Chapter 586 585 [New Version]

EMI Records.

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 a Filipino overseas Chinese.

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 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 little guys in the choir, about 10 to 13 years old, were all dressed in 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 and the band and chorus 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, I will add another section to the prelude. Zhou Xuan will sing 'My home is on the Songhua River in the Northeast' three times. The second time The emotion was more intense the first time, but turned into depression and sadness by 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 was just making suggestions, and the specific operations had to be left to professionals. Just like when he wrote the song "My Heart Will Go On" in London, he just came up with ideas and the details were all completed by the musicians.

Nie Er's movements were very fast and he could finish it in minutes. He asked the band to play the prelude several times. He seemed to feel that something was wrong, so he immediately started to revise it. It took him nearly an hour to be satisfied.

Next came the rehearsals. Since it was a temporary recording team, there was no tacit understanding between Zhou Hexuan and the band and choir. During the rehearsal, various mistakes were made, and Nie Er stood up to correct them from time to time. Before he knew it, it was already noon.

Rehearsals continued in the afternoon, and Zhou Hexuan made the most mistakes. After all, he is not a professional singer. Fortunately, everyone was very patient and accompanied Zhou Hexuan through repeated training, 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 rehearsal continued the next morning. After everyone rehearsed a few times, Nie Er felt that the sound was almost ready 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. Then the violinist followed suit, 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 the Songhua River in 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. But Zhou Xuan's childhood was miserable. When she was three years old, she was abducted and sold to a wealthy family by her opium-smoking uncle.

Her adoptive father was an idle opium addict who quickly ruined his family fortune, so her adoptive mother had no choice but to take Zhou Xuan to Shanghai to make a living as a nanny. Later, the adoptive mother remarried to a businessman and transferred Zhou Xuan to a small opera house.

Zhou Xuan never learned singing systematically, and her musical literacy was cultivated while learning to sing. 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. She was named one of the top ten singers in Shanghai some time ago and 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 the emotions were well controlled, 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."

To put it simply, Zhou Hexuan, the lead singer, was overshadowed by Zhou Xuan's intro accompaniment. Although Zhou Hexuan sings pretty well, he is only at the level of Mai Ba in later generations of KTVs, and is completely incomparable to Zhou Xuan, a professional singer.

If placed in the 21st century, this situation would be easily solvable and would only require the tuner to take action.

But the problem is, there are no sound engineers in this era, and 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 start over."

Nie Er nodded and said, "Okay, let's re-record now and get the band ready."

Zhou Hexuan did not pursue any skills this time. He only felt the emotion of broken mountains and rivers and exile from his hometown, and sang at the top of his voice. When I sang at key points, due to my emotions, all kinds of broken sounds and various out-of-tune sounds occurred. In some places, I couldn't even keep up with the beat.

But Nie Er kept a smile on his face. That was the feeling he wanted. Especially in the last two paragraphs, Zhou Hexuan's voice became hoarse when he sang "September 18, September 18". The beat was completely deformed, but there was an indescribable flavor. The song was full of despair, resentment, sadness and anger.

After recording in one take, Nie Er asked everyone to rest first while he listened to what he had just recorded over and over again. After listening to it several times in a row, he took the music sheet and said to everyone: "When Mr. Zhou sang here, here, and here, the choir added the two lines of '918, 918'. In the last section, Zhou Xuan, you will sing a duet with Mr. Zhou. As for the band, violin and trombone will be added at the climax, and the piano at the end will have a variation..."

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 to Zhou Xuan and the professional backup singers of the children's choir. But somehow, the hoarse male voice that was out of tune made people cry, as if they were hearing the hoarse roar of a man from the Northeast who had left his hometown.

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 extremely full of emotions and can even beat all 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 great inspiration in the arrangement process.