In the late 1990s, the reform of state enterprises cost large numbers of workers their jobs. The singer Liu Huan recorded Cong tou zai lai, Start Again From the Beginning, with words by Chen Tao and music by Wang Xiaofeng. The song spread with public service advertisements on the re-employment of laid-off workers.
music
Writing to a Tune Pattern
At the Mid-Autumn Festival of 1076, in Mizhou, Su Shi wrote the poem that begins: “How long has the bright moon been there? I raise my cup and ask the blue sky.” Its title, Shuidiao getou, does not describe the poem. It names a fixed pattern.
A cipai, or tune pattern, became a fixed form for the wording and the rhymes. Shuidiao getou has 95 characters in two stanzas, with four level-tone rhymes in each. Mi Fu, Huang Tingjian and Zhang Yuangan also wrote poems to this pattern, each with new words.
The pattern was itself made from an older part. Song poets took the opening section of a longer Tang suite called Shuidiao.
Obey Orders in All Actions
The first of the Three Main Rules of Discipline reads yiqie xingdong ting zhihui (一切行动听指挥): “Obey orders in all actions.” The rules took shape in the Red Army in 1928. On October 10, 1947, the General Headquarters of the People’s Liberation Army reissued them, together with the Eight Points for Attention.
In the autumn of 1935, two officers of the political department of the Red 15th Army Corps set the rules to music. The song spread through the whole army and became one of the most popular revolutionary songs.
Adapted Collectively
In 1967, the People’s Publishing House published the script of the Peking opera Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy. Its authors were given as the production crew of the Shanghai Peking Opera Company, which had “adapted it collectively.” The script of the Peking opera The Red Lantern carries a similar credit: “adapted collectively by the China Peking Opera Company.”
Declining With a Song
A short passage in the Analects tells how a man named Ru Bei wanted to see Confucius. Confucius declined, saying that he was ill. As the messenger was going out of the door, Confucius took up his zither and sang, “so that Ru Bei would hear it” (使之闻之).
The One Who Knows the Tune
Bo Ya was a master of the zither, and his friend Zhong Ziqi understood his playing. When Bo Ya played with high mountains in mind, Zhong Ziqi said: “Splendid! Towering like Mount Tai!” The story is told in the Liezi.
The Annals of Lü Buwei tell how it ended. When Zhong Ziqi died, Bo Ya “broke his zither, cut its strings, and never played again for the rest of his life.”
The word for a close friend, 知音, comes from the story. It means “one who knows the tune.”
Mi Heng Plays the Drum
According to the Book of the Later Han, Mi Heng “had talent and eloquence from his youth, but he was proud and harsh and liked to defy his times and slight others.” Cao Cao wanted to humiliate him and made him a drummer at a banquet. Mi Heng stripped naked before Cao Cao, put on the drummer’s clothes and played on. Cao Cao laughed: “I meant to shame him, and he shamed me.”
Cao Cao did not want to be seen as unable to tolerate a famous man, so he sent Mi Heng to Liu Biao. Mi Heng insulted Liu Biao too and was sent on to Huang Zu. At a banquet, he insulted Huang Zu, who had him killed. Mi Heng was 26.
The Story of Spring
The song “The Story of Spring” praises Deng Xiaoping. Its two verses tell of reform and opening in 1979 and of the Southern Tour in 1992. The lyrics are by Jiang Kairu and Ye Xuquan, the music by Wang Yougui, and Dong Wenhua sang it. It became famous after CCTV broadcast it in October 1994.
In 1997, it was the theme song of the CCTV documentary Deng Xiaoping, and Dong Wenhua sang it at the Spring Festival Gala on February 6.
The Moon on the Fifteenth
The song The Moon on the Fifteenth (十五的月亮) was written in 1984 and first performed on CCTV that Mid-Autumn Festival. At the Spring Festival Gala on February 19, 1985, Dong Wenhua sang it with Liu Peide, and she became famous overnight.
The lyricist wrote it for the wives of soldiers, who run the family at home alone. Its line giving the wife a share in the soldier’s military medal became a catchphrase.
The Violin in Carnatic Music
The violin came to South India from Europe. At least four musicians of the 18th and 19th centuries are credited with bringing it into Carnatic music. Sruti magazine writes that Baluswamy Dikshitar “adapted the playing to suit the genius of Carnatic music.”
A Carnatic violinist sits cross-legged on the floor and rests the scroll of the violin on the ankle. The violin usually accompanies the singer.