On October 18th and 24th, the digital music albums "Hu Jia Eighteen Beats" and "Twenty-Four Poems" of the new classical music works "Opera Yun Wenyin" series landed on Tencent QQ Music, NetEase Cloud Music, Kugou, Apple Music, Spotify and other platforms. The album was completed by musician Dou Wei, Chao Jian Band and Peking opera master Shi Yihong.
Cai Wenji's "Eighteen Beats of Hu Jia" is long and has a lot of content, and how to attract the public, especially young people, to delve into its context, music and artistic conception is a difficult and fascinating challenge. Dou Wei introduced that the musical work "Hu Jia Eighteen Beats" is based on words, with guitar, guqin and drums as the main playing instruments, and the vocals are completed by Shi Yihong and him. The first eleven beats are based on Shi Yihong's Peking Opera Qingyi Nianbai and singing voice, blending the understanding of Chinese phonetic rhyme and rhythm, interpreting the protagonist's emotional waves and homeland lovesickness, and the last seven beats describe Cai Wenji's return to Han, sung by Dou Wei. The work lasts 56 minutes and 56 seconds, and Shi Yihong interprets Cai Wenji's tragic life with a pure plum voice.
"Twenty-Four Poems" summarizes the characteristics of various poetic styles, and the author is believed to be a late Tang Sikong Tu. The musical work "Twenty-Four Poems" is based on the original lyrics, accompanied by classical guitar, flutes, zhenxiao, ruan, drums and other instruments, and the vocals are also completed by Dou Wei and Shi Yihong. The 24 verses of the poem are unfolded in the form of chanting, rhyme, chorus, etc. Shi Yihong was very cautious about this work, and specially asked Sun Yuanxi, a Peking opera senior, for advice on the subtle changes in rhyme and white, sometimes only minor pronunciation problems, but also to re-record and adjust. Dou Wei and the band members revised more than 20 versions before and after in the post-production stage. "Twenty-Four Poems" is 44 minutes and 17 seconds long, the charm of ancient poetry looms in one note after another, and the twenty-four styles are expressed in different tones through male and female voices.
"Traditional arts like Kunqu opera and Peking opera can be interpreted with more and better content in today's technical conditions, which is beyond previous eras." Shi Yihong said that in the new creation and cross-border development, the art of opera finds more heavy and vital content, and good works of art are also the process of self-re-creation of the audience, "cultural classics are constantly injected with new blood and touch the deepest emotions in the audience's heart." ”
Sound recordist Li Jie recalled, "Dou Wei and Shi Yihong cooperation, everything is smooth and natural, Shi Yihong is the same age as us, persistent attitude in the professional field, excellent performance, she is easy-going and simple, entered the studio and quickly entered the working state, we were all surprised by her pitch, almost no need to adjust after the recording is completed." In addition to recording and production, Li Jie is also the guitarist of "Hu Jia Eighteen Beats" and "Twenty-Four Poems", "Dou Wei and Shi Yihong have a very powerful voice, and when I joined the guitar later, it flowed as I wanted, there was no framework, and everyone tacitly agreed with years of cooperation. ”
During the recording, Shi Yihong performed Peking Opera at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, and the album production team collectively watched the play, "Watching Peking Opera on the spot is different from watching it on the screen." We feel the charm of Peking Opera art more deeply, observe many details, Shi Yihong in "Guifei Drunk" to complete the lying fish and lower waist, but also to take into account the complex headdress and clothing, maintain elegance and dignified, without extremely high kung fu, it is difficult to hold the audience, excellent traditional culture is indeed awe-inspiring and moving. ”
Column editor-in-chief: Shi Chenlu Text editor: Shi Chenlu
图片来源：主办方供图 Source: Author: Zhuge Yi