Listen to the song Zhang Baotong 2018.7.15

Yesterday, I just had dinner and was about to turn off the TV to go to the wake for my father-in-law, when I saw that CCTV Channel 4 program happened to broadcast "Salute to the Classics", introducing Wang Xiangrong, the king of folk songs in northern Shaanxi and the inheritor of China's intangible cultural heritage, singing the song "Ninety-nine Bends of the Yellow River in the World". Before the first sentence "You know, there are dozens of bends in the Yellow River in the world" was sung, I was shocked by the soulful and high-pitched and majestic singing. I have heard the song "The Yellow River under Heaven" dozens of times, but I have never felt so thrilling and shocking like this.

This kind of shock is the shock of the Yellow River rushing and roaring from the heart, and the shock of the Yellow River roaring up to the sky. Thinking of the world and the world, I was alone and wept. The song is full of the eternal sadness and vicissitudes of life, which makes people can't help but think of the Yellow River with 99 bends surging on the Loess Plateau with thousands of ravines, which is the desolation and sorrow of our Chinese nation's 5,000 years of precipitation and gathering. Listening to it, tears rolled down my face. I am weeping for the Yellow River and for our calamity-ridden nation. But what makes me cry is the raw and sad charm and emotion in this song.

I involuntarily put the key on the coffee table again, sat on the couch and continued to watch the show. I deeply feel reverence for this singer who was born as a cowherd, and his singing can be filled with such a heavy sense of vicissitudes and sorrow of the nation, and can sing the thousand-year-old suffering and 10,000-year sorrow of the Yellow River in the world so truly and movingly. With this thought, I listened to Wang Xiangrong talk about his life and pursuit of immersing himself in northern Shaanxi folk songs. The impoverished life experience and selfless pursuit made him truly feel the emotional conception and deep suffering of northern Shaanxi and the Yellow River, so that he could truly express the indomitable national spirit of northern Shaanxi and the Yellow River with his singing voice.

Then, his student Wang Erni sang a song "Go to the West Exit". I've heard this song many times, but every time I hear it, I feel different. The sad scene of leaving one's homeland and fleeing the famine has run through almost the entire history of the Chinese nation. And "Walking to the West Exit" is one of the love stories. Although I have not walked through the West Exit, I have also come to Xi'an alone, and I deeply feel the difficulties and longings of being alone and helpless. So, this song can touch the sentimentality in my heart very much. Especially the song sung by Wang Erni has a strong northern Shaanxi mood and sad charm, so listening to this song makes me cry even more. Fortunately, there is no one at home, otherwise, if my wife sees me like this, she will definitely laugh at me for being too infatuated.

Listening to their songs, I realized that each of their songs represents a mood, a story, and an emotion, which makes people feel refreshed and have an endless aftertaste. In the past, I didn't have a deep understanding of northern Shaanxi folk songs, and I felt that northern Shaanxi folk songs were high-pitched and high-pitched, and as long as they could sing that high note and tone with the tone of northern Shaanxi, they would be considered good singing. However, after listening to the singing of the two kings this time, I realized that it is not easy to sing the folk songs of northern Shaanxi well. I have heard many people sing these two songs many times, but only Wang Xiangrong and Wang Erni sing the most charmingly. I have also heard some famous academic singers sing northern Shaanxi folk songs, but because they have little emotion and contact with northern Shaanxi and the Yellow River, although they sing very neatly, with good timbre and good breath, they have no characteristics and no charm, which makes people feel that they are reading the text aloud.

Singers don't have to worry about the audience's appreciation level and appreciation, as long as you sing well, others can hear it. In everyone's heart, there is that innate sense of beauty and understanding and sensibility for joy, anger and sorrow. When your singing really touches their hearts, their hearts will naturally resonate with you and generate passion. But the reality is that there are more and more audiences with taste and appreciation, but there are not many singers and songs that can move people's hearts, especially songs that can be called classics have not appeared for almost many years. Therefore, every time I open the CCTV literary channel or watch a theatrical performance, in addition to those old and old classic songs, there are some new songs that moan without disease or are as plain as water. These new songs don't talk about what they are, but the names of the songs are hard to remember. So, not only am I disappointed by the lifelessness of China's music scene today, but I also don't watch much of the programs on the Literature and Art Channel.

Many of our song-loving listeners are very nostalgic for the 60s and 80s of the last century, when the Chinese music scene shone brightly. A large-scale song and dance epic "Dongfang Hong" has gathered many classics. How many times have people watched "Liu Sanjie" and want to watch it again. The song "My Motherland" has made many people still sound tearful now. There are also many folk songs that have long become classics of Chinese folk songs. But why in recent years, there have been fewer and fewer classic songs, and they can hardly be heard? It is not that the resources of Chinese folk songs have been exhausted by our predecessors, but that our people are now only focused on money, and how can anyone go to the poor and remote mountainous areas and border villages to collect and experience the style? Even in front of our eyes, they are too lazy to dig deep into many song resources. That's why China's songs are so poor today. Fast food songs are piling up, and classic songs haven't been seen for years. Therefore, many of our columns and many viewers are eagerly calling for classics and looking forward to classics. This is true not only in terms of songs, but also in all aspects of literature and film.

Back then, Lei Zhenbang heard that there was an elderly singer in Xinjiang and wanted to visit him. So, he took a green car for five days and five nights, got off the train and sat in the car for another day and a night, then took a horse-drawn carriage, rode a donkey, and finally walked dozens of miles before finding the singer. It can be seen that to create a good song, not to mention how hard it takes, it is not easy to just collect style. If our composers can use the spirit of "casting a sword in ten years" like Lei Zhenbang. Will our classic songs still be "unavailable for a thousand calls"? If our singers can also pursue selflessly like Wang Xiangrong and Wang Erni, will they still worry about having no listeners?

People have limited energy in their lives, and it is very difficult to achieve a career. Therefore, once you are deceived by money, your mental energy will be scattered, and the work you create will have the cheesiness of money. Although everyone loves money, when they listen to the songs, they are listening with their hearts, and they want to absorb the fresh and pure breath. They are very sensitive to the smell of money in the song, and they are very disgusted. So, your work will be quickly discarded by them. If you want your work to become a classic, you have to dive in and practice hard for a long time until the work is polished to perfection and impeccable. And one work you polish in this way will weigh much more than a hundred works you create in the way of fast food.

Composers are hungry for classics, singers are hungry for classics, and TV programs and audiences are looking forward to classics. When we see a beautiful young girl or singer singing a song that makes people fall asleep, our hearts will be filled with contempt, impatience, and feel that we have been disturbed, that our time and feelings have been wasted and deceived. On the contrary, when we hear a song that suddenly brightens and shocks our hearts, our emotions suddenly seem to be surrounded by the most perfect emotions, and there is a kind of beautiful emotion in our expressions. This emotion will drive us to love life and keep creating it with a happy and beautiful mindset.