritage, the China Academy of Arts has released the digital information of this archive to the whole society through the digital platform, which is of far-reaching significance.

Chinese music has always been active in different ways on the land of China. For example, the Damazhuang Village Concert, which was selected as the intangible cultural heritage of Xiong'an New Area, is a typical representative of the "Jizhong Sheng Pipe Music" and one of the earlier research objects of the musicological community. In July 1993, Zhang Zhentao and Xue Yibing of the Music Research Institute of the China Academy of Arts conducted a comprehensive investigation of the concert in Damazhuang Village and published a number of research results. Since then, the Concert of Damazhuang Village, together with the Jizhong Sheng Pipe Music, has received high attention in the academic circles and society, and has received more fieldwork and cultural research under the situation of attaching the names of "music species", "folk customs" and "intangible cultural heritage".

From the perspective of the "living fossil" of ancient Chinese music, the historical and cultural value of musical forms such as the Damazhuang Village Concert, the value of academic research, as well as the aesthetic value of art and the social value of maintaining the relationship between the rural people, go without saying.

Sun Hao, an associate researcher at the National Folk Art Development Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, who has studied Chinese music for many years, believes that the Damas village concert is a more common form of performing arts in north China, and such regional concerts can also be gradually recorded digitally. Sun Hao told us, "In the digital age, it is possible to shorten the cycle of cultural information transmission. People can easily get the cultural content they need quickly from digital platforms, and the road to expression and dissemination has since become very smooth. This greatly improves the efficiency of the integration of cultural resources and inserts wings for cultural innovation. ”

Traditional Chinese music records the tradition of liturgical music nurtured in the fertile soil of Chinese culture and carries the musical ideas of the Chinese nation. As Han Ziyong, president of the China Academy of Arts, said, to explore and appreciate the traditional music of the thousands of weathers bred by the vast land of China, to feel and appreciate the deep power and shock that traditional culture brings to our hearts. in Mudor

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