A few years ago, Dr. Mei Han (韩梅) shared with me some oral history about the rather complicated story behind the creation of this duo version of "Yu Zhou Chang Wan"《渔舟唱晚》(Fishermen Singing From Their Boats in the Evening) which she had learned during the process of researching her 2013 Ph.D. dissertation on the modern history of the guzheng (although she did not end up including this story therein): ====== Two different duo versions of "Yu Zhou Chang Wan" were created between 1952 and the late 1950s/early 1960s. One is a zheng/erhu duet, in which Cao Zheng (曹正, 1920-1998, a prominent exponent of the Henan school of zheng playing) played silk-string zheng, and Zhu Yuzhi (朱郁之, 1917-1980) played the erhu. An informant told Han that he heard this piece at the time, and that it was not well crafted. This version apparently won first prize in the 1952 Liaoning Province Music Creation competition (辽宁省音乐创作一等奖), but was not widely disseminated thereafter. A later version was scored for zheng and gaohu, with the zheng played by Yao Yide (姚贻德) and the gaohu played by Yang Yinlin (杨荫林). They performed this piece at the Prague Spring International Music Festival and won second place (probably sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s). According to the person Han interviewed, Yao and Yang made this arrangement together (probably on the basis of Cao and Zhu's earlier version), but didn't score it. One day while they were practicing, An Bo (安波, 1915-1965), a prominent and prolific composer of revolutionary music, overheard them playing and asked how they had arranged this piece. They said that the two of them just put it together, adding a few things to the original melody. An Bo offered to edit and score this piece for them, in the process adding a lyrical middle slow section he composed himself, which was interpolated as a bridge between the traditional-style first section and the lively finale. (In 1984, this slow section, as played on an electric organ by Ms. Pu Qizhang 浦琦璋, would go on to be adopted as the background music for China Central Television's daily weather forecast.) Cao Zheng later published this duo version of the piece, crediting himself and Zhu as the composers but not acknowledging An Bo's contribution. The problem is that, because both duet pieces were arrangements of the traditional solo piece "Yu Zhou Chang Wan," they would naturally both sound quite similar, so it's hard to say who arranged what. But the middle section is definitely An Bo's creation, and should be acknowledged as such. Han guesses that An, who went on to coordinate the music and choreography for the 1964 song and dance epic "Dongfang Hong"《东方红》(The East is Red) before passing away in 1965, never had a chance to clarify the truth regarding the authorship of this duo piece and claim what he deserved.
Key: E-flat diao The recording from China Record Corp. (中国唱片) M-214 is in C diao, a minor third lower. I wonder if the gaohu used in this recording was tuned a third higher than normal, to B-flat-F rather than G-C.
![京劇《霸王別姬》[Bawang Bieji] - 杜近芳 [Du Jin-fang]，袁世海[Yuan Shi-hai]; 中國京劇院一團樂隊伴奏](/img/n.gif)
漁舟唱晚.神級演奏👍👍👍
A few years ago, Dr. Mei Han (韩梅) shared with me some oral history about the rather complicated story behind the creation of this duo version of "Yu Zhou Chang Wan"《渔舟唱晚》(Fishermen Singing From Their Boats in the Evening) which she had learned during the process of researching her 2013 Ph.D. dissertation on the modern history of the guzheng (although she did not end up including this story therein):
======
Two different duo versions of "Yu Zhou Chang Wan" were created between 1952 and the late 1950s/early 1960s. One is a zheng/erhu duet, in which Cao Zheng (曹正, 1920-1998, a prominent exponent of the Henan school of zheng playing) played silk-string zheng, and Zhu Yuzhi (朱郁之, 1917-1980) played the erhu. An informant told Han that he heard this piece at the time, and that it was not well crafted. This version apparently won first prize in the 1952 Liaoning Province Music Creation competition (辽宁省音乐创作一等奖), but was not widely disseminated thereafter.
A later version was scored for zheng and gaohu, with the zheng played by Yao Yide (姚贻德) and the gaohu played by Yang Yinlin (杨荫林). They performed this piece at the Prague Spring International Music Festival and won second place (probably sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s). According to the person Han interviewed, Yao and Yang made this arrangement together (probably on the basis of Cao and Zhu's earlier version), but didn't score it. One day while they were practicing, An Bo (安波, 1915-1965), a prominent and prolific composer of revolutionary music, overheard them playing and asked how they had arranged this piece. They said that the two of them just put it together, adding a few things to the original melody. An Bo offered to edit and score this piece for them, in the process adding a lyrical middle slow section he composed himself, which was interpolated as a bridge between the traditional-style first section and the lively finale. (In 1984, this slow section, as played on an electric organ by Ms. Pu Qizhang 浦琦璋, would go on to be adopted as the background music for China Central Television's daily weather forecast.) Cao Zheng later published this duo version of the piece, crediting himself and Zhu as the composers but not acknowledging An Bo's contribution.
The problem is that, because both duet pieces were arrangements of the traditional solo piece "Yu Zhou Chang Wan," they would naturally both sound quite similar, so it's hard to say who arranged what. But the middle section is definitely An Bo's creation, and should be acknowledged as such. Han guesses that An, who went on to coordinate the music and choreography for the 1964 song and dance epic "Dongfang Hong"《东方红》(The East is Red) before passing away in 1965, never had a chance to clarify the truth regarding the authorship of this duo piece and claim what he deserved.
聴いてて鳥肌が立ちました。
非常感谢，看到了我父亲演奏的画面，我是他的女儿，没想到能够在这个平台上看到父亲在国际舞台上演奏的风采，如果您方便可以联系我，非常想得到父亲的这个演奏画面保存下来，
你可以通過以下的 e-mail 联系我:
pwong702@gmail.com
Key: E-flat diao
The recording from China Record Corp. (中国唱片) M-214 is in C diao, a minor third lower.
I wonder if the gaohu used in this recording was tuned a third higher than normal, to B-flat-F rather than G-C.
雁陣驚寒，聲斷衡陽之浦；
漁舟唱晚，響窮彭蠡之濱。
唐 王勃 《秋日登洪府滕王閣餞别序》
What is the source of the amazing film footage starting at 04:14?
《中国艺术团访问欧洲八国（1955年）》
www.bilibili.com/video/BV1us411w795/
@@pwong702 Amazing--it's not on UA-cam yet?
Why didn't you reproduce the portion of this LP's liner notes that spells Yao Yide's name "Yoa I Te"?
姚怡？，最後一個字我認不出來，我去查了當時團的節目單的名字，不過圖片太糊了
姚贻德，第一个把古筝带到国际舞台，并且是第一个在国际上获奖的中国民乐演奏家