David · Afshalomov relived the past in the Modai Building, where the national anthem was recorded and where his grandfather, Aaron · Afshalomov, once worked. Aaron was the band conductor of EMI and was the first composer to score the national anthem of the mainland. No. 811 Hengshan Road, the same location, is the love and inheritance of Chinese music for generations of grandparents.
This year is the 130th anniversary of the birth of Aaron · Afshalomov, in order to commemorate this far-reaching "China expert" composer in the fusion of Chinese and Western music, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra specially planned, his grandson David · Afshalomov will perform his grandfather's "Beiping Hutong", "Violin Concerto" and "Symphony No. 2 in E minor" on September 12, and "reunite" with his grandfather in music.
The national anthem "March of the Volunteers" and grandfather "Old Afu"
As soon as he climbed the second floor stairs of the Baidai Building, David · Afshalomov saw the historical process of the birth, recording and widespread singing of the "March of the Volunteers", and he remembered his grandfather's participation in the orchestration of the national anthem, and blurted out a playful Chinese "Old Afu". The Chinese national anthem and his "old Ah Fu", this story David is very familiar with, and he did not forget to discuss one or two with the guide when he heard the details.
Born in Nikolaevsk, a small city on the border between China and Russia, Aaron · Avshalomov was immersed in Chinese culture and folklore, he loved to listen to Peking Opera since he was a child, and his juniors also spoke Chinese well. He spent about 30 years in China, with a sheng flute and flute at his desk, and often wore robes and shoes. From 1932 onwards, Aron worked as a band conductor at EMI Records, where Nie Er was the deputy director of the company's music department. In 1935, Nie Er composed the music for the film script of "Children of the Storm" composed by Tian Han, and after the finalization of the draft, He Luting invited Ah Long to orchestrate the orchestral orchestral of "March of the Volunteers". Then, the first version of the "national anthem" was sung on this Baidai master record numbered A2395.
Hearing the "March of the Volunteers", David always unconsciously gently shook his body to echo the melody. The last time David came to China was in 1982, and it was the first time he came to the land that his grandfather talked about in his music. David and the orchestra performed his own orchestra of "March of the Volunteers" in Beijing, and then in a restaurant in Xi'an, he "conducted" a different kind of "concert" on a whim, holding chopsticks. "Since I couldn't see my grandfather's (Aaron's) score and could only listen to the recording, our version was different." David introduced that his version uses horn and trumpet with strings, sometimes the strings dominate, and sometimes the whole orchestra plays together.
How many years have passed, David also has his own grandson, when the three-year-old grandson picked up chopsticks to learn from the appearance of his ancestors to "conduct", David felt as if we had completed "five generations in the same house" in music. In his room on the second floor of the Momoyo Building, David sat by the window and quietly recalled: "I used to meet people in China who knew my grandfather, and they all said that he was generous and kind, and would sell his watch just to give a wedding gift to a friend. I am very happy to see that my grandfather's music has received so much attention in China, and I am really happy to be able to immerse myself in the Chinese music atmosphere and feel his creative mood and environment at that time. ”
A deep love for Chinese music continues from generation to generation
Speaking of Chinese music, David suddenly hummed the symphony "Yangguan Three Stacks", in which he deeply loved the prelude to the guqin, and he said that the sadness of parting with the deceased in the poem lingered in the song. David once enjoyed a traditional opera in Shaanxi, "People's eyes should be hanged, the rhythm of gongs and drums is also sonorous, and a certain character will disappear under the heavy smoke." The vitality of the song reminded him that his grandfather grew up in Chinese culture.
Aaron · Afshalomov has devoted endless explorations to the fusion of Chinese and Western music. His three pieces will be performed at the concert on September 12, each with its own Chinese flavor. A tone poem walking in the old city of Beijing, the symphonic sketch "Beiping Hutong" opens the concert. Peking Opera and street hawking echo the melody of Chinese style, which has a sense of thick and deep historical accumulation, but also has a bit of approachable pyrotechnic atmosphere. This piece was first performed in 1932 by Mei Baiqi under the baton of the Shanghai Ministry of Industry Bureau Orchestra, the predecessor of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. In 2017, Yu Long led the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra on a European tour with this work. Nearly a century later, his grandson, David · Afshalomov, reconnected with the same orchestra he had done a hundred years earlier.
At that time, the "Four Horse Road Vegetable Field", which is now Fuzhou Road, was born, and the second piece of this concert, "Violin Concerto", was born. The premiere was still conducted by Mei Baiqi, who at the time commented that "it was played very well, including all the Chinese details". The overall style of the piece is bright and peaceful, and there are many new ideas pouring out. In this piece, the violin and the orchestra are not in opposition, "The violin is like a very talented child in the family, and the whole orchestra is doing its best to make it look its best." David cleverly compared, "I think the relationship between the orchestra and the principal soloist Liu Ming is exactly that. ”
David's favourite Symphony No. 2 in E minor. It was created and premiered in the United States, but it is a testimony to the grandfather's "love for China" and China's transition from darkness to light in the thirties and forties of the last century. In terms of musical technique, it not only requires a huge orchestra with three disciplines, but also incorporates percussion instruments such as cymbals, cymbals, gongs, drums, and ringing wood with Chinese characteristics, and uses Chinese national keys and melodies in the magnificent Western symphony structure. David remembers the first time he heard it, when he came home from college and his grandfather put the score on his lap and played him a recording of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, "I was very moved, starting with the Japanese invasion and the loss of family and friends, and as the pain intensified, people rebelled, and finally liberation." Celebrating in retrospect and remembrance, I think this is a very powerful work. ”
When David · Afshalomov was born 78 years ago, his grandfather Aaron · Afshalomov had been working in the Chinese music scene for 30 years. When Aron's music is played again in Shanghai, the dialogue between Chinese and Western music continues in a new form.