Recently, the People's Music Publishing House published a new work on the orchestration method of national orchestra - "Chinese National Orchestra Orchestration Tutorial", authored by conductor and composer Yang Chunlin. This book is an instructive work that combines the theoretical research of Chinese national orchestral orchestration and the practice of orchestra. The content involves pulling, playing, blowing, hitting and other national orchestras to make internal and external special musical instruments. It has detailed explanations on performance techniques, orchestration theory and band organization. There are various types of orchestration works in the book, which provides profound insights into the systematization, scientific and standardization of Chinese national orchestral orchestration. To this end, the author interviewed Yang Chunlin, the author of the book, and asked him to deeply analyze the connotation of "Chinese National Orchestra Orchestration Method" for readers.

Incorporate decades of practical exploration experience

As an important part of Chinese folk music, Chinese folk instrumental music has played a strong role in promoting the development of Chinese folk culture and folk music. Tracing the history of Chinese music, the form of instrumental ensemble has long existed in China. After "Western learning spreads eastward", Western multi-voice music was introduced into China, which changed the way of expression of Chinese music. After more than 20 years of arduous exploration and efforts by predecessors, the basic framework of the Chinese National Orchestra came into being in Beijing and Shanghai in the early 1950s. The national orchestra is based on four groups of pulling, playing, blowing and playing. Most of the musical instruments are national musical instruments, including Western musical instruments. The main function of the orchestra is to perform multi-part music, and the technical means and theories of its creation are derived from the harmony, polyphony, orchestration and musical forms of Western music theory. "Learning and mastering the creation of Chinese national orchestra will involve the 'four major components' of music theory. Among them, harmony, polyphony and musical form can be directly used for reference. Only the orchestration method is because the instruments of the Chinese orchestra are very different from those of the Western symphony. , so we must have our own national orchestral method." Yang Chunlin said.

Since 1974, Yang Chunlin has been engaged in the practice and exploration of national orchestral orchestration, and has continuously learned and learned from the experience of his predecessors. In the 21st century, my country's economy has developed rapidly, the country has paid more and more attention to the cause of folk music, the number of orchestras has increased rapidly, and the folk music and composition circles also have a strong demand for folk music orchestration methods. In view of the situation at that time, Yang Chunlin decided to start writing in 2009, until the first draft was completed in 2019, and he sharpened his sword in ten years, and continued to improve the manuscript during the publishing process until the book came out.

Combining musical instruments and orchestration

This book integrates the method of musical instruments and orchestration. It takes practical teaching as the starting point, and arranges the content according to chapters, from shallow to deep, step by step, with various types of musical examples, which is convenient for learners to carry out theoretical research, stage practice and self-study. It is worth noting that the order of the instrument groups in the book is specially arranged by Yang Chunlin. He believes that the stringed instrument group is the basic part of large symphony orchestras and orchestras. In Western symphony orchestras, an orchestra without a stringed instrument group becomes a wind orchestra; in a Chinese national orchestra, without a stringed instrument group and a plucked instrument group, it becomes a wind and percussion group. In the Western orchestration method, most theoretical books take the stringed instrument group as the primary instrument group to explain. Since the stringed instrument group occupies an important position in the national orchestra and draws on the principles of Western orchestration theory, this book first introduces the stringed instrument group, Secondly, it introduces the plucked instrument group belonging to the strings, and finally explains the wind instrument group and the percussion instrument group.

"In addition, in this book, there is one point that is different from the stringed instrument group of Western orchestration, that is, in the stringed instrument group of the Western Symphony Orchestra, the first violin is more important than the second violin. In the national orchestra, although the gaohu is arranged above the erhu, the erhu is more important than the gaohu; at the same time, it is also affirmed that the erhu is the standard instrument of tonality in the creation and arrangement of the national orchestra. The development of western symphony music Hundreds of years, it has been formed in various aspects. And our Chinese national orchestra was born less than a hundred years ago, and there are still a lot of problems to be solved. For example, the Erhu is more important than the Gaohu, which is a point of view that has not been discussed in the relevant books before. In this book, I deliberately position the bass of the national stringed instruments as low hu and double low hu, rather than cello or other, because I believe that the creativity of the Chinese nation will be able to solve the nation's membrane vibration in the near future. A stringed bass instrument. Regarding the arrangement and use of the Konghou in the current Chinese orchestra, I still believe that this instrument has more room for development, and I hope that the Konghou can return to its original position.” In addition, the book also involves the compilation outside musical instruments. Yang Chunlin said, "After the continuous reform and development of the Chinese National Orchestra, the relatively fixed musical instruments have been basically determined, and we call these musical instruments internal instruments. However, in daily creation, there are still many that are not composed by the National Orchestra. instruments, which we refer to in the book as out-of-system instruments."

Clarify the theory to get twice the result with half the effort

The unification of notation is also a common and important issue in national orchestral orchestration, which mainly focuses on the following aspects: First, whether bangdi, qudi and high-pitched suona are notated by actual pitch or lower octave. Secondly, the tenor Sheng and Zhonghu currently use the tenor staff and the treble staff for notation, while Zhongruan even has three notation methods: the tenor staff, the tenor staff and the bass staff. Yang Chunlin put forward his own views and suggestions in the book. In addition, the book also involves many chapters of theoretical reviews. Yang Chunlin believes that theory originates from practice, guides practice, and is tested by practice. At present, there are many phenomena of disconnection between theory and practice, such as the problem of national stringed instruments. After more than 50 years of reform and development, there is still no result. It is caused by the inconsistent understanding and consumes a lot of manpower. "I think, on this issue, there are four issues that must be clarified: first, whether the national stringed instrument is reformed; second, whether to use plate vibration or skin vibration; third, how to take into account the national musical instrument itself in the orchestration of national orchestral music The language characteristics of musical instruments, how to properly deal with the inherent individuality of national musical instruments and the common relationship required by national orchestral ensembles, or whether and how to express individuality in national orchestral ensembles; fourth, how to deal with traditional music and modern Music technique issues. These issues all need to reach a consensus on folk music theory, even if it may not be solved in the short term, but this time I will throw the 'brick' and hope that colleagues in the industry will give further discussion."

"Chinese National Orchestra Orchestration Course" is devoted to Yang Chunlin's decades of preparation and writing. It can be said that his forty years of stage art practice have laid a solid foundation for this book. "The development time of national orchestral music is short, and many problems have not yet been finalized. We can only do our best to do better with the current knowledge. The orchestration method of national orchestral music cannot be perfected overnight, and it needs extensive suggestions, criticisms and corrections from everyone. I sincerely hope to get the help of everyone in the industry to gradually improve the important discipline of Chinese national orchestral orchestration.” Yang Chunlin said.