On February 12, 2017, the 59th Grammy Awards was announced. The "Silk Road Ensemble" led by Chinese American cello player Ma Youyou, Wu Tong and others relied on the album "Sing MeHome" Won the Best World Music Album Award (Best WorldMusic Album).
"Sing Me Home" (Sing Me Home) contains a total of 13 music. The album was released through Sony Music on April 22, 2016.
Wu Tong, born in Beijing in 1971, the fourth generation of the folk music family, started writing and singing pop songs at the age of 16, graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in 1994.
Formed the rock band "Reincarnation Band" in 1992. The representative "Beacon Yangzhou Road" combined folk music and rock and roll, which influenced China's nationalized rock and made the reincarnation band known.
In 2010, he won the 52nd Grammy Award for Best Cross-Border Classical Album with Youyou Ma and others by virtue of "Happy". He was the first musician in China to win the Grammy Award.
Silk Road Orchestra was founded 16 years ago, Wu Tong has sung the Chinese folk songs "Orchid Flower", "Swallow", and "Wang Chunfeng" to the world. This time on the new Silk Road album, Wu Tong sang the title song "Going home".
The following is what Sheng performer Wu Tong said in his "Yishi" speech, his unique insights into this musical instrument.
Many years after my father passed away, I realized that I can't live without the sheng
. I grew up in a family of national wind music. Our family has been engaged in making and playing the sheng instrument for almost 100 years. I am the fourth generation and I am the youngest.
The first sheng I played when I was 5 years old was made by my grandfather, the second sheng was made by my father, and the sheng I played now was made by the masters in my sister's factory. So the advantage is that I haven't spent any money on musical instruments in my entire life; but the disadvantage is that this musical instrument seems to require me to pay for it by nature. When
was young, I honestly hated this instrument very much.
When my father is at work and my mother is not at home, my father will leave 10 tapes and a recorder. As long as I get home from school, I have to press the record button to start practicing. If he doesn't practice, my dad will know when he comes back to check the tape, and then he will be punished very severely.
When did I start to like this instrument?
was probably when I was 13 years old. I won the first place in the National National Musical Instruments Junior Group for the first time. My dad seemed to smile at me for the first time in his life. I felt very happy. It turned out that this instrument can make him happy.
But I still have to practice piano next. The long afternoon seems to be endless. The kids are playing outside and laughing happily. I have to close my ears quickly and face the pieces on the wall with writing brushes. Score, I can only play it over and over again. Z3z
is getting tired of blowing, so I started blowing, anyway, it’s impossible not to blow, because the tape recorder is still recording. Z1z only learned later that the kind of bluffing and blowing, it turned out to be improvisation. The improvisation made me feel so happy. This kind of self-talking made me no longer feel lonely , as if the afternoon passed quickly. After I finished playing, the music seemed to take me on a long trip. It took me wherever I wanted it to go.
Since then, I have started to play the Sheng actively.
Until many years after my father passed away, one day I suddenly discovered that what Sheng brought me was not what my father told me. This is my skill and a way to settle down; but it has brought me a lot. Memories, bit by bit between me and my father.
Now every time I play this instrument, I feel that he looks at me from the sky, so I feel that I have an extra responsibility and a mission.
All in all, I don’t seem to be able to live without this instrument anymore. I have toured all over the world and will hold this instrument because it is already a part of my life.
At this time, it’s a good time to play the sheng
I started playing the sheng when I was 5 years old, and it’s almost 40 years now, but in the past 3 years, I have just started to know this instrument. Today I want to share the reasons with you.
This unique musical instrument sheng in China has a history of more than 3,000 years. There is a very famous idiom that is related to it-to make up for it. Sheng has many names in its 3000 years of history: Sheng, Wei, Hechao, Fengchu, Fengming, Caiyong, Yunhe, many nice names.
The Chinese New Year that just passed was in the first month. The twelve months after the first month corresponded to the twelve rhythms of China. In the historical classics of Sheng, wrote, Sound ". Why is
too clustered? Now we most commonly use D to tune the sheng. Later, I found out after checking that the original tone D on the piano corresponds to the Chinese twelve-tone temperament is Taicu, and Taicu is the sound of the first month.
sheng is such a unique instrument for the first month, so now this season is a good time to play the sheng.
The bamboo-headed Sheng, in fact, is a "sheng" that can grow and grow. In our world, everything grows, and in terms of the structure of the sheng, the lower part is the shengdou, and inside is its pronunciation device, called the reed, and the part above the reed is called the shengmiao.
When we play it, one exhale and one inhale is one yin and one yang. The shengdou we play is like the earth, the reed is the seed, and everything that grows out.
In fact, every time I play the sheng, I hope to use such a harmonious sound as the sheng to affect people and the relationship between man and nature. The four spirits of
sheng are also an expectation of our ancestors for a perfect personality.
In the past few years, I have consulted many ancient books, and through my own performance experience, I have concluded that the sheng has the following four spirits: and Germany, Qing, , in fact, this is also an expectation of our ancestors for perfect personality. The first spirit of
sheng is called "and"
"and", which is actually the earliest name of Chinese sheng.
In Oracle's Yin and Shang period, this "harmony" actually means that the Sheng has already appeared.
So you see, our ancestors' concept of "harmony" is not a single word. It does not mean that we express a sound. In fact, it expresses our ancestors' expectations for the relationship between man and nature. When the dog and the chicken hear each other, Lao Tzu talks about the unity of nature and man, and Confucianism talks about the righteousness and peace, but there is actually a state of "harmony", that is, it can integrate everything.
sheng played such a role in the band. For more than 3,000 years, has played in the magnificent palace scenes during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, or in the folk music of the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties, including local operas, and even in the current ethnic bands. , There will always be Sheng.
is because it can neutralize many very distinctive and individual instruments in China, such as suona, erhu, pipa, and sanxian. When it is played solo, each instrument has a very distinctive regional color, and when they are at the same time When playing together, it seemed a little out of place, so sheng played a harmonious role in it, .
sheng has another technique called traditional hesheng. Each sound of Sheng is composed of two or three sounds, , so you didn’t know how difficult it was when I started to play when I was a child, but it just shows that our ancestors were both human and natural. The expectation of a harmonious relationship. The second spirit of
sheng is "Germany"
"German" is often used to describe the character of people, how does it have to do with musical instruments? This has to start with my misunderstanding of this instrument for a long time.
I always feel that I have learned the wrong musical instrument, because the sheng does not have the glide of violin, the kind of song, beautiful, and romantic things, nor the high-pitched, drum-like excitement of suona. These shengs do all Not. So I regret that I learned such an instrument myself.
Until one day I read an article, this is an article written by Pan Yue from the Jin Dynasty of , called "Sheng Fu".The Fu written by the door to Sheng. How does describe the sound of the Sheng? He said that is "straight but not living, melody but not auspicious, syllable and simple, but not happy" .
I suddenly felt that this really meant Sheng.
Sheng is straight, but it is not stiff, it can be bent, which is like a person's character, upright, not flattering and enchanting. This simple expression speaks the realm of Sheng. I suddenly remembered that in "The Analects", "happiness but not sex, sorrow but not hurt" is the same.
I suddenly felt that this instrument is too interesting, I learned this instrument correctly.
When I checked ancient books, I found two examples. A "Xiaoya Deer Ming" from the Book of Songs, which preached, "Yo Lu Ming, Shiyezhi Ping, I have guests, and I will play the Sheng" . This is when the king is banning his officials. Playing with Sheng, the whole process was very happy and joyful. Think about it, it’s not rock music, it’s not gongs and drums, but it’s so elegant and restrained to hold the party with the Sheng. Another example of
comes from Li Jing, the lord of Southern Tang Dynasty. He wrote a poem. At that time, the prosperous age of the Tang Dynasty was no longer there, and the Southern Tang was a corner of the country, with internal and external troubles. Li Jing wrote in the poem: "Drizzle dreams back to Jisaiyuan, Xiaolou blows Yushenghan. "He used the way of playing the sheng all night to express his sadness.
So you see, whether it is happy or sad, ancient Chinese scholars are used to expressing their feelings delicately with the sheng. As a model,
sheng can reflect the wisdom of our Chinese people. The third spirit of
sheng is called "Qing"
"Tao De Jing" says, "Heaven is clear, and the earth is clear."
Sheng has appeared in many Tang poems, such as "Phoenix thirty-six, blue sky is high and clear". "Phoenix" refers to the sheng. Just now, the sheng has many names, Fengsheng, Fengchu, and Huafeng. Why is
sheng always associated with phoenix and gods? Now we have to talk about a big secret in the reed instrument of the sheng. The
sheng spread to Europe around the 18th century. Since then, other reed instruments have appeared, such as the harmonica and the accordion, including the pipe organ. The
pipe organ has a history of more than 2,000 years, but there was no reed before.
sheng spread to Europe, but there is only one subtle point in it that the Europeans did not learn. In this place, there is a green coating on the reed of the Sheng. What is this coating? The reed of the Sheng is made of copper. Copper itself is yellow. Why is it green? Because when we blow the sheng, a lot of water vapor will adhere to the reed when we breathe in and inhale. After a long time, it will rust and the sheng cannot be blown.
So, our ancestors invented a method more than 2000 years ago: use a kind of five-tone stone, also called five-color stone, add water to grind a green paste, and apply this green paste on the reed to become natural Of copper oxide, so the reed will not rust. The green pulp of
not only allows the reeds of the sheng to move freely and protects the reeds, but also makes the sound of the sheng more ethereal. So you listen to the sound of the Sheng, not the lonely and romantic sound of the harmonica, but the elegant and clear sound of , because of the resonance of the golden and stone sound of stone powder and gold powder.
In ancient times, the sound of the sheng could imitate the sound of a phoenix. Its sound is so ethereal, in fact, because of this layer of green pulp. and "Qing" are also an extreme and characteristic aesthetic expression of nature or music by the Chinese. The fourth spirit of
Sheng is "positive".
does not mean that it does not need to be tuned. It takes more than two hours to tune a sheng in . , but when you are playing the sheng, you feel that there is more tacit understanding and trust with it.
It can be said that the sheng is the most traditional Chinese musical instrument. In other words, as a model, the sheng can reflect the wisdom of our Chinese people .To show its contribution to human civilization throughout the world.
I hope that such a unique Chinese voice can be heard by more people and let people all over the world know.
In the sound of Sheng,
has a Chinese beauty called "Qing",
has a Chinese personality called "Zheng",
has a temperance called "Germany",
has a relationship between man and nature Called "and".
