中外音乐人共创歌曲致敬抗疫人

Video by Liu Xudong

During the recent COVID-19 epidemic in Shenzhen, Angelo Castagneto, an Ecuadorian musician, with Chinese partners composed a song named “Spring Knows All” to pay tribute to frontline workers.

面对近期深圳严峻的疫情，厄瓜多尔音乐人李东成（Angelo Castagneto）携手几位中国音乐人创作了一首名为《春天的回答》的歌曲，向抗疫一线的工作者们致敬。

The Shenzhen Daily recorded the process of the production and interviewed the main participants.

英文《深圳日报》新媒体部的记者们详细记录了这一创作过程，也第一时间采访了几位主创人员。

The lyrics were written by Wang Fang, the secretary general of the Green Pine Care Foundation in Shenzhen, and is sung by Liu Xiao, a young singer graduating from Shenzhen University.

歌曲的词作者是王芳，她是深圳松禾成长关爱基金会秘书长；歌曲由毕业于深圳大学的青年歌手刘潇演唱。

刘潇在录音间

The creation of the song is by chance. Wang said she met a friend who had been away from home for over one week. His residential compound was locked down and he chose to stay at work. “He said that he must stay in the frontline. His words kept ringing in my mind, I couldn’t fall asleep that night and the line ‘spring knows all’ suddenly occurred to me.”

这首歌的创作缘起是偶然的。王芳说，她前不久和一个离家一周多的朋友见面。“当时他所住的小区被管控的时候，他选择留在工作岗位，说自己不能回家，必须留在前线。他的话一直在我脑海中回响，那天晚上我无法入睡，我突然想到了‘春天的回答’这句话。”

王芳

Castagneto met Wang last year in the Shenzhen Concert Hall during the “Multiethnic Children’s Choirs in Concert” that was supported by the Green Pine Care Foundation. The Ecuadorian recalled that when he received the lyrics, he was at his home studio. “I didn’t think about anything. I went directly to the piano. I started to play and found the melody. I think the first feeling is most important. The process was very fast based on my experience creating songs for over 30 years.”

李东成与王芳是在去年深圳音乐厅举行的“远古与大地多民族童声合唱音乐会”期间认识的。这场音乐会由松禾成长关爱基金会支持举办。李东成回忆说，当他收到王芳的歌词时，他正在家中的录音室里。“我本能地走到钢琴前，开始弹奏，寻找旋律。我认为第一感觉是最重要的。整个创作过程进行得非常快，我创作歌曲30多年的经验对此也有帮助。”

李东成在家中的录音室创作

“I tried to understand the lyrics quickly; it gives people encouragement to face the problems we have, not only the epidemic in China, also the problems that affect us as humans outside this country,” he said.

“我试图快速理解歌词，这首歌给人们带来勇气，让我们能够去面对眼前的困难，包括中国国内的疫情，但也包括那些发生在国外的，给全人类都带来影响的问题。”李冬成告诉记者。

Castagneto thinks that emotion is extremely significant when creating music. “I asked Wang Fang what she wanted to express. I understand the emotions that the song wants to convey are compassion and kindness, like the first hug. That’s why I started to create a song just with the piano because it’s my favorite instrument.”

李东成认为，在创作音乐时，情感是极其重要的。“我问王芳老师想表达什么，了解到歌曲想要传递同情和善良，就像第一次拥抱。这是为什么我用钢琴创作这首歌，因为它是我最喜欢的乐器。”

王芳（左）在录音间

Wang speaks highly of Castagneto’s composition. “When I finished the lyrics, the first composer I thought of was him. What surprised me was that in less than five minutes, he sent me a demo, in which he hummed a simple tune. It sounds gentle but with determination. Instantly, I felt a connection with him.” She said that Castagneto came up with something new every day, and finished writing the melodies quickly. “After listening to the full song, I felt the same emotional power that touched me while I was writing the lyrics.”

王芳十分认可李东成的创作。“当我写完歌词时，我第一个想到的作曲人就是他。令我惊讶的是，在不到五分钟的时间里，他就给我发了一个小样，轻声哼唱着简单的曲子，听起来很温和但有力量。在一瞬间，我感到和他心灵相 通。”王芳说道，李东成每天都有新的想法，很快就完成了旋律的创作。“听完全曲后，我感受到了与写歌词时触动我的那种情感相同的精神。”

The lyrics, which has Shenzhen elements such as Bougainvillea and mangroves, came out in Chinese first and an English version was later translated by Shenzhen Daily. Talking about the expression in the two languages, Castagneto commented, “The lyrics in English have the same meaning as in the Chinese, and the Chinese version is so beautifully written that when you translate it into English, it also has the same power.”

歌词含有簕杜鹃和红树林等深圳元素，中文版本面世后，由英文《深圳日报》翻译成英文版本。谈到这两种语言的表达，Castagneto说：“英文歌词与中文完美对应，中文版写得很好，翻译也保留了原词的情感力量。”

李东成在家中录音室弹琴

He said that the lyrics express the uncertainty and the questions to which people may not need a real answer directly. “Just listen to the birds, nature and the spring, you will find the answer. I hope the words can really touch everybody’s heart.”

他表示，歌词表达了一种不确定性和疑问，但或许人们不需要明确的答案。只要去聆听鸟鸣，大自然和春天，你就会找到答案。“我希望歌词能真正触动每个人的心。”

“Just as spring will always come after winter, Shenzhen will soon embrace a spring with full blossoms,” Wang said.

“就像春天总会在冬天后到来一样，深圳一定会迎来春花烂漫的胜利。”王芳说。

Usually, Castagneto spends about one month creating a song, but not this time. “I’m so moved, how a group of strangers can come together in such a short time to create a song that is so beautiful and supportive,” he said emotionally.

李东成一般花一个月左右的时间创作一首歌曲，但这次例外。“我很感动，一群陌生人，怎么能在这么短的时间里走到一起，创作一首如此美妙和给予别人力量的歌。”他动情地说。

Shenzhen Daily fully participated and recorded the production of the song, and made an MV for it. As the first media institution that reported this story, Shenzhen Daily also made a bilingual video which was promoted by Shenzhen Musician Association and Shenzhen Federation of Literature and Arts Circles. This music cooperation also attracted other media outlets such as web portal sina.com to cover.

作为首家报道此故事的媒体，英文《深圳日报》全程参与并记录这首歌曲的创作过程，并精心制作了音乐MV，这支充满城市温暖气息的抗疫题材的中英双语短视频得到深圳市文联、深圳市音乐家协会、福田区公共文化体育发展中心等接力转发传播，也吸引了新浪网等媒体的关注转发。

Editors: Lin Songtao, Jane