Luo Yusheng is in Beijing
My grandmother Luo Yusheng, stage name Xiaocai Dance, born in 1914, at the age of 4 with his adoptive father Luo Cai dance in Shanghai World stage Chinese juggling, and singing Beijing opera ErHuang, 8 years old in Hankou with Yang Haoting to learn "Layer by Layer See Joy" and other Beijing rhyme drums to open the Small Section. She has two outstanding points: a good voice, horizontal and vertical, and the range spans three octaves; the memory is particularly good, and she remembers what new voices and new tones are listened to once. Grandma said that she had never been beaten since elementary school, and in art, her innate endowment was indeed different from ordinary people.
At first, my grandmother learned Beijing opera from Su Huanting, singing Lao Dan first, then singing Lao Sheng, and pairing up with her sister Caiyun bought by her adoptive mother, Grandma singing Lao Sheng, and Cai Yun singing QingYi. In the winter of 1926, Grandma and Caiyun came to Nanjing with their adoptive parents, and they could play a play and sing, not wanting to grow taller and taller at this time, obviously surpassing my grandmother. At that time, the adoptive father and adoptive mother broke up, the calculating adoptive mother refused to give the two of them a costume, and it was even more impossible to sing in class, helpless, grandma sang Beijing opera Erhuang in the tea house in Nanjing, and sang Erhuang drums.
Grandma singing the big drum did not formally worship the teacher, but kept going to various tea gardens in Nanjing to listen. Liu Baoquan, Bai Yunpeng and other senior artists of the Beijing Rhyme Drum performed in Nanjing, and my grandmother went to watch it. With a good memory that never forgets, I have secretly learned the unique work and new work of many artists. She bought a huqin, and every day when she came home, she found out the cavity she heard and remembered on the huqin and pulled it with her fingers, which helped her with this unwise ability. Because she often went to "steal work", her peers gave her the nickname of "thief", and once, Mr. Feng Zhibin performed on stage and found my grandmother offstage, singing and singing.
Luo Yusheng
In 1931, my grandmother was 17 years old, Nanjing Mingfeng Tea House invited the famous corner of Beijing and Tianjin, including the founder of the Shaobaipai Jingyun Drum, Bai Fengyan and Bai Fengming brothers, who had just become famous in the north and south of the river, their unique "upstairs" and rich semitone decorative sounds, let my grandmother listen to the fascination, she felt that this Shaobaipai is different from the popular Liu Pai Jingyun, but also different from the Baipai Jingyun, the words are novel and unique, the charm is more sufficient, and even better than the Liu Pai drum.
Bai Fengming typhoon is rigorous and serious, a good silk string to maintain the tone, a show that combines beads, let my grandmother refuse to leave for a long time. After the performance, she went backstage to say hard work, and when Bai Fengming learned that my grandmother could sing the Jingyun drum, she encouraged her to sing a piece. My grandmother was trying to ask them for advice, there was such an opportunity to ask for it, and she sang a passage of "Layer by Layer of Joy", and Li Guangwu, who played the piano, said: "This child's throat sings a big drum is no better, just pick the hair!" The two white sages also particularly appreciated my grandmother's voice, enthusiastically encouraged her to learn more and less white, and asked my grandmother to perform in Wuhu for nine days.
The left one Luo Yusheng, the left fourth Luo Caiyun
With such a good opportunity, my grandmother was overjoyed, those days, she followed two white sages in Wuhu to watch and learn the art of northern music, listening to the scene without falling to the ground, and constantly learning every day. At the same time, the professionalism of the two white sages has deeply inspired her, and the familiar passages sung every day must be rehearsed before the performance, and the breath and body are the same as on the stage, and the rehearsal is sweaty. My grandmother was a little puzzled: "It's not a show, why bother?" Feng Ming said, "You don't understand yet, there is no offstage, there is no on stage!" This sentence made my grandmother Mao Sai open, and I admired them more in my heart, coupled with Bai Fengming's continuous encouragement and persuasion, my grandmother made up her mind - singing the Jingyun big drum can communicate and learn with such a famous character, and there will be no development in the future, and at that time, the income of the music actors was to take a share, which was more secure than the tea house oratorio erhuang.
After returning to Nanjing, my grandmother officially changed to singing the Jingyun Big Drum, and my sister Caiyun also sang the Jingyun Big Drum, performing in the Mingfeng Tea House and the World Tea House. Unexpectedly, my grandmother began her drum music life by admiring the art of the Shaobai Sect, and later had more and more intersection with the Shaobai Sect, and soon became a disciple of Bai Fengming.
In 1934, Han Yonglu, the three-stringed holy hand who broke up with Liu Baoquan because of the problem of accounting, arrived in Nanjing, and my grandmother found that the door of the Nanjing Six Dynasties Residence was posted: Specially invited three-string holy hand Han Yonglu. These few words are not good, holy hand, not ordinary people can afford it, she went to the garden to listen, sure enough, extraordinary, that good string lining the singing is inferior. This Han Yonglu is Bai Fengyan's master, who has been looking for apprentices with good conditions for many years, and after meeting my grandmother, a good seedling who sings a big drum, he immediately set up a banquet at the Qinghuayuan Restaurant, accepted this apprentice, dismissed all the students under his disciples, concentrated on cultivating my grandmother, dismantled and combed her twenty or so two yellow drums without a teacher, especially standardized the board eyes and singing voice, and taught my grandmother many singing skills of Liu Pai, Bai Pai and ShaoBai Pai. My grandmother said that from the beginning of the rehearsal of the master and apprentice, master never let her die to learn from the Liu School or other schools, and let her retain and encourage any singing voice that suited the conditions of my grandmother's voice.
In 1935, my grandmother and master went north separately, and my grandmother brought her sister Caiyun, fourth uncle Luo Caiquan and other families from Nanjing to meet master in Jinan, and after more than half a year of rehearsals, she came to Tianjin on August 15, 1936.
In order to ensure that my grandmother could successfully skip the dragon gate in Tianjin, the land of music and art, Master Han Yonglu deliberately chose the time when Liu Baoquan left Tianjin to perform in the south, and the garden for the first three days of performance was found by his entrusted people, and the repertoire was also arranged by him personally, singing "Drumming and Scolding Cao" on the first day of the Central Plains Amusement Club, he said: Tianjin eats hot, this passage is your Fengming master's brother's last skill, tianjin few people sing, just take it to cannon. The next day sang "The Great West Chamber". On the third day, I sang the kung fu "Seven Star Lanterns". On the stage, with Master's tone, my grandmother was like a tiger, with her own extraordinary good voice and the good singing voice of the Shaobai Sect, she quickly became popular, jumped over the dragon gate in Tianjin, won the reputation of "King of Golden Voice Songs", and even played with Liu Baoquan, who performed in daguanyuan across the street, when performing in Xiaoliyuan, she even played in the ring with Liu Baoquan, who performed in Daguanyuan across the street. It was also because he accepted my grandmother's apprentice, and Master Han Yonglu raised his eyebrows and exhaled from then on. Unfortunately, my sister Caiyun, who followed my grandmother to Tianjin, did not sing famous, and she did not hear from her after marrying away from home.
My grandmother and Shaobai Xianxian became brothers, goodbye Bai Fengming changed her name to master brother, although grandma is a woman, but Bai Fengming called my grandmother "master brother", so all my life. The brothers often perform on the same stage in Beijing and Tianjin, complementing each other, and the Phoenix Hall in Beijing, Qingyun in Tianjin and other theaters have left their figures, and their artistic resonance and exchange are increasing.
When the Shaobai Sect had a new cavity, she always let my grandmother sing first, and my grandmother especially admired the new style and new tone of her brother "Zong Liu is not confined to Liu", which deeply affected her later artistic path. She loves the bass of the Shaobai School, and the lyricism is full of vigor, first learning "Drumming and Scolding Cao", "Seven Star Lantern", "Zhan Daizhou", and then installing the cavity in "Seven Star Lantern" into "Red Mei Ge", "Lying Down and Tasting Courage", and "Wen Tianxiang". Her singing originated from Shaobai and was different from Shaobai, adding vibrato (whoosh) to her own singing, and changing the one-handed drumming of the "Night Deep Song Card" in "Drumming and Scolding Cao" to two-handed drumming, which later became the reserved repertoire of Luo Pai Jingyun and was widely spread among disciples and re-transmission disciples.
The innovation and reform of the northern drum art by the two sages of Shaobai is not limited to the Jingyun big drum, but their innovation in the new plum blossom tune is a great contribution. For example, the new arrangement of the song "Farewell to the Purple Crane" is particularly beautiful and refreshing. This passage had a great influence after being sung by my grandmother in the early 50s, when some people said that Luo Yusheng sang "Farewell to the Purple Crane" again, and those who sang plum blossom drums would have no food. For this reason, my grandmother stopped singing plum blossoms, but she had a special love for this passage and especially loved it. In 1995, she made an audio matching for her own singing segment, specifically mentioning this segment, but due to the low quality of the recording in the 50s, she could not match the image, leaving a deep regret.
Luo Yusheng and Hou Baolin and others
The singing voice of the Shaobai school is particularly suitable for female vocal interpretation, and many of the female Jingyun actors of my grandmother's contemporaries have learned shaobai and benefited. In the 1961 Jingyun Big Drum Genre Seminar, most actresses believed that the Shaobai Sect should be before the Luo Sect, for this reason, my grandmother frankly said: "I completely agree to establish the Shaobai Sect, because the Shaobai Sect is the Luo Sect, and Master Fengming is not only the enlightenment teacher of my Jingyun Drum, but also a good friend who improves my singing skills and helps me innovate and reform." ”
At the end of 1976, my grandmother reappeared on the stage, and after all the disasters, she was rejuvenated with an incomparably strong artistic vitality. She continued to move forward along the path of drum music innovation that Master and Brother had explored for many years, adapting to the changes of the times and the changes in people's appreciation habits. However, at this time, Bai Fengyan had passed away, and Bai Fengming's body could not guarantee daily performances.
In 1980, my grandmother spent a year composing music for the newly composed lyrics "Heshi Bi", and took the opportunity of a meeting in Beijing, she came to the home of her brother Bai Fengming, when the brother was sick in bed, my grandmother sat in front of the bed and sang: "Brother Master, the last sentence of this second fall is shaobai's cavity; brother, this sentence 'thick sand and stone pieces have fallen, revealing the beauty of jade dazzling' should be a drum, but the drum sound now is crisp. The master asked, "What about your original drum?" My grandmother replied, "The whereabouts of the drum are unknown." When the master brother heard this, he immediately said, "I have a low and thick drum that suits your voice, so you can use it and sing this passage well." "This drum was used by Mr. Jin Wanchang, the founder of the Jinpai Plum Blossom Drum, and Mr. Jin had a blind monk use it to do things before, and later Mr. Jin gave the drum to Bai Fengming, and it has been passed down to Grandma for generations. I just didn't expect that this was the last time that the two brothers would exchange art. Soon after, Feng Ming passed away.
At the end of 1981, the "50th Anniversary of Luo Yusheng's Stage Life" activity was held in Tianjin, and the symposium established the historical status of Luo Pai art in the Jingyun Big Drum, and performed "Sword Pavilion Wen bell", "Drumming and Cursing Cao" and "Heshi Bi" for three consecutive days. My grandmother was very emotional that Master Feng Ming, who had helped her the most, had not been able to come to this day. Throughout the 80s, my grandmother accompanied her with the drum that her brother had given her, and the pure drum sound could be heard in the wonderful recordings of her later years. For this side of the book drum that carries the stage glory of several generations of drum artists, Grandma cherishes it and does not leave her body no matter where she goes.
In her later years, my grandmother was particularly concerned about the collation of the Shaobaipai singing section and the new plum blossom singing section, she said: "There are many classic singing sections of the Shaobai school, and there are many good voices, I only learn a small part, and there are also changes." She encouraged Bai Jialin, a descendant of the Shaobai Sect, to insist on performing, saying that it must be sung so that more people can understand the Jingyun Drum, and the Jingyun Drum will not be lost.
My grandmother and Shaobai Xianxian's teacher-friendly friendship for more than half a century is high, she always misses the great influence and selfless help of Master Fengyan Fengming on her lifelong artistic path, and in her long drum music life, whether it is a major turning moment or an important work, there is the guidance and care of shaobai. When it comes to the Shaobai Sect, she always says: "The Luo Faction is the Shaobai Sect." "This grandmother's heartfelt words, I have heard the most from childhood to adulthood. (This article is the original of Luo Yusheng's granddaughter Luo Weiwei, and the headline of "Tianjin Past" was first published)
Luo Yusheng and his family