musicians of old

Chapter 319 Symphony No. [-] in C Minor, I
"Mr. Kaplan?"

"It seems like it's been a long time since I've seen him in the public eye."

"He was trying his best to be there, so I'm afraid it's not appropriate."

The audience present naturally knew him, but before standing up, many people did not notice that he was present today.

It should be said that this conductor has won a lot of respect in the music industry. Although he became a monk halfway, the orchestra's series of god-level performances so far are inseparable from his hard work and sweat behind him. The baritone performance at the New Year's Concert also made Very impressive.

Before, some music critics pointed out that he seldom performed on stage in official performances, and teased that this was related to his "playing ticket experience" from a financial background, but they were quickly attacked by rebuttals with detailed arguments. .

For a symphony performance, the performance on the stage is everything for the audience, but for the artist, more than [-]% of the factors have been determined in the rehearsal effect, which is consistent with the solo logic of "practicing piano off stage - performing on stage" of.

There are not a few people who have heard Kaprun's stage rehearsal—a group of artists, music critics, cultural dignitaries, and distinguished customers of the "art naming" partner who are close to the troupe all appreciate his Professional level and research attitude are like a treasure.

Kaplan's musical insight is too strong, and he is too sensitive to details and defects, so that he is willing to be a behind-the-scenes artist who checks for omissions and fills in the gaps, and gives the final blow of perfect performance to others.

In fact, he is not aggressive. If he is in the role of appreciator, he is very tolerant of other people's flaws and willing to communicate and encourage.

But he couldn't tolerate flaws in his hands.

This kind of person is too in awe of art, even to a somewhat morbid level.

In fact, loyal fans of the old symphony orchestra would like to hear him perform the baton himself sometime.

But the fulfillment happened right now, and many people's moods became so complicated that they couldn't cheer.

Capron moved the rows of seats out of the aisle, he felt pain all over his body.

It feels like someone is holding a long nail, aiming at the bone seam and hammering continuously, or piercing the joint adhesion with a hook, and then picking out the fascia and flesh inch by inch.

At least hundreds of parts.

"Compared to finance, my inferiority complex to art may be even worse. I am always overly aware of my own lack of ability, and then when facing experts, I shrink back wisely..."

"A paradox of... inferiority or self-confidence out of rational cognition?"

".Sometimes they are limited to a corner of their professional repertoire. They may not have as many reserves of serious music works in their minds as you, and may not be as familiar with various interpretation methods as you are."

"Believe in your ears, believe in your professional learning achievements and accumulation of appreciation experience."

"If you have less time than others, then there are some steps that you have to take sooner or later, and you need to take them earlier."

I have to say that mind-wandering is a bit serious, but before the music is played, the advantages of coping with the pain outweigh the disadvantages.

The audience sat quietly, their eyes following the shambling figure as it moved.

"Artists should applaud when they go on stage" is a piece of common sense that mediocre people in the market know, but it has been forgotten by everyone.

When Kaplan was about to walk to the podium, only the technicians of the record company reacted and pressed the start button to start the recording.

Kaprun put the score on the music stand and opened the cover with a shiver.

After a short while of movement, his back was already icy cold.

From the hole in the podium he drew a perfectly new public baton that was hardly ever used.

This action made the musicians pick up the instruments reflexively, and the audience began to clean up the last sporadic coughing.

Kaprun's legs were trembling, but his right arm raised the baton solemnly and steadily.

The motivation, harmony, counterpoint relationship and expression terms of twenty or thirty voices flashed in his mind. These pictures, which had been rehearsed countless times on weekdays, flowed and resolved, and finally stopped at the dialogue with the composer himself. fragment on.

"How should the opening temperament here be presented so that the audience can feel the so-called 'sense of deterrence, sense of judgment, and sense of epic'?"

"If the introduction of the "First Symphony" is "penetrating silently", then here, you might as well try "tearing out suddenly from the silence"."

As his chest heaved up and down, Kaprun slowly closed his eyes and opened them again.

Wrist wraps the cue clap in the air, then dips down lightly but decisively.

The sudden uneasy tremolo was poured out by the string group, and the strength of ff fell to the background of unstable strength.The cello and double bass played the rough and powerful "Interrogating Motive" fragment in C minor with stronger intensity.

The first movement, funeral march, solemn allegro.

Furious, restless, highly dramatic.

The audience felt that a hole had been pierced through their souls in an instant.

What was born for, how was born, and what kind of past is worth remembering?
"Interrogation Motivation" makes its first movement in a fractured form, combining extreme stillness and extreme fast interspersed, shining black light of sharp breath.

Some kind of prophetic picture inexplicably emerges from the audience's eyes: In the lonely cemetery shrouded in darkness, a sudden glow dawns, the soil cracks, and the stone monument trembles.

impossible in reality.

But this scene seems to be just a flashback of the plot, which will soon fade away with the end of the introduction.

The music enters the presentation section.

"If the afterlife could be witnessed, I would like to see myself lying majestically beneath wreaths and flowers."

Some of the words on the title page of the composer’s manuscript flashed in his mind, and his left hand indicated the beat, and the oboe and English horn (alto oboe) played the first theme, starting from the whole note and making a long and difficult line upwards Climbing up, with a bit of chilling torture.

The clarinet, French horn and violin are stacked one after another, while the "interrogation motive" of the double bass is always wandering and sweeping in the shadows, forming a polyphonic counterpoint like a torrential rain.

Connecting sentences, the whole band enters a continuous descending line.

Two bars of a dark minor scale, followed by two bars of a more tense chromatic scale.

The color conflict of the harmony stretched to the limit, and the rumbling sound of timpani appeared in the sky.

"Crack!—"

The excruciating pain brought about by the raising of the arms was exchanged for the big and small snare drums smashing down together, twenty or thirty copper pipes roaring upwards, and the knocking of big gongs and big cymbals made a shocking and ear-piercing sound.

Kaplan felt that his vision was starting to blur.

It was only a short while.

However, it is a minor factor.

The initial struggle gradually subsided, and the lingering triplets of the double bass made the color transition to E major, which is seven keys away.

Control the beat carefully and gently.

The violin plays the second theme in the pastoral style, and the French horn uses four-part harmony as counterpoint.

Warm fourth-degree jumps, simple ascending scales, and melodious and tactful detours.

The composer here, as always, sings praises to life and nature, as if revisiting the morning light and youthful years of the school days.

After a short period of tranquility, Yinzi's uneasy tremolo and "interrogation motive" reappeared.

Every deceased person should be subjected to this solemn interrogation and must answer before being buried.

Undoubtedly including myself.

He waved the beat, the first "torture theme" was presented at an accelerated speed, the band gave firm support on the downbeat, leading to the brass group's hopeful, trumpet-like third "resistance theme", and the violin played a strong dotted downward tone group as a response.

These motives soon develop into a vast cluster of expositional themes, culminating in a chant-style formulaic fusion.

Sweat dripped from his brow, his body undulated slightly with gestures, and the heavy steps of the double bass gradually weakened.

The expansion part begins with the violin, and the lyrical passage in C major is developed with the theme of the second pastoral.

The flute and clarinet took over the thoughts of tranquility, and the tonality moved down to B major, which outlined the warm twilight, but the sudden restoration of the sharp re sound dragged the audience into the lonely night of B minor.

In the dim and silent repetitions of the string group, Kaprun led a very special group of woodwind ensembles.

Although it was not the first time, he was still amazed by the composer's insight into the orchestration. The combination of the bass clarinet and the alto oboe made the flowing melody seem to walk alone in the dark night.

In this lonely pulse and breathing, he couldn't help thinking over and over again.

He was thinking over and over that the elements of a funeral are really the most essential tone of sorrow for human beings.

He was thinking over and over, those mischievous lives had nothing to praise, yet the living would hear it again and again, hearing countless hasty and worthless traces.

The strings once again appeared uneasy dotted downwards, and the sound of horns blew all over the mountains and fields, until the introduction "Interrogating Motives" roared, and he waved his hands tensely and chopped off——

The two violent percussions of the drum, gong and cymbal, as well as the downward octave hammering of the timpani, ruthlessly smashed the midnight wandering thoughts into pieces.

The atmosphere was too ominous and abrupt, and the audience was terrified.

The string group tremblingly descends in a chromatic scale, turning into sharp-edged dotted rhythm groups. The trombone and tuba blow the melody that was once used to walk through the night. Legato fragments.

As the music develops into near-chaotic out-of-control, the French horn opens up "Doomsday"'s solemn motives.

This chants material from the Gregorian era is a vital seed. Although it disappears briefly in the wind and rain at this time, it will blossom and bear fruit in the final movement, inheriting the solemn "Hymn of the Resurrection" .

But the audience at least found that the sad tone of the general funeral march has been completely abandoned under the hands of this conductor, leaving only the sharp knife and lightning that cut through the black sky, allowing everything in the world to be fully revealed in daylight.

The theme group in the reproduction department showed a more subtle counterpoint relationship than that in the presentation department. Kaplan felt that he was summarizing something, summarizing in stages, and he believed that the "mirror surface" should be wiped clean Wuxia should be able to observe the reflection of the entire life of the deceased from a higher perspective.

The proposition about death is palpable, and the turbidity is dissipated and nothing is left, just like reaching the top.

He wanted to make eye contact with the musicians who lived with him day and night, but he found that his vision seemed to be filled with oil mist, making it impossible to see everyone's facial features clearly.

As I thought before, this is not the most important factor for a conductor, and pain and weakness are more of a hindrance.

But after all, it means that part of the body has already begun to die.

Fortunately, the ears did not die first.

So he suddenly thought of such things as records.

In fact, recordings cannot be played back indefinitely. There is a limit to the number of times a person can listen to each piece of work in a lifetime.

He felt that if he had more time, there would be at least a batch of works he liked, and he could listen to them again.

It's one thing to philosophize about death, it's another to want to live on.

But if you have no other choice, it feels good to leave an extra set for someone else.

Maybe the last few movements, I can record better.

At the end of the reenactment, in the uneasy funeral pace of the harp and double bass, the C major chord of flute and oboe suddenly pierces, and the mi is lowered in the sustain.

The blunt major and minor tones are forced to be put together, with a hint of ominous warning.

The composer did it on purpose.

Under the sudden diminished seventh chord of the French horn, the whole orchestra descended to play a chromatic sentence in a storm, and the first movement ended after two weak pizzicatos.

If this is only a symphonic poem describing a funeral, its achievements and characteristics are enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with the "First Symphony".

The symphony hall was completely silent, and the audience was unable to move their necks because of the frightening atmosphere of the first movement.

Like a sublime long poem, too sublime to be terrible; like a terrible long poem, too terrible to be sublime.

The audience felt like they couldn't take a big breath, but Kaplan was panting heavily.

He took out the vial from his pocket, poured out six small green pills, and chewed them directly in his mouth.

The cracking sound of the pill breaking was a bit peculiar in this situation, and a small group of people pulled out of the stagnation, and their eyes were filled with deep worry in a blink of an eye.

Because Kaplan leaned on the podium pole with both hands, he fell into a long silent standing.

In fact, these 20 minutes or so have been the most intense activity he has consumed in the past few months.

But there is more than an hour behind the Second Symphony.

He has been holding on to the railing for 3 minutes and has not moved. Maybe someone can go up. It is suggested that he lie down and rest for a while, even if he waits for an hour.

The musicians sat quietly, and by the 4th minute, some listeners were already considering whether to applaud.

Because this can be regarded as a god-level debut of an outstanding work.

The cough that had been suppressed for too long began to sound, and some rustling signs of trying to applaud also began to appear.

At this moment, several masters in rows 6-8, including Niemann, Schillings, and Swellink, stood up, turned to face the audience in several directions, opened their arms, and made a gesture of silence , and then turn around and sit down again.

Although the music has not yet been published, but due to their personal relationship and the completion of the first movement earlier, they have seen the score of this movement.

Fanning noted "at least 5 minutes of rest" at the end to temporarily forget that too terrible incident.

Most of the audience didn't quite understand it yet, but the master's reminder made them sit up straight again.

Finally, Kaplan looked up again.

The conductor let go of the railing, and in a field of vision covered in oil film, he groped his fingers on the score and slowly closed it.

I can't watch it anymore, and it's okay not to watch it.

It's just that before taking the stage, I didn't look at my wife and daughter more, which is somewhat sad.

This move still caused misunderstanding for most of the audience, but he raised the baton again.

Moreover, a smile appeared on his dry and scorched face.

(End of this chapter)