From 65438 to 0925, he composed four choruses "Sorrow" and "Waterfront" in Beijing. /kloc-in the summer of 0/926, he returned to Shenyang from yenching university and taught mathematics in a cultural middle school. During this period, he founded the Harmony Opera Troupe (later renamed "Harmony Opera Troupe") under the initiative of Liu, Gao Chunfu, Wei and others, and all the members were teachers and students who loved music. They used the church to rehearse and perform Chinese and foreign chorus songs, such as Hallelujah, Flags Flying and songs collected and adapted by Yan Shushi himself. More often, they sing songs written by Yan Shushi with classical poems and his own lyrics. Yan Shushi is the organizer, creator, rehearser and conductor of this amateur music group. After teaching, he carved the music score to facilitate rehearsal. From the summer of 1925 to the end of 1926, his songs include fallen flowers, spring water, spring, tears, daffodils, ancient songs of the Tang Dynasty, autumn hate, feeling old, peach blossom creek and daffodils.
1927 performed his first opera "Mountain Flowing Water" (based on the 19th volume of "Wonders of Ancient and Modern Times" and "Yu Boya Xie Qinqin"). This opera expresses the hope of the northeast people to rise up against imperialist rule and oppression, which is implied in the noble sentiment of the woodcutter. Yan Shushi's Zhong Ziqi, which was performed by himself, was a great success. This drama was performed while singing. In this regard, Shengjing Daily published comments for six consecutive days. Their performances brought fresh breath to Shenyang's cultural life. At the same time, he founded the music publication Stop Cloud, published two issues, and published solo and chorus songs collected, sorted, processed, adapted and created by him. He edited and self-examined, designed mastheads, traced pictures and printed with his own funds. This publication is warmly welcomed by music lovers. This year, I wrote songs such as Autumn Hunting, Plum Blossom and Autumn Night.
1928 composed a three-act opera "Peach Blossom Garden in Dream" and also performed a fund-raising performance for a primary school teaching building. This drama is about a young man who hates the dark society at that time and yearns for a paradise with equality, freedom, no exploitation and no war. Rich ideas, dreamy scenes, gorgeous costumes and passionate language make this opera very romantic. In Yan Shushi's play, the protagonist, the teenager Paiping. The performance of Peach Blossoms in Dreams caused a sensation in Shenyang. The following year (1929), he performed in Shenyang YMCA, and the venue was full, even the floor was full of audience. When the whole play draws to a close and the chorus "Taoyuan on Earth" begins, ribbons and flowers are flying all over the sky, bringing people into a beautiful world. The audience was very excited, and the cheers of adults and children resounded through the hall. In April this year, Stop Cloud was renamed Snow White and published for thirty issues. He also composed songs such as Spring Hatred, Mulan's Return to the Native, Sunny New Year, Late Spring, Breeze, Dull, Melancholy Clouds and Graduation Song.
1in the spring of 929, the 5th International Music Concert was held (such performances have been held once a year since the establishment of Harmony Music Group). The program of Harmony Song and Dance Troupe has attracted the attention of the media. The newspaper said: "Most talented composers in the group, Yan Shushi and Liu Zhongyi, have made their own music scores." Their program was transferred from Shenyang Radio Station to Beiping Radio Station at the invitation of Beiping Radio Station. This year, he also created three operas, Crazy Tears. In this opera, the author mercilessly exposed the evil society at that time with the help of the words of "madman" and showed the voice of resistance. After the performance of "Tears of a Madman", the newspaper commented that this opera criticized and satirized the society and was sharper than "Paradise in Dreams". This year, he also composed chorus songs such as Autumn Deep, Autumn Sound, Gale, Feelings for Me, Small Song and Dance.
1930, Yan Shushi not only finished his own teaching work, but also organized activities with vocal music classes, and created the opera "Lonely Island Bells" and "Recalling the Riverside". Both operas accuse the darkness of society and yearn for a bright future.
1931-1934. The Japanese invaders occupied Shenyang. With the change of the current situation, all kinds of activities have been restricted and destroyed. Yan Shushi, who has patriotic thoughts and national righteousness, is not silent. 1933, the Japanese invaders planned and established the puppet regime "Manchukuo". When the "Li Dunqing investigation team" of the League of Nations went to Shenyang, it wrote to the investigation team with friendly people to expose the aggression crime of Japanese imperialism. At the same time, he participated in a penny donation activity sponsored by a secret anti-Japanese organization to support the Northeast Volunteers. When he was the head teacher of Tongze Girls' Middle School, he wrote the song "The Sun Gone Again" and translated and adapted some foreign songs, such as "Martha Sleeps in a Cold Place". Teach these songs to students, instill patriotism in them, arouse hatred against Japanese imperialism, and educate students not to forget their compatriots who died in suffering and always miss their motherland. 1934, a girl in the class was injured by the Japanese under surveillance because she didn't bow deep enough in the exercise to welcome the Japanese emperor's brother Chifu Palace to visit Shenyang. Faced with this crime, Yan Shushi angrily denounced the Japanese invaders' slavery policy on the spot and was hated by the Japanese. This autumn, in order to expose the crimes of Japanese imperialism, Yan Shushi wrote the last opera "Night of the Storm" regardless of his life. When the performance was held in Dongguan Chapel, Yan Shushi was watched by enemy agents outside. Fortunately, a friend informed him that he had run away with makeup on. Since then, he has been smuggled from Shenyang to Peiping, and he has been exiled to Peiping to teach music at the Law School of Northeastern University. When Yan Shushi was teaching in Tongze Girls' Middle School, he also wrote School Song, Class Song, Man in Blue Yun Shenchu (an ancient word) and Untitled for children, and also wrote Children's March, Bell, Star, Crow, Endeavour and Moon for children.
1935, the world-famous December 9th Movement broke out. 12 On 16, students held a larger demonstration against the establishment of a puppet regime. Yan Shushi once publicized the food market in Beiping and witnessed the cruel suppression of this patriotic movement. When a student asked him to compose music with the lyrics of Mayflower, although he didn't know who the composer was, the tragic lyrics and his feelings at that time had a * * * sound. In this way, the song "Flowers in May" was born. (Note)
From 65438 to 0936, Northeastern University moved to Xi 'an. Yan Shushi followed Northeast Middle School to teach in Jigongshan, Hubei. He taught trigonometry, organized a choir after class, taught to sing songs such as "On the Songhua River", and wrote songs such as "Wind and rain are flowers" (an ancient word) and "Northeast Middle School Song".
/kloc-in the summer of 0/937, I went back to Beiping for a holiday, which coincided with the Lugouqiao Incident. Yan Shushi tried to sneak into the rear to participate in the Anti-Japanese War, but failed. Unwilling to work for the enemy and puppet troops, I began to learn photography and set up a family photo studio (Seagull Photo Studio). He shoots and develops himself, and his artistic photography is very famous in Peiping. During this period, he collected a large number of world-famous music records and catalogued Lika, became familiar with almost all famous classical music works, including symphonies, operas, concertos and sonatas, and read biographies of great musicians. This life lasted until the victory of the Anti-Japanese War.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Yan Shushi came to teach in Shenyang at the invitation of Chung Cheng University. At this time, the harmony music group resumed its activities. On the eve of the liberation of Shenyang, Yan Shushi went to Beiping again. 1948- 1952, I taught in Beijing No.3 Middle School and opened Sha Ou Photo Studio.
1952, he closed the photo studio and was hired as a math teacher in Beijing No.26 Middle School. 1963 Before his death in June, he had been teaching in Beijing No.26 Middle School. In the meantime, he was transferred to Beijing Radio Correspondence School twice. His teaching is a combination of science and art: dignified and modest teaching attitude, popular and vivid language, artistic writing on the blackboard, scientific thinking method, enlightenment-oriented teaching method, self-made exquisite three-dimensional teaching AIDS, rigorous and accurate view of time, and the exemplary role of young teachers, all of which are highly appreciated by teachers and students. So 1959 attended the 10th anniversary of the National Day at the invitation of Premier Zhou, and 1960 attended the National Heroes' Congress. 1962 attended the national day ceremony at the invitation of mayor haing s ngor. Yan Shushi lived up to the lofty honor entrusted to him by the party and the people, and his heart was closer to the party. 1959 asked to join the party, 1960 and 196 1 submitted the application for joining the party twice. During this period, he not only collected music treasures, but also deeply appreciated the styles of different performers. He told his classmates about Tchaikovsky and his work "Symphony of Pathetique", played "Serenade" on the violin and played a fragment of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony on the piano. But he never revealed that he was the composer of the famous patriotic song "Flowers of May".
1in the summer of 963, the long-delayed illness worsened. On the deathbed of the hospital, he still cared about the work of the school. A week before his death, he wrote a note with a pen in front of his bed: "Follow the will and don't talk to the patient." In the silent ward, Yan Shushi lay quietly in the hospital bed, listening to Chopin's famous funeral March. 1963165438+1On October 23rd, accompanied by music, Yan Shushi passed away silently at the age of 58. Buried in Babaoshan People's Cemetery in Beijing, the inscription reads: "After thirty years of hard work, the song of' May' will remain in the world forever." From the history of ancient music in China, we can see that there are two traditional ways of composing music in China: one is to write lyrics on existing music and inherent music cards, and the other is to compose music according to poems. Not only in China, but also in the Baroque period in Europe, Monteverdi thought that the first expression was that music dominated the lyrics, and the second expression was that lyrics dominated the music. It is precisely because China and Europe have their own characteristics in song creation mode, and Yan Shu's poems are influenced by traditional music from China and Europe at the initial stage of music practice, so the most basic feature of Yan Shu's poems is that the lyrics dominate the expression of music.
In Yan Shu's poems, the dominant words mainly appear in the five laws and seven laws. Whether he chose it or wrote it himself, we can see from the style that there are nostalgia, objects, nostalgia and improvisation.
Describing nature is the main content of his lyrics. The natural scenery presented in the lyrics are not pure images, but Yan Shushi's strong feelings, so they are both the objects of description and his "self-expression". Because Yan Shu's poems melt into nature, his lyric poems describing nature show strong vitality, delicate feelings and the spirit of struggle.
In art, the lyrics have a strong romantic color. In the lyrics, he describes his life with natural scenery and things, pursues his ideal and future according to his subjective imagination, and expresses the passion and yearning of Yan Shu's poems with rich imagination, unique ideas and exaggerated images. In addition, the combination of classical Chinese and vernacular Chinese, the combination of old-style poetry and free-style poetry, and the sentence patterns such as complex sentences, overlapping sentences and arranging sentences needed to express feelings all constitute a unique artistic style. These styles are formed by Yan Shushi's unique creative temperament under the influence of the spirit of the May 4th Movement and outstanding Chinese and foreign poets.
Melody, as the dominant object, combines Chinese and western melody techniques and presents China's traditional linear melody thinking. The purpose, that is, the combination of sound flow and rhythm, is to modify, render and deepen the lyrics, and develop a ups and downs melody track, which is suitable for fast and slow. In these tracks, we can see the thinking characteristics of "more in less" and "moving in silence".
In Yan Shushi's song creation, the application of "basic sound pattern" (the combination of sound and rhythm) is relatively refined. In a song, a continuous melody is often centered on a basic sound pattern. The technique he used: 1 Basic sound patterns often appear in melodies, such as Sauvignon Blanc and Qiu Si. This "basic sound mode" is usually characteristic. The author regards the rhythm and sound flow in the sound form as the best expression of the artistic conception of the lyrics, which is also the most in line with his own psychological and aesthetic requirements, so he often uses them. 2. The basic sound pattern changes slightly, such as "late spring" and "feeling". This change is based on the original sound form, only the notes and rhythm change slightly, and other forms remain unchanged. 3. The deformation and development of basic phonemes, such as "Chunchun" and "Chunxing". This change is great, the sound flows far away, and the rhythm is temporarily out of its original shape but soon recovered. These changes are dominated by lyrics, but we can also see traces of basic sound patterns.
Yan Shushi's songs use a seven-tone scale that combines Chinese and western music. China's five tones are the backbone of his songs, and the "three-tone series" constitutes his basic sound form. Because the traditional three-tone series appears from time to time, and thus constitutes the melody as the core, it has formed the thinking characteristic of "there are many sounds in several sounds"
In Yan Shushi's songs, the dynamic trend of sound flow has its distinctive characteristics, that is, the sound flow has no edges and corners, no sudden changes, and winds in a slightly stable way. The reason is restricted by the style and artistic conception of lyrics, and more importantly, it is determined by Yan Shushi's character and temperament. On the basis of five tones as the backbone, the technique used in songs is: 1. Surrounding. In order to dye the artistic conception of the lyrics, according to the phonological changes, the lyrics flow around a certain sound in a scale of two or three degrees, forming microwaves. 2. The use of tone sandhi. The use of inflectional sounds many times in an informal way is intended to exaggerate the tone of decorative lyrics and fully express emotions. There is a second tone sandhi below the main tone, which constitutes another form of "microwave". 3. The rhythm of priorities. This method is often used to change the "basic sound pattern", which is often the same sound stream, and the rhythm changes from slow to urgent, forming a sense of strength. Judging from the above three techniques, the sound flow potential is generally static, but there is movement in the static state, forming another creative thinking feature, such as spring water, tears and daffodils.
The form of Yan Shu's poems is relatively free. He does not stick to the constraints of words and phrases, and often appears complex sentences, overlapping sentences and arranging sentences, so the number of bars in each lyric is different, which is not limited by odd or even numbers. The melody of a lyric has no obvious difference between the upper and lower paragraphs, and gradually turns to the end.
Looking at the melody of Yan Shu's poems, it has the characteristics of beauty, lyricism and fluency, especially feminine beauty. His melody is influenced by western European classical songs, but it is more obvious that he inherits the tradition of Chinese classical music. His linear melody thinking is a successful attempt of China's song creation in the 1920s.
Chorus is a part of Yan Shushi's music creation. The harmony language of his chorus is a functional system harmony introduced from western Europe, and the concept of sound and the logic of harmony language have strong functionality. But from the microscopic point of view, it is different from the traditional chorus in western Europe. He rubbed the melody with national style into all parts of function harmony and interlaced it with polyphony, which reflected the vivid thinking of chorus creation.
The natural voice is full of musicality and three-dimensional sense, which is one of the characteristics of his creative thinking of visual chorus. In the chorus "Yin", "Gale" and "Autumn Sound", the melodies that flow around are formed by using step-by-step sound patterns, and the sounds and forms in nature are musicalized, and then these rhythms are distributed in various parts in a random way. Because of the artistic expression of male and female voices in different sound zones and timbres, the whole song has both a sense of hierarchy and a sense of three-dimensionality. Whether it's Clouds, Whistling Wind or Autumn Voices into the Wedding Room, it is vividly displayed in front of us.
The multi-line flow of each voice in the same time and space is another feature of his creative thinking of visual chorus. In chorus songs such as Waterfront, Breeze, Feeling, etc., in order to highlight the artistic conception and image, the melody flow direction of each voice is the same in the horizontal direction, while in the vertical direction, polyphony is used to form rhythm difference, and organic texture is formed in the form of decoration, foil and contrast. "Waterfront" is a beautiful and cheerful chorus with three beats, which shows that "the spring water dissolves, the waves are exquisite, and Byakki Smoker carries the bridge". The female voice is the melody, and the male voice sometimes appears in the rhythm of the triple-beat dance music, which sets off the joyful atmosphere of the whole song, and sometimes the characteristic sound patterns appear alternately in the way of cannon, making the flute clank. In Breeze and Feelings, the euphemistic melodies of the two voices of male voice and female voice with short rhythm and few notes are in sharp contrast, which deepen the melancholy psychology in Breeze and Feelings respectively. These expressions are widely used in his chorus. Through the contrast of different voices and the pure and harmonious timbre combination, he formed a complete, orderly and three-dimensional artistic masterpiece.
Generally speaking, the chorus of Yan Shu's poems greatly surpasses the previous branch music, and defines the elements of chorus and the expression method of perfect chorus conceptually. Yan Shushi's visual chorus creation thought can establish its leading position in the emerging chorus form in the 1920s, and play a positive role in laying the foundation of chorus art and expanding the field of chorus expression.
Yan Shushi's music creation follows the historical tradition and blends into the consciousness of the times. His fluent, simple and beautiful melody style is everywhere in his works; The three-dimensional multi-line chorus thinking mode shows his character in the fresh and continuous music rhythm, with sadness and pursuit, implicit but profound. In the distinctive musical modeling, the brilliance of national culture and national character shines.
[Note] Regarding the creative process of Mayflower, according to Wang Zhengan, president of Beijing Middle School Alumni Association,1In February, 936, in order to celebrate the establishment of Northeastern University Student Union, students chose the script "Ayin Girl" for rehearsal, because there were words but no songs. Wang Mingxin (Wang Yuming) wrote the Mayflower, and Yan Shu wrote it.