Hu Songhua, born in Beijing on December 13, 1930, is a Manchu with a yellow flag. Singing artist, songwriter, and calligraphy and painting expertise. He graduated from North China University in 1949 and served as an actor in the Third Literary troupe of North China University. He has successively served as the deputy director of the Art Committee of the Central National Song and Dance Troupe, the leader of the chorus, and the first-class actor of the China Symphony Orchestra. In the 1970s, he was selected by many media such as "People's Music" as one of the "Top 10 Ten Tenors Singing Actors in New China", and his songs such as "Hymn", "Horse Bells Ringing Jade Birds Singing", and "The Sun That Never Rises and Sets on the Grassland" are the first classics and have been sung forever.
The Road to Art
The four criteria of "strong multi-ethnic style, perfect vocal techniques, broad field of interpretation and distinct atmosphere of the times" are the secrets of Hu Songhua's singing voice as an evergreen pine in the song world. For more than 60 years, Hu Songhua said that he has been studying at a university, "a university of multi-ethnic comprehensive art, a university of singing art in the world, and a university of vast life on the frontier." He believes that he has been fed by the milk of the art of various nationalities, and he wants to repay the frontier minorities with his love and persistent pursuit of national art. Hu Songhua sold the ancestral Beijing Courtyard and, with the financial support of a friend, set up the "Hu Songhua Art Research Room" to train a group of aspiring and spiritually regal poor ethnic minority singers in the frontier for free.
During his lecture tour on the frontier, he carefully selected singing seedlings from various nationalities who were talented and did not have money to go to university, and went to his research room to study, and underwent systematic and formal comprehensive training. He taught his many years of academic ideas, artistic views and unique singing skills to the students without reservation, and he compiled a unique set of qi exercises and various etudes, which were taught and used by each ethnic group, so that they could become new people who promoted national music. Hu Songhua said: "Although I am 84 years old, I still want to continue to 'tree snow peak ambition, expand grassland feelings', still want to 'climb the peak of art, love the bottom' to achieve the beautiful Chinese dream of multi-ethnicity, consciously optimistic and progressive progress." ”
When looking back on his artistic life, he said with emotion: "National music adheres to the yuanzhen, which is the root and soul of my singing art, and for decades, I have traveled to more than 40 ethnic areas to learn and ask farmers and herders for advice."
His "Song of Fame"
Whenever people talk about Hu Songhua, there is a good chance that they will talk about "Hymn", a song with a strong Mongolian patriarchal style that is beautiful and unique and has been sung for a long time. As everyone knows, it was an urgent task that he rushed out of one night, and hu Songhua also had unforgettable memories.
In the autumn of 1964, hu Songhua was asked to add a Mongolian-style tenor solo to the sixth scene of "Dongfang Hong", Hu Songhua tried to innovate after a night of tension and excitement - he first wrote four Mongolian wordless new long tones and middle folk materials to "break the marriage", and at dawn he produced this new work and named it "Hymn Song".
His "famous song" is the Mongolian song "Senjidema", which predates the Hymn five years ago. Hu Songhua said that if he had not participated in the first "Shanghai Spring" music festival in 1960 and sang "Senjidema" for the first time, there would have been no chance of the birth of a song "Hymn" five years later.
"Senjidema" He Luting Orchestral Suite, composed in 1949 based on the folk song "Senjidema" from the Ordos area of inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the title of the song is a transliteration of a girl's name. The light and psychic "Senjidema" is a Mongolian short-tuned folk song that celebrates unwavering love, known as "Steppe Liang Zhu". Senjidma is the name of a Mongolian maiden.
In 1959, Hu Songhua added some vocal long tones to the original tune and sang himself into the song "Senji Dema". The work was adapted by Hu Songhua and sung in the first "Shanghai Spring" music festival, which caused a sensation throughout the country.
At the same time, Hu Songhua's singing of "Senjidema" also attracted the attention of the studio, and he also successfully became a supporting actor in the movie "Ashima". It can be said that Hu Songhua's brilliant singing career originated from this song "Senjidema".
"The Paper Boat of Thoughts"
The love between Hu Songhua and his wife Zhang Manru is also very difficult.
Zhang Manru is a dancer who grew up with New China and has deep achievements in ethnic dance and ballet. He has been active in China's art stage all year round and has participated in many domestic and foreign art exchange activities on behalf of China.
At that time, they were the age of prosperity. Zhang Manru is a first-generation dance student in China, studying abroad, and Hu Songhua collects, sings and performs in China. Separated by two places, they can only rely on fish and geese to communicate. Separated by two places, the thoughts are inseparable ropes that surround the two of them. Hu Songhua tried to make such a distance tangible, so there was the story of "The Paper Boat of Missing". That time Hu Songhua performed in Altai in the northeast corner of Xinjiang, across the mountain was Mongolia where Zhang Manru studied.
He made a small boat out of blue letter paper, put two Kazakh roses, and let it float to the other side, hoping that his lover would receive and understand its connotations.
Teacher Hu rarely told their love story for so many years, and this somewhat "macho" artist recalled the green years that were not stained with dust, not only unfolding the romantic picture of "red roses" and "azure paper boats", but also the song "There is a good girl in that distant place".
The two of them also participated in a variety show together. At that time, Hu Songhua, who was over eighty years old, and his wife Zhang Manru performed a "Hymn Song" together on the stage. Hu Songhua sang affectionately, Zhang Manru danced freely, and the couple who walked through the married life of more than half a century together touched all the audience and guests at the scene.
At 1:58 a.m. on May 3, 2020, Zhang Manru, the wife of the famous singer Hu Songhua, passed away at the age of 83.