Comic strip "Five Days and Nights on flying tiger mountain" Lu Wen /painting
With the film "Chosin Lake" being screened, the heroic deeds of volunteer soldiers once again deeply touched countless audiences. From this, the author also excavated a long-hidden chorus of stories expressing the great spirit of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, "Flying Tiger Mountain."
This work was created in 1951 and is composed by writer Guan Hua and composed by Zhang Wengang. Zhang Wengang successively served as the leader of the Music Working Group, the Central Song and Dance Troupe and the Central Orchestra of the Central Conservatory of Music, and the editor-in-chief of Children's Music Magazine. His children's music is a household name, "Our Field" is from his pen, selected for the "20th Century Chinese Music Classics" list, and has been sung for a long time.
After the founding of New China, Zhang Wengang's first creative task was to go to the Korean battlefield and tell the heroic deeds of the volunteer army with music. In the tense and fierce life of struggle, he deeply felt the unique combat role played by music in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and criticized the undesirable tendencies of disconnection, formulaization, conceptualization, and Westernization in the creation of songs of the United States and Aid Korea.
"When I arrived in Korea, I was surprised to find that most of our volunteers are still singing the songs that were popular in China before the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea." The reason is that although the war environment has created objective conditions that are difficult to sing newly created songs, what is more important is that the author subjectively "does not understand and appreciate the new war situation enough", resulting in many defects in the creation of songs, "can not be loved by the soldiers of the volunteer army". In this regard, Zhang Wengang made it clear that "we cannot always let the masses feel that our songs are 'old-fashioned', and we cannot let the volunteers who are engaged in earth-shaking undertakings feel that our songs are drier than the fried noodles they eat." He called on musicians to go to the front, to go deep into the soldiers, to go deep into life, to "experience the feelings of the masses, to deliberately observe and understand all aspects of our great times, and to concisely express what the people need" (Zhang Wengang: "The Creative Problems Seen from the Songs Of writing volunteers").
In Zhang Wengang's view, "a good song first requires that the objective things to be sung can be truly and completely expressed in terms of content... The volunteers were there to defend their homeland, to aid Korea, to defend peace; to join forces with the Korean people against a common enemy; to fight hard and protracted wars; to be brave but also resourceful; to ignore any aspect would have shortcomings" ("The Problem of Creation Seen in Writing Songs about Volunteers"). He also quoted a song made up by volunteer soldiers, "Chinese Sharami, who came to Korea, although his speech is incomprehensible, he is as close as a brother, he kills the enemy side by side, and his strength is incomparable", and the chorus "Flying Tiger Mountain" is the product of this creative idea.
The Battle of Feihu Mountain was a turning point in the first and second battles of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. Flying Tiger Mountain is located on the banks of the Cheongcheon River, overlooking the Price River and Junyu-ri, guarding the road, the terrain is dangerous, the 112th Division of the 38th Army of the Volunteer Army was ordered to capture Flying Tiger Mountain, in order to delay the offensive of the "United Nations Army" and win the fighter plane for the deployment of 6 armies on the Western Front. On November 5, after capturing the Position of Flying Tiger Mountain, the Volunteer Army was ordered to "defend on the spot". From 5 to 9 November, enemy forces, supported by artillery and aircraft, launched a counterattack. The volunteer army held its position for five days and nights, repelled 57 enemy attacks at the cost of more than 700 casualties, and annihilated more than 1,800 enemy troops, so as to seize the opportunity for the volunteer army to lure the enemy to penetrate deep and gather a large army. On the night of the 9th, the volunteer army was ordered to take the initiative to withdraw and continue to lure the enemy deeper. Subsequently, the large forces of the "United Nations Army" fell into the encirclement network carefully woven by our army, and the second campaign (including the Battle of Chosin Lake) to turn the tide of the Korean War was launched.
During the Battle of Flying Tiger Mountain, a North Korean woman named Park Hyo-nam wore a wooden basin of rice to deliver food to the volunteers. The wooden basin is now treasured in the Military Museum of the Chinese Revolution.
Unlike the fierce battle scene depicted on the front, "Flying Tiger Mountain" focuses on the flower of friendship poured out of the blood of the Chinese and North Korean people: the North Korean mother puts the swaddled child alone in the cave to deliver food to the volunteer army, and the volunteer correspondent finds the child and carries it up the mountain to take care of it carefully. When the mother saw her baby again, the child was already asleep in the warm arms of the volunteer army, "Flying Tiger Mountain has become a heroic mountain, an immortal monument to the unity and fraternity of the Chinese and Korean peoples, marking the invincible power to defend world peace, so that the just war can be won a more brilliant victory than ever" (Flying Tiger Mountain Performance Instructions). The work consists of seven songs, using the form of rap music combined with four choruses, the dramatic effect is obvious, in fact, it is a cappella.
The first song is narrative, in the form of a four-part chorus, explaining the background of the story, the volunteer army has been fighting on Feihu Mountain for five days and nights, three days without eating dry food, and the North Korean mother, sister, and old man in the village under the mountain "rushed to deliver food to fly to Feihu Mountain".
The second song first tells the hardships of the North Korean masses in the form of a four-part chorus to deliver grain to the mountain, and then uses the soprano solo singing on behalf of the mother, the soprano chorus singing on behalf of the masses, and the tenor solo and bass singing in unison, accusing the enemy of various atrocities in Korea, and finally through the four choruses, he expresses the grand ambition and pride of "no matter if you have a slippery mountain road, if you break your bones, you must climb up; no matter if you are in the wind and snow, guns and shells, clench your teeth, and the fire net must also be drilled up."
The third song begins with a chorus of choruses and female voices, depicting the mothers of their children to hide in a cave. This is followed by a soprano solo, using the flat tone style of North Korean music, through the change of speed and the contrast of strength, portraying the mother's infinite resentment towards the enemy, the deep friendship of the volunteer army, and the complex emotions of the beloved son, "Good baby, in order for the volunteer uncle not to starve, you have to wait for me in the cave", with a strong sense of situation.
The fourth song first sang the gratitude of the volunteer soldiers to the Korean masses in the form of a male chorus, and then sang in the form of a soprano representing the mother and a tenor representing the volunteer soldiers, lined with a male chorus, focusing on showing the friendship condensed by the blood of the Chinese and Korean people. Finally, in the form of a four-part chorus, the Chinese and DPRK military and people expressed their determination and will to fight against the enemy, defend peace, and defeat US imperialism.
The fifth song has an aria nature, singing in unison and solo through tenor, telling the story of volunteer soldiers who find unattended children in caves and carry them up the mountain to raise them.
The sixth song begins with a soprano aria that expresses the joy of the mother's successful completion of the task of delivering food, and then uses a narrative tone to show the panic that the mother cannot find the child, the imitation and contrast of different voice parts (mother and the masses in total 5 voices) depict the anxiety and busyness of everyone looking for the child, and the tenor sings in unison to tell the mother that the child has been carried up the mountain by the volunteer correspondent. Finally, there is a four-part chorus about the mother finding her baby sleeping in the arms of the volunteers in the mountains.
The seventh song is a glorious and magnificent finale, the four choruses intertwined with Cannon, and the Korean mother and volunteer soldiers stand on the Flying Tiger Mountain, making it a mountain of fraternity, victory, and peace. Finally, with great strength, everyone sang in unison "Flying Tiger Mountain, Hero's Mountain!" ”。
According to Hu Deqin, a female soldier of the Cultural and Labor Troupe, she once served as a female soloist and played the mother of North Korea, "This chorus that is close to a cappella was warmly welcomed by the soldiers, the technique is concise, but the story is infectious, telling the heroic spirit and deep friendship."
In September 1951, with the theme of "the people are great and invincible" and rich artistic expression techniques, "Flying Tiger Mountain" won the third prize in the International Mass Song Competition held in Bucharest, Romania, becoming the first large-scale musical work in New China to win an international award. Guan Hua and Zhang Wengang believed that "this glory should belong to the dear volunteer army", so they donated all the bonuses to the volunteer army as a cultural construction fund. In a letter to Du Ping, director of the Political Department of the Volunteer Army, they wrote:
In those days, we were inspired and educated by the many heroes and deeds of the Volunteers. After returning to China, we wrote a story to chorus "Flying Tiger Mountain"... We are determined to go to the struggle of life for a long time to temper ourselves and transform ourselves. We have the confidence to write good works.
In December 2019, in order to commemorate the centenary of the birth of composer Zhang Wengang, the Tianjin Binhai New Area Teachers' Choir re-put the chorus "Flying Tiger Mountain" back on the stage. On September 18, 2021, "Flying Tiger Mountain" was sung again at the "Phoenix Nirvana" choral classic concert (lead singers: Wang Li, Zhou Wanwan, Wei Pingwei) to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the release of this work. As an old North Korean poet wrote:
Flying Tiger Mountain Ten Thousand Tigers Fly, Cheng Ren takes the name of Yiying. Blood spilled on the golden soil of North Korea, and the friendship between China and the DPRK shines together.
(Author: Huang Minxue, Associate Professor, School of Arts, Shaoxing University of Arts and Sciences)
Source: Guangming Daily