勇于探索 精益求精——黎英海教授的音乐生涯

A Lifelong Road of Exploration and Pursuit for Perfection:On Prof.Li Yinghai's Music Career

2007年1月5日下午，黎英海教授悄悄地离开了我们。甘做中国民族音乐发展道路上的一块铺路石，把自己毕生的精力全都奉献给中国民族音乐事业——这就是中国杰出的理论家、作曲家、教育家黎英海先生!

Prof.Li Yinghai,as one of the leading artists in the traditional Chinese music,occupies an important place in the history of modern Chinese music,and has made great contribution to the development of traditional Chinese music.Although he has passed away,I have the same admiration for him,and after reading his works and monographs once again,I can still benefit from his achievements,which always touch me greatly. In early 20th century,when the Western music was intro- duced into China,Chinese composers were facing the mission of studying how to learn from the composing techniques in the Western music and how to explore the road of developing Chi- nese music.In this regard,such musicians as Huang Zi,Zhao Yuanren and Xian Xinghai had made attempts in various ways. They tended to become aware of the importance of highlighting the features of Chinese musical language and of selecting the multi-tone languages that best fit the style of a particular music work.Li Yinghai,in his attempts to explore the ways of develop- ing Chinese harmony,learned from the Western traditions the major-minor modes,and from the Impressionists the theory of harmony.On the basis of the composing experiences of the Chi- nese musicians since the May 4th Movement in 1919,he studied the traditional and folk music as well as the history of Chinese music,and with the help of his own composing practices since his school years,he finally published his masterpiece The Modes and Harmonies of Han Nationality in 1959,a book that became an epoch-making milestone in the history of the development of Chinese multi-tone music. The Modes and Harmonies of Han Nationality marks a break- through in terms of modes and harmony theory.Based on the re- searches on the music culture and music languages of the Han ethnic group,the book provides a solid foundation for in-depth knowledge of Chinese music styles and composition of Chinese- styled musical works.The book is divided into two parts,i.e.“Study of Han Modes”and“Han Modes and Harmony”,with both theory and practice closely combined together. Li Yinghai's theory of modes and harmony is a multi-layer and plural system,which includes a systematic and complete the- ory of harmony,as well as a piano work The Collection of 50 Folk Songs,which applies his theory in composing practice,and a book The Finger Exercise for Pentatonic Piano Music,which is in- tended to solve the technical problems in relation with playing pentatonic works.Undoubtedly,Li Yinghai is a theorist and com- poser who has perfectly combined theory with practice. The Collection of 50 Folk Songs is his representative work that combines the theory of pentatonic harmony with composing practice.In fact,the establishment and perfection of harmony sys- tem in traditional Chinese music depend upon the fundamental and the most important work of rearranging folk songs.These fifty piano pieces,seemingly simple,were selected from the compos- er's various folk music pieces,and somehow represent the epito- me of the Han music,featuring its different origins,modes and music styles.In his process of rearrangement,Li Yinghai made very positive attempts and elaborate designs.His originality in creating piano musical elements enabled him to embody appropri- ately in his works the different elements of multi-tone structures, i.e.homophony,polyphony and heterophony. Piano is the main instrument that Li Yinghai has written music for.He has made tremendous attempts to achieve a better appli- cation of this exotic instrument in playing Chinese music.His pi- ano work“Xiao and Drum at Dusk”is one of his masterpieces in the field.It makes the best use of piano's tone colour in creating the various sounds of“Xiao,drum,Pipa,Zheng and Qin.”The arpeggio playing that runs throughout the whole piece gives the most vivid manifestation of the scraping sound of the traditional Chinese instrument Zheng,making this ancient music piece visible like a beautiful landscape painting.The poetic use of pentatonic harmony in the whole work is so ample and appropriate that the polyphonic treatment best fits the concept of the work. Each ethnic group has their own music,and therefore must establish their own music system.To develop the national music, it is necessary and important to rearrange folk songs.Li Yinghai's experiments in this field include not only those above-mentioned works,but also a large number of vocal music pieces that come from his rearrangement of folk songs. The piano accompaniment that he wrote for folk songs per- fectly represents the poetic elements of the music.In his rear- rangement of the Yunnan folk song“The Running Stream”,the im- age of water is depicted in the prelude,which describes the background of the folk song in the vivid language of piano play- ing,and on basis of the fourth and fifth tones,the harmonic combination gives the sound of“the echoing water”,which is in- terwoven with the sound of singing.In the folk song“Under the Silver Moonlight”,he wonderfully uses the counterpoint of homo- phonic modes,and by means of the varying mode colours,dis- plays the sentimental moods of the leading character. Li Yinghai's superb rearranging skills are also represented in the accompaniment that he wrote for Ni Er and Xian Xinghai's songs.With his profound understanding of the works,he was not just writing accompaniment for the songs in a literary sense,but in fact was working for a second-time creation.In Ni Er's“The Song of Flying Flowers”,when the singer voices the words of“Blossoming flowers are flying in the spring,”the accompanist, however,depicts the sad mood of the gardener.In Xian Xinghai's“Ode to the Yellow River”appears a different situation in which the accompaniment gives the vivid image of the roaring river and the strong character of the Chinese nation by employing the tremolo playing in the bass part. Li Yinghai had been working as a teacher since the founding of the new China,teaching the course of composition and that of composing technique and theory.Besides,he had been leader of education administration bodies for a long time.He has educated a large number of excellent students,including Lu Qiming,Mo'er- jihu,Jiang Mingdun,Zhang Dunzhi,Gu Guanren,Fan Zuyin,Cai Songqi,Tan Dun and Guo Wenjing.And the students that had benefited from Prof.Li's theory of“The Modes and Harmony of Han Nationality”at his technique and theory course are countless.