On the Creation of Yongmei, an Operator.

Sun lingxuan

Chairman Mao Yongmei's Beijing Opera aria was written at the end of 1966, and it has been 42 years since then.

Yongmei has not been ordered to write by anyone, nor has anyone directed it, let alone participated in any activities. It grew up by itself in such an environment, and it was a work that met the needs of people at that time. Come to think of it, it can be popular for a long time and has strong vitality, which should also be one of the reasons.

Memories are beautiful. I still remember clearly what Yongmei wrote. It took a long time to write this aria, but it took a short time to write it on the music, and it was almost finished. When writing music, the memory is still very clear:

One night, Li Weikang came to our room to chat. During the chat, I started talking about Yongmei. I told her what I thought and sang to her. She was very interested and learned to sing after listening. Then, I played the piano with her, listened to her singing and made some changes. Brewed for a long time, it immediately sang and the music was written on the score. The process is so simple and the time is so short that it seems incredible to think of it now.

The aria was not long, and Li Weikang soon became familiar with it. At that time, I copied a music score for her, and she immediately went to the next room to sing it to Lin Yan and Li Shuping, who are members of our same propaganda team. I still remember that the people who sang and listened were very excited and happy.

A few days later, on the stage of rehearsal in the theater, our performance team began to sing. There is a new aria, which was created by ourselves. It is quite pleasant to listen to and easy to learn, so it didn't take long for it to spread in the Theatre Academy, and the students seemed to be able to sing.

As far as I can remember, it happened between the end of 1966 and the beginning of 1967.

Spring Festival travel rush of 1967 is here. People from the Art Department of China Central Radio called the school and asked if there were any programs to record. It was a classmate of Dongfanghong Commune who answered the phone. He replied that we have a Yongmei, so the recording is decided. It seems that Li Chaoyang came to me, told me about it, gathered some people and formed a band.

Recording needs someone to organize and monitor, so naturally I will do it. I can't play the piano, so Huqin is called Yangliuqing. Before recording, I also asked him to write a simple accompaniment score according to the situation of the band members, as if he had rehearsed it. While recording, Yangliuqing played the piano, and I listened to it in the studio. It seems that it was only recorded twice, and it went well. At that time, drummer Wang asked me, "What should I do in the end? Do you want a gong? " I said, "Nothing, just do it!" So this aria is also a Beijing opera aria without gongs and drums before and after.

After the recording, I didn't ask. The days are still so close, and no one knows what will happen in the future. The noise at the beginning of the movement has long since passed, and the campus has been calm. The Spring Festival is coming, but there is no atmosphere of the Spring Festival. Suddenly, one night in February, 1967, the big horn of the school propaganda sounded, and the students in charge of broadcasting turned it up very loudly, as if to attract people's attention on purpose. What came was not the "supreme instructions" and editorials that were often heard at that time, but the voice of Li Weikang singing. The song "Wind and rain send spring home, flying snow welcomes spring" reverberates in the quiet and empty campus and its surroundings. Our recorded "Yongmei" was broadcast to the whole country by CCTV!

The power of broadcasting is great! In particular, the limited cultural programs at that time were repeatedly played, which invisibly deepened people's impression. "Yongmei" is widely spread, and it is far from just the students in our Chinese Opera School who sing "Yongmei". Think about it, too. There is a fresh aria in an atmosphere where even the air seems heavy and stagnant. How could it not be noticed?

Because of its popularity, I remember that People's Daily also published the soundtrack of Yongmei. However, the newspaper may have gone to China Peking Opera Theatre. So in the published music score, the composer wrote about China Peking Opera Theatre. Now, the teenagers quit, called the Peking Opera Theatre and questioned them, saying, Who did it? Guo Dayu, a classmate of Beijing Opera, told me this. To this end, Mr. Liu Jidian specially apologized to me when he met me on his way home. Of course, I said it's okay, it's nothing. Mr. Liu Jidian is our elder, an artistic model, loyal and cautious, and can show respect for the creation of a young man at that time, which is really admirable! At that time, it was very rare to determine the arranger or creator in Peking Opera, and so was Yongmei, who was always written by the Chinese Opera School. The mimeographed copy of 1968 is still the same. As for why I compose music? In a word, my name first appeared on Yin Chengzong's piano accompaniment score, and then it gradually spread.

At that time, I wrote songs and broadcast them, but I was happy for a while, and I didn't feel anything special, but now I can still remember these trivial things, which can be said to be a draw.

Opera Art 2008- 1