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In the development of erhu art in the past hundred years, there are two folk musicians, Hua Yanjun and Sun Wenming. With their creative and distinctive traditional music creation and superb and expressive performance skills, they have left a precious cultural heritage for future generations. Most of their works have become the object of frequent attention in today's Chinese bowstring art stage performances, professional teaching, music research and social and cultural dissemination, and many of them have become classic works in the century-old Erhu art library, and have become Chinese cultural symbols with wide influence at home and even internationally. In this issue of the Classical Art Lecture Hall, please learn about the music creations of folk musicians Hua Yanjun and Sun Wenming with the famous erhu player Song Fei.
In the early stage of the development of erhu art, in addition to the new development avenue opened by Liu Tianhua to bring erhu into art performance and educational inheritance, there was another way of dissemination of cultural inheritance, that is, erhu art that has long been rooted in the soil of traditional Chinese music. This cultural inheritance path continues and gives birth to new life. Among them, Hua Yanjun and Sun Wenming, two artists, through rescue excavations, preserved their music with strong vitality and artistic charm, and brought it to the national and even world stage, thus showing the elite of the national bow string art in traditional Chinese music in front of the world.
The art of bowstring in traditional music still exists in various folk dramas and music genres, and is still one of the sources of our erhu art creation today. This is the significance of the musical heritage of folk musicians Hua Yanjun and Sun Wenming in this issue.
First, the ups and downs of Hua Yanjun and Sun Wenming
Hua Yanjun (1893-1950), a native of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, was affectionately known as Ah Bing. According to his fellow villagers, mr. Yang Yinliu, a music educator who has known and understood his growth experience and living conditions since childhood, Hua Yanjun's father, Hua Qinghe (No. Xuemei), is the head taoist of the Lei Zun Hall of Wuxi Dongxu Palace. Hua Xuemei was proficient in various instruments and Taoist music, and in this environment, Hua Yanjun showed a rare musical talent at a young age, and he was exposed to and learned various instruments, especially the study of erhu. The erhu he uses to play is much thicker than the general string, which requires higher performance skills. At the age of 17, he officially participated in the Taoist music blowing, and because of his talented appearance and good voice, he was known as the "Little Heavenly Master".
Folk musician Hua Yanjun
After the death of his father, Hua Yanjun became the head taoist of the Lei Zun Hall. Later, due to social unrest and the people's lack of livelihood, in order to make a living, Hua Yanjun played music in weddings and funerals while becoming a Taoist priest, and as a result, he was expelled from the Group of Taoists. In this way, he made a living at the bottom of society, living in poverty, contracting eye diseases, and blinding his eyes one after another, which made it easier for street art to make a living. As a result, people are no longer familiar with Hua Yanjun, a Taoist priest of the Lei Yin Temple, but Ah Bing, a street artist.
When we mention erhu now, many people will think of "blind Ah Bing", but few people know that Sun Wenming, an erhu player who is also a blind artist. Sun Wenming (1928--1962), born in Shangyu, Zhejiang. At the age of four, he became blind from smallpox. When he was twelve years old, his father died, forced by life, he studied fortune telling, wandered around, and later learned Erhu as a means of livelihood. When he studied, he first imitated the playing, was good at absorbing folk songs and minor tunes, and learned all kinds of opera and music, and later wrote and performed himself. In 1959, at the invitation of the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, he went to Shanghai to teach art, and later to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He died on December 13, 1962, at the age of thirty-four.
Folk musician Sun Wenming
2. Hua Yanjun and Sun Wenming's music creation and performance art
Ah Bing's achievements in music far exceed the barriers of family inheritance, eclectic and inclusive of group skills. In order to better reflect real life and express the feelings of music, he has carried out creative development of erhu playing technology on the basis of folk instrumental music performance, breaking the limitations of old traditional playing techniques, breaking through the performance habits of Jiangnan folk, and enriching the performance ability of erhu performance. His works "Two Springs Reflecting the Moon" and "Big Waves and Sands" won the 20th Century Chinese Classic Music Award.
"Big Waves and Sands" was originally a pipa solo composed by Ah Bing, and the music expressed the author's infinite feelings about the unfair world and his attitude towards fate. The song was recorded and notated by Yang Yinliu, Cao An and two gentlemen before it was preserved. Later, I (Editor's Note: Seinfeld) transplanted it into a erhu piece and interpreted it with reference to the playing language of the pipa and the techniques of the left and right hands.
The music is divided into three paragraphs: the first paragraph delicately and quietly describes the author's feelings about the unevenness of life; the second paragraph uses the method of development, the mood of the music gradually rises, and the driving tone is in stark contrast with the previous paragraph; the third paragraph uses the tune of the "General's Order" of the Juban Gong and Drum as the material, with a clear and sonorous rhythm, as an expectation for a better life. Now it is interpreted with a bass huqin, and there is another mood.
The song "Two Springs Reflecting the Moon" exudes the thoughts and emotions of a blind artist who has experienced the bitterness and pain of the world. The work showcases unique folk playing techniques and styles, as well as an unparalleled depth of the mood. The theme of the whole song is sometimes deep, sometimes exciting, and at the same time, with the statement, extension and unfolding of the music itself, the emotions that Ah Bing wants to express are more fully expressed, which profoundly shows the bitterness, unfairness and resentment of Ah Bing's life, and also expresses a kind of open-mindedness in his heart and a profound experience of life. "Erquan Yingyue" has been adapted into orchestral ensembles and other musical forms, and has been performed on the world stage for a long time, becoming one of the most representative songs of Chinese music.
Two springs reflect the moon with pictures
Sun Wenming's erhu playing art is creative, and he and Ah Bing have enriched the erhu's playing skills and performing arts from different aspects. Sun Wenming can use a unique octave string according to the needs of the performance of the music, sometimes even without a thousand pounds, and sometimes with a double ponytail to play, the effect is peculiar, and there is another fun. In terms of carrying the bow and walking the fingers, he skillfully combined "toss" and "light presses" to play a beautiful tone similar to the hole. He is also good at using techniques such as virtual bow, slingshot, portamento, and overtones to enrich his expression and form his own unique playing style, and he is also the best example of the relationship between technique and music. His erhu practice has a great enlightening effect on the development of erhu art, especially in the inheritance, innovation and exploration of traditional musical styles. Of the eight erhu songs he composed, "Liubo Qu" is one of the masterpieces.
Created in the winter of 1952, "Liubo Qu" has a rigorous and complete structure, a deep and beautiful melody, and a crying, euphemistic and moving tone to describe the author's desolate life in the old society. The music rises and falls, complains and is angry, like an unstable wave, so it is called "Liubo Song".
Ah Bing's "Erquan Yingyue" and Sun Wenming's "Liubo Qu" are their immortal masterpieces, the melody is poignant, tender and ups and downs, telling the sigh of life that has drifted all the way, wandered away, and drifted around. The feelings of painful life are all reflected through music, permeating the essence of traditional music, revealing a healthy and deep atmosphere from the bottom of the people, sincere, gripping, and full of fierce artistic appeal.
Biographies of the speakers of this issue
Seinfeld is a famous Huqin performing artist, educator, doctoral and postgraduate supervisor. He has worked for the Central Chinese Orchestra and the China Conservatory of Music. He is currently the vice president and professor of the China Academy of Performing Arts. Vice Chairman of the Chinese Musicians Association, Director of the Performing Arts Committee of the Chinese Musicians Association, President of the Erhu Society. He has won the special contribution award issued by the State Council and the title of "Young and Middle-Aged Literary and Art Workers of Virtue and Art". He has won the first prize in the Erhu Professional Group of the first "ART" Cup International Competition (1989), the China "Golden Disc" Award (2003), the China Record "Golden Disc" Award (2005), the China Top Ten Audiophile Record Award (2006), the "Special Gold Award" of the China Audio-Visual Exposition (2006), the Best Record Award and the Best Performance Award of Asia's Top Ten Audiophile Records (2007), and the Outstanding Folk Music Performer (2017).
Ministry of Education/Planning for the Popularization of Arts at the National Centre for the Performing Arts
Seinfeld/Wen
Lv Tianyi / finishing