Li Huanzhi and "Spring Festival Overture".
Zhao Nan. In 1983, the first Spring Festival Gala was broadcast on CCTV in the form of live broadcast. With the "Spring Festival Gala", the "big dish" on the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, the audience began to become familiar with a joyful and Chinese charm song - "Spring Festival Overture". This song is one year earlier than the history of the well-known "Unforgettable Tonight" (first appeared on CCTV Spring Festival Gala in 1984) on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala.
Until now, the duration and program style of the Spring Festival Gala may change every year, but in any case, "Spring Festival Overture" will sound on time and become the standard for people to celebrate the Spring Festival**.
Spring Festival Overture" is from the first movement of the "Spring Festival Suite" composed by Li Huanzhi, "Overture - Da Yangge". But this real name is rarely mentioned, but the name "Spring Festival Overture" is well-known to the public.
The Spring Festival Suite was composed between 1955 and 1956. During the Spring Festival that year, the streets of Beijing were bustling and jubilant, and Li Huanzhi couldn't help but think of the passionate years he spent in Yan'an Luyi.
Li Huanzhi was born in Hong Kong, China in 1919. In August 1938, Li Huanzhi, who was only 19 years old, came to Yan'an Lu Xun Art Institute to study. At the end of the same year, Xian Xinghai, the "people's ** family", was invited to teach in Luyi. Li Huanzhi was selected to enter the third special ** class and became a student of Xian Xinghai. Because of his hard work and talent, after finishing his studies, Xian Xinghai won the opportunity for Li Huanzhi to stay in school and teach. From a student to a teacher, this was very rare in Lu Yi at that time.
Childhood Lee Hwan Zhi (right) and his mother Zheng Huizhen (Source: Band Street).
During the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the masses in Yan'an held a very lively Yangge activity. Everyone lined up in a long line to go from house to house, using colorful lanterns to discharge various patterns of lanterns, and dancing to the cheerful music. After the Yan'an New Yangge Movement, the Spring Festival became a festival for Yan'an literary and art workers and the people to sing and dance together, and it also became an excellent opportunity for the party, government, military and people to greet each other and boost their morale.
Li Huanzhi conducts a rehearsal of the Music Choir in Yan'an (Source: Band Street).
In the process of going deep into the folk style, Li Huanzhi became interested in the folk ** in northern Shaanxi. "Spring Festival Suite" is an orchestral piece written according to the structure of the folk "Yangge" in northern Shaanxi. As a traditional folk song and dance in northern China, the performance form of Yangge includes three parts, namely "crossing the street", "big field" and "small field". The dance moves of "Crossing the Street" are relatively simple and are performed while walking on the street. "Dachang" is lively and prosperous, and it belongs to a lively and changeable large-scale group dance. "Small performances" are performances with a small number of people, usually only two or three people, and have a certain storyline.
The Spring Festival Overture integrates the melody and rhythm of Yangge, vividly showing the lively scene of people singing, dancing, beating gongs and drums. The introduction of "Spring Festival Overture" is equivalent to the "crossing the street" part, and the first part is a warm allegro, describing the "big" song and dance scenes. In the middle section is a lyrical mid-board that depicts a dance performance of "Koba". Then returning to the first part, the Yangge is described as ending with a "big field", and the final epilogue repeats the second half of the introduction.
The Spring Festival Overture draws on Western composition techniques in terms of creative techniques, and the use of ethnic materials, harmonies and percussion instruments makes this work have a strong Chinese national style. The Yangge and northern Shaanxi folk songs in the "Spring Festival Overture" highlight the distinctive national style and regional characteristics, and are full of rich life atmosphere.
In "Spring Festival Overture", Li Huanzhi creatively combines the creative method of Western orchestra orchestra and repetition with China's traditional ** aesthetics. All the materials and overall ideas in "Spring Festival Suite" are based on Chinese folk culture. Li Huanzhi emphasized the need to combine and promote the valuable cultures of China and the West. This has also formed Li Huanzhi's unique creative style.
In 1989, "Spring Festival Overture" won the "Golden Record" Award of China Record Corporation; In 1993, "Spring Festival Overture" was selected as "Twentieth Century Chinese Classic"; In 2007, "Spring Festival Overture" "aboard" China's first lunar exploration satellite "Chang'e-1" to travel into space. These are enough to prove the timeless classic charm of this work.
"Spring Festival Overture" is not only widely circulated in China, but also a classic in the ** activities of overseas Chinese. A Chinese writer in the United States once vividly described the fond memories of listening to "Spring Festival Overture" when he was a child:
I have been familiar with "Spring Festival Overture" for a long time. Since the early 60s of the 20th century, every Spring Festival, this symphony with a strong national style has been broadcast on the radio with a particularly high frequency. I like this song, enthusiastic, festive, cheerful, as soon as the "Spring Festival Overture" sounds, I dance with my hands and ......
The traditional value of "harmony" runs through the work, and the emotional tone of the whole work is a happy and peaceful festival atmosphere, which is in line with the common expectation of Chinese at home and abroad to unite and welcome a better future, and arouses the homesickness of the majority of overseas Chinese.
Li Huanzhi once wrote in the book "On the Art of Composition": Our work is a national symphony, not a plagiarism and reproduction of the Western symphony. Our composers strive to explore and create a national symphony road from all aspects of theme, genre, style and technique.
Today, more and more Chinese national works are presented in front of the public, how to create a real Chinese nation, so that we can appear more on the world stage, and establish national cultural self-confidence, is a common topic for contemporary people.
Liang Maochun, a professor at the college, wrote in his memoirs about Li Huanzhi: Teacher Huanzhi always adheres to one thought, and the spirit of seeking truth from facts should run through his writing. lay a solid foundation of traditional culture when educating children; In the creation of **, emphasis is placed on expressing the true feelings of the composer; When instructing students to write, it is repeatedly emphasized that they should write "real and comprehensive characters". In the above teachings, there is always a "real" word.
In 1958, Li Huanzhi conducted a chorus in Zhongshan Park in Beijing (Source: Band Street).
"Seeking truth from facts" is one of Li Huan's consistent ideals. Down-to-earth learning of traditional cultural foundations, bowing down to collect national traditional materials, and striving to express simple true feelings when creating. This is also the belief that Li Huanzhi upheld at the end of 1999, when he was seriously ill, when he was racing against time with death to compose his last work, the orchestral music "Poems of the Earth".
In "Tradition ** and My Creation", Li Huanzhi explained his mental journey when composing "Spring Festival Overture": "When I created "Spring Festival Overture", I basically chose ready-made traditional songs and music tones as themes and developed and recreated them. However, the materials selected are the things, life styles, feelings and the ** life of the masses that I deeply feel in my life, and they have a direct and internal connection. And that's what I think is: the composer has to live in it.
Mr. Lee Woon Chee (Source: Band Street).
*: Bright**, 16th edition of September 23, 2022.
Author: Zhao Nan (Zunyi Normal University).
Pictured: Fang Zhi Sichuan.