musicians of old

Chapter 272 The popular harmony acoustics course (4K [-] in [-])

More than 600 teachers and students in the classroom waited with expectant eyes for Fan Ning, an honorary professor of the Composition Department, to talk about his "Introduction to Harmony".

They were all curious, what was in the mind of this great musician who could write so many wonderful works including the "First Symphony" when he was composing?How did the four courses including "Introduction to Harmony" have a profound impact on the current state of artistic creation as he said before?
"Let's look at something casual first, the kind that is purely intuitive and does not need to go deep." Fanning started with this sentence.

The chain gear slides, and three small sliding blackboards, each with a score of 16 bars in length, gradually descend to a suitable height behind Fanning.

They are fragments of famous orchestral works of masters in the Middle Ages, Benedictism and Romanticism.

"They are all very familiar works, do you think there is any trend of change?" Fan Ning asked.

From the front of the stage, there were a few professional casual answers, which showed that these students had a relatively solid foundation.

Fanning smiled when he heard the words: "Frankly speaking, as the times move forward, the notes are becoming denser, the rhythm is becoming more difficult, the number of lines and temporary numbers are increasing, and of course, their expressiveness and drama are also gradually expanding."

Without any deep and abstract induction, even lovers of the outer court can understand it.

"We all aspire to write good music like the masters, so the textbook "Composing" defines some commonly used music vocabulary names, summarizes some commonly used writing procedures, and the most important thing is to combine the masters' amazing The heart-pounding fragments are combined into cases and discussed in different categories.”

"All in all, our artistic creation is mostly driven by inspiration, and the role of theoretical textbooks is to accumulate the essence of inspiration from masters into towers for our reference and imitation."

"It's always a good idea to study the works of predecessors. Those geniuses stand at the highest point that human inspiration can reach. If we don't follow the path opened by the masters, we may not achieve anything."

"But the problem is that it's too difficult to learn." Fanning pointed to the music examples. "I used to doubt my life because of them. Why can't I write these exciting music? The ears said it sounds good, and the brain said No, it won’t be like learning it.”

Fan Ning's complaint made empathetic laughter come from the audience.

It turns out that this talented composer, facing the master's feelings, is the same as our perspective.

"The problem is definitely not with the masters, right? The problem is with us. The vast majority of ordinary people are not so inspired. Although they are willing to use diligence to make up for the gap, art doesn't seem to buy us."

"There are problems with our analysis and learning methods!" Fanning said frankly, "and now the romantic music vocabulary is becoming more and more complicated, and the extensive theoretical system of "Composing" can no longer meet the needs of the art period! Use inspiration singles Fighting alone is dangerous and not universal, we urgently need rational assistance and theoretical innovation!!"

"Before innovating the "Composing" system, we need to clarify a problem—"

"What are we talking about when we're talking about composition?"

Fan Ning turned around, "swish" twice, and circled two ovals on the score on a blackboard. They were long and narrow, vertical, one left and one right.

"It's harmony."

"The time of music flows from left to right on the score. When we pay attention to the 'vertical' relationship when composing, we tend to think about the sense of hearing of 'multiple notes sounding at the same time', so there is a The Harmony."

He made two strokes of "唰唰" again, and circled two ovals on another score. This time they are long and narrow, placed horizontally, one up and one down.

"It's counterpoint."

"When we look out for 'horizontal' relationships in composition, we're actually thinking about melodies. Nobody writes boring monophonic music these days, and in polyphonic passages we figure out how to make two or more melodies work in harmony , even if it’s the main key piece, we will also consider how the movement of the melody complements the movement of the bass and other accompaniment parts, so there is "Counterpoint."

For the third time, Fanning drew several large dotted frames on the score.

"This is the form."

"Imagine a vertical axis, and then a horizontal axis."

"The thinking of harmony tends to be vertical, but not always vertical. When harmony follows the changes of music, it takes on a horizontal meaning."

"The thinking of counterpoint is horizontal, but not always horizontal. When considering how the pitch and rhythm of two melodies complement each other, it takes on a vertical meaning"

"The difference between harmony and counterpoint is not clear-cut. There is also counterpoint in harmony, and there is also harmony in counterpoint. When the former has a greater proportion of thinking, the written piece of music is more tonal, and when the latter is greater, it is more tonal. Polyphony and when the vertical axis of harmony and the horizontal axis of counterpoint meet, they form 'faces'!"

"'Sides' are the macrostructure of the work. We need to think clearly which 'faces' the music under pen will contain, whether it is repetition or change, what comes first and then what, so we have "Musical Form Analysis"."

"And finally."

This time Fanning took a handful of red, blue, green, and yellow chalks.

He dyed the note heads of different voices in the score in different colors.

"This is the orchestration."

"We didn't just invent a musical instrument. The same pitch and rhythm, different timbres will produce completely different effects. We have to consider what kind of character to give them, so we have "Orchestra."

"Now, back to the original question, when we're talking about composition, what are we talking about?"

"Vertical harmony progression, horizontal melody counterpoint, horizontal and vertical interweaving musical forms, and musical instruments with different timbres and personalities are the directions that the extensive "Composing" should be refined. "Harmony", "Counterpoint", "Musical Form Analysis" and "Orchestra" will be introduced in four months."

Some concepts or ways of thinking that were vague in everyone's minds were gradually wiped away by Fan Ning at this time.

It turns out that a piece of music and a set of composition theories should be considered in accordance with these four dimensions. It is not that I have not considered them on weekdays, but many times they are too tangled and mixed, and my thinking has never been as clear as today!

"It is true that music writing is not a math problem." Fanning said, "We use theory to guide composition step by step, and we may not be able to write master-level works, but the key lies in-proportion, or probability!"

"Most of us can't become masters of music, but combining rationality and inspiration, it is easier for ordinary people to get close to their great ideas as much as possible. The original mediocre craftsman may be able to become a young artist; the original young artist may be able to Become a famous artist; and those seekers who have risen to a higher place and are only short of the last barrier may lack a mastery of reason and inspiration."

Many people think that music theory is something that only mediocre majors can learn, and that real masters are free-spirited and creative. This is wrong. This is actually some kind of wishful thinking.

If you look carefully at the biographies of music masters, not to mention all of them, at least [-] to [-]% can find words like "I was in a certain university during xx, or studied harmony/counterpoint/composition with a certain person".

Masters are precisely the group of people who have learned the most solid music theory.

Fan Ning opened the teaching plan he prepared: "Well, it needs to be emphasized again that due to the limited class time, I can't explain in depth. My four courses are just 'introduction'. Please focus more on changing your thinking and seeking inspiration to build a good foundation. A framework for a new body of knowledge."

"Then, let us start from the first course "Introduction to Harmony" and gradually embark on the artistic path of fusion of reason and inspiration."

More than 600 teachers and students who have fully entered the state sit upright, hold pens tightly, and listen to the lecture with their ears pricked up.

"Two tones are sounded at the same time, which is the 'harmony', and three or more tones are sounded at the same time, which is the 'chord'. Their different combinations continue down, which is the change of the 'harmony' of music." Fan Ning went straight to the point, Concise and concise.

"There are three kinds of common chords: the combination of three tones is called a triad, the combination of four tones is called a seventh chord, and the combination of five tones is called a ninth chord."

"In our regular vocabulary, the chord structure is stacked in three degrees. The lowest note is the 'root note', and the upper note is called the 'third note' and 'fifth note'. No matter how the relationship between the notes in the chord changes, these names It's all fixed."

"We use chords, which can be in original position or inversion. Take the simplest C major chord as an example, do-mi-sol is in original position, and the octave position of some notes is changed in inversion. .After raising do by an octave on top to become mi-sol-do, the span of high and low sounds becomes a sixth degree, so this first inversion is also called 'sixth chord'; and then raise mi by an octave on top After becoming sol-do-mi, this second inversion is also known as a 'four-sixth chord' because the span includes a fourth and a sixth."

"Next, I invite two students to come on stage and silently write down the table of the original position and inversion of common chords"

Fanning first sorted out the simplest definition of harmony, from composition and inversion, to the TSDT (dominant-subordinate-dominant-dominant) functional system of positive triads.

If "Basic Music Theory" is high school mathematics, then courses such as "Harmony" are probably equivalent to calculus. For first-class public school music students who already have a solid foundation, it is easy to understand these things, just like high school graduates learning Freshman courses are generally connected naturally.

However, everyone felt that Professor Fanning's summarization was extremely systematic, comprehensive, clear and orderly, and this part alone surpassed the popular "Composing" in terms of "teaching plan quality".

"Then start teaching the basic principles of four-part harmony writing."

From here, for the first time, the audience has a feeling of great surprise.

As the most basic form of serious music, four-part harmony is similar to the sketch of art and the scale and arpeggio of the piano. It is the basic skill that composers should practice first.

A well-drawn sketch is also a treasure of art, and a well-played scale and arpeggio is also a natural sound. In the same way, even if the masters write a simple music framework with four-part harmony, it is also beautiful enough to tear.

But it is painful for beginners.

The principles are all memorized, the cases are all understood, once you learn it, you can write it down, there are imprecise flaws everywhere, and it sounds particularly embarrassing and ugly.

In several sound academies in Tiolein, those who can write the simplest four-part harmony beautifully can be called ruthless people wherever they go, and even piano geniuses and grade leaders have to obey.

For the vast majority of students who are not enlightened, it can be said that there is a general existence of "metaphysics".

I have no choice but to feel, imitate, try and revise repeatedly according to the cases extracted from the works of masters. If I can’t learn it, then I don’t have enough inspiration.

But then Fan Ning completely restored and concretized the hidden principles behind it!

Starting from the basic principles, he taught everyone how to write bass, explained the connection skills of sixth chords and triads, terminated/passed/auxiliary forty-six chords, and the application of dominant seventh chords in various situations.

As for why the master's works are so good, he analyzed how the key notes in those fragments function, and named them as passing notes, auxiliary notes, sustained notes, and pre-appearing notes according to their functions.
He pointed out that the beautiful harmony of the masters is the alternate use of dense arrangement and open arrangement. Finally, he also explained the practical skills such as harmony connection method and melody connection method.

All perceptual cognitions have been corroborated by rationality. These people who think hard on weekdays are very relieved, and when they see the sun, they also discover their great misunderstandings in the past.

——The music that I always thought was beautiful in the past must have been composed of a large number of colorful chords under the burst of inspiration. I almost tasted it in daily practice, and it was usually attributed to insufficient inspiration.

And Fanning's presentation made them discover that the first problem in harmony writing is not to diverge inspiration and find colorful chords, but to make the existing chords arrange in the four-part harmony Rigorous and accurate!
The connection of each part, the conflict of intervals and the direction of resolution, whether the chord should be in the original position or inverted, which sounds can be omitted, and which can be repeated. The reason why a serious music is natural is that one more note is redundant, less The absence of a structure is precisely because the creators have refined the simplest music material, rather than abusing colors throughout the text, piling up double notes, thickening octaves, or stuffing a large number of arpeggiated passages to pretend to be grandiose.

As long as you follow the principles proposed by Fanning and master these skills, even if you simply use I, IV, and V chords, you can write a few bars of very pure and beautiful classical four-part harmony!

The 600 audience in the audience were really convinced.

As Fanning said, harmony acoustics is an "experiential subject", and the reference standard is good music, but people's acceptance of "good music" varies in different periods
However, he has simply grasped the experience of "how to make music sound good" and turned it into a theoretical charter that can be practically operated!

Although it is tiring and troublesome, it is really useful. You no longer have to search for inspiration and make random revisions when writing!

The plan for this round of courses is 3 mornings and 9 hours. In the evening after the first day, Fan Ning continued to polish the follow-up lesson plans in the office of the administration building of the Academy of Music. He suddenly felt that the image of the people outside the door Outlined in the mind.

So Fan Ning raised his head with a pen: "President Xu Ci, please come in."

The knock on the door came a beat later, and Professor Xu Ci who opened the door hastily took off his top hat: "

Professor Caroun, urgent consultation, can we change the venue for the second class tomorrow morning? "

Several old friends have passed away. Xu Ci, who is already the dean of the School of Music, is the most familiar with Fan Ning in the school. He is one of the attendees today, and he is not polite at this time.

"What happened?" Fan Ning asked suspiciously, "Isn't the number of seats for this course a fixed 400? And more than a hundred small stools can be added to the aisle in the open space?
"You don't know how violent the response is." Dean Xu Ci smiled wryly, "With your popularity, it was already popular to add seats before class, and the reaction after this class spread again. Starting from noon, the Music Academy We have also received a large number of new audit requests, among them are students who did not grab extra seats for audit today, faculty and staff from the School of Music and other schools, and people from the music industry from other schools.”

"Now the number of people who want to sit in has exceeded the number of people who are enrolled in the course! Many people are looking for a place for a place, and they find me here layer by layer. Some people who can't make it in time in other cities even call to inquire about Professor Fanning's "And What is the next lecture schedule for "Introduction to Acoustics"?

"The school has already fully anticipated your popularity, but I really didn't expect that an internal elective course would rush to the outside circle!"

(End of this chapter)