A blue sky tribute, a magnificent song of the times (deep observation)

Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition

In 2021, during the public open day of the 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Expo, the audience visited the pavilion of China Aviation Industry Group. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Dawei

On April 18, 2022, "Blue Sky Praise" was staged at the National Centre for the Performing Arts.

Employees of Aviation Industry Corporation of China emotionally narrated on "Blue Sky Praise".

"From scratch, from weak to strong / A story, two lines of tears / The blue sky knows our yearning / The symphony of the roaring youth of the war eagle..." In 2021, in order to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and the 70th anniversary of the development of the new Chinese aviation industry, the Aviation Industry Corporation of China and the China Opera and Dance Theater jointly planned and created a large-scale symphonic choral concert "Blue Sky Praise", which was successfully premiered at the Beijing Century Theater on April 17 of that year.

In the past year, "Blue Sky Praise" has entered the "Double Selection Meeting" of doctoral students in key universities of Aviation Industry Corporation of China, went to Zhuhai to "participate in" the 13th China International Aerospace Expo, and stepped onto the stage of the National Centre for the Performing Arts... By telling the story of serving the country with the loyalty and dedication of generations of aviation people in the past 70 years and the pursuit of dreams and blue skies, it leads people to feel a great cause, feel an extraordinary spirit, and perceive a great era.

Tell the story of aviation serving the country with music

Over the past 70 -odd years, the new China's aviation industry has grown from scratch, from small to large, from weak to strong, and aviation equipment has achieved leapfrog development from three to four generations, from manned to unmanned, from small and medium-sized to large, from land-based to sea-based, from mechanization to informationization, providing sustained and powerful equipment and scientific and technological support for the people's army to comprehensively build a world-class army. From being out of reach and looking forward to competing on the same stage with developed countries, generations of aviation people have continued the spirit of "loyalty and dedication, chasing dreams and blue skies", casting an immortal monument of serving the country and the people, forging ahead, and pursuing excellence, leaving behind countless touching deeds of "doing earth-shattering things and doing anonymity and burying celebrities".

The large-scale symphonic choral concert "Blue Sky Praise" takes generations of aviation people to vigorously carry forward the spirit of serving the country with the core theme, and is divided into several chapters of "Prologue • Blue Sky Imagination", "Aviation Serving the Country and Traveling", "Aviation Serving the Country • Situation", "Aviation Serving the Country • Soul" and "Epilogue • Soaring of the Times". The 15 original songs and poems are recited to cover a variety of artistic expressions such as solo singing, chorus, sitcom singing, classic narration, etc., slowly unfolding the magnificent picture of the history of New China's aviation industry spanning more than 70 years.

The concert began with a mixed chorus of "Blue Sky Imagination", and the majestic momentum and majestic atmosphere set the tone of the whole work. The male and female vocal duet "Hometown of Other Places" tells the touching story of several generations of aviation people who regard the whole world as their home, regard other places as their hometown, and unswervingly adhere to the aviation to serve the country; the male chorus "Big Country Craftsman" depicts the workers on the front line of aviation industry production vividly; the female solo "Plateau High, Blue Sky and Blue" with rich national characteristics, reproducing the historical scene of aviation people and local people building and sharing and having a deep friendship during the third-line construction period. Finally, in the sonorous and powerful song of "For peace in the world", the concert reached a climax.

"As far as songwriting is concerned, we mainly consider how to make the vast number of employees, scientific and technological workers and ordinary audiences engaged in the aviation industry like it while taking into account ideological, artistic and ornamental nature, and how to put the song for the times and lyrics for the people into practice, and fall on every touching melody." Zhao Haifeng, director of the repertoire creation department of the China Opera and Dance Theater, said. In order to create fine products, the China Opera and Dance Theater has organized artists to deeply study the historical evolution and development achievements of the aviation industry for many times, understand the spiritual outlook of front-line employees, prepare for creation through research, access to materials, watch videos, symposiums and exchanges, etc., and vividly depict the feelings of aviation people to serve the country with heart and soul.

Lyricist Qiao Fang repeatedly read the materials, speculated on the characters, and finally wrote the song "One Dream in a Lifetime" based on Song Wenxiao, the chief designer of the J-10 fighter jet. He said: "Song Wenxiao's information content is not much, but I have read it many times to understand why he has only done this one thing in his life, and changed his birthday to the day of his first flight." From him, I felt a spirit, an immortal faith. ”

Lyricist Yi Ming wrote two lyrics this time: "Plateau High, Blue Sky and Blue Sky" and "Send You a Long Voyage". "In the wind and rain, the cold tide and heat wave, your take-off is unstoppable to this day", the lyrics of the lyrics write the urgent desire of the aviation people to look forward to the war eagle and the battle eagle to form combat effectiveness into the melody. In Yi Ming's view, this creation inspired his still hot and hot young heart: "I have always been very concerned about the J-10, J-15, J-20, and Yun-20, and often search for news in this regard. When writing, I always have a grateful heart and want to pay tribute to the founders, builders and countless heroes of the new Chinese aviation industry. ”

Two "national teams" are creative attempts

"'Blue Sky Praise' is a successful attempt by outstanding artists of the National Academy of Arts to work together with scientific research and production of front-line aviation people, creatively tell the story of Chinese aviation, pay tribute to the spirit of aviation, praise the aviation industry, and praise the heroes of aviation." Tian Yan, vice president of the China Opera and Dance Theatre, said.

One of the creative lies in expanding the space for the creation of aviation theme art.

"In recent years, the artistic creation of the main theme has shown a blowout trend, and the revolutionary historical theme and realism theme with the theme of real people and real events occupy an absolute proportion in various types of artistic creation, but the creation of aviation as the theme is relatively rare." Sun Maoli, editorial editor of Art Review, said.

He believes that there are too many characters and deeds that can be sung and wept on the aviation front, and there is a lot of room for artistic creation, and "Blue Sky Praise" adopts the form of a symphonic chorus concert to praise the aviation group, expands the expression and space of aviation theme art creation, and shows the unique vision and innovative consciousness of the main creative team.

The second degree of creativity lies in the realization of cross-border collective creation.

In 2021, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for Artistic Creation", which emphasizes the need to further strengthen the planning and resource coordination of artistic creation, continuously improve the degree of organization of literary and artistic creation, give play to institutional advantages, and form a good atmosphere of collective creation and joint efforts to tackle key problems. Xiang Xiaogang, a researcher at the Central Conservatory of Music, believes that from songwriting to singing, "Blue Sky Praise" has realized the collective creation of cross-region, cross-academy groups and cross-professionalism, solved the problem of the creative cycle, formed a creative synergy, and achieved the effect of everyone collecting firewood and high flames, which is a good demonstration.

"Blue Sky Praise" brings together a first-class domestic creative team, including more than ten lyricists such as Liu Lin, Yi Ming, Ren Weixin, Qiao Fang, Liang Mang, Yang Shuo, and more than ten composers such as Lei Lei, Yao Feng, Fang Shi, Yu Yongyi, Wang Bei, Yang Yibo, etc. There were nearly 200 cast members throughout the concert, and in addition to many outstanding artists, employees from the front line of scientific research and production of Aviation Industry Group of China also participated in the creation and performance.

Several narrators from the Aviation Industry Corporation of China were particularly impressive in the concert. This is a special design of "Blue Sky Praise", in the middle of each chapter, there are aviation people from the front line who lead the audience into the story of the aviation hero in the form of narration or poetry recitation. Their affectionate narration sets the emotional tone of each chapter well, making it easier for the audience to enter the situation of the song and resonate.

In the narration of the chapter of "Aviation Serving the Country and The Situation", Gang Zhanyu from the aviation industry Xifei played a test pilot. Through the performance, as a "third generation of aviation", he has a new understanding of test pilots: "I have known the dangers of test pilots since I was a child. After becoming an aviation person, I felt the sacredness of this profession even more, and it needed to risk its life to verify the unfinished aircraft and explore the answer from the unknown to defend the blue sky of the motherland. Now I know that I should do my daily work well to ensure the safety of daily production and escort the test pilots. ”

Continue to tap into the cultural riches of the aviation industry

From Song Wenxiao, chief designer of the J-10 fighter jet, Luo Yang, commander-in-chief of the J-15 carrier-based aircraft development site, to many unknown test flight heroes, the aviation spirit of generations of aviation to serve the country has turned into passionate poems and notes, boiling and burning in the hearts of every observer.

On April 22, 2021, the fifth day after the premiere of "Blue Sky Praise" at the Beijing Century Theater, he went to the aviation industry Shen Fei to perform. On the day of the concert, the "double selection meeting" of doctoral students from key universities of Aviation Industry Corporation of China was held in Shenfei in 2021, attracting nearly 200 doctoral students to participate. In the evening, many doctoral students watched the performance, and they were inspired by the original intention of generations of aviation to serve the country and the mission of aviation power, strengthened their determination to devote themselves to the aviation industry, and clarified the intention to sign the contract. Because of this concert, the group's doctoral students signed a new record.

"The power of literary and artistic works is beyond the imagination of ordinary people, and it is beyond the imagination of artists." Zhou Guoqiang, spokesman for the Aviation Industry Corporation of China and director of the Party Building Cultural and Propaganda Department, said. In his view, although "Blue Sky Praise" only lasted for more than two hours, it sowed the seeds of aviation in the hearts of the audience, igniting the enthusiasm of the general public to care about China's aviation industry, love China's aviation industry, and then devote themselves to China's aviation industry.

In addition to triggering a warm response in China, at the end of September 2021, at the 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Expo held in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, "Blue Sky Praise" also caused a sensation and became a shining business card to tell the world the story of aviation serving the country, building a strong army and aviation power. "Such a high-level concert to participate in the performance of the air show, which is unprecedented in the world, has written a new chapter in the international air show." While showing the achievements of the new Chinese aviation industry for more than 70 years, the concert also showed the countries of the world the self-confidence of aviation culture that China has accumulated in the course of hard struggle. Zhou Guoqiang said.

It is understood that the Aviation Industry Group of China will once again join hands with the China Opera and Dance Theater this year to jointly create and perform the modern musical "Luoyang", taking Luo Yang as the prototype, vividly reproducing the touching deeds of Comrade Luo Yang through the expression of sound and emotion and blending scenes, and artistically portraying the group portraits of aviation heroes represented by him.

"In the future, we will further deepen cooperation with Aviation Industry Corporation of China in various fields, give full play to our respective advantages, better tap the cultural rich mine of the aviation industry, and dedicate more outstanding works rich in spiritual energy, cultural connotation and artistic value to the general public." Wei Yinjiu, secretary of the party committee of the China Opera and Dance Theater, said. (Reporter Zheng Na)

People's Daily Overseas Edition (07th edition, May 9, 2022)

(Unless noted, the rest of the pictures in this article are provided by the China Opera and Dance Theatre)