Wei was born in 1906. "1924 to 1929 During his research and education in Hujiang University, he studied and studied the poems of, Lin, Wu Dunsheng and others, and made great achievements." Wei loved literature and painting since childhood, and devoted his life to lyrics creation. He is the pioneer of new music lyrics and is known as "perfume poet" and "weed poet". [ 1]
Since returning to China for eight years, Wei has cooperated with him in vocal music works 13 and a cantata (according to the statistics of the catalogue). Song of Eternal Sorrow is Wei's only oratorio. In the process of lyrics creation, Wei referred to the Palace of Eternal Life and Bai Juyi's narrative poem Song of Eternal Sorrow. The next ten lyrics are the accumulation of the author 100 days, and they are also emotional. Every movement is titled Bai Juyi's original poem. Huang Zi composed the music for this oratorio. Wei is very happy with the successful cooperation between them. Huang Zi's music creation level, especially his attainments in the combination of lyrics and songs, has been highly praised.
Second, the creative background of Song of Eternal Sorrow
Song of Eternal Sorrow was written on 1932. At that time, just before War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the Chinese nation was in dire straits. At that time, Wei He was a passionate young man in his twenties. According to Mr. Wei's recollection, "1932, the situation in China was quite chaotic. After the September 18th and 18th Incident, everyone's patriotism reached the boiling point. At that time, we chose the story of Tang and Yang Guifei, not for whom, but to point out that political ambiguity would lead to national disaster. " On the one hand, it was inspired by the strong national consciousness aroused by the local experience of the environment at that time-""We all hope that the Chinese national culture can continue to carry forward. " At that time, it took Huang Zi a semester to "complete seven movements", but the fourth, seventh and ninth movements were not completed immediately. I didn't think it would be an unfinished work. " [2]
Third, the melody art of Song of Eternal Sorrow
1, poetic mood
The total length of Song of Eternal Sorrow is 22 19. The longest action is that this endless sorrow lasts forever, and the shortest action is that the army stops moving and no one moves. Regardless of the size of the structure and the length of the space, the musical image of each movement of Song of Eternal Sorrow is very distinct and three-dimensional. Huang Zi pays special attention to the combination of lyrics and music. He regards lyrics as the driving force that determines the composer's creative process. In this process, the most touching and delicate parts of the lyrics are expressed in an exact way through music. Therefore, we can see that every movement of "Song of Eternal Sorrow" fully and profoundly reflects the ideological content and emotion to be expressed by the lyrics. Moreover, because Huang Zi has a preference for classical literature and classical poetry, he also has a lot of research. Therefore, when composing music for ancient poems or lyrics with the style of ancient poems (everlasting regret songs), he expressed the rhythm and charm of lyrics very delicately, so that music and poems penetrated each other and combined perfectly. In "The seventh day of July, the Palace of Eternal Life", "The phoenix tree is heard in autumn, and Han Yin's autumn light is clean." "The two families are inseparable and live together forever." The melody of this kind of phrase is basically interpreted word by word, which is very consistent with the chanting rhythm of poetry. At that time, not only can I feel the very good music combined, but also the writing style of the screenwriter is obvious.
While paying attention to the combination of lyrics and music, Huang Zi also attached great importance to the combination of singing and accompaniment, especially in an intangible world. The accompaniment part of this movement (string group, harp or piano) does not use the conventional so-called "accompaniment" texture, but emphasizes the lateral movement of each part, especially the part of string group just like other parts of chorus. Whether it is VL. Me or VL. Second, each part is a very beautiful and relatively independent melody (see "Invisible World" No.65438 +0). By comparing the application of polyphony and imitating polyphony texture, we can really appreciate Huang Zi's mature multi-voice music thinking and creative skills. The relative independence of each voice will inevitably weaken the harmony function of music. I think this is the composer's original intention-at this time, he wants to express not only passion, but also the aesthetic mood of painting with poetry.
2. Skilled creative skills
During his study in the United States, Huang Zi received a strict and systematic education in western classicism and romanticism, as well as training in creative skills. (He is also "the first composer, music theorist and educator in China who systematically taught the technical theory of modern European music creation." [3] Brahms, in particular, has a deep influence on it. He once wrote Brahms, "introducing the life and personality of this romantic composer and discussing his works of various genres". [4] In many of his works (including Song of Eternal Sorrow), we will all feel Brahms' creative style and techniques (such as the infiltration of motivation, asymmetry and happy sentences, chromatic changes, etc.) that he inherited. ), at the same time, we will clearly see that Huang Zi has formed a unique creative track on the road of "inheritance and innovation".
1/, "irregularity" of phrases and paragraphs and "freedom" of melody progress
In order to better combine music with lyrics (poetry) and make the natural rhythm of music and poetry more appropriate, in "Song of Eternal Sorrow", Huang Zi in other movements showed the "irregularity" of phrases and paragraphs to varying degrees (I think it was conscious), except for "Yu Yang's instigation" and "the people in the army stopped and did not move for a while".
The A section of The Wind Blows Everywhere has a structure of 5+3+3+4+8;
On the seventh day of July, in the Palace of Eternal Life, the melody of section B, section S and section 8 looks square, but due to the change of beat and the beginning of a weak phrase, it forms a writing style similar to "scattered board", while section T has an irregular structure of 7 sections;
The two female solos "Death before Horse" basically belong to "Breath". Because music does not strictly follow the strong and weak law of three beats (especially the frequent change of beats in section B), it forms a relatively free paragraph writing, weakens the sense of rhythm, enhances the narrative, and embodies the "ileum is hard to break, tears do not dry up." "two of a kind has been a long time, heaven and earth." Tragic color;
The A section of Part of the Invisible World is an irregular music section supplemented by two big sentences and six bars, and the B section is a music section of "success in one breath". Voice after voice, until the last word becomes the texture writing of "same rhythm";
This paragraph is the beginning of four sentences when this endless sadness continues. The melody of the male solo in paragraph B is "success in one breath" and it is also because of the change of the beat that these two paragraphs have an irregular feeling and the melody tends to be "more free". In addition, the accompaniment of male solo is a kind of "syncopation triplet" rhythm, which has lasted for 8 bars, showing the instability of music and emotion.
2/ The penetration of theme motivation, the use of modules and chromatic scales
As a creative technique that inherits the style of Brahms' works, "the infiltration of theme motivation" is particularly prominent in Embattled, and no one will be disturbed in The Breeze Carrying Magical Notes, Yu Yang's Staggered Bone Movement and Soldiers Stop:
The theme motivation of "the wind carries magical notes" and "triplet" runs through almost the whole song;
The theme of paragraph A appears many times in Yu Yang's Encouragement.
In "Soldiers Stop, No One Will Stir", the motivation of "flat scale" in the theme of paragraph A runs through the whole song, and the extended form of this motivation appears in the accompaniment part many times. The motivation of "the last sixteen" appeared many times, and the ending was changed to "the first sixteen", which was repeated in a step-by-step way, and then the whole song ended in the form of contraction and extension with the motivation of "falling scale" in paragraph A.
Modularity and the use of chromatic scales are also common methods in Song of Eternal Sorrow:
"Faraway breeze with magical notes", theme motivation module, music festival module: 16- 17 and 18- 19, phrase module: 23-26 and 26-29, etc.
On the seventh day of July, in Changshou Palace, section B: 20-2 1 and 24-25;
"Yu Yang Cuo Encouragement", paragraph B is basically written by the method of death;
"Everyone in the army stopped, and no one moved." Section B starts from the first section, and section 5-8 is the second degree of section 1-4.
The use of chromatic scale (from the beginning of section B and the breeze in the distance carrying magical notes), the sounds of A and S, and the accompaniment part of section 22 of Yu Yang Cuo Drum-the movement before copying, etc. ) make the melody more colorful and unstable. Of course, the melody style at this time tends to be "westernized"
3/, the use of modal tonality
Of the * * * seven movements in the whole song (unfinished version), except for two movements, the seventh day of July and the Palace of Eternal Life, the other five movements all adopt minor mode (part of the intangible world is feather mode), including the March genre "Yu Yang Cuo Encouraged" and "The soldiers stopped and no one moved". In modern China-style vocal music works, it is rare to use minor mode in March genre. In these two movements, with the progress and development of music, anger gradually increased, showing the right to "love only beauty and wine, not Jiangshan". "It is a good life to let go of the great mountains and rivers, which has ruined people's lives." That resentment. However, due to the characteristics of minor mode, we still feel a dim color and sad rhyme.
A part of the intangible world is the only "purely nationalized" part of Song of Eternal Sorrow, which is finished in pentatonic style from beginning to end. The two partials (A in paragraph 22 and G in paragraph 28) in the melody (including accompaniment melody) are the places of tone sandhi: A in paragraph 22 is tone sandhi (C feather mode -F feather mode) and G in paragraph 28 is tone sandhi (from F feather mode to C feather mode). The theme of the whole work is distinct, the melody is meticulous and lyrical, and the band and chorus are integrated into one, just like a fairyland.
4/, Polyphony Texture Writing
In the five movements with chorus in Song of Eternal Sorrow, contrasting polyphonic texture and imitating polyphonic texture are the main polyphonic writing techniques adopted by Huang Zi.
Contrasting polyphonic texture writing;
In Far and Wide Breeze with Magical Notes, the ending of the sentence "Song, Song and Dance" is a long tone, and S.A.' s voice is full of melody.
On the seventh day of July, in section 8- 10 of "The Palace of Eternal Life", S.II made an echo filling between S.I and A;
"part of the invisible world", the beginning of this song, under the melody of S.I and S.II, VL. Me and VL. II is set off by a long sound, and e is the first sound of VL. II has lasted for 5 bars; In bars 29 and 30, strings are set off by long sounds, and three female voices are full of imitated polyphonic melodies.
The application of the above polyphonic techniques makes music have a "static and dynamic" contrast.
Imitate polyphonic texture writing;
"Breeze from afar" contains magical notes. In sections 23-3 1 and 38-48, the imitation polyphonic texture is adopted, including free imitation between two parts, three parts and four parts;
In The Seventh Day of July and The Palace of Eternal Life, 10- 12 is a free imitation between S.I, S.II and A, and the duet between male and female voices in paragraphs 30-36 is a wonderful free imitation, which becomes a "synchronous" texture in paragraph 37. From the beginning to the end, they are all pentatonic melodies with China national style, with a touch of sadness in beauty and China, such as weeping and complaining, like resentment and envy;
Yu Yang's Wrong Agitation, in a long theme writing, is in a paragraph * * *11(31-35, 53-55.
"Part of the invisible world" is the free imitation between the three parts of female voice, between the parts of band and between chorus and band. The characteristic of this passage is "fragment imitation"-the imitation theme only imitates part of the opening theme, while the melody behind it develops freely, which forms a certain degree of contrast with the opening voice;
And this Endless Sorrow Endless begins with the free imitation (fragment imitation) of four parts, which are carried out in turn: S.A.T.B (section 2-8), then S.A. and T.B. (section 10- 13).
Song of Eternal Sorrow interprets the love tragedy of "Tang and Yang Guifei" with classic narrative poems and melodies full of romantic colors, which makes us feel our creative thoughts and musical charm, and also appreciate our literary accomplishment, elegant character and emotional authenticity from the application of creative techniques.
Fourthly, the "music style of combining Chinese and western styles" has some regrets.
Huang studied music in America for about three years (1926- 1929). In these three years, the knowledge structure and composition techniques of western music laid a very solid foundation for his later creation, and also had a great influence on his music career, thus forming a very important part of his whole creative thought and track. After returning to China, as a patriotic musician, he tried to combine his western composition techniques with China's national style. In this respect, many of his works have proved that his attempt is very successful. For example, three wishes for roses and flowers are not flowers have many unique features. For another example, "Part of the Invisible World" is "a model of pure China national style chorus created by modern professional composition techniques." [5] In addition, in some paragraphs of Song of Eternal Sorrow, Huang Zi's usual techniques, such as "improving the melody of a semitone and increasing the melody of an interval", are used properly (in Yu Yang's Wrong Agitation, the use of e and a; People in the army stop using C, and none of them will stir, compared with B and B in section 3 and section 7, and this endless sadness will last forever). However, in the same Song of Eternal Sorrow, there are still some paragraphs or fragments whose musical styles are not completely integrated. For example, in the two movements of "Die in front of Mount Emei" and "This sorrow is endless":
The writing of these two movements is almost the same, and both of them suddenly appear in the process of melody: the V-level sound in the paragraph before the horse dies 10, and the male solo part in this endless sorrow is endless (in addition, there are paragraphs 35 and 36 in the sound of a leisurely breeze, and paragraphs 52 and 53 in the Palace of Eternal Life on the seventh day of July). The sudden appearance of "modal external sound" will inevitably lead to the wandering of "unknown tonality" (some fragments seem to be atonal). Although this technique increases the "sense of instability" and tragic atmosphere of melody and emotion, when this melody is combined with other paragraphs with national style that have appeared or are waiting to appear, it will feel "out of reach", some of them. Personally, if the combination of music and lyrics in Song of Eternal Sorrow belongs to the "peak" and "thinking" condensed by songwriters in a specific period, then some paragraphs and fragments in the music are slightly far-fetched in the combination of "Chinese and Western" music styles-probably because Huang Zizai left a lot of valuable music creation wealth and also left some enlightenment and thinking for future generations.
Huang Zi once said, "When a composer composes a song, he must feel something in his heart, so it sounds like it." [6] It can be seen that Huang Zi's music has a strong subjective consciousness. Whether it is patriotic passion or love ode, it will always be diarrhea and dwelling in a person's unique spiritual world, an expression of true feelings and an expression of will (in the words of Schopenhauer in quotation marks).
The oratorio Song of Eternal Sorrow has a history of 70 years from its creation in 1932 to its premiere in 1933. Over the past 70 years, The Song of Eternal Sorrow has spanned different historical periods and stood the test of different times. Over the past 70 years, The Song of Eternal Sorrow has experienced both glory and vicissitudes (Huang Zi himself and his other works have also experienced twists and turns). However, this did not affect the promotion of Huang Zi's philosophical thoughts, aesthetic thoughts and creative techniques in the younger generation and China's music creation field.
Song of Eternal Sorrow is a masterpiece of poetry and painting in the history of modern music creation in China, and will continue her mileage and contribution with its unique charm.
Precautions:
[1] and [2] are quoted from Reference Materials for Music Theory Creation-Edited by the Theory Creation Committee of China Music Association (1979).
[3] "Memories of Mr. Huang Zi" He Lvting, "Music" 1983 No.8 Page 2.
[4] Life, Thought and Creation of Huang Zi, Qian Renkang, Music Research,No. 1958,No. 1 7.
[5] "Huang Zi's Legacy" Preface He Lvting Page 3.
[6] "Re-understanding of Huang Zi's Aesthetic Thought" Gong, "People's Music" 1988 No.6 13.