Commemoration of Mr. Zhao Ji | Rhythm World - Mr. Zhao Ji Snare Drum Works Exhibition

 

On December 21, 2016, Mr. Zhao Ji, a Chinese percussion educator and artist, passed away. On December 22, 2019, on this special day, Mr. Zhao Ji’s students gathered at Harbin Concert Hall with sincerity and gratitude. Through a presentation of his snare-drum works, they commemorated him and expressed their affection and reverence. The presentation was hosted by Ms. Zhang Jingli, a student of Mr. Zhao Ji and Associate Professor of Percussion at the Central Conservatory of Music. Its guests included representatives of Mr. Zhao Ji’s students from the late 1950s through the early 2010s; they took the stage to share their remembrance of him.

Today, on this special day, the students of Mr. Zhao Ji from Central Conservatory of Music will pick up the Snare Drum and play Mr. Zhao Ji's classic Snare Drum works. This is not only a memorial, a reminiscence and a longing, but also a tribute, an inheritance and a propagation - inheriting Mr. Zhao Ji's great artistic spirit and moral sentiments, and inheriting the fragrant fragrance and eternal charm of percussion music. As Mr. Zhao Ji once said, any successful musician in the world is first and foremost a patriot. Without a country and a nation, it will be an art without roots, and a person's artistic morality is the core of art.

 

 

Mr. Zhao Ji's students,President of the Percussion Music Society of the China Federation of Music AssociationsJin Jiguang FirstSheng ZengfaWe have briefly analyzed Mr. Zhao Ji's small drum works. Let's enjoy them together at the end of the article.

 

Zhao Ji Brief analysis of Xiao Gu's works

——Jin Jiguang

At present, percussion art is thriving.,Exchange competitions and creative seminars are held frequently across the country.,All kinds of percussion training classes and folk teams are more active than ever before.,From baby dolls to teenagers' percussion summer camps to elderly drum orchestras.,A group of well-trained percussion culture groups should be born. Popularization and improvement are urgent issues at present.,The most basic instrument to learn in percussion, especially Western percussion, is the snare drum.(Commonly known as Snare Drum). Most students and professionals choose songs to perform, which are basically works composed by foreign composers.,At present, there are still a shortage of songs suitable for percussion music learning, performance and with Chinese characteristics specially composed for percussion music and small drums in China. 　　

In the recently ended Northeast percussion competition, the author found that many young and even amateur players played small drum works such as "Festival", "Fun in the Forest" and the ensemble "Two Good Friends" at the same time. These songs are from Mr. Zhao Ji's "Rhythm World - Snare Drum Chinese Works Collection"(Central Conservatory of Music Publishing House). These works played by the contestants,Although there are still some improvements in technology.,But in performance, they give people a very confident, smooth and fresh feeling. They sweep away the awkwardness and stiffness of reading sheet music when playing other Snare Drum works.,Instead, it is as if he is talking about his own family affairs as if he were talking to his own family, and he is very fluent and easy to understand.,Very vivid. 　　

Why can these contestants have such excellent performances? This has to be found out from the works themselves. 　　

"Festival", according to the author's account in the preface.,It shows the festive scene of the Spring Festival in rural Northeast China. Zhao Ji The rhythm of the rice dance is cleverly changed.,Let it be upgraded from a simple role of accompaniment for the rice dance to a scene that expresses the boiling carnival and joyful emotions. The music begins with a short and very persuasive prelude. We know,In the vast rural areas of the north,During the Spring Festival and other festivals,The people have lively customs. There are always some people playing drums.,Move the drums and gongs to the street.,It was first played with lively beats. The celebratory drums and gongs instantly pushed the festive atmosphere to its climax. The author cleverly borrowed this tradition in the introduction. Asymmetrical rhythm,The melodic phrases that begin with incomplete phrases are both warm and humorous.,It naturally opened the curtain on the lively and festive scene of the festival. The continuous and rapid sixteenth-note clicks and the symmetrical musical phrases formed by the ensemble contrasted with each other.,It also depicts the busy figures of people during the festival.,It also depicts the festive and lively atmosphere of the festival. The author combines the accentuated performance of foreign traditions Snare Drum with the Chinese folk drum and gourd "double sentences" and "horse legs" in such a exquisite way.,It's amazing. In the following music pieces,Similar techniques appear many times.,Every time it appears, it gives people a sense of novelty and elegance.,The joyful and noisy scene of the festival is presented in front of you. One of the seven-beat couplets is particularly wonderful.,It looks like a conversation between two people.,The voice is not loud.,It is very thoughtful and speculative. This section of the bass is technically difficult.,Not easy to control. The use of various drumsticks in the music expands the expressive power of the snare drum. One of them Timpani Mallets and brushes are used simultaneously, which is very imaginative.,soft music and graceful dance,It's like a strange and ugly clown making fun of the rice dance team. The end of the whole song is an extremely popular rice dance.,The ending of this section echos back and forth with the introduction.,The structure of the music is very refined. Looking at the whole piece,The author used a large number of small drum playing techniques that are currently popular in the world.,And perfectly combine them with rhythms full of Chinese characteristics.,At the same time, the rhythm is processed into a melody. The paragraphs and breath arrangements are rigorous and clear.,Done in one go. It should be said that,Festival is one of the few successful works that has appeared in recent years. 　　

"Pick Up Fun in the Forest" is a suite composed of four independent chapters. This is a group of works advocating the harmonious coexistence of human beings and nature. As the author wrote in his preface: the forest is a friend of human beings.,It not only gives us irreplaceable benefits.,At the same time, with its silent and devoted broad-mindedness.,Let human beings experience harmony and peace. The author shouted louder.:Nature is like a balance.,Only by making unremitting efforts can human beings keep this balance.,Only then can we finally get freedom. This theme is noble.,It has raised the performance category of the small drum to a new height. 　　

Unlike "Festival" in terms of expression, "Pick Up Fun in the Forest" adopts a large number of percussion ensembles. The so-called "ensemble" is a person playing multiple percussion instruments at the same time.,Fewer than a few pieces,There are dozens of pieces. These combinations can be mainly musical instruments.,The rest are auxiliary.;It can also be to regard all the instruments in the combination as an expression of the whole. The combination of "Pick Up Fun in the Forest" basically belongs to the former. 　　

In the two musical pieces, the suite "The World of Birds" and "The Call of the Forest", the author cleverly uses percussion instruments with different tones and bird whistles to imitate various bird songs. These colorful little elves sing or talk alone.,remarkably lifelike,Fun and lively. The image of the animal dance song played with various percussion instruments is realistic.,Full of vitality. In the music, we not only feel the beauty and vitality of the big forest.,At the same time, I also feel the comfort of being in it. The free rhythm played by Wood Block in the music,It looks like a woodpecker pecking.,The duet waltz played by a group of Wood Block vividly depicts the innocent nature of the woodpecker. We can hear the rustling sound of the downy chick flapping its small wings on the forest floor.,You can also hear the harmonious music of all the birds living together and dancing gracefully. The small drum always occupies the leading position in these two pieces of music.,It sometimes plays a marching band with a strong call to action.,At other times, it lays the groundwork for the rhythm of the upcoming dance music. In the continuous9/8In the middle of the dance song,The small drum played our familiar Northeast rice dance again. 　　

In recent years, a variety of Chinese and foreign percussion groups have appeared on our stage.,These combinations may be a way to vent some strong emotions.,Or just showing off.,Colorful and realistic combinations like "The World of Birds" and "The Call of the Forest",It's really rare. 　　

In the suite, "Hunting" is the most humorous piece of music. Uniform and fast.16Dotted note,Sudden and sudden drumbeats,The strong blow of the big drum,It vividly depicts the scene of chasing small animals.,lifelike,Wonderful and realistic. Deep in the rarely visited big forest,Many small animals are not afraid of people. If you chase it,,It just circles around the trunk of the tree.,As soon as you stop,,It just looked back at you.,It's very interesting. The author uses a small drum that is strong and weak at times and very evenly to quickly click to depict the chase.,And the scene of circling is depicted with the strong beats of bucket drums and Bass Drum. 　　

Fast, uniform and continuous clicks are a very fashionable drum playing technique at present. In most works, it appears in a showy posture. In "Hunting",The author gives it a vivid image.,More than 100 small sections with uniform speed,Uniform and sometimes strong and sometimes weak clicks,It is not easy technically.,It requires solid basic skills from the performer. 　　

"Horn Song" is the third piece of music in the suite. This "Horn Song" was created based on the wood-lifting horn song "Ha Waigang" in the Northeast forest area. At first, the music enters with three beats. The first two beats are the lead singing.,The third beat is the collective roar of "hi" from everyone.!With the increase in labor intensity,The music changes from three beats to two beats.,The speed is getting faster and faster.,So much so that every shot is not distinguished between lead and harmony.,Together we shouted "Hi"!Hi" until the end. The author made a very wonderful description of this piece of music in the "autobiography". I won't elaborate on it here. 　　

"Brothers and Sisters" is a double bass duet. 　　

To build a harmonious society, we should start from the small things. Mr. Zhao Ji captured the whole process of a couple of friends in life from harmony to enmity and then back to harmony.,true to life,Vivid images,It's very interesting. At the beginning of the music, it is a dance song sung and harmonized by two friends. The author cleverly combines Chinese Yangge points and rock here.,It vividly presents the friendly, harmonious and respectful relationship between the two friends. The appearance of the trill casts a shadow between the two friends. This shadow is getting bigger and bigger.,So much so that they are not willing to give in.,The struggle cannot be opened. After a short silence,The dominant rhythm at the beginning of the music slowly reappears.,The contradictions gradually resolve.,The waltz with rock colors and the grass dance appeared one after another. Finally, there was a "sentence double" completed by two vocal lines together. In the last two bars after the dance abruptly stopped.,A asks B"OK?"B answered definitely."OK!"The two of them worked together to complete the end of the whole song. This small ending is very unique.,It is also very novel.,It is the sublimation of the word "good" that emphasizes "the two are good friends".,It is the finishing touch of the whole song. No wonder the audience laughed with delight at this unique ending. 　　

In view of the common characteristics of the above three works, the first is that the theme is clear.;The second is to highlight national characteristics.;Third, foreign things are used for Chinese purposes.,Combining Chinese and foreign elements,Although a large amount of foreign small drum playing technology has been used.,But it can be digested.,For my use.;Fourth, it is suitable for stage performance. It is also because of these characteristics.,Therefore, many players choose it in the percussion competitions mentioned earlier. Some music colleges and performance groups have incorporated it into their textbooks and brought it to the stage. I believe these works will definitely spread widely. 　　

I also learned that Mr. Zhao Ji is also planning a new field trip.,We are looking forward to the release of his new work as soon as possible.  　　

Jin Jiguang Chairman of the Percussion Music Society of the Chinese Musician Association and Artistic Director of the Chinese Opera and Ballet Theatre