Wei Zhongle loved folk music since childhood and taught himself flute, Xiao, Erhu and other musical instruments. He successively studied Guqin, Se, Pipa and Violin under the guidance of Zheng Kunwen, Liu Yaozhang and Wang Yuting. Wei Zhongle devoted his whole life to the cause of national instrumental music. He was proficient in many musical instruments, such as flute, xiao, erhu, pipa, guqin, etc. Among them, he was especially good at pipa. The treatment of traditional music first emphasized the connotation of music. Qi Yun. Representative works include "Huaiyin Pingchu" and so on.

self introduction

Wei Zhongle, an outstanding national instrumentalist, educator, and a "generalist" in national instrumental music art, is known as the "Pipa King". Wei Zhongle loved literature and art at a young age, taught himself the flute, and often participated in folk performances of Jiangnan Sizhu. Later, he participated in the "Datong Concert", a Chinese music club, and successively learned guqin from Zheng Kun, learned pipa from Liu Yaozhang, and was taught by pipa performer Wang Yuting.

In 1933, he participated in the "Special Chinese Program Concert of the Ministry of Industry Bureau", and was praised by all parties for his pipa solo "Huaiyin Pingchu" (that is, "House of Flying Daggers").

In 1935, he participated in the Chinese Music Research Association composed of Shen Zhibai, Zhang Mei and others.

In 1938, he went to the United States to perform with the Chinese Cultural Troupe, and produced a variety of instrumental solo records, which were very popular in the United States and had a high reputation.

In 1940, he returned to Shanghai and founded the "Chinese Orchestra" and "Zhongle Music Hall" with Jin Zuli and Xu Guangyi, dedicated to the cause of national instrumental music.

Since 1941, he has successively applied for the positions of radio performers of Shanghai British Democracy Radio and Soviet Voice Radio. Since the 1930s, he has taught at Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts and Shanghai University.

In 1954, with the Chinese cultural delegation to India, Myanmar and Indonesia to visit and perform.

Since 1955, he has been a professor of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the deputy director and director of the Department of Folk Music.

Since 1962, he has been the vice-chairman of the Shanghai Branch of the Chinese Musicians Association. Wei Zhongle devoted his life to the cause of national instrumental music.

Personal experience

Overview

Mr. Wei Zhongle is a famous folk musician and music educator in China, and he is known as the King of Pipa. He is not only proficient in the playing skills of pipa, ancient, erhu, xiao and flute, but also has a very high level of playing for the violin. A well-known foreign musician, after listening to Mr. Wei's violin performance, was very surprised. He believed that Mr. Wei could become a first-class violin player and persuaded him to further his studies. At that time, Mr. Wei had already devoted himself to folk music. In his life, no matter how harsh the environment or how hard his life was, he never left the position of national music; he always adhered to the teachings of Mr. Zheng Jinwen, and truly "defended (music) in (music)" Because of Mr. Wei Zhongle's contributions to folk music, people often remember him.

family background

Mr. Wei Zhongle was born on the 21st day of the second lunar month in 1909 (the leap February this year) in a family of dock workers in Shanghai. His father's surname was Yin. Mr. Wei has nine brothers and sisters. The youngest is poor and unable to support him. He was sold to a widow surnamed Wei as an adopted son in his infancy. He was named Bingtao, also known as Chongfu. The name "Zhongle" was changed by Mr. Zheng Kunwen. The Wei family lived on a small amount of savings, so Wei Zhong was sent to be an apprentice before he graduated from Lego Primary School.

Mr. Wei loved music at an early age and taught himself the flute and flute. Of course, the adoptive mother cannot support this. Mr. Wei often practiced in the unlit kitchen at night. To this end, I hope to get the guidance of a famous teacher.

Datong Concert

In 1920, Zheng Jinwen and others founded the folk amateur Chinese music group "Datong Music Club" in Shanghai. Many famous musicians were hired to teach, research, arrange, arrange, and perform Chinese folk music, and they also imitated ancient musical instruments to manufacture new music. The musical instrument became famous for a while, and was hailed as the "National Music University" by later generations. Wei Chongfu admired the Datong Le Club very much and wanted to join the club as a teacher, but because he had no recommendation and no money to pay tuition fees, he lingered in front of the club for half a year.

In 1928, he mustered up the courage to step into the gate of the guild hall and asked Zheng Jinwen to join the membership. Zheng felt that this young man with a strong thirst for knowledge could be trained, and he readily agreed to join him for free. He successively studied Guqin, Se, Pipa and Violin under the guidance of famous teachers such as Zheng Kunwen, Liu Yaozhang and Wang Yuting, and continued to learn flute, Xiao, Erhu, Sanxian and Yueqin by himself. His broad interests, hard study, and rapid progress are second to none among all the students, and he is deeply appreciated by Zheng Kunwen. Zheng also renamed it Wei Zhongle.

In 1929, the Datong Music Association initiated the establishment of the Shanghai Chinese Music Association. Participating in the first music association are Datong Concert, Wang's Pipa Research Association, Xiaojiao Orchestra, Hanjiang Sizhu Association, Qinluzhai, Jingwu Sports Association, China Music Association, Youxue Club, Chinese Orchestra, Jiande Savings Ten groups, including the Chinese Music Group, hope that each member group will select the backbone to form a big band of 40 people. At that time, I planned to play a multi-voice piece, and asked the players to sight-read according to the score. With the understanding and support of various groups, the Shanghai Chinese Music Federation had a miscarriage, and the 40-member big band was not formed.

In the autumn of 1929, the Datong Music Club recruited members from the society separately and formed a big band. Mr. Wei Zhongle joined the Datong Music Club on this occasion. At that time, there were more than 40 members of the Datong Orchestra.

When Mr. Zhongle first joined the Datong Music Club, he did not attract much attention from Mr. Zheng Kunwen. On the contrary, Wu Jianlan and Xu Ruhui participated in the Datong Concert. Zheng Jinwen believed that they had recruited talents and was very satisfied. However, Mr. Wei's talent and diligence were quickly appreciated by Zheng Kunwen. Zheng Jingwen spent a year teaching Mr. Wei the "Qiu Hong", which is one of the five major exercises of piano music. He hoped that through Mr. Wei, a novice, he could win honors for the Datong Concert in Hangzhou.

In 1931, Zheng Jinwen invented the "seven-line notation" based on the fact that folk music pays attention to the first key roll call. Zheng Jingwen translated the pipa and guqin scores, and let Liu Yaozhang and Wei Zhongle practice them respectively. This also shows how much Zheng Jingwen attached importance to Wei Zhongle. Mr. Wei Zhongle was supported by Zheng Kunwen and was able to emerge.

Under the leadership of Zheng Jingwen, Wei Zhongle often performed instrumental solo and ensemble at the World Academy (later renamed World Society) on Kaisen Road in the French Concession at that time, introducing ancient Chinese music culture, which was welcomed by Chinese and foreign audiences. Frequent artistic practice made his performances mature and his skills became more and more outstanding. For this reason, Zheng Jianwen recommended Wei Zhongle to be the deputy director of music affairs of the Datong Orchestra, and he led the general performances and performed in 1932. From 1934, she was recommended to take part-time courses at Shanghai Women's Art College and Shanghai Art College. Later, he went to Jiaotong, Fudan, Tongji, Aurora and other universities to tutor students in amateur Chinese music clubs, and did a lot of useful work for the popularization of national music.

"National Delight"

In 1931, the Chinese government decided to participate in the Universal Exposition held in California in the summer of 1933. The "September 18 Incident" in 1931 and the "January 28 Incident" in 1932 caused China to be invaded by Japanese imperialism. The Chinese government cancelled its decision to participate in the World Exposition due to the national disaster. But this is about the business community, so the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce decided to let the business community raise funds for the competition. At that time, it was decided that 163 antique musical instruments produced by Datong Club would be photographed, and a sound film of the big band would be filmed by the Star Film Company for the exhibition. At 8 pm on April 9, 1933, the documentary filmed at the Star Film Company. At that time, Zheng Jingwen suffered from eczema on his hand, and only played one piece of guqin, but let Wei Zhongle play "House of Flying Daggers" on his pipa solo, and a small ensemble composed of 9 people led by the pipa played "Spring River, Flowers and Moonlight Night", and finally there were only 31 people ( There were only 32 people on the day, and Zheng Jinwen only participated in the big ensemble "National Music" when taking pictures.

rise to fame

In 1933, the grand inauguration ceremony of Shanghai Daguang Cinema was held. Wei Zhongle, who was in full bloom, played the pipa song "House of Flying Daggers" at the ceremony. The majestic and dramatic music was amazing. The end of the song shocked the audience and became famous in one fell swoop. Since then, his superb pipa skills have become famous on and off the stage. In the same year, Wei Zhongle held the first solo concert of folk instruments in China's modern history at the World Society, which was a success. Pipa, Guqin, Erhu, Dongxiao and other musical instruments were played at the concert. The repertoire included "House of Flying Daggers", "Flying Flowers and Green", "White Snow in the Spring", "Spring River Flowers and Moon Night", "Drunken Fisherman Singing Evening", "Plum Blossoms" "Three Lanes", "Yangguan Three Layers", "Guan Shanyue" and so on. This recital marked Wei Zhongle's performance art entering a new stage. After that, he went to Changsha, Wuhan and other places to hold recitals, which widened the audience's horizons.

social duties

From 1934 to 1935, Wei Zhongle also worked as a teacher in the library of the World Society, participated in the National Orchestra of EMI Company, got acquainted with Nie Er, and recorded the pipa songs "Song on the Plug", "Bright Spring in the Spring" and the qin song "Drunken Fisherman Singing Evening". ", "Three Stacks of Yangguan", in 1935 participated in the "Chinese Music Society" composed of Levis (Arabic), Avshalomov (Russia), Shen Zhibai, Zhang Mei and others.

When Zheng Jinwen died in 1935, Wei Zhongle took over as the director of music affairs and assumed the leadership of the Datong Music Society. From 1936 to 1937, he applied for a job as a performer in the music group of Nanjing Central Radio Station, playing traditional music regularly, and often introduced Liu Tianhua's erhu and pipa music.

In 1938, Wei Zhongle, Xu Guangyi and others held two concerts at the invitation of the Hong Kong Women's Relief Society for the Wounded Soldiers, all of which were donated to Chinese refugees who were victimized by the Japanese invaders; Assisted the "Chinese Cultural Troupe" organized by the flower organization to perform in the United States to raise funds and medicines. In addition to his solo performance, Wei Zhongle also performed the piano and flute ensemble "Guan Shanyue" and "Pu'an Mantra" with Sun Yude, and participated in "Spring River Flowers" Moon Night" ensemble. The show lasted for seven months and traveled to 11 cities in the United States.

Dedicated to education

After visiting the United States, Wei Zhongle entered a liberal arts college with a music major near New York to study. After only one semester of language studies, in order to raise expensive tuition fees, he often spent time in colleges, high schools, and clubs in New York. The performance, but still failed to do so, was notified by the Immigration Bureau to return to China within a time limit. During this time, he recorded four 78-rpm records on a record company, and recorded a total of 8 pieces of music such as Pipa, Erhu, Xiaoqu, etc., but he returned to Shanghai in 1940 without receiving any payment. After one year of teaching in the Music Department of Hujiang University, he opened the "Zhongle Music Hall". The purpose of its establishment in the newspaper's admission advertisement is: "Promote Chinese music, cultivate specialized talents and introduce Western music, so that it can be integrated and integrated, in order to improve and create Chinese music." The subjects taught in the music hall include Guqin and Pipa. , erhu, xiao, flute, violin, piano, theoretical composition. The latter three subjects are taught by Shen Zhibai. From Datong Music Club to Zhongle Music Hall, Wei Zhongle has trained many students such as Qin Pengzhang, Gong Wanli, Chen Tianle and so on.

With the goal of "improving and creating Chinese music", Wei Zhongle, Jin Zuli and Xu Guangyi co-founded the Chinese Orchestra in 1941. They practice every Saturday night. Most of the band members are Wei's students. Under his leadership, the band has inherited the tradition, has the courage to explore and innovate, and has repeatedly tried and improved in the arrangement of the band's voices, harmony texture, etc., which has made great progress compared with the traditional silk and bamboo band. In addition to the traditional repertoire, Nie Er's "Golden Snake Dance", "Cuihu Spring Dawn"; Liu Tianhua's "Variation of New Water Order"; Shen Zhibai's "Dongxian Dance"; Wei Zhongle's "Flowing Water Exercise", etc. The new work became the largest Chinese music group at that time. In October 1945, the Chinese Orchestra and the Mei Lanfang Opera Troupe performed on the same stage at the Lanxin Grand Theater to celebrate the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. Since then, the activities of the Chinese Orchestra have become increasingly frequent. In 1947, it was expanded and renamed the Chinese Orchestra and was active on the stage.

When Shanghai was liberated in 1949, Wei Zhongle was hired as a professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Bishop of Pipa. The Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Cultural Affairs assigned a special person to form the Shanghai Chinese Music Friendship Association, and appointed Wei Zhongle as the director. In 1952, the Shanghai Chinese Music Association held a large-scale national concert in the Cultural Square and donated planes and cannons to resist the U.S. aggression and aid Korea. Wei Zhongle conducted the ensemble of nearly 100 people.

Foreign affairs show

In 1954, Wei Zhongle accompanied the Chinese cultural delegation to India, Myanmar and Indonesia to visit and perform. In 1955, he was commissioned by Dean He Luting to prepare for the establishment of the Department of Ethnic Music. In 1956, the Department of Folk Music was established, with Shen Zhibai as the head of the department, Wei Zhongle as the deputy head of the department, and Wei as the head of the department in 1958. In terms of curriculum setting, hiring teachers, formulating teaching syllabuses, arranging traditional music, creating works of experience, and improving teaching materials, he has done a lot of work, making great contributions to the cause of national music education in our country.

Since 1956, he has served as the vice chairman of the Shanghai Branch of the Chinese Musicians Association. He is also a member of the "Jiu San Society" and a member of the 2nd to 6th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

personal evaluation

Character influence

Wei Zhongle pays attention to temperament and vigor in performance, pays attention to expressing the connotation of music, and has original spirit in the treatment of traditional music. He has devoted his life to the cause of national instrumental music, and is proficient in many musical instruments, such as flute, xiao, erhu, pipa, guqin, etc. Among them, he is especially good at pipa, and his treatment of traditional music first emphasizes the connotation of music, which is full of originality and attention to rhythm. The pipa songs he is good at include "House of Flying Daggers", "Spring River with Flowers and Moonlight Night", "White Snow in the Spring", "The Overlord Unloads Armor", etc.; Guqin songs include "Drunken Fisherman Singing Evening", etc.; "Wait.

Wei Zhongle is not only proficient in the playing skills of pipa, guqin, erhu, xiao and flute, but also has a very high level of performance for the violin. After listening to Wei Zhongle's violin performance, a well-known foreign musician was very surprised. He believed that he could become a first-class violin player and persuaded him to further his studies. At that time, Mr. Wei had already devoted himself to folk music.

In Wei Zhongle's life, no matter how bad the environment and how hard his life was, he never left the position of folk music. He has always adhered to the teachings of Mr. Zheng Jinwen, and actually "defended the music in (national music)". Because Wei Zhongle made a lot of contributions to folk music, people often remember him.

work

Wei Zhongle's recorded albums include 8 pieces including "Chinese Classical Music", "Song on the Plug" and "Snow White Snow", etc., which have been released at home and abroad. He also wrote some folk music ensembles and articles such as "How I Played "House of Flying Daggers".