musicians of old

Chapter 841, Fourth Movement!

Several people turned to look at Fan Ning.

Indeed, the first three movements of this symphony, commissioned to be performed at "noon," foreshadowed a sufficiently dark and sinful nature.

On the one hand, it is purely instrumental and has a regular four-movement structure, possessing a classical style in the full sense. On the other hand, it is driven by a desperate and rigid formalism, and contains a great deal of hidden temporal and spatial relationships!
Although its musical composition logic is "before and after", the performance is not presented in an absolute "before and after" relationship during the period before "noon". The materials are interspersed in parallel and develop progressively between different times and spaces. Even the performance order of the two middle movements, "Scherzo" and "Andante", is in a state of uncertainty and ambiguity!

No symphony in the world has ever presented the "power of secret history" in such a way!
"Is it almost burned?"

Fan Ning asked casually.

The music slowed down temporarily, and the most intense burning of the sheet music that had been set ablaze all over the tower had passed.

Small flames were scattered everywhere, the charred edges of the music paper curled up, and a lot of ash and debris floated in the air, as if we were in a weightless alien space.

If viewed from a distance, the scattered points of the fire also form this burning, blood-red six-pointed star.

"So, does 'its cost is incalculable' truly mean sacrificing all the artistic achievements of the world? Such a thing happened in History 0, and now."

“This is difficult,” Fan Ning chuckled. “Director, you see, regardless of whether any of you possess the authority to act on behalf of others, the key issue is that even after going to such great lengths to send you up, firstly, you might not be able to completely resolve the root cause of the abnormal zone's problems; secondly, the ‘new world’ under the Special Patrol Bureau’s control after this problem is solved—a new world devoid of art and humanities and filled with elitism and meritocracy—sounds rather foolish and uninteresting.”

“Master Fanning, you are about to become an Order Executor, not an ordinary person,” Pogrerich said. “If you live in a ‘well-governed’ new world, you can create change, put your ideas into practice, and you will have the space to exert power and protect the few people you care about. This is far better than struggling pointlessly in a ‘chaotic’ old world.”

“It is a choice, I suppose,” Fanning sighed. “Oh, I just remembered, back in San Pelto, the message given in your hall when you received the award was indeed ‘All you have to do is choose.’”

His hand had already been raised again, preparing for the next movement, but his eyes took one last look around:
"That's the 'card' in your room, right? So, what about the others? Are there any other people with unique ideas? Let's all reveal our cards, brainstorm, it's almost the end."

"The one in the wheelchair?"

"Mr. Marquis?"

"Lord Julian Coselli?"

"Mr. Corpse?"

"This nameless angel brother?"

Looking around, no one responded.

"alright."

"You see, the Special Patrol Bureau is the most proactive, so we can only let them come first. As for me, I have my own concerns and obligations to fulfill, so we'll continue in the final chapter."

"However, I must remind your department that the things you've done over the years, including these things you're burning now, are indeed a bit outrageous. There's an old saying in China..."

An old saying? The Chinese nation? Pogrerich was puzzled.

"It's only polite to reciprocate. If I smash something you care about later, please don't mind—"

Fanning's arms opened in a sharp arc in the air.

The bass drum and glockenspiel crash down from all directions, followed by a series of eerie and ghostly arpeggios on the harp! Symphony No. 6 in A minor, fourth movement!

Fanning brought everything to that final stage.

As the final movement of the suite in the key of A, the violin unexpectedly plays a melody in C minor that seems to be "looking up to the sky and asking questions." After several ups and downs, it finally stumbles back to A minor, which then leads to the long and almost suffocating introduction to the final movement.

The brightness of the surrounding rust-red fog was decreasing inch by inch.

Fan Ning closed her eyes, her hands moving slowly to a low, somber rhythm.

"You were there with me, definitely. During the creative process, and now during the performance, I'm trying to recall that scene, the illusion related to the swing. I can't remember any of the details right now, but I do remember some unforgettable words."

Like, really like.

The way this final chapter's introduction presents fragmented motifs is quite similar to the opening of the First Symphony, which evokes school days.

But the "breathing motif" that symbolizes the morning light and youth will never be there again. The introduction here is only the bizarre arpeggios played intermittently by the woodwinds, and the "third-cutting groups" of strings that repeatedly linger in the low register—the darkest characteristics stripped from the first movement, "Dark March".

"'A strong autobiographical quality'? Perhaps that's an apt description. If I had to choose a symphony to be called autobiographical, a purely classical instrumental symphony would fit my aesthetic paradigm."

In section 49 of the introduction, "Hymn of Darkness" appears in a more negative light.

The regular unison texture and half-note rhythm, which should have given people a pure and solemn auditory experience, were instead completely devoid of any momentum to continue playing, falling into a sluggish and lifeless state, and finally sliding down in a chromatic scale at the end.

The horn sounded shortly afterward, its notes leaping up and down, seemingly about to come alive.

This is clearly the "transition motif" that was played by the French horn at the beginning of the third movement of the Fifth Symphony!
The struggle between light and darkness—what a grand and inspiring topic! At that time, it was this clarion call that brought a different kind of light to the tunnel of darkness.

However, its subsequent interval relationships were quickly altered by Fanning, and it was completely distorted and deformed amidst strange trombone sounds and a broken chord relationship.

The third-degree cutting motif rises again in the bass register, and ghostly things writhe in the shadows.

"Carol, where are your 'foreshadowing,' where are your 'seeds of hope'? Aren't you the best at writing about the light of redemption, like 'resurrection'?"

“You know what? Although you’ve always claimed to be depressed and pessimistic, we’ve always denied it, because every symphony you’ve written before has a very positive ending! The first, second, and fifth are triumphs and victories of light, while the third and fourth are idealistic expressions of the spirit. They all end in major keys!”

"But why did even the 'Hymn of Praise' fail at the end this time? Didn't we have 'Hymns of Purification,' 'Hymns of Resurrection,' and 'Hymns of Light' in the past?"

In the latter part of the introduction, the French horn once again plays a long passage filled with beautiful ideals.

The dotted opening phrase, the ascending chords of triplets, and the continuous longing—this is the prelude to the "utopian" subheading of the exposition.

It liberates the musical atmosphere from the austere minor keys and those ghostly fragments, and presupposes a victorious ending, such as the glorious conclusion of "D major".

Fragmented elements are piled up layer by layer, rising one after another, forming a magnificent yet precarious audio building, which, along with the "utopian" theme, climbs to a peak of intensity.

"Om-"

The ominous "warning chord" sounds again, forcibly turning the major triad into a minor triad, and thus the 113-bar introduction of the final movement finally ends, and the exposition begins with a "grand and passionate" atmosphere!