When Zhou Hexuan walked into the recording studio, the backing band and singing group had already arrived.
Nie Er enthusiastically introduced: "Mr. Zhou, these are friends from the Symphony Orchestra of the British Concession, the Ministry of Industry and Affairs, the general conductor Mr. Chen Lie, the cellist Mr. Zhang Huang, the drummer Mr. Jiang Tao, the trombonist Mr. Tan Guangyou..."
"Hello!"
"Hello!"
Zhou Hexuan walked over and shook hands with each one. Although it was a symphony orchestra of the British Concession, the Ministry of Industry and Affairs, its members were all Chinese, and the chief conductor of the orchestra was an overseas Chinese from the Philippines.
After exchanging pleasantries with the accompaniment band, Nie Er introduced: "Mr. Zhou, this is little sister Zhou Xuan, the lead singer of the children's accompaniment group. These are the children of the Children's Chorus of the British Concession, Ministry of Industry and Commerce."
"Hello, little sister." Zhou Hexuan smiled.
"Hello, Mr. Zhou." Zhou Xuan looked up at Zhou Hexuan, with curiosity and a little admiration in her eyes.
The little girl Zhou Xuan in front of me is the "golden voice" Zhou Xuan, but she is not yet 14 years old at this time. The other kids in the choir are about 10 to 13 years old, all wearing neat band uniforms.
Nie Er took the full score of the song and said: "Mr. Zhou, you sing the beginning. When it comes to the phrase 'September 18, September 18', little sister Zhou Xuan will sing the lead, and 'from that tragic time' is changed to children
Let’s sing together. We won’t record it officially yet. You, the band, and the backup group will rehearse and get used to it first.”
Zhou Hexuan thought for a while and suggested: "Mr. Nie, what do you think of this? Before I officially start singing, there will be an additional section in the prelude, with Zhou Xuan singing 'My home is on the Songhua River in the Northeast' three times, and the second time
The emotion was more intense the first time, but turned into depression and sadness the third time.”
Nie Er thought carefully for a moment, nodded and smiled: "Mr. Zhou's idea is very good, I need to modify the arrangement of the intro."
"No problem." Zhou Hexuan just made suggestions, and the specific operations had to be left to professionals. Just like composing the song "My Heart Will Go On" in London, he just put forward ideas, and the details were all completed by musicians.
Nie Er worked very quickly and finished it in minutes. He asked the band to play the intro several times. He seemed to think something was wrong, so he immediately started to revise it. It took him nearly an hour to complete it before he was satisfied.
The next step was to rehearse. Since it was a temporary recording team, Zhou Hexuan had no tacit understanding with the band and choir. During the rehearsal, various mistakes were made, and Nie Er stood up to correct them from time to time. Unknowingly, it was already there
noon.
Rehearsals continued in the afternoon, and Zhou Hexuan made the most mistakes. After all, he is not a professional singer. Fortunately, everyone was patient and accompanied Zhou Hexuan to practice repeatedly, and no one complained.
The first day of recording went by just like that. There was no official recording at all, and all the time was consumed in rehearsals.
The process continued the next morning. After everyone rehearsed a few times, Nie Er felt that it was almost done and asked the sound engineer to turn on the music.
The band conductor Chen Lie suddenly raised his hand, and the pianist immediately began to play the prelude, followed by the violinist, and little sister Zhou Xuan sang an ethereal song with a childlike voice: "My home is on the Songhua River in the Northeast, my home is in Songhua, the Northeast
On the river, my home is on the Songhua River in the northeast..."
Zhou Xuan was originally born into a scholarly family. Her father graduated from Jinling University and her mother graduated from Jinling Women's University. Both of her parents were senior intellectuals during the Republic of China. However, Zhou Xuan's childhood was miserable. When she was three years old, she was abducted and sold by her opium-smoking uncle.
A wealthy family.
Her adoptive father was an idle opium addict who quickly ruined the family fortune, so her adoptive mother had no choice but to take Zhou Xuan to Shanghai to make a living as a nanny. Later, her adoptive mother remarried a businessman and gave Zhou Xuan to a small opera house.
household.
Zhou Xuan has never systematically learned singing, and her musical literacy was cultivated while studying singing and opera. Even though she only turns 14 in two months, she has already performed on stage with the Mingyue Song and Dance Troupe for three years, and was recently rated as one of the top ten in Shanghai.
One of the singers, he will soon gain the reputation of "golden voice".
"My Home is on the Songhua River in Northeast China" was sung three times in a row, clearly conveying a sense of layering and controlling the emotions very well, like an orphan who had lost his home wailing.
Zhou Hexuan felt the melody of the music and sang at the end of the prelude: "My home is on the Songhua River in the Northeast, where there are forests, coal mines, and soybean sorghum all over the mountains and fields..."
"stop!"
Nie Er suddenly shouted to stop. He had a headache and said: "Mr. Zhou, you were suppressed by Zhou Xuan's prelude singing."
In layman's terms, Zhou Hexuan, the lead singer, was overshadowed by Zhou Xuan's intro accompaniment. Although Zhou Hexuan sang pretty well, he was only at the level of a Mai Ba in later KTVs, and was completely incomparable to Zhou Xuan, a professional singer.
If placed in the 21st century, this situation would be easily solved and would only require the tuner to take action.
But the problem is, there are no sound engineers in this era, so recording records depends on the singer's true level.
Zhou Hexuan was also speechless. He was actually suppressed by a 14-year-old girl and couldn't lift his head. He smiled bitterly and said: "What should I do?"
Nie Er thought for a while and said: "Mr. Zhou, in fact, your voice is very good, but your singing skills are not up to standard. Don't deliberately pursue skills, this is your shortcoming. My suggestion is to use your strengths and avoid weaknesses, and don't worry about any skills.
, you can sing however you want, as long as you express the emotions you should have."
Zhou Hexuan thought for a moment, then suddenly smiled and said: "I understand, let's do it again."
Nie Er nodded and said, "Okay, let's re-record now and the band is ready."
Zhou Hexuan really did not pursue any skills this time. He only felt the emotion of broken mountains and rivers and exile from his hometown. He sang at the top of his lungs. When he sang to the key points, due to the emotion, various sounds were broken and out of tune, and some
The place didn't even match the beat.
But Nie Er kept a smile on his face. That was the feeling he wanted. Especially in the last two verses, Zhou Hexuan's voice became hoarse when he sang "September 18, September 18" and the beat was completely deformed, but there was a sense of
It's an indescribable taste, the song is filled with despair, resentment, sadness and anger.
After recording once, Nie Er asked everyone to rest first, while he listened to what he had just recorded repeatedly. After listening to it several times in a row, he took the music sheet and said to everyone: "Mr. Zhou sang here, here, and here, when the chorus
The group added the chorus of "Nine One Eight, Nine One Eight". In the last section, Zhou Xuan, you and Mr. Zhou sang a duet. As for the band, violin and trombone were added at the climax, and the piano at the end had to be changed..."
Well, the arrangement has been changed again, and there are many changes.
It wasn't until the third day that Zhou Hexuan finally finished recording "On the Songhua River", and it was an unprecedented version.
Although Zhou Hexuan is the lead singer, his singing skills are not online throughout the whole process, which is in sharp contrast with Zhou Xuan and the professional backup singers of the children's choir. But somehow, the hoarse male voice that is out of tune makes people cry, as if hearing a man who has left his hometown.
The Northeast man roared at the top of his lungs.
Zhou Xuan's ethereal and childish voice is like an exiled orphan girl, constantly comforting Zhou Hexuan, and at the same time telling her tragic life experience.
The version of "On the Songhua River" that was broadcast on the radio station was sung by Zhou Hexuan and Meng Xiaodong. Although the singing skills were very good, it was completely incomparable with this version. After Nie Er's adaptation, the current version of "On the Songhua River" is
The emotion is so full that it can even defeat various versions in history.
As expected of Nie Er, awesome!
Of course, Zhou Hexuan also played a big role. His vision of music appreciation that transcended the times gave Nie Er a lot of inspiration in the arrangement process.