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Xi Murong as a Song Written

Songwriting

Xi Murong’s parents were descendants of Mongolian princes and nobles. Before the age of 46, Xi Murong had never seen her hometown. The grassland her parents talked about was a vague and yearning shadow for her. In 1989, at the age of 40, Xi Murong flew to the Inner Mongolia grassland for the first time, and the nostalgia that had been hidden in her heart for more than 40 years was ignited like a kindling, so she wrote the poem “Father’s Grassland and Mother’s River”.

One night at the end of October 1998, De Dema saw the scene of Xi Murong stepping on the grassland for the first time to find her roots in the program “Prairie Past” on Inner Mongolia Satellite TV. De Dema was moved by Xi Murong’s story, and had the idea of ​​getting to know Xi Murong. The next morning, Mongolian composer Ulan Tuoga came to visit at home, and Dedema couldn’t wait to mention the TV program about Xi Murong to him, expressing his desire to get to know Xi Murong.

Unexpectedly, Wulan Tuoga knew Xi Murong and said that Xi Murong was in Beijing. At ten o’clock the next morning, Wulan Tuoga led Xi Murong into Dedema’s house. During the conversation, De Dema mentioned “Father’s Grassland Mother’s River” and thought it should be the title of a song, so he asked Xi Murong to write “Father’s Grassland Mother’s River” into lyrics and let Ulan Tuoga Composer.

A week later, Xi Murong, who had written the lyrics, faxed the lyrics to De Dema from Shanghai. After receiving the lyrics, De Dema was very moved but felt that some places were a bit messy and not suitable for singing, so she asked Xi Murong to change it again. Two months later, Xi Murong in Taiwan called De Dema again, saying that the revision was completed, and if something was not suitable, it could be revised.

Composition Work

Dedema was very satisfied with the revised lyrics, so he called Ulan Toga home on the same day, telling him to write the song well. Dedema asked Ulan Toga to pay attention that this song was not about Ulan Toga or Dedema, but about Xi Murong who had been looking forward to it for decades and finally fell into the embrace of the grassland. Therefore, it cannot be completely written in the traditional style of Mongolian folk songs, otherwise, it will not be Xi Murong.

It must have the taste of Mongolian folk songs, creative taste, and pop songs so that it is in line with Xi Murong’s identity. Facing the lyrics, Wulan Tuoga’s blood boiled with enthusiasm. He closed himself in the studio, sang to the lyrics, and created numbered notation at the same time. When Ulan Tuoga came to Dedema’s house with the composed song and sang it to her on the piano, Dedema listened carefully. Although Ulan Tuoga’s voice is not perfect, she can hear that this tune really seems to come from the bottom of Xi Murong’s heart.
recording work

De Dema worked hard to sit in front of the piano, familiarize himself with the songs over and over again, and make a “demo” for the next step of recording. In order to come up with the best “demo” of this style first, De Dema sang repeatedly. However, due to the hemiplegia caused by the stroke, the fingers of her right hand are not controlled by the brain at all, so she has to use her left hand to accompany the accompaniment, and this kind of accompaniment that the left hand assumes the function of the right hand often makes mistakes.

Therefore, when determining the singing style, it is always difficult to grasp it accurately; after a song is sung, there are always dissonances of hitting the wrong keys in the middle. However, De Dema, who was ill, still faced these difficulties firmly. Whenever the mispronunciation caused irritability, she thought about the grassland as generous as her father, and the river as gentle as her mother, and her heart gradually calmed down, and she would do it again.

After more than 20 days, De Dema overcame many difficulties with her tenacious will, and finally completed the “demo” recording of piano accompaniment with satisfaction. She then asked one of her son’s master band arrangers to design an orchestration for the song to record the backing tape. A month later, the accompaniment tape for the song was released. De Dema found the feeling she wanted.

Then began to enter the recording studio to complete the mastering of the music with a singing voice and accompaniment tape. A few days later, De Dema once again plucked up the courage to walk into the recording studio, but at this time she obviously felt that due to the limited physical activity on the right side, the right vocal cord was not in the state.
A week later, De Dema walked into the recording studio for the third time.

But when singing, his right hand was raised and pressed close to his chest due to spasms, so the singing could not be completed. She asked her husband to forcibly put her right arm behind her back so that her right arm finally stopped “making trouble”, but her mood was a mess, and she was so anxious that she was about to shed tears. She quickly reminded herself, “The river is singing the blessings of the ancestors, and bless the wandering children to find their way home.”

In front of her eyes was another prairie that was as tolerant and kind as her father, who would always make her feel strong. A warm current surged through her body instantly, and confidence rose again in her heart. In one go, De Dema completed the recording of the master tape of the song in the best state