The wind is roaring
The horse is barking
The Yellow River is roaring
......
This lyric is selected from the seventh movement of the Yellow River Chorus, "Defending the Yellow River", and is also the most familiar passage among the eight movements of the Yellow River Chorus.
Draft: @Steel Age 2011
Xian Xinghai is known as the "People's Musician". In the process of devoting himself to saving the nation from peril, he used music as a weapon to fight and compose all the way, and he created many anti-Japanese and national salvation songs such as "National Salvation Army Song", "Defending Great Wuhan", "On the Taihang Mountain", "Go to the Enemy's Rear" and so on.
In Yan'an, he composed China's first symphony containing national style, national style and oriental charm- "The Yellow River Chorus", becoming the first person in China to compose a national symphony poem in the 20th century.
Xian Xinghai was born in 1904 in Macau, China, with his ancestral home in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. In 1928, he entered the Shanghai National Conservatory of Music to study music, and the following year, he was expelled from the school for participating in the student movement against the school authorities. In the same year, the 24-year-old Xian Xinghai went to Paris to study.
In Paris, Xian Xinghai suffered from unemployment and hunger, and people were in a foreign country, and there was no way to call for help. Even when he found a job, he had too little time to study.
Although life was difficult, Xian Xinghai did not give up learning music. Although he occasionally felt confused, fortunately, the teachers were willing to help and encourage him, and often gave him tickets to concerts.
The difficult times and concern and longing for the motherland also forced Xian Xinghai to work hard. He enjoyed watching the French National Day and the "Joan of Arc" parade.
In 1932, the year after the fall of Northeast China, Xian Xinghai also went to see the parade. During that parade, the french masses showed fanaticism for their motherland and the tragic sound of the French national anthem deeply touched Xian Xinghai.
He thought of his difficult motherland and all the bitterness he had suffered in Paris in the past three years, helplessness, loneliness, grief, sorrow, and melancholy feelings mixed together, and Xian Xinghai's heart had the idea of saving the motherland from danger.
In 1931, Xian Xinghai began his long-awaited life in the conservatory of music, systematically learning about composition and conducting. He had the privilege of meeting Paul Ducas, the great composer of the Paris Conservatory, who in addition to sponsoring Sin Xinghai and giving him money for clothes, constantly encouraged Xian Xinghai.
With Paul's support, Xian Xinghai plucked up the courage to apply for the advanced composition class of the Paris Conservatory. According to the practice of the academy, students with excellent test scores can receive honorary awards, and when asked what prizes are needed, Xian Xinghai, who is suffering from poverty, shyly replies: "Meal tickets." ”
Sin Xinghai's talent and spirit of always maintaining a high interest in learning in the face of poverty infected the professors of the Paris Conservatory, who decided to make an exception and provide Xian Xinghai with free meals.
In the summer of 1935, washed the star sea and embarked on a journey home. In Shanghai, through the introduction of Tian Han and Zhang Shu, Xian Xinghai joined the "Songwriters Association" and became acquainted with progressive musicians Ren Guang, He Luting, Lü Ji and others. After that, he began to explore and create new songs with Chinese characteristics and reflecting the voices of the workers and peasants.
After returning to China, Xian Xinghai successively worked for EMI Records and Xinhua Film Company, composing the theme song of the famous movie "Midnight Song" at that time, "Blood", the interlude "Love of the Yellow River", and the interlude "Pulling Plough Song" of the movie "Top Gun". After the "August 12" incident, Xian Xinghai joined the Shanghai Rescue Drama Second Team, and accompanied the team to perform in Henan, Jiangsu and other places to publicize the anti-Japanese resistance. In 1937, Xian Xinghai launched the Yangtze River Torch Singing Parade in Wuhan, which was attended by more than 100,000 people, and the scene was spectacular.
In the autumn of 1938, Xian Xinghai was invited to teach at the Lu Xun Art School in Yan'an. Under Mao Zedong's call to "do it themselves and have enough food and clothing," the people of the border areas launched a vigorous large-scale production campaign. As one of them, Xian Xinghai and Lu Yi's teachers and students went up the mountain to open up the wasteland and planed the ground.
In 1939, Xian Xinghai went to visit his friend Guang Weiran, a friend who accidentally fell while marching, and listened to him talk about the shock of crossing the Yellow River in a wooden boat and the idea of composing a poem for himself, Xian Xinghai was very excited, hoping that Guang Weiran would write the lyrics of his shock. The scene of crossing the Yellow River came to guangwei's mind again, and he could not resist the impulse to create, lying on his hospital bed, dictated more than 400 lines of poetry, and completed the long poem "Yellow River Yin".
After being discharged from the hospital, Guang Weiran invited Xian Xinghai to the cave and recited the Yellow River Chant. After listening, Xian Xinghai stood up, grabbed the lyrics in his hands, and said loudly: "I am sure to write it well!" Six days later, Shi Xinghai completed the epoch-making musical masterpiece "Yellow River Chorus" with three drafts.
In 1939, when Lu Yi rehearsed "The Yellow River Chorus", Xian Xinghai took a group photo with the teachers and students of the female voice department between rehearsals, and xian Xinghai was in the front row on the right.
When "The Yellow River Chorus" premiered, the band had only two or three violins, more than two dozen ethnic instruments, bass string instruments made of kerosene barrels, percussion instruments with washbasins, and a large spoon in an enamel jar to shake the effect... Under the background of this original band, more than forty enthusiastic young people sang the "Yellow River Chorus" loudly.
Zhou Enlai once wrote an inscription for Xian Xinghai: "Roar for the War of Resistance, compose a voice for the public!" ”
In the turbulent years, the crisis of the country and the nation inspired Xian Xinghai's creation, and he poured his enthusiasm into a high-pitched and inspiring music.
He is a musical giant with an unremitting will to struggle, a great creative spirit and an indomitable national soul. All his life he has practiced his own words: "I have my personality, my conscience, not what money can buy." My music should be dedicated to the motherland, to the working people, and to the salvation of the national crisis. ”
Source: Central Committee of the Communist Youth League