In 1943, playwright Zhu Tong 朱彤 created Yu Lei 鬱雷/郁雷, a four-act play, based on Hónglóumèng 紅樓夢 (Dream of the Red Chamber) by Cáo Xuěqín 曹雪芹.[2] First presented in several school productions, the play opened in Chongqing in 1944. Liu Xue’an 劉雪庵 set music to verses taken from Chapter twenty-eight of Cáo’s novelas incidental music for the final act.[3]
The poetic content and structure of Hongdou ci had been discussed in detail in a previous post.[4] The poet and the composer were also introduced in the series previously. The following discussions will focus on the musical components of the song.
The vocal line in Liu’s setting is in Yu mode 羽調式 (yu-gong-shang-jue-zhi, 羽宮商角徵, la-do-re-mi-sol), comparable to the natural minor scale, with occasional added auxiliary tones—pian yin 偏音, bian gong 變宮 between the first two tones.
The opening four-bar melodic line becomes a recurring thematic figure.
Liu uses dotted rhythm to emphasize the anxiousness reflected in the initial three-word phrases in verses three to six– Shuì bù wěn 睡不穩, wàng bù liǎo 忘不了, yàn bú xià 嚥不下, qiáo bú jìn 瞧不盡.
The rhythmic pattern changes for the following couplet.
The longer initial notes manifest the unyielding suffering while the repeating-note endings mimic the sounds of a water clock or night watches.[5]
The melodic line unfolds in small intervals mostly. Two large downward movements take place in mm. 12 and 13. They are rhetorical gestures for the “new and old sorrows” in the text. Portamenti will be appropriate in delivering these musical sighs.
The piano accompaniment is uncomplicated but well designed:
The upper voices complement the vocal line, often in parallel motion.
Tonally, it maintains the pentatonic character. Most noteworthy is the descending bass line which accompanies the thematic pattern.
Western traditional cadences are used to punctuate phrases.
Frequent appearances of syncopations enhance the restless feelings in the texts.
A different version of accompaniment by Sang Tong (1923-2011), included in the third volume of the Centennial Collection of Chinese Art Songs 中國藝術歌曲百年曲集, has become popular in the last decades.[6] The craftmanship and the beauty of this accompaniment deserve a discussion of its own.
[1]玉粒金波 appears as 玉粒金蒓 or 玉粒金蓴 in some literary sources. 蒓/蓴, [chùn] ㄔㄨㄣˊ, water plant. [2] The title page of Yu Lei (Shanghai, Mingshan Bookstore 名山書局, 1946) reads: Original work by Cáo Xuěqín 曹雪芹原著; Adaptation by Zhu Tong 朱彤改作. Zhu later argued that his play was influence by Cáo’s novel but was not a retelling of the story. Ibid., 142-146. Yu Lei 郁雷.pdf_Wiki Commons [3] On May 20, 1948, Zhou Xiaoyan 周小燕 recorded Liu’s setting for Pathé Record. Zhou Xiaoyan_Hongdou ci_YouTube [4]https://goldfishodyssey.com/2021/11/03/chinese-poetry-xiv-verses-of-red-beans/ [5]Geng 更is a time measurement, equal to two hours. Geng lou更漏 is a slow-dripping water clock. In ancient time, village watchmen would patrol the streets beating the gong or clappers to call out the time at night. [6] Liao Changyong 廖昌永 ed., Zhongguo yishu ghequ bainianquji, di san ji—zhengrongsuiyue (中國藝術歌曲百年曲集，第三集—崢嶸歲月, Collection of Chinese Art Songs in 100 years, volume 3), Shanghai Conservatory of Music Press, 2020. In the edition for high voices, Hongdu ci arranged by Sang Tong is found from page 107 to page 109.
我已失去了一切歡笑和夢想
[wo3 yi3 shi1 qu4 le5 yi2 qie4 huan1 xiao4 he2 meng4 xiang3]
ㄨㄛˇ ㄧˇ ㄕˉ ㄑㄩˋ ㄌㄜ˙ ㄧˊ ㄑㄧㄝˋㄏㄨㄢˉㄒㄧㄠˋ ㄏㄜˊ ㄇㄥˋ ㄒㄧㄤˇ
I have lost all the joy and dreams.
放在我生長的地方。
[fang4 zai4 wo3 sheng1 zhang3 de5 di4 fang1]
ㄈㄤˋ ㄗㄞˋ ㄨㄛˇ ㄕㄥˉ ㄓㄤˇ ㄉㄜ˙ ㄉㄧˋ ㄈㄤˉ
Where I came of age.
__Jialing River 嘉陵江
The Jialing River is a major tributary of the Yangtze River. Its eastern source originates from the southern slope of the Qin Mountains 秦嶺 near Feng County 鳳縣 of Shaanxi Province 陝西省.[1]
Its namesake Jialing 嘉陵, the Imperial tomb of King Jia, was once located in the region.[2] Flowing southwestwards, it meets one of its major tributaries Xihan River (西漢水, West Han River) in Lueyang County 略陽縣.[3] Soon after entering the Sichuan Province, it converges with Bailong River 白龍江,[4] its longest tributary, in Guangyuan City 廣元市 before continuing southward and draining into the Yangtze River in Chongqing.
The beauty of the Jialing River is legendary: In Tangchao minghua lu (唐朝名畫錄, Records of Famous Paintings of the Tang Dynasty, c. 840-846 AD), art critic Zhu Jingxuan 朱景玄 stated that during the Tianbao Era 天寶年間 (742-756), Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty 唐玄宗 sent artist Wu Dauzi 吳道子to explore the scenery of the Sichuan Basin. It was said that, upon his return, Wu completed the mural “Three Hundred Li[5] of Jialing River Landscape” 嘉陵江山水三百里freehanded on the walls of Tatong Palace 大同殿 within a day.[6]
In Shaanxi, the headwaters of the Jialing River are located inside the Tiantai Mountains National Forest Park 寶雞天台山國家森林公園. Langmusi 郎木寺 near the border of Gansu and Sichuan provinces where the Bailong River originates, is an important monastery compound of the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism.[7] Before merging with the Yangtze River in the urban center of Chongqing, the Jialing River passes three gorges—Libi Gorge 濿鼻峽, Wentang Gorge 溫塘峽 and Guanyin Gorge 觀音峽—between Hechuan 合川 and Beibèi 北碚 Districts. The magnificence of this seventeen-mile stretch landscape earns it the name of Jialingjiang Xiaosanxia (嘉陵江小三峽, Three little gorges on the Jialing River), comparable to the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River.[8]
In December 1937, Chongqing became the wartime capital of the KMT government. The Executive Branch and administrative bureaus were situated in the Beibei District. During the same period, Fudan University 復旦大學 evacuated from Shanghai and relocated in Xiaba 夏壩 on the opposite bank of Beibèi. The stunning scenery and the elite culture of Beibèi formed the backdrop of Duanmu Hongliang’s verses Jialing jiang shang 嘉陵江上.
Born Cao Hanwen 曹漢文[10] into a prominent family of Manchu ethnicity in Changtu County 昌圖 of Liaoning Province 遼寧省[11], Duanmu Hongliang was a member of the Chinese Northeast Writers Group 東北作家群.[12] Fleeing from their hometown in the northeastern provinces—Manchuria—to avoid Japanese persecution, these young writers were active in the Central Plain region during the 1930s. Their works reflected the oppression of the Japanese invaders, the suffering of people during the war, and nostalgia for their homeland. The other commonality among the works by these writers was the left-leaning ideology.[13]
In 1928, Duanmu was sent to the elite preparatory school Naikai High school in Tianjin 天津市南開中學.[14] After the 9-1-8 incident, he began organizing Kangri Jukuo Tuan 抗日救國團 (Anti-Japanese Nation Salvation Group) and was expelled from the school. In 1932, he entered the history department of Qinghua University and joined the League of Left-Wing Writers 中國左翼作家聯盟.[15] As the editor of the journal for the League, he established a relationship with the famed author Lu Xun 魯迅. Under Lu’s mentorship, in 1933, he began writing the epic novel The Grassland of the Khorchin Banner《科爾沁旗草原》about a family’s life in Inner Mongolia under the Russian and Japanese oppressions.[16] Although the work, completed in 1935, was not published until 1939, its exquisite depictions of scenery and vivid delivery of characters firmly solidified Duanmu’s literary place among his peers.[17]
After a stint in Shanghai (1936-1937), Duanmu moved to Wuhan 武漢 and married his fellow writer Xiao Hong 蕭紅 in May 1938. They taught at the National Revolutionary University 民族革命大學 in Linfen City 臨汾, Shanxi Province 山西省 from spring to autumn of 1938. Subsequently, Duanmu joined the faculty of Fudan University in Beibèi in the winter of 1938 and remained in Chongqing until early 1940, when he relocated to Hong Kong.[18] Following the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong and the death of Xiao Hong on January 22, 1942, Duanmu found refuge in Guilin 桂林 before continuing his activities in Chongqing, Shanghai and Hong Kong in the 1940s.[19]
In addition to voluminous prose and long-form works, Duanmu Hongliang’s most significant literary contribution in his later years was Cao Xueqin 《曹雪芹》, a biographical fiction on the author of the monumental Dream of the Red Chamber. It reflected his passion for the Red Chamber and his desire to complete Cao’s unfinished work.[20] Duanmu was also an active member of writers’ organizations, such as PEN International 國際筆會, Beijing Writers Association北京作家協會, and China Writers Association 中國作家協會. He passed away in Beijing in 1996.
Hè Luting was born in Shaoyang County 邵陽縣 (today’s Shaodong City 邵東市) of Hunan Province 湖南省 in 1903.[22] His artistic life initiated in the spring of 1923 when he entered Yueyun High School 岳雲中學, studying fine art and music. After graduating in 1926, he became a teacher at Yueyun and joined the Chinese Communist Party. In December 1927, he participated in the failed CCP Uprising in Guangzhou.
In 1931, Hè Luting was accepted at the National Conservatory of Music where he studied composition with Huang Zi 黃自.[23] Russian pianist/composer Alexander Tcherpin 齊爾品 came to Shanghai in 1934 and held a competition, searching for piano works with Chinese characters. Hè won the first prize with his submission “Mutong duandi” (牧童短笛, Shepherd’s piccolo) and was awarded the opportunity to study abroad and a scholarship of 100 Yuan.[24] Soon, following the footstep of Huang Zi, he joined the film industry, leading the music department of Mingxing Film Compony 明星影片公司.[25] His best-known film compositions are “Sìjì ge” (四季歌, Song of the four seasons) and “Tianyá genu” (天涯歌女, The wandering songstress), both for the 1937 film Street Angel 馬路天使.[26]
After the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, Hè first went to Wuhan, working for the China Motion Picture Studio 中國電影製片廠, a government-operated studio responsible for producing anti-Japanese propaganda and documentaries. In August 1938, he moved to Chongqing, heading the music department of the Central Broadcasting System 中央廣播電台[27] and teaching music at Yuzai School 育才學校.
Post WWII, Hè was active in Yan’an and the Northeast. In 1949, he became the Chair of the Music Department at Beijing Normal University and was involved in the preparation for the National Music Conservatory (today’s Central Music Conservatory 中央音樂學院). Later that year, he was appointed Director of Shanghai Music Conservatory, his Alma Mater.
A Chinese version of Monsieur Croche,Debussy’s critical essays on various composers, translated by Zhang Yuhe 張裕禾, appeared in 1963. On May 20, an article written by Yao Wenyuan 姚文元 criticizing Debussy’s view being self-indulgent and anti-proletariat, was published in Wenhui Bao (文匯報, Wenhui Daily).[28] Hè Luting, under the pen name Shan Gu 山谷 , responded with his opinions, discrediting Yao sharply. This exchange stirred up a cycle of arguments on placing political judgements over artistic and literary works. Hè, insisting that criticism of music or literature must be based on thorough understanding of the works, became the target of negative commentaries and landed on the wrong side of the political trend.[29]
Being an artist associated with Western music and a high-ranking administrator, Hè, despite his close relationship with CCP, was blacklisted as an Anti-Party and Anti-Socialism individual at the outset of the Cultural Revolution in June of 1966. Both he and his wife were tortured severely by the Red Guards. Hè was officially arrested on March 21, 1968, and remained in jail until 1973. During these years, he was often humiliated and physically abused in so-called “struggle sessions 批鬥大會.”[30] Some of the struggle sessions were broadcast on TV and led by his former student Yu Huiyong 于會泳. Hè stood his ground.[31] His three daughters, refusing to denounce him, were also persecuted. The second daughter Hè Xiaoqiu 賀曉秋, an up-and-coming composer, eventually took her own life.
By 1979, he was reinstated as the Director of Shanghai Music Conservatory. Five years later, he retired with the title of Honorary Director. He died of pneumonia in 1999.
—Jialing jiang shang
Written shortly after Duanmu Hongliang’s arrival in Chongqing, Jialing jiang shang is a free-form vernacular poem. It can be divided into a few sections: Verses one to four are descriptive—the traditional fù 賦 approach; verses five to eight compare the current state to the old times nostalgically—bǐ 比; verses nine to seventeen are filled with arising energy and determinations—xing 興.[32] Most verses rhyme on [ang] ㄤ, while verse nine to twelve all end on the phrase 回去 [hui2 qu4] ㄏㄨㄟˊ ㄑㄩˋ (return).
The opening phrase of verse five, 一樣的流水—literally, “the same flowing water”—was a figurative expression. Duanmu’s hometown Changtu was not near any major body of water. He was likely comparing Jialing River to Songhua River 松花江, the subject of the popular patriotic song by Zhang Hanhui 張寒暉, which might have been the inspiration for the new poem.
According to an anecdotal account by poet/Journalist Zhang Tianshou 張天授, during a visit by Fang Yin 方殷, a fellow member of the League of Left-Wing Writers, Duanmu commented on Songhua jiang shang, saying that it was worthy of all the enthusiasm but was too despondent. Fang encouraged him to create his own verses with more invigorating spirit. Later, Fang invited Hè Luting to set the newly written verses to music.
Several things are noteworthy in Hè’s musical setting, first published in the inaugural issue of the music journal Yue Feng 樂風 in January 1940:
Parallel phraseologies between the texts and music: After the eight-bar piano introduction, the vocal line opens with a dramatic leap of a sixth, emphasizing the word tian (天, day) before continuing through the verses in a narrative manner, while the piano, seemingly only punctuating the measures, subtly handles the emotional transitions as the tension of the words rises and falls. The first turning point takes place in m. 18 with a cross-range large leap followed by descending arpeggio in the right-hand part. Where the text moves from remembering the tragic past to realizations of the current moment. As the emotion intensifies, the musical dynamics increase accordingly. Then, in m. 25, with solemn repeating chords, the piano accompaniment leads the vocal lines into a reflective mood for verses five to eight. At the end of this section, in m. 38, the piano part rises up, taking the piece into its final climax.
Influences from Western vocal traditions: As a whole, the piece has the style of an Italian arioso. Throughout the entire song, the vocal lines, punctuated by the tonic and the dominant, clearly delineate the minor tonality. In the introduction, after an octave call with sustained notes, the piano delivers a descending pattern characteristic of an operatic melisma (mm. 3-4). This pattern recurs in the lower piano part in mm 31-32, where it can be interpreted as the murmuring sound of the river, mentioned in the following line of lyrics. Other rhetorical figures include the melismatic treatment of the word 笑 (laughter) in m. 29 and the short trill in m. 48 on 羔 (lambs), both examples of onomatopoeia.
The simplicity of the piano accompaniment allows the singer the freedom to punctuate the texts and deliver the emotional details.
In comparison to Songhua jiang shang, Jialing jiang shang is, technically, a more challenging work for the singer. During the wartime, it never gained the popularity that Songhua jiang shang enjoyed. Nevertheless, it became a staple of recital repertoire in later years. Renowned bass-baritone Sze Yikwei 斯義桂 included the song in his recital at Taipei City Hall 中山堂 in August 1957.[33] It was a rare performance of the piece in Taiwan, which would have been prohibited under martial law for the song’s political lineage. In 2016, baritone Sheng Yang 沈洋 gave his interpretation of Jialing jiang shang in a recital commemorating the first decades of Chinese art songs (1919-1945). The song will likely stand the test of time just like the river.
