musicians of old

Chapter 788 "Alpineists"

I'm afraid there is no melody as simple in composition as Schubert's D.960.

But if you follow its simple texture, you can read a deep sense of eternity, and even experience the joys and sorrows experienced by different people in the course of different time and space.

It somehow feels like the beginning of a documentary, with black and white images, people coming and going on an old street, and the camera pointed at a courtyard or a house number. But what kind of story it is going to tell and what kind of person the protagonist is are uncertain and ambiguous.

All I know is that it contains heartbreaking sincerity, deep wounds that can be seen through the bones, and tenderness that is so deep that it makes the world dark.

Fanning's fingers seemed to retain every note with infinite affection as they fell on the keys.

The slow second movement alternates between cold and warmth, tenderness and despair, lonely travel and dreamlike meditation; the scherzo movement suddenly becomes light and agile, with fingertips running quickly on the keys, bringing people to a dreamland for a short time, where melancholy is diluted to the greatest extent, and the unreality is diluted.
In the finale, the homophonic motive at the beginning is emphasized many times, bringing a subtle sense of breathing to the music, and everything gradually enters into a new and complex mood. However, the ending is unexpectedly intense, as if it is determined not to look back, and says goodbye with a smile in a strong performance.

"It is indeed the most perfect piano sonata in terms of structure and emotion since Beethoven. You played it so well, you must have practiced it many times."

"I haven't played it for many years. You can tell by the dusty state of this score." Fan Ning touched his hair.

He was extremely confused by the high quality of his performance.

"Too much modesty would be excessive," Zoë said.

Although D.960 does not require any showmanship, it is not easy to play. It has particularly demanding requirements on tone, layers and details. If you are not careful, it may sound long and boring.

But just now, it was absolutely at the level of a solo concert.

After the evaluation, Ruoyi continued to sit there, staring at the blank piano keys, without getting up or saying anything else.

Fanning kept their arms slightly touching, and he was kindly trying to convey some comforting body warmth without seeming abrupt at the moment - because the other person had been sitting on the piano bench, and when Fanning played, the different pitch ranges were played, and their bodies were somewhat crowded.

After a long time, Ruoyi finally got up from the piano and went downstairs.

"Are you ready to go?" Fan Ning looked at her squatting in the entrance hall changing her boots.

"Remember to continue writing your Andante." Ruoyi spoke as if giving an instruction.

"You didn't wait for me again." Fan Ning said immediately.

"I'm really sorry, there really isn't enough time." The other party's tone was very light and weak.

Fan Ning suddenly felt a soreness in his nose. He cursed inwardly at what he had just said, but he really didn't know what else to say now, so he could only give a dry "situation explanation" here -

"Ah, maybe it was just a strange whim before. After work, I hardly wrote properly. My thoughts were very interrupted. Every Saturday night when I got home, I mostly revised and improved the presentation. If I was lucky, I could come up with dozens of new sections. I'm not sure if I can finish this Andante, or at least it will take a very long time."

"For percussion instruments, try bells or something like that." Ruoyi stood up.

"what?"

"You are stopping here at the expansion section."

".I tried it, and then deleted it. I first tried some rhythmic stuff with the triangle, and then I included the glockenspiel, celesta, xylophone, etc. It didn't feel right, the atmosphere wasn't right, maybe it was a harmony or something like that."

"How about trying cowbells or snowbells? Have you ever heard similar sounds?"

Fan Ning was suddenly stunned.

The next moment, a strange light flashed from his eyes.

"How did you come up with the idea?"

"In the past, when I was traveling or hiking, there was a process of gradually getting away from the hustle and bustle of the town behind me or below me. The last worldly sound I could hear was the faint sound of bells behind me, the bells hanging on the necks of cows and sheep, or the bells of sleds," said Ruoyi.

".Looking back, I can feel a difference in the air at altitude, a little cold around, but freer and purer than in the middle of the valley, which makes me more determined than ever to praise everything good in life and ten times more gentle in my description of human beings than in my earlier works. In short, about the smallest details, I will now dare to pursue truth itself and dare to be a philosopher."

"The first half is you, and the second half is Nietzsche." Fanning stared into her eyes. Ruoyi said "hmm".

Nietzsche did believe that people should shape their own outlook on life through nature. In Human, All Too Human, he criticized the phenomenon that "travelers take great pains to climb to the top of the mountain, but ignore the beautiful scenery along the way."

However, this criticism has been overused in the inspirational literature of later generations, to the point of becoming one-sided and even vulgar.

In fact, what Nietzsche really wanted to emphasize was not "how beautiful the scenery along the way is", but people's thinking during the climbing process - re-examining and thinking about the problems that they cannot figure out on a daily basis during this process - to feel that they have become one with nature, and whether there will be any changes in their hearts.

"It's interesting to note that Nietzsche believed that he only truly became a philosopher after he returned from his trip to the Alps in 1881," Fanning murmured to himself.

"'Alpineist'." Ruoyi suddenly blurted out a new term.

"Georg Simmel?" Fanning smiled, understood instantly, and then spelled out a name.

Ruoyi didn't expect that he could catch her inexplicable thoughts so quickly, and she couldn't help but smile: "Simmel is also a great German philosopher."

Simmel once used the term "alpineists" to describe this type of people who existed in society at that time. They were people who liked to hike away from the hustle and bustle and to think carefully about important issues that were of great value to themselves.

His academic focus is on urban sociology, monetary philosophy and individual freedom. He is concerned about the situation of ordinary individuals in a "atomized" state in big cities. He mentioned that after a person has been suppressed in the city for too long, they will maintain their own uniqueness through psychological alienation.

In other words, “self-preservation through distancing.”

But not everyone is lucky enough to achieve this kind of "self-help", otherwise there wouldn't be so many people who are depressed all day long.

"According to Simmel, I have to thank you one last time, haha." Fanning's smile gradually became a little bitter.

"Oh?"

"Fifty thousand dollars. Simmel said in The Philosophy of Money that modern people gain freedom of action through materials such as money."

Of course, after obtaining "currency", some people let themselves sink deeper into the city, such as the spendthrifts, while others use it to try to save themselves, such as the "alpineists".

"You're welcome. Buying a painting is a transaction." Ruoyi put on her shoulder bag.

The door was turned and pushed open, and the cold wind of the late autumn night blew in.

Fanning stared at the figure in the light red windbreaker for a long time.

He stared for a long time at the black hair and the belt flying back in the wind.

He felt like there was sand in his eyes.

"Well, Fanning, I was wondering—"

The girl suddenly turned around.

"Hmm?" Fan Ning immediately moved his feet and put his face in the dark where the entrance light could not reach.

"I was thinking, in ten days, should I try to find the most perfect place to look at the stars above my head?" she repeated what she had said before.

“How perfect is the most perfect?”

"Just find a mountain top that is high enough. The Alps may not be high enough. Go to Himachal Pradesh and find a mountain in the Himalayas."

"You mean, you?"

"It could also be us."

"."

Fan Ning was stunned, he stared at the other person in a daze.