Huang Zhun, the first female composer engaged in film music creation in New China, is the first generation of film music composers in New China trained by Lu Xun Art Institute in Yan'an.
At the age of 95, she still remembers director Xie Jin's words of "criticizing" her: "You are too simple! ”
Huang Zhun said that his mind was filled with only notes. Those notes did not come out of thin air, they came from the heavens, the sea, the north, and the five flavors of life.
Recently, in an exclusive interview with a reporter from Jiefang Daily and Shangguan News, she told her own feelings about art and life.
Huang Zhun
"Forward, Forward"
In 1959, the 6th year of Huang Zhun's work at the Shanghai Film Studio, she had composed music for Zhang Junxiang's "Huai Shang Ren Ren" and Wu Yonggang's "Qiu Weng Meets Immortals", and also cooperated with Xie Jin in the film "Women's Basketball No. 5", and the song "Youth Flash" composed by her was widely sung.
One day in early summer, Huang Zhun just walked into the door of the Film Studio, she heard someone calling her, and when she looked back, it was Director Xie Jin. "I have a script for you." Huang Zhun took a look at the script, and the title was "Red Detachment of Women". Back home, she read the script in one sitting and was drawn to the legendary story.
The next day, Huang Zhun approached Xie Jin and said that he was very willing to compose music for the film. Generally speaking, composers are involved after the film crew is officially formed. Huang Zhun became the first person in the film crew of "The Red Detachment of Women" besides the director.
Xie Jin and Huang Zhun first went to Guangzhou to find the screenwriter of the play, Liang Xin, the lyricist of the "Girl Scout Song" in the movie, and went to Haikou together. It was Huang Zhun's first step on Hainan Island, and the beautiful and euphemistic, high-pitched and slightly sad melody in Qiong's drama "Red Detachment of Women" deeply touched her. After returning to Shanghai, she read the score she brought back from Hainan over and over again.
The second time he went to Hainan, in order to choose the location, Huang Zhun was appointed as the secretary of the party branch of the film crew. They visited along the places where the Girl Scouts had lived and fought. In the primeval forest, the ant climbed up Huang Zhun's leg, and she was stung with blood. "Director Xie Jin shot one for me, but then climbed up another one, and finally the guide got salt and let us wipe it on our legs, and then we walked out of the forest smoothly."
Although this road encountered hardships and thrills that had not been experienced in Yan'an in the past, Huang Zhun felt very fulfilling, because she searched and analyzed the musical elements of Hainan music that were more in line with the "Red Detachment of Women".
After the selection of the location, the film crew of "The Red Detachment of Women" was officially established. Huang Zhun and Xie Jin went to Hainan for the third time. They found several former Girl Scout soldiers and invited them to the film crew to live with the actors, teaching the actors to use guns and beat leggings. Huang Asked them to sing a lot of Hainan folk songs and revolutionary songs.
In 1959, Huang Zhun was on location at the location of "Red Detachment of Women" on Hainan Island
Huang Zhun and Xie Jin originally planned to use a ready-made "Girl Scout Song" in the movie. "I pestered the old Red Army and asked them to reminisce about the songs of that year, but they couldn't think of such a song when they wanted to come and go." Huang Zhun was not reconciled, and tried to find a way to go to the local cultural center and other places to search for "The Song of the Lady Scout Army", but he was always disappointed.
She decided to write a song herself. Unexpectedly, Xie Jin was very disapproving of this. Other creators also hope that Huang Zhun will still find a song like "Three Disciplines and Eight Notes", or simply use that song as a song.
Huang Zhun was anxious, and she insisted on writing it herself. "Actually, at that time, I had already formed a melody in my head." The song that Huang Zhun envisioned was a march, not a general march, but a march with a Hainan flavor written for the oppressed women at the bottom.
After Huang Zhun wrote the first draft of the first paragraph and sang it to everyone, no one asked her to look for ready-made songs anymore.
"I remember the film was revised three times. Drama change, I also change. The music was changed three times and the recording was recorded three times. When I repeatedly revised, not only was I not the slightest bit frustrated, but I was very happy. "Cinema is the art of regret. Huang Zhun hopes that the music he wrote will leave no regrets.
In order to mix for the last time, Huang Zhun played several nights in the studio. That day, listening to the music she wrote, she unconsciously shed tears. Xie Jin, who was on the side, asked, "What's wrong with you?" "I probably won't have a chance to write such complete film music in the future."
"There will be many good plays in the future, and there will be your good plays." Xie Jin said.
Shortly after the release of "The Red Detachment of Women", Huang Zhun occasionally read a short article in the newspaper: "The 'Song of the Girl Scout Army' in the movie is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, well-known to everyone, and circulates everywhere in the streets and alleys." She was a little confused and wanted to go out on the street to "check" whether there was really a thing. As soon as I got off the elevator, I saw a child playing and singing "Forward, Forward...".
In Huang Zhun's view, "Red Girl Scout Army" not only gave her the opportunity to write a "Girl Scout Song", but more rarely, it gave her a relatively complete space for music creation, allowing her to fully change and develop the theme of this song in the whole movie. This was rare in her later career. "I think the musical success of this film is not only a good song, it is also a symphonic poem with a complete musical structure."
Artists want to be thankful for life
Huang Zhun still remembers director Xie Jin's frequent "criticism" of her words: "You are too simple! ”
He was right. I'm a relatively simple person, and my mind is filled with only notes. The reporter's huang zhun in front of him, the smile is so pure. The notes in her mind did not come out of thin air, those beating notes came from life, from the heavens, the sea, the north, and the five flavors of life.
Huang Zhun has composed music for more than 50 films and 20 TV series. Whenever she receives a new script, her first lesson is to find a way to delve into the lives of the characters in the film.
"Locked in a room, you can't write a good work, you must go deep into life and experience life." So I've always felt that artists have to be thankful for life. Huang Zhun said, "To write good music, you also have to invest in feelings, it is very important to grasp the quasi-emotions, and the creation must wait until the moment when the emotions are just right!" ”
The philosopher Zong Baihua said: The birth of the artistic soul is in the moment when life forgets me. Huang Zhun's artistic inspiration comes from unforgettable moments.
Composing music for the movie "Huai Shang Ren", she went to the Huai River area of Anhui Province with the film crew to experience life. In the 1950s, the Huai River either flooded or dried up so much that it couldn't even drink water. The crew of dozens of people could not find a place to stay in the area and had to squeeze into a rented wooden boat. At the site where the Foziling Dam was built, she worked with the workers in the Great Volta. Just when she was sweating, an Anhui folk song "Huai River is wide, Huai River is long..." gave her inspiration.
Before filming the movie "Burning Plains", Huang Zhun came to the Anhui Coal Mine. The night before receiving the notice to visit the well, she did not sleep well. In mining areas, women are usually not allowed to go down the well. Early the next morning, when he put on his long and large miner's uniform, put on his boots, and put on a miner's lamp, Huang Zhun suddenly remembered the moment when he first put on his military uniform when he arrived in Yan'an at the age of 12.
"Burning Plains" tells the story of coal miners who resisted oppression before the founding of New China, and the guides took them into an old mine road left over from the past. Crawling in the darkness, at the moment when breathing is difficult, at the moment when he finally sees the light, Huang Zhun finds the soul and tone of the music.
In order to write a nursery rhyme for the cartoon "Kitten Fishing", Huang Zhun went to the kindergarten every day for a period of time to observe the characteristics of the children. She plays games with children, eats snacks, and tries to explore the psychology of children. A song "Sunshine, golden light, rooster singing three songs." The flowers wake up, the birds are busy grooming..." the song has been sung to this day
"This song "The Most Glorious Labor" was the first answer sheet I handed over after I went to Shanghai to work in 1951. At that time, I was assigned to the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, and a few years later I was transferred to the Shanghai Film Studio. In the blink of an eye, I have been working and living in Shanghai for 70 years. Huang Zhun said that because of this song, she received many letters from the audience, almost all of whom called her husband or uncle or uncle, and some children called her "Huang Zhun Grandpa".
Huang Zhun likes to write songs for children, and in addition to "Kitten Fishing", she also composes music for cartoons such as "Good Friends". In 2007, she and Comrade Li Lanqing co-created the festival song "Wings On the Screen" at the China International Children's Film Festival.
Huang Zhun and Xie Jin
In Huang Zhun's view, in order to create good works, it is inseparable from good opportunities, and it is even more necessary to "understand the times and find the spirit of the times." This is true of writing movie music, and it is also true of writing TV drama songs.
In 1982, Huang Zhun promised to write a theme song for the TV series "The Broken Years", but he has been struggling to find the ideal lyrics. That day, she had just returned home from a business trip, and her husband, Lu Meng, told her that a long-distance phone call had come from Yunnan, and Ye Xin, who was the screenwriter of the TV series, wrote a poem. "The years of youth are like a river, and the rivers of years are like songs..." Seeing the crooked words written with his left hand after her husband had suffered a stroke, Huang Zhun was both excited and grateful in his heart.
She flew to Yunnan, where the crew was located, and after a deep conversation with the director, wrote "An Unforgettable Song" there. This song was sung by Guan Mucun and swept the country. Since then, TV series directors such as "Chinese Girl", "Liao Chengzhi", "Southeast Guerrilla", and "Funny Spring and Autumn" have found Huang Zhun and asked her to handle the knife.
Many years ago, Lü Meng and Huang Zhun were next door neighbors with Zhang Junxiang and Zhou Xiaoyan. One year during the Spring Festival, Huang Zhun visited Zhou Xiaoyan's home and saw that the living room was full of greeting cards sent by students from all over the world, and Huang Zhun was envious. Huang Zhun said that he rarely made friends in his life, neglected to speak, and did not even talk to his family for several days when he immersed himself in creation. Whenever she crouched at the writing desk, all kinds of music would appear in her mind along with the picture of the movie, sometimes jubilant, sometimes sad, sometimes magnificent... It was a musical world that only she could hear.
Huang Zhun said: "Although I am extremely envious of Mr. Zhou's work, I have no regrets about the work that I am always behind the scenes and work hard. ”
Column Editor-in-Chief: Gong Danyun Text Editor: Chen Junjun Title Image Source: Stills from the movie "Red Detachment of Women"
Source: Author: Chen Junjun