The concerto "Liang Zhu" has an irreplaceable status in the music industry, and can be called the soul of the Symphony of the Chinese Nation. In the West, people have given the Chinese violin concerto "Liang Zhu" a romantic name - "Butterfly Couple". The butterfly has since become the symbol of "Liang Zhu", a symbol of love and freedom.
Chen Gang's talent in music was inherited from his father Chen Gexin. In the 1930s and 1940s, Chen Gexin was the most famous musician in Shanghai, there is no one, it can be said that this era belongs to chen Gexin's era. "Rose Rose I Love You", "Night Shanghai", "Congratulations", "Dream Man", these old Songs in Shanghai that we are familiar with are all Chen Gexin's handwriting. In Shanghai at that time, Chen Gexin had a veritable nickname, called "Ge Xian".
It can be said that not only Yao Li, Gong Qiuxia, Li Lihua, Li Xianglan, Chen Juanjuan, Bai Guang, these old Shanghai stars have performed Chen Gexin's songs, but even Teresa Teng Lijun, Cai Qin, Mei Yanfang, Zhang Huimei, Luo Dayou, these new era superstars, have also covered Chen Gexin's works. According to statistics, Chen Gexin has created more than 200 works in his lifetime, of which several have been adapted into English songs, which are widely circulated around the world.
Young Chen Gexin can really be described as a gentleman and handsome. Although Chen Gexin advocates simplicity and strives to be frugal in life, the elegant temperament exuded by him still adds color to him. While working as a faculty member in Shanghai, Jin Jiaoli, a student of Chen Gexin, stepped into the emotional world of Caizi. Jin Jiaoli is a rich family and a school flower in the school.
Originally thought that this was a perfect love that talented people admired each other, but I did not expect to be strongly opposed by Jin Jiaoli's family. Originally, such a love story similar to Liang Zhu will end in tragedy, but fortunately Jin Jiaoli is a woman with advanced thinking and quite courageous, she dares to break through the shackles of the times, and finally marries her sweetheart.
Since then, Chen Gexin and Jin Jiaoli have begun their musical lives.
“...... Music originates from labor, and field songs, mountain songs, labor trumpets, etc., are the most simple and sincere music. My composition is a master's labor trumpet and a folk song, so we can't 'forget the ancestors', we must sing for the hard-working masses..."
——Chen Gexin classroom language
In 1941, Chen Gexin was imprisoned by the Japanese side, and although he suffered many tortures and tortures in prison, Chen Gexin did not forget his original intention and refused to submit to militarism. Instead of depressed him, this encounter inspired him to be patriotic. Later, Chen Gexin's "Roses Everywhere", "Roses I Love You", "Night Shanghai", and "Unchanging Heart", although on the surface are all works that praise the wind, flowers and snow, but there is a connotation behind each song.
Behind these lyrics, Chen Gexin's desire for victory in the War of Resistance and his expectations for a new society are everywhere. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the Chen family moved to Live in Hong Kong, and Chen Gexin continued to compose as always. In 1950, Chen Gexin made a decision that changed the life of the Chen father and son. Chen Gexin believes that his ideal new China has arrived, so he returns to the motherland at the invitation of his friends. Unexpectedly, the fate that awaited Chen Gexin was to be beaten into a rightist faction and sent to the Anhui Laogai Farm.
Because of the hardships and lack of nutrition in life, Chen Gexin was skinny and bone-thin, and endured the double torture of spirit and body. His father was beaten into a rightist faction, and Chen Gang was also implicated and was labeled a "rightist filial piety and grandson". The family lived a miserable and hopeless life, and the road ahead was bleak. It was in this extreme context that the Party Committee of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music arranged for Chen Gang to present a gift for the tenth anniversary of the founding of New China and compose a piece of music. We simply can't imagine what kind of heavy heart Chen Gang had to complete his creation.
Perhaps, it is precisely because I have felt the darkest journey and endured the most painful torture that I can create a rhythm like weeping. Chen Gexin, who was still in the transformation, burst into tears after hearing the melody created by his son, and wrote to Chen Gang to ask him to mail the score as soon as possible. As a son, as a student in the field of music, Chen Gangduo hopes to mail the score to his father. However, in that particular circumstance, all this was impractical. In 1961, Chen Gexin died of long-term malnutrition on a laogai farm.
This "song fairy" who yearns for Shanghai has died in the land he loves. Just like an ancient poem: "The pitiful prince is like a Jiangnan Yan, and he looks north by autumn wind!" Although Chen Gexin left this world, Chen's creation has not stopped.
Chen Gang inherited his father's legacy and vowed to inherit the mantle of Chen Gexin's creation.
Compared with his father Chen Gexin, although Chen Gang did not suffer too much, his emotional life was more unfortunate. The girl he had in mind could not stay with him. The family of lovers is traditional and conservative, and they cannot accept their daughter marrying the son of a rightist. Therefore, although the girl has a strong affection for Chen Gang, the two cannot break through that layer of barriers after all.
On a silent night, Chen Gang said goodbye to his favorite girl in Beihai Park. Just after the two broke up, the prelude to "Liang Zhu" was heard on the radio speaker. At this moment, just like at that moment, a thousand years later, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai still could not overcome the shackles of the world.
Today, that difficult era has long since ceased to be a song, and Chen Gang has gone further than his father on the road of creation. With the advent of the new era, musical geniuses like the Chen father and son will no longer be bound by the times.
"Fly, carrying the love for mankind, flying to the human world, flying to space, flying to infinity!"
——Chen Gang
Resources:
[Chen Gexin and Chen Gang: The Inheritance of the Hai Sect from "Rose" to "Butterfly"" and "Liang Zhu"]