Chapter 78 music

When he was in the tutoring department of the "Shanghai Academy", Li Shutong paid attention to using national traditional culture as the theme of school songs.He selected thirteen pieces from "Songs of Chu" and ancient poems, set them with Western and Japanese music tunes, and compiled them together with the translation scores of two Kunqu operas in Chinese operas into "Guoxue Singing Collection", which was published in 1905. For school teaching.Among them, "Song of the Motherland" with lyrics and music by him spread all over the country and became the earliest famous patriotic song.

Feng Zikai recalled: "My boyhood was the period when China's foreign invasion was approaching....At that time, there were movements among the people to boycott American products, boycott Japanese products, and persuade the use of domestic products. I sang this "Motherland" in elementary school. When I sang "Song", it was the period of persuading the use of domestic products. I sang for thousands of years, and the same line has been extended, and civilization is beyond my shoulders; The scene when the flags lined up on the street to promote the use of domestic products is vivid. We sang songs during the parade, and Mr. Li Shutong's "Motherland Song" is one of them."

In 1906, Li Shutong in Japan founded my country's first music publication "Music Magazine".The inaugural issue was edited and printed by him in Japan, and then sent back to China for distribution. In addition to two illustrations and three articles written by Japanese, the cover design, art paintings, editorials, music history, music songs, miscellaneous compilations, and Cifu were all written in each column. It was arranged by Li alone under the pseudonym "Xi Shuang".The song "My Country" in the first issue became another patriotic song by Li Shutong that has been widely spread.

Li Shutong wrote more than 90 songs in his life, including dozens of songs such as "Spring Outing", "Farewell", "Sorrowful Autumn", "Sorrow of Spring", "Evening Bell", "West Lake", "Falling Flowers", etc. It has been popular in the north and south of the country for decades, and it has been sung for a long time.Among them, "Spring Outing" is the earliest choral song in my country. Li Shutong's "Farewell" has been passed down to this day and has become a classic. The lyrics of "Farewell" are cold and tender, and everyone sighs:

Li Shutong taught painting and music in the First Zhejiang Normal University.These two originally insignificant courses suddenly became the most important homework in the school.The school's drawing classroom is equipped with special equipment (skylights and easels), and the music class also has an independent dedicated music classroom, which is equipped with organs of 50 to 60 sizes and two pianos.After four o'clock in the afternoon, the whole school is filled with the sound of pianos, and people are constantly painting in the drawing classroom, just like an art school.In spare time, singing and piano are melodious.Cao Juren recalled that during that time, even he, who had never been interested in music, "woke up crazily early in the morning to sing scales".

At the end of 1927, Feng Zikai and Qiu Menghen compiled more than 20 famous songs such as "Chaoyang", "Recalling Childhood", "Farewell" and "Sorrowful Autumn" by their teacher Master Hongyi into "Fifty Chinese Famous Songs" This book is used as a music teaching material for schools at all levels in China. Feng Zikai praised his teacher in the preface of "Fifty Chinese Famous Songs", saying: "Western famous songs are sung all over the world because they have such beautiful melodies; Le Cai, as far as I know, there is only one musician in China who can compose and sing.”