Sun Cong
A Night on the Grassland" is a beautiful song, known as the serenade of the East, and has been sung for more than half a century. Recently, someone in the WeChat circle of friends introduced this song, which reminded me of the deep friendship of the composer Uncle Tian Ge and my father Sun Shao for more than half a century.
Tian Ge
Tian Gebo, a native of Shan County, Shandong Province, is a famous composer in China, who joined the People's Liberation Army from Shandong in 1948 at the age of 15, and later came to Xinjiang with the army as a propagandist, a national first-class composer, and a military composer. He has created countless songs in his lifetime, and excellent songs such as "Night on the Grassland" and "Frontier Everywhere Sai Jiangnan" have been sung for a long time and are deeply loved by the broad masses of the people. His father, Sun Shao, a national first-class composer and former head of the Shaanxi Provincial Radio and Television National Orchestra, composed songs such as "Yan'an Children's Hearts To Chairman Mao" and "Hand Picking Red Dates and Thinking of Relatives" are also popular among the population, singing for a long time, and are also deeply loved by the masses.
Sun Shao and Zhen Enfeng
Father and Uncle Tian Ge knew in the early 50s of the last world, when the Northwest Military Region held a qu art training class in Lanzhou, his father's Shaanxi Provincial Radio Literary and Labor Troupe sent him to participate in this rare study, when he studied single strings, in this training class I met Uncle Tian Ge, Uncle Uncle was one year old, they both liked to compose, and they often exchanged together in their spare time and became good friends.
At the end of a year of study, my father returned to the Shaanxi Broadcasting Literary and Labor Corps to work, Uncle Tian Ge also came to Xi'an on other tasks at that time, one day he brought a newly created song, "There is a young boy", to ask my father's opinion, my father felt that this song was written very vigorously, the melody was also good, after a little polishing, my father copied and sent it neatly to the "Shaanxi Daily", and within a few days this song was published, which is a song that shows a young man who put on a military uniform after joining the army, and is particularly proud. Uncle Tian Ge was very happy to see the song published in Shaanxi Daily, and told my father that this was the first song he officially published, and thanked my father very much.
At the end of the 1950s, he went to Beijing to write songs for the film documentary film "Green Wilderness", wrote several songs, sent them to my father for advice, my father felt refreshed to get the songs, each song is very distinct, very good, beautiful melody, especially the lyrical song "Prairie Night" is particularly moving. Later, when my father told me about the song, he said that when he composed the song, Uncle Tian Ge was only 26 years old, and he was really a musical genius, and then his creation was unsatisfactory, and he became an excellent and famous composer.
From left: Tian Ge, Sun Shao, Andy Enfeng
My father often told us about his friendship with Uncle Tian Ge, that is, in 1955 of the last century, my father was admitted to the Northwest Art College, which is now the Xi'an Conservatory of Music, as a tuning student, he could get a salary of more than 20 yuan per month, but the cost of eating, living and buying books at school was very tight. The family economic situation is not very good, Uncle Tian Ge said after knowing, you go to school well, I have a high salary in the army, take out 10 yuan a month to subsidize your life and buy books, I did not expect this sentence to become true, a mail is several years, until the father graduated, solved the father's study and life problems, for this friendship, the father said that he will never forget.
In the early 1980s, Tian Gebolu went to the laoshan front line through Xi'an to experience life and create, and according to the lyrics of the famous songwriter Mr. Dang Yong'an, he invited us to Shaanxi, and wrote this song specifically for my mother, Zhen Enfeng.
From left: Sun Shao, Zhen Enfeng, Dang Yong'an
Tian Yunfeng, the two sons of Uncle Tian Ge, tian Yungang was sent from the Xinjiang Military Region to the Xi'an Institute of Political Science of the People's Liberation Army in the late 1980s to study further studies, and later the younger son Tian Yunsong also came from Xinjiang to Xi'an to learn percussion, and every Sunday they came to their homes to play and eat, and his father told us this story, let us continue this friendship. Over the years, we got along very well like brothers. Later, Uncle Tian Ge settled in Nanjing after retiring from the Xinjiang Military Region, often passing through Xi'an, we felt very cordial and very happy to meet, my father often called to inquire about Uncle Tian's body, asking him if he had any new works coming out?
From left: Sun Cong, Zhen Enfeng, Sun Shao
On the morning of February 1, 2019, Uncle Tian Yunfeng called and said that his father had died, and when he heard this unfortunate news, my father burst into tears, he disregarded his poor health, got up to look for information, and found many photos of Uncle Hetian Ge, let us see, due to physical reasons, he could not go to Nanjing to mourn, so he wrote a memorial article, sent condolence money, and let the children take him to send a wreath to express deep mourning.
From left: Guo Song, Tian Ge, Sun Cong
Now that my father has left us, I wish that two good friends who have a deep friendship and a lifetime of friendship will continue their friendship and continue their songwriting. Dad, Uncle Tian Ge, we will pass on this friendship of yours, you can rest assured!