"The red flag is waving, and the military trumpet is sounding." The war horses roared and the song was bright. The iron flow is twenty-five thousand miles, and the Red Army is famous all over the world. "A large-scale Chinese music classic, "Long March Suite Song", recorded the great journey of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army for 25,000 miles, and has also become an eternal memory in the hearts of several generations of Chinese. A few days ago, a concert to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the premiere of "Long March Suite" was staged at the Grand Theater of the Beijing National Cultural Palace.
Bringing the show was the Old Comrades Choral Art Troupe, with most of the actors on stage with white hair and many of them in their 70s and 80s, including more than a dozen who had participated in the official premiere of "Long March Suite" on August 1, 1965. And the theater where they appeared on the stage was also the place where the "Long March Suite Song" was first sung that year. Decades later, the magnificent melody of "Long March Suite" once again echoes here.
The 1965 premiere touched the old Red Army
On the day of the performance, Xie Gongcan, an 88-year-old member of the Old Comrades Choral Art Troupe, was on the stage, ten songs were sung, and unconsciously stood for nearly an hour, her old comrade-in-arms Lu Zuli was also an actor participating in the premiere, when they helped each other to walk off the stage, their legs were a little bent, but Xie Gongcan was also very excited to send a circle of friends: "When the curtain opened, I seemed to go back to 55 years ago!" I'm getting younger! ”
At the age of 32, Xie Gongcan was the soprano director of the Comrades-in-Arms Song and Dance Troupe (hereinafter referred to as the "Comrades-in-Arms Song and Dance Troupe") of the Political Department of the Beijing Military Region, and although so many years have passed, the rehearsal of "Long March Suite" is still vividly remembered. In 1965, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army's Long March, Xiao Hua, the founding general of the Chinese People's Liberation Army who participated in the Long March, recalled his real experience and created 12 epic poems. Subsequently, composers Chen Geng, Sheng Mao, Tang Ke, and Yu Qiu chose 10 of them to compose a group song. In August of that year, under the command of the conductor Tang Jiang, the Comrades-in-Arms Song and Dance Troupe premiered this work.
"At that time, the actors of our regiment were relatively young, no one participated in the Long March of the Red Army, and when rehearsing, they had to learn the story of the Long March, many study materials were read by everyone, and many leaders and old chiefs of the military region also came to tell us the story of the Long March. Xie Gongcan recalled that because the songs in the "Long March Suite" have a strong national flavor and regional characteristics, when learning, the teachers will also talk about the background of each song and the local music style, and the whole song is learned, which is equivalent to following the work through the Long March.
At that time, the training was also very hard, and everyone had to be tested individually, not only the sound, but also the action and stage performance. After a series of rigorous training and small-scale auditions, in August, "Long March Suite Song" officially premiered. "Not only were we excited, but after the curtain was drawn, the generals of the troops in the audience were particularly excited." Xie Gongcan remembered clearly, and after the performance, many generals came up and said, "You are the real Red Army!" Xie Gongcan said modestly: "We are not the Red Army, they are the people who really went through the Long March, but watching us wearing Red Army uniforms and listening to us sing, they feel particularly real." ”
Old comrades reunited to form a choir
"Long March Suite Song" was extremely popular after its premiere and was sung all over the country. With the passage of time, the old comrades who premiered the group songs retired one by one or scattered to other literary and artistic groups. In 1998, the Old Comrades Choir Art Troupe was established, and the old comrades-in-arms re-gathered together for the "Long March Suite", and have been singing the classics countless times for more than 20 years.
"After we retired, we met every year, and at the end of each party we sang the "Long March Suite", and at that time, there were more amateur choirs in society, so we wondered why we didn't set up a choir?" Xie Gongcan recalled that the chorus at that time advocated "speaking softly and high", but the old comrades-in-arms continued the instructions of Premier Zhou when the "Long March Group Song" was performed that year, "Premier Zhou said that our "Long March Group Song" should be close to the masses and sing the chorus that the masses can sing. ”
Tang Jiang, the premiere conductor of the "Long March Group Song" and the former head of the comrades-in-arms song and dance troupe, was also invited to count the number of voices with his old comrades-in-arms, and contacted thirty or forty actors who participated in the premiere. The old regimental commander of Tang Jiang himself donated five thousand yuan of start-up funds and rearranged the "Long March Suite Song" under his command. During the rearrangement, Tang Jiang also found Xiao Zhenhuan, who was a staff member in the General Regiment Business Office during the premiere of "Long March Suite Song". In 1965, many of the uploaded and dispatched work was completed by Xiao Zhenhuan, who was less than 20 years old at the time, and she was also a witness to the premiere of "Long March Suite".
Xiao Zhenhuan also remembers the scene before and after the premiere of "Long March Suite". From the beginning of the creation, Premier Zhou Enlai has been paying attention to its creation, "Premier Zhou said that our performance should break the choir's style on the stage like a wall, and each song adds a little action and does not affect the singing. "Later, when the "Long March Suite" was performed, Premier Zhou also came to see the performance." I remember once it had already opened, I recognized a staff member next to Premier Zhou, and when I looked back, I found the premier sitting in the back seat of the staff. "Xiao Zhenhuan said that the premier's performance had already begun when he entered, and in order not to disturb the audience, he quietly sat in the back and waited until the intermission to walk to the front." The Prime Minister liked these ten pieces very much, and he hummed them every time, and his favorite was the "Over the Snowy Mountain Meadow". ”
Today, Xiao Zhenhuan, who is the deputy head of the Old Comrades Choral Art Troupe, is 76 years old, and after joining the "Old Comrades-in-Arms", she often works as a curtain caller, sometimes wearing the Red Army uniform of the performance and singing with the old comrades on stage. "Those old comrades in arms who premiered the show all watched me grow up, and after so many years, I listened to them rehearse and smoked." Xiao Zhenhuan said.
Sing the "Long March Suite" with the spirit of the Long March
In 2020, the 55th anniversary of the premiere of "Long March Suite", the Old Comrades Choral Art Troupe, with the support and help of the Shijingshan Old Cadre Bureau, decided to repeat the complete group song with the band. At this time, the "old comrades-in-arms" have absorbed a lot of new forces, the total number of people has reached nearly a hundred, and the number of old comrades who participated in the premiere is getting smaller and smaller, but as long as the body allows, there are still more than a dozen old comrades-in-arms reunited.
Xiao Zhenhuan still served as a curtain reporter and helped organize the rehearsal of the whole group. Once, during a rehearsal with the band, Xiao Zhenhuan was busy looking for choir members, did not see the two steps under his feet, and slid down the steps as soon as he slipped out. "At that time, I thought I was on my feet, and when I saw that everyone was busy rehearsing together, I didn't make a sound."
When everyone rehearsed, Xiao Zhenhuan sat down to rest, and when she needed to come forward, she endured the pain and participated. It was not until the morning rehearsal was completed that Xiao Zhenhuan went to the hospital after returning home in the afternoon, and the doctor saw that it was a fracture in the ankle and quickly tied her with a wrist guard with a steel plate. It is reasonable to say that the foot injury should be recuperated, but Xiao Zhenhuan can not rest assured, thinking that the performance will also be reported to the curtain, she will spray the leg to let it reduce swelling first.
"Many of the old comrades who premiered that year are seventy or eighty years old, and their health is not good, as soon as they heard about the 55th anniversary performance, they immediately had no illness and insisted on coming." She felt that these old comrades-in-arms were persisting in the spirit of the Long March, and of course she had to insist on it. On the day of the performance, she gritted her teeth and put on high heels to announce the curtain. "Unfortunately, as soon as my leg hurts, it affects the speed of speech, and the curtain is still a little slow, I want to be able to relax a little." I also wanted to introduce the Augmentation Philharmonic Orchestra, which we played enthusiastically, but as soon as it hurt, I forgot a lot. ”
Although Xiao Zhenhuan himself felt some small regrets, the reenactment of "Long March Suite Song" was more exciting. She also called in volunteers several old comrades who joined the army in the same year as her, these old comrades are also in their seventies, and they were also veteran actors who made their debut, and they helped to pull the curtain during this performance, and the choir people on the stage recognized them at a glance and were full of tears. "Everyone sang more and more excitedly, and they all thought about the premiere at that time, although there were comrades in the choir who did not participate in the premiere, but they sang with the old comrades-in-arms choral art troupe for more than 20 years, and they also had feelings."
"Responsibility to pass on the history"
The complete "Long March Suite" consists of 10 songs and is about 55 minutes long, which is a challenge for the old comrades- Don't say to sing and do actions, standing on the stage for an hour will be very hard, but Xie Gongcan, Lu Zuli, Wang Luming and other old comrades-in-arms have insisted.
Xie Gongcan has always been in good health, and since she heard that she was going to sing on stage, she has been preparing for this performance. "Mainly afraid of colds, I have been paying attention recently." Xie Gongcan said that when she was close to the performance for a week, she originally wanted to take a bath, but the old man was easily cold when he took a bath, so she did not dare to take a bath. On the day of the performance, she ate lunch early at noon, seized the time to rest for a while, and was sent to the theater by the child. In the afternoon, she walked on stage with the members of the group, played with the band, then put on makeup, and ate a box lunch in the background to officially perform, singing for an hour.
"A lot of people tell me that you're on the stage, which is the biggest encouragement for us, and I think it's the same for me." Xie Gongcan was very excited, and what she thought in her heart was that for the sake of the "Long March Song", as long as she could insist on it, she would definitely insist on it. "I feel very happy, now at this age I can still stand on the stage and sing; I also feel very honored, I can still inherit the spirit of the Long March; and finally there is responsibility, I feel that I should do this, I am 88 years old, I want to tell these things I know to young people!" 」
Source: Beijing Daily Client | Reporter Han Xuan
Edit: Guan Yiwen
Process Editor: Dan Guo