Source: People's Daily
Hu Songhua (second from right) talks with fellow Tujia in western Hunan about the blowing of musical instruments. Profile photo
In 2001, Hu Songhua (right) visited Mr. Hazab, 80, at the age of 80. Profile photo
Biography
Hu Songhua, born in Beijing in December 1930, is a tenor singer. He graduated from North China University (the predecessor of Chinese Min University) in 1949, and successively served as the deputy director of the Art Committee of the Central National Song and Dance Troupe, the head of the chorus, and the first-class actor of the China Symphony Orchestra. He sang solo in the large-scale musical and dance epic "Dongfang Hong", recorded all the singing segments of Ah Hei in the first Chinese musical feature film "Ashima", and played the male protagonist Ashar in the original large-scale opera "Ayi Guli". Songs such as "Hymn", "Horse Bells Ringing Jade Birds Singing", "The Sun Rising and Falling on the Grassland", "Song of the Tajik Shepherd", "Auspicious Wine Song" and other songs are very popular, and have won the China Golden Disc Award, the "Five Continents Cup" Golden Melody Award for the first singing of the "Five Continents Cup" in 40 years, the "Golden Bell Award" Lifetime Achievement Award and other honors.
"I like horses the most because they have a character of perseverance and hard-working." In a winter afternoon, Hu Songhua said in an interview.
Indeed, in the life of this old singer, there are "traces" of horses everywhere: the WeChat name is "Old Horse", and the head portrait uses an old white war horse; there are statues of horses of different shapes in the home; on the newly completed painting, five horses with long manes and four hooves...
Hu Songhua is a horse, like a tireless old horse, which has been galloping in the music world for seventy years.
"Calligraphy and painting are tangible songs, and singing is calligraphy and painting with sound"
From "Senjidema" to "Hymn" and "The Rising Sun of the Grassland", Hu Songhua has sung many popular Mongolian-style songs.
Hu Songhua is the eldest son in the family, and his father is an old Chinese medicine doctor and calligrapher, who is bent on training him to become a painter. From the age of 6, he was sent to guozijian to study. At the same time, I asked Zhao Mengzhu, Xu Kai, and Jin Yuyuan to teach at home, and I studied for 13 years.
"Learning from famous masters, his art is also exquisite", after years of diligent study and hard work, Hu Songhua laid a solid foundation in calligraphy and painting. When she entered Beijing No. 5 Middle School, ma Changhui, a music teacher, found that Hu Songhua had a good voice and tried to persuade him to be the lead singer of "The Yellow River Chorus". "Can't eat open-mouthed meals!" The old father did not agree, and Hu Songhua could only refuse Teacher Ma's painstaking arrangement.
With the wish of "painting in all directions", later, Hu Songhua carried a paintbrush on his back, took a day and a night train, came to Zhengding, Hebei Province, and became a student of North China University. On May 23, 1949, the seventh anniversary of the speech at the Yan'an Literary and Art Forum, the school's literary and artistic team was established. Hu Songhua was specially assigned to design the team flag, which was his first calligraphy and painting in the Liberated Areas. In addition to writing slogans and running school newspapers, Hu Songhua also starred in the opera "Brothers and Sisters Opening up the Wasteland", and the one-act drama "Grain" and "Fight Well", which vividly shaped the image of the company commander of the Eighth Route Army and other characters.
"Calligraphy and painting are tangible songs, singing is the sound of calligraphy and painting", although there is no realization of childhood dreams, but calligraphy and painting is still a major hobby of Hu Songhua, whenever someone asks him about the method of health, he always laughs and replies: "It is just that for many years, I have insisted on the three arts of books, paintings and songs to help each other and nourish my qi." ”
"To sing a 'horseback song' well you have to experience the feeling on horseback"
"The hero's motherland stands in the east, like the rising sun shining brightly..." A song of praise, Hu Songhua sang thousands of times at home and abroad, touching generations of people.
The song was born overnight. In the autumn of 1964, the main creators and some of the main actors of the large-scale musical and dance epic "Dongfang Hong" lived in the Old West Garden Hotel and fought day and night. On the night before the performance, the General Headquarters requested that a tenor solo song in the Mongolian musical style be added to enhance the festive atmosphere, accompanied by dance.
Who will accomplish this task? First, considering that Hu Songhua had just returned to Beijing from the inner Mongolian grassland experience study, and second, 5 years ago, his first famous song, the Mongolian song "Senji Dema", known as "Grassland Liang Zhu", achieved a good communication effect, and the general headquarters and the music team leader of the director group, Shi Lemeng, immediately decided: Let Hu Songhua go! To this end, Hu Songhua created overnight. At dawn, the song was born and was named "Hymn". Composer Zhao Xingda accompanied and instrumented, and after three days of intense rehearsal, the song passed the review on the stage.
Near the performance, Hu Songhua implored Comrade Shi Lemeng: "Let my teacher Hazab participate in a few "Hymns"! Hazab admired the bold "marriage" of the new long and short keys in "Hymn" and gladly participated.
"To sing a good 'horseback song', you must experience the feeling on horseback," hu Songhua said, hazab was met in Inner Mongolia, when Hu Songhua followed hazab to systematically learn the long-tone singing skills of classical pastoral songs, and learned to sing long tunes while grazing on horseback. "Without these experiences, even five nights would not have been able to create the Hymn." Hu Songhua said.
Being able to interpret songs of various ethnic styles in our country with great emotion, and foreign opera arias are still sung with ease and ease, people who have heard Hu Songhua sing will be surprised: Why is it that the same song is sung with a voice, but the style changes in a thousand ways? Hu Songhua summed it up as a creative method of "extensively studying ancient and modern Chinese and foreign laws, and taking root in the frontier to protect the yuanzhen".
In the past few decades, Hu Songhua has gone deep into 48 ethnic minority areas, eating and living with ethnic minority compatriots, working together, singing and dancing together, and constantly absorbing the rich nutrition of national music. Through years of learning from teachers, Hu Songhua has mastered a variety of traditional and folk singing skills, and is affectionately called "our own singer" by people of all ethnic groups.
At the same time, Hu Songhua took advantage of the opportunity of his visit to perform to conduct in-depth exchanges with artists from more than 10 countries, including Romania and Bulgaria, and skillfully integrated international bel canto techniques with multi-ethnic traditional techniques. Some people in the music industry praised him for "breaking out of a wide and colorful song path" and "his strong style, scientific technique, broad performance, and ever-existing singing voice have influenced two generations in China."
"It is my responsibility to help poor singers from ethnic minorities"
"The life in the frontier and the rich nutrition of ethnic minority music have made me sing the way, and I am the son of the people of all nationalities." In 1992, Hu Songhua, who was too old to raise his own funds, even sold the courtyard left by his father and began to invest in the filming of the 12-episode music television art film "Long Song and Ten Thousand Miles".
Along the way, the film crew filmed nearly 10,000 minutes of song and dance pictures showing the style of ethnic minorities, with the themes of "100,000 Miles of Road Songs and Feelings", "Plateau Snowy Feelings", "Xiangqian Cottage Feelings", etc., vividly reflecting the voices of the masses of all nationalities and their yearning for a better life.
For many years of living in the frontier, Hu Songhua met some young people with considerable singing talent from time to time, unfortunately, they could not go out of their hometown due to poverty, and it was difficult to show their singing voice on the stage. In 2000, Hu Songhua, whose voice was at its best, resolutely left the stage for a while, and after going south to Zhuhai, he founded an art research room with the help of friends. "It is my responsibility to run a research office and help poor ethnic minority singers." Hu Songhua said.
One-on-one teaching during the day, walking on the banks of the Pearl River in the evening, exchanging singing techniques, preparing lesson plans at night, 1300 days and nights, Hu Songhua "taught according to their aptitudes" for these ethnic minority students, and devoted his efforts to them. On December 10, 2003, a graduation concert of "Flying Geese" was held in Guangzhou, and the applause from the audience was thunderous.
"Comrade-in-arms", this is Hu Songhua's name for his lover Zhang Manru. Whether it is shooting art films or running research offices, Zhang Manru is a staunch supporter and has not changed no matter what difficulties she encounters.
"She tried her best", in May 2020, the lover who has been in love with Yimu for more than 60 years left, and Hu Songhua still can't hide his sadness. The waist injuries and varicose veins that have fallen from the horse for a long time are still being treated, but his work has not stopped, making teaching films, sorting out book manuscripts, busy every day until late at night...
Only the true feelings are the most moving (reporter's note)
In the 70 years since he was an artist, the song path has become wider and wider, and the singing voice has become louder and louder. Where does Hu Songhua's artistic vitality come from? It stems from his boundless love of art.
Because of his love, he deeply implanted the roots of art into the earth, drew nourishment from the fiery life, and created exquisite works worthy of the times.
Because of his love, he has constantly surpassed himself, and although he is over ninety years old, he still climbs non-stop. He was willing to be a paving stone and devoted himself to cultivating new people from ethnic minorities in order to repay the deep affection of the people of all nationalities.
What could be more moving than a song flowing from the bottom of your heart? In those steaming songs, we can truly feel the pure heart of an old singer and the strong affection of national unity. (Reporter Shi Fang)
People's Daily ( 2021-03-19 Edition 06)