Now Zheng Jun is still accompanied by creation, with Hunan as the "base" and walking all over the country in search of soil to nourish creation. At present, Zheng Jun has created nearly 1,000 works, nearly 300 selected and published, sold more than 100 songs, and more than 100 songs have won the "Five One Project" award, the "Stars Award" gold award, the national song creation competition "first prize" and other provincial awards.
When I first met Zheng Jun, it was difficult to associate him with art. He was the kind of person who was inconspicuous in the crowd, wearing a cap, a pair of glasses, and often carrying a heavy cloth bag full of his musical works over the years, and even a tape recorder. "Because I'm always ready to show people my work."
"There was once a saying that the best way to judge the quality of an original work is to sing a cappella." Over the years, every time he showed others his lyrics and compositions, Zheng Jun would always choose to take out the score and sing it himself. "The effect of cappella is certainly not as good as that of a good finished product, but if it is not a good production, it is not as good as a good oratorio or piano singing."
Tribute to the original musicians of the "CPPCC"
"On the map, you are like a boat, like the sampan I paddled in my childhood, the beautiful Sun Moon Lake in my dreams, when can you ripple in the center of your lake..." This song "My Taiwan" takes into account both national style and popularity of the times." The style of this song is more lyrical and beautiful, focusing on the expression of deep and innocent children. When singing, the warm side of the song is also slowly unfolded under Zheng Jun's interpretation.
"I've seen some reports about Taiwan that were very touching, and the CPPCC, as a united front organization with close ties to Taiwan, created a series of songs on this subject. The melody of this work is almost in one go, but the lyrics have been carefully considered for a long time and done very finely. Zheng Jun talked about his original intention.
"Shake hands tightly in the smoke of the flames, the Tiananmen Tower roars in unison, and the reform and opening up muster up good momentum... Wind and rain in the same boat, we work hand in hand..." Zheng Jun passionately sang "Wind and Rain in the Same Boat", and whenever this happened, his hands and feet naturally became instruments, beating the rhythm.
"It's a song with an overall mood and a sonorous force." Zheng Jun said that this is a song he re-created to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China and the CPPCC and to respond to the call of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the Hunan Provincial CPPCC Committee to collect songs and other works from the society. "This work is a work that has been polished after a long period of accumulation and revision, which is a big breakthrough, because I want to make a fine product." Zheng Jun introduced.
After listening to these two works, many people have this feeling: it doesn't look like it was written by one person. Talking about his own style of work, Zheng Jun explained that he is never limited to which type of fixed style, musical works have many different beauty, simple beauty, complex beauty can be, no matter which type, the first thing that must be done is original. "Strictly speaking, everyone can compose music, but to achieve the level of a good professional composer, you must have enough originality and have your own unique musical language, otherwise you can only be regarded as an amateur in the imitation stage."
Over the years, Zheng Jun, who has always insisted on originality, has not gone well, and has encountered many bottlenecks and setbacks, especially under the conditions of the market economy, like most composers, they are still looking for opportunities after creation - an opportunity to let good works "emerge". But he also always believes that it is these years of experience and tribulations that have allowed him to create truly humane works.
The choice of a poor idea, embark on the road of creation
Zheng Jun in the student era is one of the earliest batch of students to participate in the college entrance examination, the first year of the college entrance examination he applied for the Beijing Broadcasting College of broadcasting majors, at that time more than 1,000 people applied for the examination, Zheng Jun became the final selection of 8 people, but because only 1 person was admitted, he and the school of his choice regretted missing.
Later, Zheng Jun was admitted to the news anchor of Zhuzhou Television, but at the same time he also received an acceptance notice from the Conservatory of Music of Hunan Normal University. Entangled, under the advice of his teacher, he chose to continue studying. It was a "no-mistake" choice in an era when college students were so precious, although looking back now, he sometimes envisions what his life would be like if he had made another choice.
Since he did not attend the preparatory class, Zheng Jun, who had just entered the university, was assigned to the worst class. Because of his outstanding sense of music, he often sang and practiced ear lessons in the class, and after a month, he was transferred to the best class. At that time, the dean of the conservatory suggested that he switch from vocal music to composition, thus beginning his original musical journey.
After graduation, Zheng Jun became a singer-songwriter, and in the 1990s, he won the best singer in Changsha for five consecutive years, and original works such as "Sister Married" and "Love Landscape" were broadcast on Hunan Television. "In Changsha pop music, I belong to one of the pioneers, but then Hong Kong and Taiwan singers come to the mainland to develop, and the opportunities are getting less and less." Zheng Jun said.
With the downturn in the mainland market, Zheng Jun has also been a vocal teacher for 8 years, teaching students to sing in Changsha No. 1 Middle School, and has always insisted on creating, singing the school song of Changsha No. 1 Middle School for nearly 30 years from his hand, which has influenced a number of teachers and students.
It is said that good works will affect generations of people, talking about influencing their predecessors, Zheng Jun did not hesitate to talk about Bai Chengren, "The composer of the older generation, I admire Bai Chengren, he is an artist with moral character and artistic virtue, everyone says that he is 'Yuan Longping of hunan music industry', the representative works "Picking Tea Leaves to Beijing", "Dongting Fishing Rice Township", "Small Back Basket", are classic works that represent the characteristics of Hunan. ”
All along, Zheng Jun is a talented creator, in high school, never contacted with professional music training, he once because of a "bet" with the same table, self-taught music theory knowledge, the eye health exercise score by hearing down, even the same table that has studied the flute for 9 years has given a thumbs up to admire. When he was an undergraduate, he won the Yang Shuda Award of Hunan Normal University with the first overall score. There are also more than one composer in the world who commented that "Xiao Zheng's works have a unique style and take the national route." ”
"The best judges of musical composition are the general public, and what they think is good is really good." And how to create good original works, Zheng Jun believes that in addition to the precipitation of professional skills, it is inseparable from talent, which cannot be cultivated by the Conservatory of Music.
Tear off the "unpopular" label of the composition
Some people once commented that Zheng Jun is a songwriter with great innovative highlights and characteristics, and also a singer-songwriter of minmeitong's multi-style style. And what he cares most about is his identity as an original musician, "original things are often not easy to be accepted, because all innovative things are content that the public is unfamiliar with, they need time to accept, once they gradually feel the charm of innovation, they will feel more and more innovative works." ”
The main song of the music special of singer Chen Shaohua, "I Want to Go Home", is one of Zheng Jun's early masterpieces, which was rated as "Golden Song on the List" by CCTV Radio and other stations, and was also included in the "Hot Song Golden Song" compilation tapes such as "Spring Story", "Heart Too Soft", "Chinese". The regret in his heart is that because of Chen Shaohua's accident that year, this work can only be reproduced on tape.
Composing is an unpopular industry, even if the work is famous, the composer is only a hero behind the scenes, which Zheng Jun knows better than anyone, in the nearly 30 years of insisting on originality, he has also questioned himself. In a meeting with his mentor Wang Yougui, the teacher told him, "The most important thing for you now is to push the works out, and no matter how good the works are, they will always be a pile of waste paper." ”
Since then, Zheng Jun has been looking for opportunities to promote his works everywhere, and this has become his biggest dilemma now. With the decline of the domestic music market in recent years, it is even more difficult to promote the works on their own. "I now very much hope that someone can help me to make my work in a high-quality way, not to make money, but to have the work widely sung." Zheng Jun said.
"The current era is too impetuous, and many works are produced for commercial gain. Young people are also blindly imitating, whether it is composing or appreciating songs, resulting in many artistic masterpieces being ignored. Zheng Jun once asked many young people such a question: Can you say two or three songs that really touched you in this life and made you very moved? Why does it impress you? Few people can answer this question right away.
In fact, this reflects that many people do not have a deep appreciation of music, and the types of music they are exposed to are very limited, and they have not even been exposed to national essences and world classics. In fact, it's not that they don't like the classics, they just haven't understood it yet. Zheng Jun believes that the appreciation of works of art at different ages and different levels of education is different, and often those works with higher artistic value are more difficult to promote.
If a country really wants to improve the cultural literacy and musical literacy of its citizens, it cannot always cater to the tastes of the public, and it needs to invest funds and publicity to encourage the production of works with high cultural literacy, and at the same time better guide the people and improve their comprehensive literacy.
When asked if there were any suggestions for young people who wanted to enter the composition industry, Zheng Jun replied after thinking, "The road of composition is difficult, it requires talent, and it also needs persistence." There is a serious lack of talent in the current composer, and the top priority is to let the really good works and excellent talents have the opportunity to emerge and let them have the enthusiasm to continue to adhere. ”
Text | "Literature and History Expo And People" reporter Zhou Huan Feng Yujie (trainee)
Reprinted: "Lilianghunan" (lilianghunan) WeChat public account