The Life of Stuart Meng Yan's Characters

When Stuart Meng Yan 17 years old, he crossed the ocean alone, because life was extremely difficult without anyone's help. Clever, he inherited the natural flexibility of Cantonese people and preached on the train with fluent English he learned from the priest in Shanghai. After a long journey, at the end of the Christian doctrine, he had a brainwave, and then promoted Confucius and Mencius in China, which was incredibly popular ... In the early days of the United States, even though the environment was not satisfactory, Stuart Meng Yan completed the pre-university course with excellent results while working, passed the most stringent college entrance examination in the United States, and entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ... department of mechanical engineering. In order to get more funds, he had to work while studying, do part-time jobs, work on weekends and so on. One day, he learned in the newspaper that a small town on the outskirts of Boston wanted a job, so he rushed there, but others beat him to it. Helpless, he wandered aimlessly in the street and came across a poster, which was about the news of the math contest, and the date was exactly the same day. He thought, anyway, there is no registration fee and bonus. Why not try it? So, he walked into the examination room ... A few days later, the news was prominently published in the Boston newspaper: In the Boston Mathematics Competition, Stuart Fuquan, a young man from China, won the championship by studying in the United States. The news reached Wu, then the ambassador of the Qing Dynasty and the National Government to the United States. He was so happy that he immediately summoned the younger generation of Tangshan. Wu knows that the young man has to do more part-time jobs in order to study, so as to earn tuition. After his life was very difficult, he immediately felt pity. He immediately called the clerk, checked the list of foreign students at public expense, and found that there was still a degree vacancy in a shipbuilding major in 2008 ... Wu, who attached importance to talents, immediately gave this degree to Stuart. In this way, Stuart Meng Yan became the last official international student in the late Qing Dynasty. Stuart Meng Yan has been funded and his life has settled down. In return, he does some part-time jobs for the embassy, such as taking notes, sorting out paperwork and contacting international students in Boston. In this way, Stuart Meng Yan, who is unsociable and only knows about work-study programs, has the opportunity to deal with international students there. After ... and the students who studied at Harvard University returned to China, many people became scholars and celebrities who made achievements in various fields. Song Ziwen, who was studying at Harvard University at that time, met Stuart Meng Yan and asked him to teach his little sister Song Meiling to learn the violin, but she didn't insist on it. At this time, Stuart Meng Yan never lost his pursuit of music. Besides studying shipbuilding at MIT, he also studied violin from Jurgen Gruehn Berg, an Austrian violinist and a professor at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Because of lack of money, he can't afford to pay tuition, but he is smart and very popular with teachers. The teacher made an exception and promised to teach him free of charge on condition that he cleaned the classroom. Stuart Meng Yan studied violin and western music theory; Together with Yin Ziwei (198-1985), Tai-so Ho and Yang Rucheng, they later became famous musicians in Guangdong.

(Lu's younger brother) and other people often get together to play and learn Cantonese opera. Besides, he also played in several music clubs in Shanghai, such as Shanghai China Concert, Shanghai Jiande Savings Association and Shanghai Jason Wu Sports Association (Music Department). He is proficient in all kinds of martial arts, and the dulcimer and erhu are the best. When playing dulcimer, he can play and sing by himself. At that time, male singers sang female voices, such as Mei Lanfang and Lu Wencheng. He absorbed the procrastination of Xipi in the second spring of Peking Opera, which made his singing feel refreshing. Li Zijun, a famous newspaper reporter, wrote: "In the 1920s, he (Lv Wencheng) personally played dulcimer solos" Three Alleys of Plum Blossom "and" Little Peach Blossom "in Shanghai Music Club, and the audience was ecstatic. He was impressed by Cantonese people in different places, especially the excellent performance of Cantonese opera was praised by people who knew him, and it has been passed down to this day ... Apart from the dulcimer solo Liu Niang San, the erhu solo "Two Voices of Hate" and "Zhao Jun Complain" will come to an end and applause will resound through the audience. " What's more gratifying is that Lu Wencheng's time has begun to be recorded. As a result, he recorded a large number of works that he played and sang, and his "New Tune" opened up a new road for Cantonese opera oratorio and inspired people to create new styles. Competing to imitate others in the society led to the upsurge of Cantonese music creation in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Guangzhou in the 1920s and 1930s, thus getting rid of the old road of imitating others. He is not a professional musician, nor has he studied literary theory. He made some contributions to the exploration of "making foreign things serve China" only by intellectuals' love for the motherland and persistent pursuit of music art. He was the first chief engineer of China in Shanghai Jiangnan Shipyard, a famous shipbuilding expert in China, and his scientific name was Fu Quan.

In the history of modern music in China, many Cantonese people are very famous. In addition to Xiao, Xian Xinghai, there are many musicians such as Lv Wencheng, Xiao, and Xiao, who have worked silently for China people's own music and even done a lot of work. However, in the modern music history books written by China people themselves, there is no doubt that the first three books must be written, but the last three books are rarely mentioned or even not mentioned at all. Non-professional musicians like Stuart Meng Yan are hard to appear in the works of many historians. Moreover, his specialty is Cantonese opera, and it is even more difficult to find his trace in music history books. Situ Meng Yan, a native of Kaiping, Guangdong Province, was born in Shanghai in 1888 and died in 1954. He is actually the head of the Stuart family, a musical family. Last summer, I searched and found my daughter Situ Youwen, who lives in seclusion in the western suburbs of Beijing, and learned some information. He is good at Cantonese opera and Beijing opera. I studied violin with a missionary in Shanghai when I was young. 1906 studied at MIT and studied shipbuilding. At the same time, he studied violin from Professor Gruehn Berg of the New England Conservatory of Music. Learn violin making from the world-famous luthier Gauss. Under the guidance of Goss, the violin made by Stuart Meng Yan won the first prize at the Panama World Expo. 19 15 After returning to China, he became the first China chief engineer of Shanghai Jiangnan Shipyard and played violin solo in a concert held in Shanghai City Hall. Later, he took part in the China Concert and the Music Group of Jason Wu Sports Association, with Cantonese as the main body, offering violin classes and teaching violin performance. At that time, the famous Guangdong music master Lu Wencheng was his student. Stuart Meng Yan is not only well versed in Chinese and Western cultures, but also has a strong sense of China culture, and he is not confined to one step, so he is very refined. He thinks that western music has a lot of good things to introduce, and China music also has "a lot of good things to let people know". In Music Quarterly, a concert magazine in China, he not only translated many western music works, such as Dream, Old Slave and The Last Rose, and introduced them to the people of China, but also translated China traditional music Autumn Moon in the Han Palace, Cantonese Opera Swallow House, Spring Everyday in My Heart and Beijing Opera Scattered Flowers into the Staff. Stuart Meng Yan has made great achievements in the study of Chinese and Western music, and has translated more than 1,000 works of famous artists from all over the world. Before the 1920s, there was no such thing as low-barrel Yuehu in Cantonese opera and music. At that time, Stuart Meng Yan thought that the volume and noise of the Hu Qin in use should be improved. With his own violin-making skills, together with Lu Wencheng, after several trial-productions, he finally developed a huqin that is four or even five degrees higher than the commonly used erhu, which is used to play Cantonese opera and Yue Yue. It was fresh and unique, and was quickly accepted, becoming the main instrument in Cantonese opera and Yue Yue, so it was called Yue Hu and Yue Yue became a very distinctive music. Stuart Meng Yan changed the outer strings of erhu into steel strings, added the technique of two or three positions, created the way of holding the piano with two legs clamped on the piano tube, and expanded the range. Flexible fingers strengthen the control of timbre and strength, expand the range of comparison, and meet the needs of the development of Guangdong music performance style. In fact, it was equivalent to creating a new musical instrument, which was later called Gao Hu. It is a "soft bow" combination with dulcimer, Qin Qin, chamber pot and Dong Xiao, which is different from the early "hard bow" combination dominated by two strings. The combination of Gao Hu and dulcimer led the performance, which greatly strengthened the expressive force of improvisation and harmony ensemble and achieved great success. Lv Wencheng also created new tracks by himself, giving play to the performance function of this combination, which further promoted the rapid development of Guangdong music.