Zhou Tingfa, a national first-class screenwriter, a member of the Chinese Musicians Association, a member of the Chongqing Writers Association, has won the Star Award of the Ministry of Culture, the Morning Bell Award of the Chinese Music Association, the Chongqing Literature and Art Award, the Chongqing All Stars Award, and the Gold Medal of the Chongqing Original Song Competition. He has written more than one million words of novels, and published four anthologies: the poetry collection "Holy Spring Love", the prose collection "Between Heaven and Earth", the lyrics collection "Flying Heart Talk", and the prose collection "Memory of Time"; Composed more than a thousand lyrics.
Based on love, the power to promote upward movement
Jiang Dengke
"The Whisper of the Soul" is a book of lyrics.
The combination of the words "soul" and "murmur" makes it feel special. If we are to force it to be interpreted, the former is talking about content, the latter is about expression. Telling people's spiritual, emotional and inner secrets in a soft way is a way of life worthy of attention, and it is also a way of art worthy of attention.
Mr. Zhou Tingfa is from Chongqing, but I was not familiar with him before, and I only occasionally saw the lyrics he composed. It wasn't until he sent me a whole book of lyrics that I learned that he had been writing lyrics for many years and had achieved great results, winning national, provincial and municipal awards many times, and many songs were sung throughout the country.
I don't know music, and at an age suitable for learning music, I still listen to birds, insects, running water, wind and rain, and the chorus of chickens, ducks, pigs and cows in the mountains. I haven't sung in any public for decades, so I envy those who can sing, and I admire those who can write lyrics and scores.
If I had anything to do with music, it was to learn new poetry later. New poems have some relationship with the rhythm and rhyme of the text, but the rhythm, rhyme and melody of the music from the text are very different, the former can be rough, can not be completely in line, and excellent music seems to be not good, a slight problem, can not be sung.
There is definitely a connection between lyrics and poetry. Traditional Chinese poetry pays special attention to rhythm and has strict rhythm norms, and many works are even composed according to the rhythm, the main purpose of which is to chant. It was only later that poetry and music gradually separated, but poetry retained the rhythm and melody of music in terms of style, so as to distinguish it from other genres and better match the musical-like emotional state. With the development of art, some artistic styles have begun to borrow from each other and absorb their respective advantages, especially poetry, lyrics and other originally related genres. As a result, lyrics have entered the field of vision of many new poetry researchers, either directly called lyrics or music literature. The Institute of New Chinese Poetry of Southwest University has set up a research direction called "Music and Literature Research", and through the long-term persistence of scholars such as Lu Jin, Mao Han, Lu Zhenglan, Tong Longchao, etc., gratifying research results have been achieved.
Compared with most new poetry works, the lyrics are very stylistic characteristics, pay more attention to external rhythm and rhyme, pursue the fluency of expression and moderate subtlety, and appear more straightforward and clear in the literal sense, which is mainly for better composition. This is not to say that the creation of lyrics does not need artistic uniqueness, on the contrary, being able to write characteristics, write unique discoveries, and write works that can be circulated under the premise of maintaining these characteristics is actually a great test of the author's artistic creation ability.
It can be seen from the collection of works "The Whisper of the Soul" that Zhou Tingfa's lyrics involve a wide range of themes, from singing about the country and the nation, to affectionate chanting of his hometown, from praising the mountains and rivers to lyrics of family friendship and love, both the delicate and gentle flow of small bridges and flowing water, and the grandeur and magnificence of the rushing river.
Zhou Tingfa wrote about his feelings of home and country, which was atmospheric, open, and full of pride. These works have a sense of history, take Chinese civilization as the foundation, especially sort out the century-old history, write about the changes of the times, and write about the pride of Chinese. "This is the Motherland" is one of the works with a sense of the overall situation, relying on the mountains and rivers of the motherland, lyrically expressing the author's thoughts on the motherland: "Climbing the mountains I embrace the sunrise, / Walking on the grassland I have a big heart, / Drinking a mountain spring makes my heart sweet, / Grabbing a handful of homeland I have tears in my eyes." Stepping into the sea I chase the waves, / Kissing the earth makes me happy, / Catching a net of fish and shrimp makes my life fragrant, / Picking a bouquet of flowers I dream fragrant. Ah, motherland, / The mountains are my upright backbone, / The water is the flow of my true feelings." / Even if I am a small grass, / Give the yearning of spring, / Even if I am a fruit tree, / Let me give birth to the splendor of autumn! "The fusion of external reality and inner experience, broad vision, majestic atmosphere, contains an upward force. This is the main tone of Zhou Tingfa's lyrics, and almost all of his works are full of optimistic emotional orientation.
His lyrics of family affection reflect a more delicate style. "Grandma" consists of four sections, in small case, writing about grandma's life experience, from suffering to joy, witnessing the changes of the times. "My Father, My Mother" writes about the devotion and love of parents, "When I see the sun in the sky, / I think of your smiling face, / that wisp of warmth, / Like the mist of spring, / Like the gentle wind of summer, / Haunt the hearts of children; / All the storms of the world, / You always cover silently." "The metaphors used by the author are all familiar to us, but because of the strong family affection contained in them, these familiar images also have new meaning. "Hometown" is also a very charming work, "My hometown is under the yellow kudzu tree in the middle slope, / In the two wooden buildings live the old parents, / Cooking smoke and holding the fragrant morning light, / Growing up with my dreams." My hometown is in the bamboo groves of the half-slope, // The dam on the steep slope is free chickens and ducks, / The puppies chase others to talk, / Faithfully guard the spring and summer. The mountains of my hometown are hung with red nostalgia, / The paddy fields of my hometown reflect the green changes, / The grass of my hometown sprouts with green nostalgia, / The spring water of my hometown flows sweetly is Shaohua. The dam seat is the scenery of the hometown, / The Longmen array is the concern of the hometown! "The work expresses the typical rural flavor, and writes the regional characteristics of the hometown through some unique imagery, and also integrates folk customs and customs, forming a worrying rural landscape painting." Such works, accompanied by beautiful music, will surely evoke the homesickness of distant wanderers. The excavation of unique regional culture is indeed a pursuit of Zhou Tingfa's lyric creation, he created the Chongqing dialect lyrics "Oh a Nag", and also wrote a lot of Tujia, Miao culture related lyrics, such as "Tujia Happy Trickling", "Tumiao Style", "Xiushan Xiushui Please Come" and so on, we can feel the charm of Chinese culture.
Zhou Tingfa's lyrics not only focus on the people and things around him, in addition to the grand theme of home and country, he also created many works praising the mountains, rivers, cities, villages, and customs of the motherland, and wrote about the scenery and customs of Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Yunnan, Hainan, Fujian and the north and south of the great river, which also expanded the vision of the work to a certain extent. "Song of the Tianshan Mountains" has this verse: "The Tianshan Mountains run through the west and east, / The silver peaks of the snow-capped mountains, / The southern and northern frontiers are as green as green, / The Gobi Desert sends love." / Touch the ravines of the Tianshan Mountains, / The glacier silver dragon trembles the majestic wind, / Look at the magnificence of the Tianshan Mountains, / The heart is surging more calmly. "Wrote about the vastness of the Tianshan Mountains, and also wrote the vigorous experience it brought to the author. There is a verse in "Song of the Tea Mountain": "The little straw hat is put on, / The little bamboo basket is carried up, / A group of sisters stand in a row, / Sing to the tea mountain." / See who picks more, / Pick the left hand and right hand keep picking, / Pick a handful of spring buds to soak in time, / The song flies nine days away. The cheerful melody contains thoughts about life, and sentences such as "picking a handful of spring buds to soak in time" are a combination of fiction and reality, which is poetic.
Love, friendship, and life thinking are all important themes of the lyrics, and so are Zhou Tingfa's works. He has created a lot of works that express love and friendship, writing delicately and lingeringly, involving emotional states such as longing, recall, expectation, and loss, which makes his works have more inward thinking. The last two stanzas of "Sister's Heart" are like this: "The autumn wind blows the plum grows up / Hanging on the round plum tree / The sister counts the plums / Everyone is a confidant / / The autumn wind blows peach ripening / The red peach is round and big / The sister leans on the peach tree / Staring at the mountain road without blinking", writing the thoughts of the distant "brother", the mood, mentality and these growing, ripe plants and fruits are integrated, with the taste of folk songs. "Night Thought" is also written about longing, but it is the boy's thoughts, equally delicate and restrained, "the quiet hills, / the bright moonlight, / With the hope of the heart, / waiting for the beloved girl." Clear lotus pond, / A lotus flower fragrance, / Full of secrets, / I want to share with her. "I Am Me" writes about the adherence to independent personality: "I will not be like the sea, / Where there is wind, it will swell." / I will not be like a parrot, / good or bad. / Even if I am a firefly, / Let me bloom my brilliance." / Even if I am a small grass, / Nurture beautiful blooms." "Do not sway with the wind, do not follow the clouds, adhere to their own pursuits, adhere to their ideals, this is actually a philosophy of life, but the author is not empty preaching, but respects the characteristics of the lyrics, and borrows some imagery, writing clearly and popularly.
In general, Zhou Tingfa is a persistent lyricist whose works focus on reality and life, full of upward emotional pursuits, and on the basis of respecting the readable and singing characteristics of lyrics, he adopts some poetic techniques as much as possible to increase the implicit characteristics of the lyrics. Focusing on musicality is an important feature of lyrics, and Zhou Tingfa's lyrics reflect their own characteristics in terms of sections, branches, rhymes, etc., or he has a good grasp of the stylistic characteristics and artistic laws of the lyrics. The lyrics are mainly used to compose and sing, and judging from the text level alone, many of his lyrics appear more straightforward, without the subtlety and restraint of excellent poetry, and its characteristics and meanings may need the cooperation of the composer to be better reflected. However, academically speaking, his lyrics are white and tasteful, affectionate, and more in line with the requirements of lyrics, I am a layman of lyrics, but also a layman of music, I can only borrow the way of poetry to interpret the lyrics, and I don't know much about the overall development of domestic lyrics, so when talking about Zhou Ting's lyrics, I can only be regarded as sitting in a well and watching the sky, briefly talking about my simple understanding of its text.
Therefore, this is just a simple post-reading article. I was going to prevaricate, but Mr. Zhou Tingfa insisted that I write a few sentences, and I really couldn't disobey his trust. I hope that real lyric research experts can make a more scientific, fair and appropriate evaluation of his lyric creation. Of course, I also look forward to Mr. Zhou Tingfa creating more excellent works with depth, thickness and novelty.
January 5, 2022, north of Chongqing
(This article is Jiang Dengke's preface to Zhou Tingfa's lyrics collection "The Whisper of the Soul")
About the author:
Jiang Dengke, Ph.D. in Literature, member of China Writers Association, professor and doctoral supervisor of the Institute of Chinese New Poetry of Southwest University, vice president of Southwest University Press, and vice chairman of Chongqing Writers Association.
"The Whisper of the Soul" has been published by Chongqing Publishing House in August 2022
Editor: Luo Yuxin
Editor-in-charge: Chen Taiyong
Reviewed: Wang Cheng