"The red plum blossoms on the red rocks, and the frost is stepped on for thousands of miles. What is there to fear in the severe cold of Sanjiu, a heart opens to the sun" as the theme song ......of the opera "Sister Jiang", "Red Plum Praise" is still moving after 60 years. The red plum is in full bloom, just like Sister Jiang, a Communist Party member who died on the eve of victory at the age of 29, soft but tenacious and strong, with a proud snow and frosty iron bones.
Since its premiere in 1964, Sister Jiang, with its moving music and lofty intentions, has long become a monument in the history of the development of mainland folk opera, and it is also of great significance in the heart of the famous composer Yang Ming. The 90-year-old Yang Ming has been writing for decades, and has written many popular works such as "I Love the Blue Sky of the Motherland" and "Brother Bing", but if you want to ask the most memorable and emotional one, the opera "Sister Jiang" will always be the answer that blurted out.
Extract the charm of "Sister Jiang" from national music
In the 60s of the 20th century, the novel "Red Rock" written by Luo Guangbin and Yang Yiyan was published, and countless readers were deeply touched by Sister Jiang's deeds, including several enthusiastic young people in the Art Troupe of the Political Department of the Air Force at that time. During that time, the creative team of the Art Troupe wrote a small opera "Liu Sijie", which received a good response, and everyone was enthusiastic and wanted to make persistent efforts. They set their sights on Sister Jiang in "Red Rock", and it took only 18 days for playwright Yan Su to complete the first draft of the script for the opera "Sister Jiang", compared to the music part of the creation is much more bumpy.
At first, Yang Ming and composer Jiang Chunyang handed over a draft for a year, but they were completely denied by the leadership, "don't leave a single note". The merciless criticism came to the head, and Yang Ming and Jiang Chunyang were in tears. Later, in order to get closer to Sister Jiang's character prototype, the Sichuan composer Jin Sha also joined in the creation. Together with Yan Su, they went south to collect style, visited Sister Jiang's comrades-in-arms before her death, and visited the old sites such as the Dregs Cave, the White Mansion, and Huaying Mountain. In the cell where the martyrs were held, Yang Ming saw tiger chairs, bamboo sticks and other torture tools, and "shed tears when he thought about it".
When I put pen to paper again, everyone decided to find inspiration from Sichuan opera, "relying on the mountains to eat the mountains, relying on the sea to eat the sea". However, because of the "reliance" too much, the elements of Sichuan music are copied rigidly, and this version of the music with "more muscles and bones and less tenderness" still has not been affirmed by the leadership. The composers set off again, in addition to Sichuan, and went to the Jiangnan area, absorbing elements of local music such as Yue Opera, Hangzhou Opera, and Wu Opera. The essence of folk opera's expressive techniques and plate tones are integrated into the musical tone of "Sister Jiang", which is another charm that is completely different from Western opera.
"Red Plum Praise" has been revised more than 20 times 8 times
In the opera "Sister Jiang", there are many classic singing segments, such as "The People of Five Continents Laugh Together", "I Dedicate My Youth to Communism", "Embroidering the Red Flag", etc., all of which are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, but the most evocative is the theme song "Red Plum Praise". Generally speaking, opera creation should have a theme first, followed by an aria, but the theme of "Sister Jiang" has not been decided for a long time.
General Liu Yalou, the commander of the Air Force, who has always paid attention to "Sister Jiang", has studied abroad and is very insightful about opera creation, he said: "Without a theme song, you can't lift your spirits." The general hopes that the theme song must become the finishing touch of "Sister Jiang". Yan Su tried to write a lyric of "Sailing on the Yangtze River, even if the wind and waves, the wind and rain are normal, there is a red sun in our hearts, we hold the rudder, row the oars, and run forward towards the goal", everyone read it and was not very satisfied, because it "only has a concept, lacks image and artistic language". "How can we compose music without good lyrics? If the leader presses us, we will press Yan Su. "The tension and pressure at that time is now a joke in retrospect. Yang Ming remembered that Yan Su sometimes came to him in the middle of the night with a script, and after being picked on a fault, he was so angry that he closed the door and complained: "It's really hard to serve!" Yang Ming could only comfort his comrades: "It's not that we are difficult to serve, it's that we have to be responsible for the audience." ”
When he was forced to "corner", Yan Su took out a lyric about plum blossoms written two months ago from his pocket, and read it aloud: "Red plum blossoms bloom, flowers shine brightly......" The red plum image of Aoxue Lingshuang suddenly caught the sheep song, from the spirit to the image, the plum blossom can be associated with Sister Jiang, just like her incarnation. The inspiration for the music is here! "That's something that spurts out of the blood." Yang Ming sighed. Although the duration of "Red Plum Praise" is only a few minutes, it was changed 8 times and revised more than 20 times during the creation, "not letting go of every note". Taking the phrase "red plum blossoms on the red rocks" as an example, the sheep can still sing its evolution process to this day. Originally, the melody of this sentence was taken from Sister Jiang's first appearance "Look at the Yangtze River", but it sounded a little simple, not enough to catch people, and it wanted to be more beautiful, so "Red Plum" was raised by a small second. It sounds like it's still not enough, so let's "dump" it again. After repeated scrutiny, the notes unfolded layer by layer like buds waiting to be released, until Ling Han was in full bloom and returned to her heart - Sister Jiang's fortitude as a revolutionary and tenderness as a woman are vividly reflected in the music.
60 years of "Sister Jiang" has been sung endlessly
The painstaking "Red Plum Zan" has been written, but can it really be sung among the masses as it wishes? No one can guarantee it. One day, in the corner of the courtyard of the art troupe located in Tongfu Jiadao at the entrance of the light market, there was a humming of "Red Plum Praise", it turned out that the art troupe rehearsed every day, and the beautiful melody was so "poured" into the ears of a cook, and when cutting vegetables, he couldn't help but sing "Red Plum Praise". "It should be fine!" In the face of the upcoming performance, everyone has more confidence.
In September 1964, the opera "Sister Jiang" premiered in Beijing, which was a sensation, and in October of that year, Chairman Mao, Premier Zhou and other national leaders also watched "Sister Jiang". Later, "Sister Jiang" toured Nanjing, Shanghai and other places, and everywhere she went, the venue was full. General Liu Yalou asked Yang Ming and others to strike while the iron was hot, and created an opera "Fengyun Outpost" with a Tibetan theme. When Yang Ming returned from Tibet and returned to Shanghai, the radio played "Red Plum Praise" on a loop, the children danced rubber bands and sang "Red Plum Praise", people's handkerchiefs were written with the lyrics of "Red Plum Praise", and even the thermos sold in the store were printed with a plum ......
Over the years, the endless singing "Sister Jiang" has touched and inspired many people, and Zhang Guimei, the winner of the "July 1st Medal", is one of them. "Sister Jiang is my role model in my life, the novel "Red Rock" and the opera "Sister Jiang" are classics in my heart, and my favorite singing is "Red Plum Praise". Zhang Guimei said so. Sun Shaolan and Wang Li, the actors of the second and fifth generation of "Sister Jiang" of Air Zheng, rushed from Beijing to Lijiang Huaping Girls' Senior High School in Yunnan Province to meet Zhang Guimei, and presented the score of the carefully collected opera "Sister Jiang". Gently flipping through the score and lyrics, Zhang Guimei's eyes lit up, and she pointed to a passage and said excitedly: "Look here, this is "Looking at the Yangtze River". Subsequently, her singing echoed in the campus: "Look at the Yangtze River, the war song sets off a thousand waves." Looking at the mountain city, the red lights are flashing and foggy......" Zhang Guimei recalled the experience of singing "Sister Jiang" in the propaganda team, and her "qualifications" were deeper than Sun Shaolan.
Why is the opera "Sister Jiang" so successful? Over the years, there have been countless comments on it: because it blends the essence of national music and is close to the people; Because of its three-dimensional characterization, even the traitor Fu Zhigao is not a face-painted character...... Thousands of words are combined into one sentence, and Yang Ming never forgets it, which is a promise made by the creators of the year that weighs more than a thousand gold: "If we can't write this opera, we will be sorry for Sister Jiang." ”
【Character Message】
Music is among the people, and the music we create is never imposed on others. It doesn't work to just treat the work as a task. Creators must be truly committed and surrender their hearts. - Sheep chirping
Source: Beijing Daily client
Reporter: Gao Qian, Fang Fei