The opening night of the Shanghai Summer Music Festival performed two consecutive performances, and the audience was boiled with "uneasy"

Gong Linna: Seeking Roots in Mythology to Create New "Divine Comedy"

　　Yangcheng Evening News reporter He Jing

　　On the evening of July 20, as the guests rang the "MISA" wind chime composed of 100 metal tubes, the 2020 Shanghai Summer Music Festival (MISA) officially kicked off, which was also the first music festival held in China after the outbreak.

　　At the ten-day Shanghai Summer Music Festival, Gong Linna will bring three performances to the audience, including opening and closing performances and a personal performance. Recently, Gong Linna accepted an interview with reporters. Although she is small, she exudes infectious enthusiasm and vitality. During the interview, she always smiled, her voice is clear and sharp, and she will sing a few words directly when she talks about the rise. She described herself as little sun: "As long as you sing, all your troubles will be forgotten."

　　【on site】

　　The magic of "Uneasy" makes the conductor "sway together"

　　The opening concert was Gong Linna's first cooperation with conductor Yu Long. The two cooperated tacitly and had similar perceptions and understanding of music. The rehearsal process went smoothly, and the audience was very satisfied with the final presentation. "The first concert this year was able to hear "Mountain Ghost" live, which was very shocking and satisfying," said the audience, Miss Ji.

　　Under the concert of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Gong Linna sang "Quiet Night Thoughts" and "Mountain Ghosts" by her husband Lao Gong. The former is peaceful and quiet, with the flow of water and classical charm. Gong Linna's singing is close to the ancient chanting style, and the symphony accompaniment is very lightly pressed, as if leading the audience back to the night when Li Bai wrote the poem in the Tang Dynasty.

　　Qu Yuan's "Mountain Ghost" forms a strong contrast, magnificent and magnificent. Gong Linna said that this piece fits well with the pattern of a large symphony orchestra. The symphony orchestra mainly focuses on Western music, and her singing is Chinese style. There are also many Chinese elements and singing methods such as Huangmei opera and folk songs. "Thunder is filled with rain and underworld", the symphony and Gong Linna's singing make people feel the picture of lightning and thunder, accompanied by the chirping of apes.

　　In the live encore session, Gong Linna also sang a song "Uneasy". The extremely fast music rhythm tested the skills of the musicians. The magic of the "Divine Comedy" even made the conductor sway along, and the atmosphere directly rushed to the climax. After the performance, some netizens posted on Weibo and said: "This is the first time I have listened to "Uneasy" completely, refreshing my understanding of the Divine Comedy.

　　It is also worth mentioning that affected by the epidemic, the orchestra hopes to allow as many audiences to enter the concert hall as possible under the strict compliance with the 30% attendance rate. Therefore, the opening concert adopted the form of two consecutive performances by the original crew in one night. The first show at seven o'clock in the evening, after the performance, the staff disinfected the venue, and then welcomed the audience of the second show at nine o'clock. In addition, all performances of MISA this year will be broadcast live on the Internet, delivering music to more audiences who cannot reach the scene.

　　【Interview】

　　Explore music traditions and devote to Chinese new art music

　　In addition to her first partner Yu Long, Gong Linna will also partner Tan Dun in the closing performance to complete "Dunhuang · Ode to Mercy". Earlier, when she told her husband Lao Gong, the old Gong who knew her was very excited: "You have waited for the opportunity for so many years, this time it is finally here!" Gong Linna said, these days she started practicing at 7 o'clock every morning. , I hope I can sing freely at the scene without reading the score.

　　In the personal special session on July 22, Gong Linna’s selected songs are all related to the landscape and pastoral, such as Wang Wei’s "Taoyuan Xing", such as "Free Bird". She will also sing the Shanghai Chongming folk song "Chaoshui Empress" for the first time publicly: "I learned it countless times, because the pronunciation is difficult, but I still want to sing, and I will teach everyone to sing together on the spot!"

　　These three concerts showed Gong Linna's exploration and innovation of Chinese music culture in recent years. "From ancient times to Qu Yuan, Li Bai, Ouyang Xiu, and Li Qingzhao, all the way to today, we are based on the foundation of our predecessors and innovate. It is so happy to be a contemporary Chinese musician!" Gong Linna said, "At present, I am committed to Chinese new art music. "New" means originality and innovation, and "art" means advanced skills and deep thoughts, and it also means quality."

　　Gong Linna said that she didn't mind others calling her work "Divine Comedy", "Chinese music pays attention to essence, spirit, and spirit, and good music should be regarded as'there is spirit when there is spirit'".

　　Sing the beast into a song and produce the new album "The Myth of Mountains and Seas"

　　In Gong Linna’s view, Chinese musicians should find their roots in traditional culture. Whether it’s folk songs, folk tunes, or traditional operas, the "Voice of China" contained in them needs to be explored and protected: "We must not only learn, but also Sing, take root in this soil and bred new shoots."

　　In recent years, Gong Linna’s singing focuses on two lines: one is "folk music", that is, folk songs and opera; the other is "literati music", that is, ancient poetry and songs. In recent years, she has also started to learn to play the guqin and sing piano songs. From "vulgar music" such as folk music to "grace music" such as literati music, they are all the "roots" of Gong Linna. But she found that this was not enough: "Chinese music should have a root, and that is'myth.' Children all like Marvel and know Spider-Man, but do they know what Chaos is and what Kuafu is? Many children don't know. There are countless mythical beasts in "Shanhaijing"."

　　Gong Linna tried to trace ancient myths in music. This year, she began to prepare the album "Mythology of Mountains and Seas", a total of ten songs, each song has a super difficult vocal technique, hoping to use different vocal techniques to express the personality characteristics and unique skills of different beasts. She gave an example: "Why does the phoenix symbolize auspiciousness and peace? In addition to being beautiful, it also embodies the'ethics, righteousness, courtesy, benevolence'. So I can sing the high notes and sing the phoenix's call, but it is not harsh, but Can reflect the'morality'."

　　Teach neighbors to sing and invent the "Gong-style vocal teaching method"

　　Gong Linna now lives in Yunnan, where nature and folk art have brought her unlimited inspiration. She went to the neighborhood to collect folk songs and learn folk singing from the locals. There was a little girl among her neighbors, who grew up in the mountains, and she was a must to learn how to call birds. Gong Linna recorded a little girl's "birdsong" and posted it on Weibo. Many netizens exclaimed: "Humans can still make such sounds!"

　　In the past two years, through teaching this little neighbor to sing, Gong Linna also created a set of "Gong-style vocal teaching method." Let’s start with the simplest, how to practice Qi? Gong Linna thought of the "huh ha ha" in the labor chant. She taught her: "huh! ha! huh! ha...so follow the practice and it will be done at once." Gong Linna taught in a humorous way, she said she had no vocal foundation People who are more dared to sing, just like playing a game, practice and operate more, and they will soon learn. Her husband, Lao Gong, also specially wrote a 10-minute vocal practice song "Hum Ha Practicing Qi", which became a compulsory course for many professional choirs on the Internet.

　　"The academics seem to unanimously believe that Western vocal techniques are scientific and advanced methods of vocalization. That's because they have theories, systems, and ease of teaching. Chinese vocal music cannot always follow the direction of Western vocal music, just like singing operas. It’s not suitable for us to sing folk songs according to the Western vocal method.” Gong Linna admitted that this is the inspiration given by Lao Gong.

　　"He kept telling me that there are so many genres of Chinese opera. You should study the genres and vocal methods of Chinese opera. This is the doorway of Chinese vocal music. I thought that singing and singing are not related, but in fact they are both vocal methods. There are musicals in China too, should it be like Broadway? If you want to sing the beauty of Chinese, you can't sing in the English way." Gong Linna hopes that China's vocal skills can be developed more broadly.