◎ Jin Zhaojun (music critic)
Recently, two messages have sparked my recollection.
On July 25, Mr. Shang Jiajun passed away at the age of 93.
I knew very little about Mr. Shang Jiajun, but I knew it very early. When I was in middle school, my family had a copy of "200 Foreign Folk Songs", and later there was a sequel. Among them, Mr. Shang Jiajun has translated and distributed nearly 40 foreign songs, such as the theme song of the original Yugoslav film "Bridge", which was widely sung in the future, "Ah Friends Goodbye", as well as "Lullaby", "Derigo Serenade", "Tosseli Serenade", as well as "My Sun" and "Return to Sorrento", which are still popular to sing.
A native of Shanghai, Mr. Shang graduated from the Department of Electrical Engineering of Datong University, the Department of Vocal Music of the Vienna Conservatory of Music, and the Department of Musicology of the University of Vienna. In the 1950s, he served as a chorus member and teacher of the Central Orchestra. Later, he was a researcher at the Institute of Foreign Arts of the China Academy of Arts. He is the author of "Italian Song Collection", "Classical Lyric Song Collection", and "History of vocal music development in Western Europe".
Mr. Shang's life is quite lonely, but his achievements in music are left in history.
News two, on August 12, Mr. Xue Fan won the "Translation Culture Lifetime Achievement Award" of the China Translation Association.
In 1957, at the age of 23, Mr. Xue Fan translated the Soviet song "Evening outside Moscow", which was quickly widely sung in China. Over the years, he has translated and distributed more than 2,000 world famous songs, and compiled and published more than 30 foreign song collections. He is the most selected translator of "200 Foreign Folk Songs". In the early 1990s, I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Xue Fan in the editorial department and was amazed at how he had such a strong passion for work because of his disability.
Naturally, there is also Mr. Deng Yingyi, who has also been selected, "Ode to Joy", "Friendship for a Long Time", "Jingle Bells" and so on are all his handwriting. The translation of "Song of the Communist Youth League Members", which has influenced generations of Chinese youth, came from the pen of Mr. Zhao Feng, former president of the Central Conservatory of Music. Their translation is truly "joyful and harmonious", which is admirable. It is not easy to translate foreign texts, and it is really difficult to translate the lyrics to be suitable for singing.
"200 Foreign Folk Songs" was edited and published by the Music Publishing House organized by the Chinese Music Association in November 1958, and contains 224 songs. The first part is modern songs and folk songs, and the second part is classical songs. In particular, in the classical song section, the classic songs of Europe and the United States are also included in some parts, and especially the singing section of a considerable part of the classic opera is included. It is worth mentioning that the songbook is printed in a "pocket book" style 48 folio.
At that time, it was mainly for economic reasons, although it was a book for a few dimes, it was still expensive for the average person, so a phenomenon that appeared was that young people who liked music, especially songs, had the habit of copying songs. Those who understand the simplified score copy together, and those who do not understand the simplified score only copy the lyrics.
You can imagine how excited I was when I saw "200 Foreign Folk Songs" and really loved it.
The first to leave a deep impression were, of course, Russian folk songs and Soviet songs, with a total of 77 songs. For example, "Night outside Moscow", "Hawthorn Tree", "Lights", "Steppe", "Lenin Hill", "Harbor Night", "Cranberry Blossoms", "The Path", "We Raise a Glass", "Volga Gondolier Song", "Three Sets of Cars".
In addition, there are Albania's "Flowers with Buds", North Korea's "Arirang", Yugoslavia's "Deep Ocean", Indonesia's "Thoreau River" and "Oh Mama", Hawaiian folk song "Li Song", The United States' "Old Man's River", Canada's "Red River Valley", Mexico's "Dove", The Irish folk song "The Last Rose of Summer", Italy's "Santa Lucia", the Scottish folk song "Friendship Lasts Forever", and a Norwegian "Paul's Hen".
I was more interested in the "classical folk songs" part. Among them are Britain's "Many Years Ago", Mozart's "Longing for Spring", Beethoven's "Joyful Lady Divine Beauty", Bishop's "Lovely Home", Schubert's "Serenade" and "Trout", "Bodhi Tree", "Ode to the Virgin", and the weird "Devil King" – I practiced its transposition for a while. Mendelssohn's "On the Wings of Singing", Verdi's "Drinking Song", "Summer Boating on the Sea", Gouno's "Serenade", Bizet's "Habanera" in Carmen's "Habanera", Foster's "Old Black Slave", "Relatives of the Homeland", "My Kentucky Hometown", Brahms's "Lullaby", Tchaikovsky's "Don Juan's Serenade", "The Song of the Gypsy Girl", Rimsky Korsakov's "Song of the Indian Merchant", Derigo's "Serenade", Sichel's "Lorelei", Tosery's "Serenade" Capua's My Sun, Curtis's Return to Sorrento, Perpend's Jingle Bells, Hendricksson's Spanish Knights, etc.
The sequel to "200 Foreign Folk Songs" expands the works of many countries and regions. One of the Soviet songs, "Lovely Fields," was all the rage at the dance in the early 1980s as "Tanaka Dance", when legend has it that China and Japan established diplomatic relations and was a gift from former Japanese Prime Minister Tanaka. The "Selling Cloth Song" in the opera "The Cargo Man and the Lady" is the famous work of tenor Singer Li Guangxi. The interlude "Song of Raz" from the Indian film "The Wanderer" has been compared to "The Song of Karamay" by many people. Japan's "Cherry Blossoms" is simply a Japanese-style textbook. Australia's "Shearing Sheep" is lively and lively, but I once found another beauty when I listened to a big brother sing this song with a very warm voice accompanied by decomposition chords. "You Raise Me Up" has been very popular in recent years, but how I listen to it is also born out of "Londonderry Minor".
In addition, there is no need to say "Marseillaise", many people said that Nie Er was influenced by it to write the "March of the Volunteer Army". The American song "Maggie, When I Was Younger with You" is full of the nostalgic flavor inherent in the American songs of that era. The Brazilian folk song "On the Side of the Road" and the Cuban folk song "Cibogne" trained my sense of rhythm and movement very well.
The classical part of the Sequel I like very much are The Hunter's March from Weber's Free Shooter, Marta, Alfred's Aria from La Traviata, Never Forget That Day, and Armand's Aria. The same is true of "Blue Danube", I practiced singing for a long time and could not grasp its charm, until I heard the instrumental music and got a glimpse of the flavor of Viennese round dance.
These songs became special spiritual food at that time and were sung "underground". There is a legend that a rural leader criticized: Why are the young people at present not good at singing? I have to sing about the big night outside Moscow!
In my opinion, the editors of that year were very powerful. At that time, "200 Foreign Folk Songs" and its sequels did not engage in the "Great Leap Forward", except for the number of Soviet songs in a special historical context - but the selected works are still quite classics today. In the basically closed environment of that year, these two song collections were very helpful to the young people of that year to know the beautiful musical culture created by the people of the world.
After the reform and opening up, it is not difficult to obtain foreign music information. Looking back on it today, the publication of the two episodes of "200 Foreign Folk Songs" was of far-reaching significance. At least "You at the Same Table" and "Birch Grove" were directly influenced by the German folk song "Lorelei" and the Ukrainian folk song "The Surging Of De Nieber". In recent years, many march style main theme songs, TV interludes, and the affinity with Soviet songs is even more obvious, not to mention that movies and TV series must be named "Hawthorn Tree Love".
I think that now when we advocate letting The excellent Chinese culture go out, the spirit and "translation art" of these pioneers who were once "introduced" can still give us some enlightenment to our successors.
13 August 2022