composer Wu Songjin has brought out pop singers such as Yang Yuying, Chen Sisi, and Zhou Liang, and has written such works as "Love Song of Tea Mountain", "Love in the Wind and Smile in the Water", "Don't Guess the Girl's Thoughts", "Brother Lover Goes to the South", "Green Flower in the Army", etc. Pop Song is a well-known pop music star in the industry.
Wu Songjin has always been a fan of the "Shanghai Spring" International Music Festival, and has always had a symphony dream, and now he will finally realize his dream in Shanghai. On April 10, 78-year-old Wu Songjin will appear at the 39th "Shanghai Spring" with the symphony concert "Chinese Music and Pictures - Songjin Music Theme Orchestral Suite". "The 62-year-old music dream has finally come true. !"
"Chinese Music and Painting" concert poster
New symphony newcomer
Wu Songjin's fate with "Shanghai Spring" can be traced back to his boyhood.
In 1959, the violin concerto "Butterfly Lovers" co-written by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang premiered in Shanghai and became an instant hit. A year later, the Hong Kong movie "Fish Love" chose "Butterfly Lovers" as the background music and was screened in mainland China.
During the summer vacation of 1962, Wu Songjin, who was in the second grade of junior high school in Nanchang, watched a movie and was deeply impressed by the soundtrack. Later, he learned that it was "Butterfly Lovers", composed and performed by the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and originated from the "Shanghai Spring". These four words have since become a distant musical dream in the heart of a 16-year-old boy.
In 1965, not long after the 6th "Shanghai Spring" ended, the stage art film "Shanghai Spring" was released in Nanchang. Wu Songjin watched it twice in a row in the cinema, and had a particularly deep memory of "Ode to the Red Flag" composed by Lu Qiming.
In 1978, 32-year-old Wu Songjin entered the campus of Shanghai Conservatory of Music and began to study composition formally. His childhood idols He Zhanhao and Chen Gang both stayed at the school to teach. He also met Zhu Jian'er, Lu Qiming and other admired composers, and received face-to-face advice from them.
Later, Wu Songjin also had the opportunity to indirectly participate in "Shanghai Spring". In 1982, his works such as "Spring Is Always in Our Campus", "The Farmer Reached the Sky in One Step" and "The Beautiful Flowers in the Soul" were commissioned by several singers from the Shanghai Radio and Television Art Troupe and were presented at the 10th "Shanghai Spring" begins.
Wu Songjin's works sang in the "Shanghai Spring" in 1982
Wu Songjin has written more than 5,000 works, but as a student of Shangyin, he always has a regret that he has not written a significant large-scale symphonic work.
"I must realize this dream." Last year, Wu Songjin teamed up with six young composers from Beijing and Shanghai, including Zheng Yang and Xu Ke, to select 24 of his own songs and rearrange them to create the "Chinese Music and Pictures" symphony concert. The concert uses symphonic thinking and instrumental language to tell the story of China in today's era, showing the distinctive humanistic characteristics of China's northwest, Jiangnan, border areas, Ganpo, and the Greater Bay Area.
Wu Songjin has been influenced by ethnic music since he was a child. Therefore, the suite covers ethnic folk music materials with different styles from various regions. For example, he grew up in Lanzhou and Yinchuan during his childhood and was deeply influenced by northwest music. "Baqiao Liu" uses elements of Qin opera and has an ancient style; he has also studied and lived in Shanghai for many years, and "Ai Nong Shanghai" has a jazz style, Fashionable and modern, it fits the personality of Shanghai very well; later, he lived in Guangzhou for 36 years, and his song "Spring in the Flower Street" described the moving fireworks in Guangfu...
"The concert is easy to understand, and the audience seems to be riding on it." With the wings of music, I can travel all over the country." Wu Songjin said that this is not only a symphonic work, but also condenses his musical life. In Shanghai, Zhang Chengjie will conduct the Shanghai Opera House Symphony Orchestra.
"The purpose of 'Shanghai Spring' is to support newcomers and new works. I can be considered a 'newcomer' in the symphony world, and "Chinese Music and Painting" is also a new work." When he was studying in Shangyin, he was exposed to a large number of symphonic works, but After graduation, I have been immersed in pop song creation, and I feel a little rusty. âSo, I looked for a lot of relevant textbooks again and studied them with the mentality of re-learning.â
Wu Songjinâs interview
Popular celebrity
After 50 years in the industry, Wu Songjinâs music Resume cannot be separated from pop music.
When pop music in mainland China began to develop rapidly, in 1987, Wu Songjin went south to Guangzhou and joined China Records Guangzhou Company.He single-handedly brought out pop singers such as Yang Yuying, Chen Sisi, Zhou Liang, Huang Weilin, Xiao Zeng, and Ren Miaoyin, and wrote "Chashan Love Song", "The Wind Is Lovely and the Water Is Smiling", "Don't Guess What a Girl Is Thinking", "My Lover Goes to the South", "Green Flowers in the Army" and other popular songs sung across the country.
"Records and tapes are actually cultural commodities. What matters is whether anyone will buy them after they are published. We must try our best to make the quality of the records perfect and meet the needs of the audience." At that time, stripping tapes was a shortcut to make money, but Wu Songjin Feeling that there is no future, as a musician who graduated from Shangyin University, he did not bother to do it. "We should create original pop songs, and let the market accept them and beat the pop songs in Hong Kong and Taiwan in terms of sales."
Wu Songjin's work scene
Hug With such ambitions, Wu Songjin began to wonder what kind of pop songs would be popular with the audience.
For a while, Han Baoyi's "Pink Memories" sold like crazy in China. Wu Songjin discovered three popular points after research: the first is the love theme, the second is the singing by beautiful women with youthful and sweet voices, and the third is the use of With the accompaniment of electroacoustic instruments, he wrote "I Love My Brother in My Heart" according to this model, and the response was excellent. "The difference is that the love in those songs is relatively decadent and depressing, while the love in my songs is more bright and uplifting." , injecting beautiful and positive energy."
Later, Wu Songjin turned his attention to military camp ballads. "There were two types of military songs at that time: one was march songs, such as "Return from Target Shooting" and "I am a Soldier", which were suitable for Soldiers sing in groups; one is art songs, such as works sung by Yan Weiwen, Li Shuangjiang and others, which are patriotic and party-loving, with noble themes, but most of them are ethnic singing, which is difficult to sing without certain vocal literacy."
"I wanted to fill the gap in the market, and came up with the idea of ââmaking a batch of military ballads, the content of which is close to the true feelings of soldiers." He first participated in the writing of "My Old Squad Leader", which quickly became popular, and then wrote "Green in the Army" "Flower", which writes about a recruit's longing for his hometown, parents, and relatives after joining the army... These songs are catchy. Whether the soldiers are alone or resting in the dormitory, they can play and sing with a guitar, and soon It became popular in the army.
Nowadays, Wu Songjinâs songs are spread on many short video platforms. Is it acceptable for young people to adapt them in a secondary way?
"Totally acceptable! As a composer, you are very happy when your songs are liked and sung by the audience. The purpose of writing songs is for everyone to sing. Even if they are adapted or even a little ugly, it is okay. This kind of behavior is still out of I like it, I donât mean to slander it.â
Wu Songjin discovered that his songs have a wide range of instrumental versions. For example, âGreen Flower in the Armyâ has flute, harmonica, erhu, and guzheng versions, and there is also a version that puts water in the rice bowl. Knocking with two chopsticks, "Different musical instrument playing styles also inspired me, and I also began to try to use various ethnic instruments to play these songs."
