On the afternoon of April 11, the news came that Mr. Liu Dehai, a master of folk music, died in Beijing at the age of 83. Liu Dehai is a national treasure-level pipa art master and also has a very high reputation in the world. The author has listened to Mr. Liu Dehai's performance many times, and when he feels a string of notes gushing out from his fingertips, he truly realizes that this is the character who makes the description in Bai Juyi's "Pipa Line" visualized, "The big strings are noisy like a rushing rain, and the small strings are cut like whispers... Don't have a gloomy secret hate, at this time silence is better than sound. >>> the death of pipa player Liu Dehai, he adapted "Ten Faces Ambush" to great success
Liu Dehai in the performance.
As a pinnacle figure in the art category, Liu Dehai has done a lot of pioneering work in the development of pipa art in his lifetime. It can be said that in the history of pipa art, without the efforts of him and his contemporaries Wu Zuqiang and others, it is difficult for us to hear songs such as "Ten Faces Ambush" and "Little Sister of the Grassland Hero" that are like the sound of nature.
Among them, the most iconic event is the pipa concerto "Little Sisters of the Prairie Heroes" led by Liu Dehai. The story of Mongolian maidens Long Mei and Yu Rong braved a blizzard to protect the commune sheep and led to amputations, which has spread throughout the land of Shenzhou since 1964, and most Chinese people have heard about it. Using traditional and Western instruments to interpret the story together is not a simple combination of the two.
According to the relevant text of "Xiahui of Melody: The Biography of Wu Zuqiang", it is indeed difficult to make the lute, a national instrument with unique timbre and playing techniques from China, harmonize with the orchestras from Western Europe and unify the style, so as to obtain the unique expressiveness of this new form." In addition, such a large-scale concerto expressing socialist content is also difficult to achieve both musical moving music and easy for the audience to understand. ”
Liu Dehai in his youth.
In order to complete this challenge, Liu Dehai and Wu Zuqiang started from the pipa playing skills, melody characteristics and Mongolian cultural characteristics, creatively rubbed the theme song of the "Little Sisters of the Steppe Heroes" cartoon, Mongolian characteristic music and other elements, coupled with the field life experience, after nearly a year of exploration, finally successfully completed the task. In 1972, "Little Sisters of The Heroes of the Prairie" came out, becoming the first pipa concerto in the history of Chinese music. Although the concerto was not performed until 1976 due to the times, its achievements in fusing the main melody, traditional music and Western orchestral music were unprecedented, and it also continued the incense for the modernization of pipa art in that difficult era, and gradually began to make pipa art onto the Western stage.
After resolving the conflict between ancient and modern China and the West, Liu Dehai's artistic career has also reached a state of transcendence, as he personally said, "the impact of east and west, the impact of north and south has found its own way." Liu Dehai's contribution to pipa art is like a towering mountain, "Little Sisters of The Prairie Heroes" is one of the most dazzling road signs, and others such as the use of five fingers in the performance, the pipa can also use some guitar techniques and other modifications of the performance technology, any one is a major event in the history of art.
Although his artistic achievements are enormous, Liu Dehai is very thoughtful, low-key and mixed with a bit of humor.
Liu Dehai was born in the 1930s of the last century and has experienced many historical periods, each of which is a complex era of mixed tastes for individuals. But in his speech, there are not many narratives of suffering, all of which are steeled by the years into soft fingers.
In an interview with CCTV, the host said he was a pipa master, and he said that he was a climber and a trailblazer. "I am just a climber on the road of the development of national music, knowing that it has no end, I will continue to climb like this, until my end, even if it is more bitter and lonely." 」 The slope he climbed, in the eyes of ordinary people, may be Mount Everest in the field of pipa.
Liu Dehai in an interview with CCTV.
He also sees some of the different artistic concepts very thoroughly. As for the dispute between classical and modern, in his opinion, there is no classical music, it is just modern music. Because it is played by modern people for emotional catharsis. For example, when he went to Europe to play "Ten Faces Ambush", it was not the story of Han Xin's defeat of the overlord, the farewell of the overlord Yu Jisheng, and the end of Xiang Yu's hero that touched the audience, but the musicality of the pipa, which touched foreigners with musical language. In this way, "Liang Zhu" can conquer foreigners, which is also the truth, the melody has no borders.
With the change of the times, Liu Dehai is also advancing with the times, in the eyes of ordinary people, there is absolutely no aura of a master, nor much sense of distance. People who have seen his performance will comment that this is a cute old man, and the photos posted on Weibo are also a happy old man, just like the neighbor uncle. People who have seen his performances say that every time he leaves the stage, he trotted away, and in a CCTV interview he said that he looked young and could mingle with young people. His signature was once a stick figure self-portrait of playing the lute, writing his name on the lute, and there were four words next to it, "Happy Playing the Piano", he hoped that everyone could enjoy the music.
He signed the signature of the netizen (because it was too popular, he printed this signature directly on the book when reprinting).
He also has a nickname "pipa essence", and also calls his pipa "wooden child". At this point, I can't help but think that the pipa has a hint of ambiguous artistic symbols in traditional culture, on the one hand, it is an elegant musical instrument, and on the other hand, it is a seductive goblin in mythological novels such as "Fengshen Yanyi". Classic art, for the viewer, is not a goblin?
In this sense, Liu Dehai, the "pipa essence", really lived out his self in art and cultivated into a jing. You can imagine that this spirit of art, in a beautiful melody, turned the dragon away, leaving the world with an inexhaustible melody in addition to melancholy.
□ He Shu I (Reviewer)
Beijing News Editor Wu Longzhen Proofreader Liu Yue