From the vast echoes of distant sound at the beginning to the pulsating beats at the end, contemporary composer Bernd Richard Deutsch's "Phenomenon" for Sheng and orchestra is a complex and wonderful work. On May 17th and 18th, renowned sheng virtuoso Wu Wei and the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra under conductor Qian Junping joined forces to present the Chinese premiere of this work. After thanking the audience for the applause, Wu Wei returned to the backstage lounge, his clothes soaked with sweat.
He was an inspiration to composers
"The work of 'Phenomenon' is very demanding for the performer, you will compete and collide with the band, and you will collide with a high energy." Wu Wei said. Deutsch spared no effort in "Phenomenon", and Sheng, Wu Wei were his inspirations. "Deutsch feels that my playing has opened up some new dimensions for him." Wu Wei said. Many people who play national instruments indulge in traditional minor tunes, but Wu Wei incorporates an international language into the tradition. A few years ago, the sheng concerto "The Spirit of the Gods" composed by Korean composer Chen Yinshu for Wu Wei was a great success. It was also a work that would make people sweat profusely when performed, and Chen Yinshu used the sheng as an organ, allowing the sheng to breathe with the symphony orchestra, and the colors blended together, creating a sound effect that could be called "magical".
"The Spirit of the Gods" toured many countries, and Wu Wei guessed that it was because of it that Deutsch was touched by it, so he gladly accepted the invitation to compose for Sheng, an instrument he had never known. The fingering of the sheng is very complicated, and Deutsch took the sheng given to him by Wu Wei and studied for a whole year, repeatedly exploring the possibilities of technique, so that the challenge and the feasible coexist in "Phenomenon". "Of the many harmonies that the audience hears, the least is more than 12 notes, but there are only 10 human fingers." Wu Wei said. In order to play these highly valuable harmonies, in addition to the study of fingering, the instrument itself must also provide assistance. The 37-reed improved sheng used by Wu Wei was jointly developed by Weng Zhenfa, Mou Shanping, and Xu Chaoming, three masters in the sheng industry, in the 80s of the last century, which greatly expanded the vocal range of the traditional sheng and opened up a bridge between the sheng and Western musical instruments.
"I don't want to be a music reading machine"
Wu Wei was aware of his "impulse" early on, and he did not want to rest on his laurels. In 1992, after graduating from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Wu Wei joined the professional troupe, performing more than 300 performances a year, but the repertoire was always two or three sets. "I've always felt dissatisfied, and I didn't want to be a music reading machine." Later, Wu Wei and a few like-minded friends formed the Alpine Flowing Water Band, and tried to perform jazz with national instruments such as sheng, horse-head qin, and tambourine. Jazz is chic and unrestrained, and "improvisation" is its soul, "The first time I came into contact with improvisation, I realized that I could make music without relying on musical scores. In 1995, Wu Wei was awarded the highest cultural exchange scholarship by the German government DAAD to study jazz at the Hans Esler Academy of Music in Berlin. In this city, where musicians from all over the world gather and come and go, Wu Wei wants to "take the initiative" to find an answer for himself.
Sheng, which has a history of thousands of years, was really new on the international stage at that time. To open the way out, jazz alone is not enough, so Wu Wei took Sheng, and at every opportunity, he collaborated with musicians from all over the world, jazz, classical, national, modern, he "played" everything, learned everything. For example, Wu was surprised to find that Indian music has a potentially wonderful connection with mathematics: "They don't have scores, they perform and calculate at the same time, and their eyes are like scanning, which is very exciting and creative." To date, Wu Wei has brought more than 400 world premieres, including more than 20 Sheng concertos: Xu Shuya uses the theme of "Winter Snow" to write his memories of the wind and snow in the north; Huang Ruo, who has lived in the United States for many years, uses Sheng as a guide to miss the reflection of his homeland memories in "Xuanhuang"; Fang Man's "The Shengyin of the Fire Phoenix" is skillful and expands the possibilities of harmony...... With the mutual achievement of composer and performer, Sheng is telling the spirit of the moment in today's language.
Re-acquainting with the "true face of Lushan" of traditional culture
The sheng is a harmonic instrument, and the philosophical realm of "harmony" is hidden in its musical sound. The traditional Chinese folk musical instrument has a strong personality, one suona can show alone, but two suona is difficult to harmonize, and only the sheng with rich overtones can save the scene at this time. "In Kunqu Opera, the sheng and the flute are always together, and in the silk bamboo in the south of the Yangtze River, the sheng has always held the flute and other musical instruments. When there is a gap elsewhere, you will come out; When there is enough else, you have to retreat. "It seems to be invisible, but everywhere, and the harmony and balance between them are the Chinese wisdom that Sheng has told the world.
Traveling all over the world, and then looking back at the place where he came from and the tradition he stood on, Wu Wei walked out of the shackles of "only being in this mountain" and saw the "true face of Lushan" that he had never realized before. After spending more than ten hours quietly reading the complete version of "The Peony Pavilion", Wu Wei sighed that Kunqu Opera is "too beautiful", but unfortunately, the existing translations often cannot translate one percent of the essence. In the process of Chinese culture going global, there are many similar situations, and Wu Wei wants to eliminate that loss. "This requires not only understanding the essence of it, but also having the ability to integrate and refine." Wu Wei believes that he still needs a long time to learn and digest, which is a daunting challenge for this generation of Chinese musicians who are active on the international stage, and it is also a mission entrusted by the times.