The Way To Carve Out A Career Is Full Of Hard Struggle And A Pioneering Spirit

Carrying forward the Chinese historical tradition of collecting and compiling the folk songs,and continuing the styles of recording the tunes by musician in Yan'an period, the work on the Anthology of Chinese Folk Songs("Anthology" is called for short as follows) has been successively started in 1960 and 1979.Under the high attention and warm care from the leaders of our country and party as well as all level's governments,the compilation and publication of the Anthology was finally completed through a few decades by the joint efforts of ten thousands of professional music workers.Although there have been several collections and compilations to folk songs(folk rhyme) in Chinese history,it is hard to compare with the great scale of the work on the Anthology since the foundation of the People's Republic of China,especially after 1979.The purpose of collecting and folk songs by the Anthology is quite different from the former historical collections.It is not "the king observed the local customs,learned about achievement and failures,and examine and rectify himself",but also not raising highly the flag of civilian oral literature for building the Chinese new culture,much less processing,sorting out and modifying the collected "the Ballads" for creating a new works compliance with the requirements and interests of the mainstream culture.The complied Anthology is used for inheriting and carrying on the fine tradition of Chinese national music to build the better socialist music undertakings.Even the contents of the historical poetry collections couldn't match to the current Anthology.As far as the contents concerned,the Anthology preserves the folk songs and custom features by means of pictures,scripts,tunes and introductions of folk singers, while the arts of folk songs has been respected which created jointly by the all ethnic groups.Only the presence of the Anthology in our history can really incarnates the rich and colorful national folk music.Actually,the work on the Anthology has been moving synchronously with the academic research of Ethnomusicology through a recent few decades,which is in a relationship of mutual promotion.Every section,including collection,notation,classification and compilation,is involved with some issues of learning,as well as permeated with the theory and methods of Ethnomusicology.Each item is condensed with the research achievements of Ethnomusicology.And because of the compilation of the Anthology,the scholars can make the research,deepening and development of more subjects only after viewing the folk song from whole province to whole country.Now,the development of our country is bringing about new changes with each passing day,and the Anthology made a new contribution to the protection of the traditional culture.Its static,museum-like preserving methods can supply the data's clues to the active non-material culture work with inheritor more people participating,and the accumulated experience also provide the methodical reference to the protection work for the non-material culture.The successful publication of the Anthology not only represents the first success of wholly,systematical compilations to our national music inheritance,but also indicates the extensive and deepening development of the national music inheritance to be archived in the future.Its significance is not only resting on the present,but also for the future.The contribution of the Anthology is a great undertaking of lasting importance.