①The name of a folk song, widely celebrated in China and the world, the city song of Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province.
Origin
The fact that "Jasmine Flower" is a Jiangsu folk song is well known, as the Jiangsu version is the earliest and most representative, but the place of origin is quite controversial. The mainstream view now is that "Jasmine Flower" originated in Yangzhou.
In the 1990s, cities such as Nanjing and Yancheng in Jiangsu province scrambled to come out and say they were the birthplace of the folk song "Jasmine Flower," and published articles in some of the media to prove it.
On Oct. 16, 2000, two Yangzhou culturists published an article entitled ""Jasmine Flower" Originated in Yangzhou Qingqu" article, and since then no other different voices have been heard. These two cultural figures are Zhu Xiangsheng, the executive deputy director of the Yangzhou Qingqu Research Office, and Nie Feng, the deputy director. Among them, Mr. Nie Feng also studied under Wang Wanqing, a master performer of Yangzhou Qingqu in recent times. The two men are convinced that "Jasmine Flower" originated from Yangzhou Qingqu, thanks to their long-deposited knowledge of Qingqu.
Yangzhou Qingqu is also known as Yangzhou Xiaoqu and Yangzhou Xiaojiao. Jasmine Flower" first belonged to Yangzhou's rice-planting song ditty, and was later processed by generations of Yangzhou qingqu artists, evolving into Yangzhou qingqu's song name, Fresh Flower Tune. In a collection of local operas published in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, "Dubbing White Fur", there was a collection of "Fresh Flower Tunes", which had a musical score and lyrics. The lyrics, except for individual words that are different from the current Jasmine Flower, are word for word, which is the earliest and most complete record of Fresh Flower Tunes found so far. This is the earliest and most complete record of the "Flower Tune" found so far. This is enough to prove that "Jasmine Flower" originated from Yangzhou Qing Qu. The two culturists also listed various evidences from other aspects to support the origin of "Jasmine Flower" and Yangzhou. After the article came out, the dissenting voices were immediately gone. Later, many scholars and literati from other places also began to gradually publish articles claiming that "Jasmine Flower" came from Yangzhou.
The popular Yangzhou ditty spread throughout the country and influenced many other local operas and songs. 150 years ago, Yangzhou, as the economic and cultural center of China and a world-famous metropolis, spawned "Jasmine Flower," which was a household name at the time and was hummed by everyone. Decades later, when Puccini composed "Turandot", he chose such a song "Jasmine" as the theme music, which represents the oriental flavor and is popular in China, to set the Chinese love story, which is both natural and inevitable.
Development and Influence
China is a country with a vast territory, a long history, and many nationalities, so the number of folk songs and ditties that have been widely circulated is also very large. They are like the flowers in a garden in March, beautiful, colorful, and fragrant. Among them, there is one variety that has been cultivated for a long time and is widely loved by the public, which is the familiar folk song "Jasmine Flower".
"Jasmine" has been popular since ancient times, there are a variety of variants, but one popular in the south of the Yangtze River is the most widely spread, the most representative. Her melody is gentle, fluctuating and smooth, and her feelings are delicate; through praising jasmine flowers, she implicitly expresses the simple and soft feelings between men and women. As early as in the Qing Dynasty in the Qianlong period published in the collection of opera scripts "decorated with white fur", published its lyrics, can be seen in its generation and circulation of a long time.
In the late eighteenth century, a foreigner memorized her tune, and the lyrics were juxtaposed in English and Hanyu Pinyin. Later, another Englishman named John Bellow came to China to serve as secretary to the first British ambassador to China, and in 1804 he published his own book, Travels in China. Perhaps in his eyes, "Jasmine Flower" is a representative of Chinese folk songs, so in his work, he specially published the sheet music of "Jasmine Flower", and this song became the first Chinese folk song to be transmitted overseas in the form of a publication, and began to circulate in Europe and South America and other places.
In 1924, the world-famous Italian composer Puccini died of cancer after completing the first draft of his opera Turandotte. Set in China during the Yuan Dynasty, the opera is a fictionalized account of Turandotte, a beautiful but cold-hearted princess. Puccini took the tune of "Jasmine" as one of the main musical materials of the opera, adapted its original song into a chorus for female voices, and the characters in the opera all wore Yuan Dynasty costumes, thus giving a Chinese color and flavor to a Chinese story that was entirely written and performed by foreigners. 1926, the opera was premiered in Italy, and it was a great success. From then on, the aroma of the Chinese folk song "Jasmine Flower" wafted even wider overseas with the circulation of this operatic classic.
According to media reports in recent years, "Jasmine Flower," originally known as "Flower Tune," had three lyrics, singing about jasmine, honeysuckle and roses in that order. 1942, the musician He Faqi went to the Jinniu Mountain area of Liuha, Yizheng City, which belongs to Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province, and collected this popular local folk song from a well-known local folk artist, recording the tune and lyrics. In 1957, he adapted the original lyrics of the song, using the same tune for all three sections of the lyrics, changing the original singing of three kinds of flowers into a centralized singing of jasmine, and ending with a melodious and melodious dragging accent, which has become what we are all familiar with now. The song was sung by the Frontier Song and Dance Troupe, and was later recorded by the China Record Society, where it was further popularized.
In the early years of this century, Zhang Yimou used "Jasmine Flower" as background music in his promotional films for the Olympic Games and the World Expo, and on August 3, 2003, the logo for the 2008 Olympic Games, "China's Seal. Dancing Beijing" was unveiled at the Hall of Prayers in Beijing's Temple of Heaven Park. When the famous athlete Deng Yaping and the famous movie star Jackie Chan slowly walked up to the Hall of Prayer with the emblem, the orchestra played the melody of "Jasmine Flower" again. At this moment you hear the music of "Jasmine", euphemistic with strength, delicate with passion, floating with determination, seems to tell the world: "Jasmine" hometown - the ancient China is striding forward. With the broadcast of these TV movies, I believe that the fragrance of "Jasmine" will float farther and wider.
The so-called folk songs are folk tunes that have been widely circulated in a certain region for a long time, and have been adapted and processed in the process of being sung by the descendants, so the authors of its lyrics and tunes are basically unattested.