1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Looking at Huang Wencan who was very excited, Zhou Yan said with a smile, "Congratulations, Mr. Huang."

Hearing Zhou Yan's congratulations, Huang Wencan's smile became even brighter, and he quickly responded, "Thank you, thank you, Teacher Zhou."

Before he could say something to Zhou Yan, Hu Zhaoyuan on the stage had already announced all the winning songs and invited the winners to come on stage to receive their awards.

"Teacher Zhou, I'm going upstairs."

Zhou Yan nodded, "Well, let's go up."

They were sitting relatively far back, but Huang Wencan was very active and quick, and was the first to go onto the stage. He looked so excited, like a young and inexperienced person.

Zhou Yan thought that Huang Wencan was doing quite well. Since he was happy, there was no need to put on airs.

The third prize winners received both a certificate and a medal. After Hu Zhaoyuan announced the list, he did not go down the stage but stayed on the stage to present awards to the winners.

Zhou Yan roughly counted and there were twenty-four winning songs, which was quite a lot. Twenty-three people went up, and only one did not come to the scene and did not find someone to help receive it on his behalf.

Among these twenty-three people, there are many acquaintances of Zhou Yan, such as Tang Jianping, who is also a teacher in the composition department.

Zhou Yan was quite disappointed to see that Tang Jianping only got third place, because he had seen the score and heard live performances of Tang Jianping's entry "Huayun", and the level was very high. In Zhou Yan's opinion, let alone the first prize, he still had a good chance of winning the second prize.

There is a huge gap between the third prize and the second prize. It is a pity that Tang Jianping only got the third prize.

Most likely, it’s because the work is not relevant enough.

Another colleague of Zhou Yan is Du Mingxin, whose winning work is "Symphonic Overture".

Compared to others, Du Mingxin has much more seniority. In fact, Zhou Yan should call Du Mingxin "uncle master", and this is only because of his teachers Shi Wanchun and Wu Zuqiang, otherwise there would be a generation gap between them.

Du Mingxin taught at the Composition Department of the Central Conservatory of Music in the 1950s and served as the director of the Composition Department in the 1970s. She has a good relationship with Wu Zuqiang and Shi Wanchun.

At first glance, it is not easy for Huang Wencan to win the third prize. There are many big names among the winners of the third prize, and Huang Wencan is the youngest among them.

After the awards were presented, the winners took a group photo on the stage, and the third prize ceremony was over.

After this round of awards was concluded, two pieces were played in succession, both of which were second-prize winners. One was Luo Zhongrong’s "Eternal Life in the Flames" and the other was Zhu Jian'er’s "Symphony No. 4".

So far, three of the four second-prize winning songs have been announced, and all of them are big names. Compared with the latter two, Xu Zhenmin’s qualifications are not so impressive.

Seeing the names of these award winners, Zhou Yan estimated that he would not get any prize today.

In fact, his situation is similar to Huang Wencan. The medal he has the best chance of winning is the third prize. After all, the first and second prizes are too dependent on seniority.

However, he was not upset. Even if he didn't get a medal, he would still feel it was okay even if he only got an Excellence Award or a Fourth Prize.

After the two second-prize pieces were performed, the list of fourth-prize winners was announced on the spot.

This made Zhou Yan a little confused. Originally, when the third prize winners were announced in the first round, he thought the fourth prize would not be announced. However, he did not expect that the organizing committee would announce the fourth prize after the third prize. He didn't know what the official was thinking.

The number of fourth prize winning songs was more than that of third prize, with a total of thirty-five. The host read out the names of the thirty-five winning songs on the spot, but did not allow the winners to go on stage to receive the awards and take photos.

And Zhou Yan’s name was not on the list of the fourth prize winners.

Huang Wencan secretly observed Zhou Yan's expression. Seeing that Zhou Yan didn't react, he raised his eyebrows again and thought that although Zhou Yan was young, he was really calm.

He felt a little ashamed that he seemed much more impatient even though he was a few years older than him.

Now the third and fourth prizes have been announced, there are two first prizes and one second prize left, and only the Excellence Prize is left.

Everyone is entitled to an Excellence Award, but as for the first and second prizes, they are too difficult to get.

Huang Wencan certainly recognized Zhou Yan's ability, but to win the first and second prizes, it is not enough to have strength, but also requires qualifications.

Seniority-based promotion is a common practice in all walks of life, and musicians are no exception.

Now it seems that Zhou Yan will most likely only win an Outstanding Composition Award.

Thinking of this, Huang Wencan couldn't help but feel a little regretful.

He actually wanted to listen to Zhou Yan's new song, but there was no way such an excellent composition could be performed live.

The key is that Huang Wencan also hopes that Zhou Yan can get a better ranking. After all, he and Zhou Yan are both young people. If Zhou Yan can get a better ranking, it will be regarded as paving the way for their younger generation.

Huang Wencan wanted to comfort Zhou Yan, but he held back because he couldn't tell what Zhou Yan was thinking. This was the first time they had met, and he was worried that his words of comfort would lead to Zhou Yan's misunderstanding.

After all, he had just won the third prize, and it seemed a bit like showing off if he went to comfort others at this time.

Zhou Yan didn’t know what was going on in Huang Wencan’s heart. He just watched the stage quietly.

After the fourth prize was announced, two more pieces were played on the spot. Both were third prize winners that had just been rejected. One was "Early Spring Overture" and the other was "A Century of Years".

When hearing these two pieces of music, many people at the scene were quite surprised. They thought that there would be no works below second prize on display, but they did not expect that there would be two third prize works.

However, the performance time for these two works was very short, and not even one movement was completed.

Although Zhou Yan didn't know how long the complete versions of these two songs were, it sounded like it should be more than half an hour. Now each song was only played for seven or eight minutes, which felt a bit like an audition. In fact, the songs played earlier were not complete versions, but excerpts. It's just that the previous songs were carefully selected, and although they were excerpts, they still sounded complete.

For these two pieces, only the first few minutes of the first movement were played. This also shows that the organizing committee does not attach much importance to the third prize.

The pieces played today must be selections, otherwise the two first prize pieces alone would be almost as long as an entire concert.

Moreover, performing a complete work would place too high demands on the orchestra. Even a top orchestra would not be able to fully master a multi-movement symphony in a short period of time.

After the performance of the two third-prize works, special guest Li Yinghai came on stage to deliver a speech.

When Li Yinghai came on stage, there was warm applause from the audience.

The organizing committee must have considered many aspects before choosing Li Yinghai as the special guest to give a speech.

Among composers of the same period, Li Yinghai cannot be considered the most outstanding, but his experience is quite special compared to others.

Li Yinghai was born in the 1920s and experienced the Anti-Japanese War. His music studies during his youth were amidst the fighting.

His main achievements are not in music composition or music theory research, but in music education.

He first taught at Hunan Conservatory of Music, and later went to the College of Arts and Literature of Zhongyuan University and the Central South Military Academy of Art. However, he stayed in these three schools for a relatively short time and went to Shanghai Conservatory of Music not long after.

He stayed at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music for more than ten years. In 64, when the China Conservatory of Music was established, he was transferred to BJ and taught at the Conservatory of Music, becoming one of the first teachers of the Conservatory.

After that, he went to the Central Conservatory of Music.

Moreover, when he was at the Central Conservatory of Music, it was at a time of great boom, and all of Tan Dun's students were there.

Guo Wenjing, who just won the third prize, is also a student of Li Yinghai.

If the music industry is also divided into schools and factions, then Li Yinghai is definitely an elder who has a say in all of them.

He is from Sichuan Province and has close ties with the music community in that province. He has also taught at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the Central Conservatory of Music, and the Central Conservatory of Music. He has basically stepped into several major areas of the music industry.

So he stood there today and spoke as a representative of the composers, and all parties had no objections.

The old man is almost seventy years old this year, but he is still in very good health. He walked to the microphone and laughed heartily a few times before he opened his mouth.

After laughing, he glanced at the audience and said, "Before the event started, I watched for a long time when I first came in. I was worried that I was the oldest person on the scene today, but fortunately, Mr. Zhu Jian'er and Mr. Luo Zhongrong were sitting next to me. Compared with them, I am a little younger. Now that I am on the stage and glance at the audience, I see Mr. Guo Zurong and Mr. Su Xia. I feel a little younger. If I remember correctly, they are all older than me."

"Confucius said, 'At thirty one is established; at forty one has no doubts; at fifty one knows the will of Heaven; at sixty one's ears are obedient; at seventy one can follow one's heart's desire without transgressing the rules.' Before I was forty, I had never doubted this statement, but when I was forty, I suddenly realized that at forty, I was actually the most ambitious and confused person I had ever been."

"Before I was forty, I was trying to get into the music world. After teaching for so many years, the most common question I heard was how to get started with music. Over the years, I have no way of getting an accurate answer, but I can tell you how I got started. I have tried three different ways to get started with music."

"I was born in Sichuan Province. I listened to my mother and sister singing folk songs when I was young, and I followed them to learn. There were a lot of bamboos in our area. We could cut a piece of bamboo and poke a few holes in it to play. In such an environment, I liked music since I was a child. This was my first door. Later, during the Anti-Japanese War, I was admitted to the National Conservatory of Music established in Chongqing in 43. From folk music, I entered the door of Western music. This was my second door."

"Of course, the most important door for me was the door to revolutionary music. Joining the revolution allowed me to enter the third door..."

Li Yinghai seems to be telling his own story, but in fact it is very relevant and he quickly introduces the theme into revolutionary music.

Today they gathered at the Yenching Concert Hall to commemorate Mr. Sun Yat-sen.

Since we are commemorating Mr. Sun, we must talk about revolution.

The old gentleman then talked about revolution and then music teaching, and mentioned the Chinese national characteristics. He said that both the young and old generations of musicians should learn Western music and absorb the strengths of others, but they must never abandon our national traditions.

"I always tell my students to pursue creations with Chinese national characteristics. I say, as Chinese people, you were born and raised in China, so the traditions of the Chinese nation are engraved in your bones. This is your innate talent and expertise."

"Western musicians have their own strengths. We don't have to deny them, but we don't have to envy them either. We shouldn't deliberately use what we don't have to compete with others. Each of us is like a flower seed. If we grow in this soil, we will inevitably grow into a flower that suits this soil."

“Even if we are watered by water flowing from the west and wind blows from the west one day, we will not become other flowers. I must make good use of this water and this wind to make myself grow stronger.”

……

At the end, Li Yinghai smiled and said, "I am afraid that many people will listen to me and be too cautious about Western music, so I have to say that when creating, you still have to be bolder and believe in your own national characteristics, national feelings and national aesthetics. These are not easily discarded, nor can they be easily washed away by later exposure to some Western culture. Only with such a belief can you build up ambitions and believe that you can make new contributions to the music culture of all mankind."

When Li Yinghai finished speaking, there was thunderous applause from the audience.

He was giving a lesson to the audience on the stage like a teacher, but no one felt offended. Instead, they thought what he said was very good.

When the applause gradually died down, Li Yinghai took out a piece of paper and said, "Finally, I have one more task, which is to read out the list of second-place winners."

He held the note and smiled, "This list is quite interesting."

When the audience heard him say this, they were a little confused. What did he mean by an interesting list?
Everyone was a little confused as to why the other three second prize songs had already come out, but one song had not appeared yet.

The first three winners were Xu Zhenmin, Luo Zhongrong and Zhu Jian'er.

These three people would not let Li Yinghai say this. After all, the names have just been announced. So the interesting one is the last one?

Li Yinghai stirred up the emotions of the audience and then began to read out the list. "The winners are Zhu Jian'er's "Symphony No. 4", Luo Zhongrong's "Eternal Life in the Flames", Xu Zhenmin's "Reminiscence of Nanjing" and..."

At this point, he paused for a moment before announcing the answer: "Zhou Yan's Symphony No. 3." (End of this chapter)