"The red flag is waving, and the military trumpet is sounding." In 1965, the large-scale vocal suite "Long March Suite Song", created to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army's Long March, was premiered by the Beijing Military Region Comrades-in-Arms Cultural and Labor Troupe and has been sung ever since.
Group photo of the choir walking on stage before the premiere of "Long March Suite Song" in 1965 (courtesy of Ma Ziyue)
Composed by General Xiao Hua and composed by Chen Geng, ShengMao, Tang Hao and Yu Qiu, this work uses music to trace the difficult course of the Red Army's Long March. The Red Army is not afraid of expeditions and difficulties, and it is the great spirit of the Long March that injects endless strength into the "Long March Suite".
1 General Xiao Hua personally wrote the story of the Long March
As a witness to the premiere of "Long March Suite", singer Ma Ziyue has collected a large number of precious materials over the years, turning his home into the "Long March Suite Song" Museum (Photo Gannan)
In 1964, at the suggestion of Premier Zhou Enlai, General Xiao Hua, who had been ill for a long time, left Beijing for convalescence in Hangzhou. In another year, 1965 will usher in the 30th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army's Long March, and many newspapers and magazines have invited Xiao Hua to commemorate this great feat with poetry.
"With so many manuscripts, my father felt that he could not write them, and he had the idea of writing the "Long March Suite.") Xiao Hua's daughter Xiao Xia recalled that from September to November 1964, Xiao Hua first wrote the "Long March Group Poems" containing 12 poems, "After writing it, my father thought that if he could compose and sing the "Long March Group Poems", it would be better." ”
Xiao Hua told his thoughts to the comrades-in-arms of the Beijing Military Region at that time, and the composers Chen Geng, ShengMao, Tang Hao, and Yu Qiu took over the task of composing music for the first 10 poems of the "Long March Group Poems" and composing them into the "Long March Group Songs", all of which adopted the format of "three seven sentences, four eight open", each poem rhymed, and a few 680 words covered many important events such as the Zunyi Conference, the Four Crossings of Chishui, the Flying Crossing of the Dadu River, the Crossing of the Snowy Mountains and Meadows, and the General Assembly Division. At the beginning of 1965, four composers brought the score to Hangzhou to seek Xiao Hua's opinion.
During the 10 days together, the composers were amazed by the general's agility. For example, when everyone mentioned that in the paragraph "Four Crossings of the Red Water surprise soldiers", the "wonderful" character of "Chairman Mao's use of soldiers is as wonderful as a god" is not easy to sing, Xiao Hualuo thought about it and changed the classic lyrics of "Chairman Mao uses soldiers as gods" on the spot. Xiao Hua also gave a lot of inspiration in music. During the Long March, the Red Army trekked through many areas, and Xiao Hua suggested that it would be useful to use local folk music elements, "Now, we can hear jiangxi tea picking, Hunan flower drum opera, northern Shaanxi folk songs and other musical styles in the "Long March Song", to a large extent, these are related to my father's proposal. Xiao Xia said.
Rehearsals are also intense. Bass singer Ma Ziyue was just 20 years old and had only come to the Comrades-in-Arms Cultural and Labor Corps of the Beijing Military Region the year before. In the 58-member choir of "Long March Songs," Ma Ziyue was one of the youngest, with one-third of the veterans who participated in the War of Resistance Against Japan, the War of Liberation, and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. "The three months of rehearsal are really passionate years." Ma Ziyue remembered that bright red slogans hung in the army compound and rehearsal hall: "Sing the Red Army, learn from the Red Army, and swear to be the red successor." "Every morning, everyone should concentrate on studying Chairman Mao's writings, poems, and the original poems of Xiao Hua's "Long March Group Poems," and the old Red Army also told everyone about their personal experiences during the Long March." The Red Army's crossing of snowy mountain meadows, eating grass roots and bark, etc., used to be the words in books. From those stories soaked in blood, the new soldiers gradually understood what the Long March meant.
2 The premiere was sensational, and Premier Zhou liked it
In the summer of 1965, Xiao Hua transferred to Tianjin to recuperate. On July 19, he reviewed the "Long March Suite" at the Tianjin People's Auditorium, and Ma Ziyue met the legendary general for the first time. It was the height of summer, there was no electric fan in the theater, and the sweltering heat was abnormal, but Xiao Hua and his wife Wang Xinlan were very engaged in watching it.
When he participated in the Long March, Xiao Hua was only 18 years old, and he did not shed tears along the way, because he "did not have time to cry." After the performance, facing the cast and crew, Xiao Hua's voice choked: "I have long had this wish, I want to write out the great Long March, when I was writing, my illness worsened, the doctor advised me to rest, I said, 'The belt is gradually widening and I will not regret it, and I will be haggard for the people of Yiwu'. When you sang, many old Reds cried. So many good comrades-in-arms, some of whom are still children, sacrificed themselves on the Long March Road, and when they think of them, they feel sad. ”
On August 1, "Long March Suite Song" premiered at the National Cultural Palace in Beijing. Without overwhelming publicity, two cents a ticket at the small window outside the gate, "Long March Suite" soon became popular, and then toured more than 50 times across the country, and the Central People's Radio also played recordings frequently at the request of listeners. "After performing for a while, people around me were singing the 'Long March Suite', and later it was found that the people of the whole country began to sing the 'Long March Suite'." Ma Ziyue said.
Xiao Xia, who was only 12 years old at the time, was deeply touched by the first time she listened to "Long March Suite Song". In the spring of 1965, she and her sister Xiao Lu visited their father in Tianjin, just in time for four composers to report on the final draft of the Long March Group Song. "Some people sang bass, some people sang sopranos, and at first, the two of us kids thought it was very funny, but listening to it, we remembered a lot of songs."
Xiao Xia still cherished an interesting story in her heart. Initially, the Cultural and Labor Corps of the General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army also created a version of the "Long March Suite Song". Premier Zhou once asked everyone, which is better, the "comrades-in-arms version" or the "general political version"? Xiao Hua commented that "each has its own advantages", and others did not know how to answer for a while. Premier Zhou looked back at Xiao Xia and called her to his side: "Xiao Xia, can you tell me which one do you prefer?" Xiao Xia's childlike words blurted out: "I like the 'comrade-in-arms version'!" Easy to sing, easy to remember! Premier Zhou was amused and laughed: "You see, children don't tell lies." ”
Premier Zhou's love for the "comrades-in-arms version" of "Long March Suite" is obvious to all. In 1966, when he visited Romania, Albania and other countries, Premier Zhou brought this work with him. In 1975, the rehearsed "Long March Suite" was staged at the Beijing Exhibition Center, and after the performance one day, Chen Geng asked everyone not to remove their makeup first, and the prime minister's office called to say that the sick premier wanted to see "Long March Suite Song" again. Because the prime minister was too weak to be there, everyone sang again to the camera cameras in the empty theater. Tears crept into their eyes, and everyone sang with great devotion, hoping that the televised signal would bring the song to the Prime Minister.
3 "Long March Suite" also has a "museum"
On the night of August 24, 1965, after the performance of "Long March Suite" at the People's Theater in Beijing, Premier Zhou and the actors took a group photo, and in Ma Ziyue's impression, it was the only time that the premier took a group photo with everyone. The negative of this photo was "lost" for more than thirty years, and later, Ma Ziyue turned over the old negative of the damp in the warehouse of the literary troupe to make up for this regret for everyone (photography Gannan)
In Ma Ziyue's room, a large black-and-white photograph hung prominently on the wall. The photo is frozen on the night of August 24, 1965, after the performance of "Long March Suite" at the Beijing People's Theater, Premier Zhou and the actors took a group photo, and in Ma Ziyue's impression, it was the only time that the premier took a group photo with everyone.
Ma Ziyue has collected many similar objects: the first program list of "Long March Songs", the first songbook, the poster when the 1,000th performance was performed at the Poly Theater in Beijing in August 2002... His home has become a museum of "Long March Songs". Ma Ziyue also compiled a large number of written materials. Before Chen Geng's death, he took a small tape recorder to the interview, and the two-and-a-half-hour recording was sorted out, which was a manuscript of tens of thousands of words, and this was only one of many materials.
"The people who created the classics are gone, many of our predecessors are gone, and our task is to pass on the "Long March Suite" as it is." Taking the passage "To Wuqi Town" as an example, in the original version, the female voice accompanied by the small board, sang "The séance soldier on the mouth of the wax, the cliff of Baizhang as a ladder" was sung in a big way, but Ma Ziyue found that some choirs now removed the small board. "The small plates, large plates, bamboo flutes and other musical instruments used in the "Long March Suite Song" are all available on the Long March Road." As a result, Ma Ziyue often runs among art groups across the country, hoping to help more people understand and inherit the "charm" of "Long March Group Songs".
"Singing the 'Long March Suite Song', the heart of the Red Army and the love of the Red Army are indispensable." At that time, the predecessors asked Toma Ziyue to convey the Words of Yin Yin to the later generations, and he always remembered them in his heart. In order to explain the "Long March Suite" and the stories behind it, Ma Zi leaped all over the country, and Xiao Xia often walked with him.
This year, Xiao Xia is particularly busy. What makes her feel relieved is that the "Long March Suite Song" has never been forgotten: in 2010, in Yudu County, Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province, the starting point of the Red Army's Long March, more than 100 volunteers from the descendants of the Red Army formed the "Long March Source Choir", and at present, their performance of the "Long March Suite" has reached 500 times; on April 21 this year, the final of the "Long March Group Song" singing competition for young students from Jiangxi Colleges and Universities was held at the Long March Group Song Grand Theater in Xingguo County, Ganzhou City, which is the hometown of General Xiao Hua. More than 65,000 students from 105 universities sang the footsteps of martyrs in the two-month competition, and on the day of May Fourth Youth Day this year, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music joined hands with Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University to bring "Long March Suite Song" to the stage of the 37th "Shanghai Spring" International Music Festival. Last year, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music's re-arranged new-age version of "Long March Suite" caused a sensation, and its art consultant was Xiao Xia...
"Father would be very happy if he knew." I think he must hope that everyone will not only sing the "Long March Suite", but also understand the content of the "Long March Group Song" and this glorious history. Xiao Xia said, "Although I am older, I will do my best to tell more people about the spirit of the Long March." ”
Message of the times
Xiao Xia said: "The spirit of the Long March has been passed down from generation to generation, and the "Long March Group Song" will be sung forever. I think my father must hope that everyone will not only sing the "Long March Suite", but also understand the content of the "Long March Suite" and this glorious history. Although I am older, I will do my best to tell more people about the spirit of the Long March. ”
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