musicians of old

Chapter 891 "The Secret of the Unending Journey"!
The shadows beneath more than a dozen top hats writhed violently forward.

It was as if something wanted to break free of its shell, yet it was still lured by the allure of knowledge, stopping, stepping back, and wanting to sit back down.

"Why are you in such a hurry to leave again?" Fan Ning laughed when he saw this.

Can music theory be unified? This is indeed a question that Fanning has long considered! However, there are too many subjective and objective limitations!
On the one hand, his time preaching and enlightening in the old industrial world was too short. He had just begun to popularize traditional theories when he encountered various changes. On the other hand, Vanning himself was a cautious person. He was wary of high-level knowledge, which could easily devour him if he was not careful. If he had not fully digested and integrated the wisdom of his predecessors, he might have brought trouble upon himself or ultimately fallen into the abyss of the "Secret of the End." Therefore, Vanning had not taken any bigger steps in this regard for a long time.

This continues until the post-apocalyptic generation, which stagnates at "noon".

On his journey, Fan Ning originally only wanted to collect some "starlight" to comfort himself and to think things through some of his past depression and unhappiness. However, the Descent of the Gods Society came knocking on his door ahead of time, and he was forced to participate.

Fortunately, he managed to adjust his mindset to a very harmonious state during the early stages of collecting "starlight".

With the accumulation of several masterpieces, the attainments of a "torchbearer," and the wisdom of his predecessors, he now sincerely thanks the divine intervention that "urged" him to complete his vision of a "unified" music theory ahead of schedule!
"get out of class isn't over yet? We're going to go overtime by five minutes."

Fan Ning smiled calmly, raised his wrist with an air of seriousness, and glanced at the erratically spinning dial.

In a bizarre scene, the bones of these standing "gentlemen" cracked as if they were under immense pressure from a conflict, and they walked like puppets, one step at a time.

That distance of more than ten steps from the "classroom door" took almost a minute to walk and we were still not halfway there!

As for the other "shadows" outside the seats and aisle.
They wanted to move, but were as if trapped in the thickest amber; they wanted to escape, but their will was completely melted by the sweet poison of knowledge!
They could only sit there stiffly, maintaining an extremely contorted posture. Their upper bodies tried to lean back out of fear, their hands and feet tried to lift off the ground, while their necks and heads stretched forward desperately as if drawn by a magnet. Countless eyes were wide open, almost bursting open, filled with extreme fear, intoxication, and a frantic expectation of being "fed" or even "bursting"!
After saying "five minutes overtime," Fan Ning did not speak immediately. He just stood there quietly, his gaze slowly sweeping across the entire "lecture hall," as if he had been there for an eternity.

Finally, his deep voice broke the silence, each word like a stone thrown into a deep pool:
"We have traversed the pantheon of music."

"We studied harmony, the foundation of vertically stacked order; we delved into counterpoint, the rational dance of horizontal interweaving; with the blade of the Schenker system, we dissected the flesh and blood of the 'foreground' of music, explored its 'middle ground' veins, and touched the divine remains of the 'background'; then, we ventured into the wilderness of modernity. The theory of pitch sets gave us a new compass, allowing us to name the atonal stars; the theory of musical transformation allowed us to witness the true nature of music as a process: displacement, reflection, retrograde, expansion and contraction. How these transformation operators drive the deformation and leap of sound, how they outline a dynamic relationship map in the web of transformation, achieving the supreme art of time and space."

"but--"

Fanning lowered her voice even further, with a chilling allure, as she asked the question that the "things" present both feared and craved most.

Have we truly touched upon the primary force that drives the transformation itself?

"Have we found that 'one' that can generate all basic structures, all sets, and all transformation rules?"

Fan Ning stood quietly in the center of the podium, like a statue that had just been awakened. She no longer looked at any "shadows," her gaze unfocused, fixed on the distant, unknown heights.

Even at the level of music transformation theory, the status of knowledge is already equivalent to "Purely or incomprehensible." Now, Fanning's words only account for a very small part of the elements. Many concepts can no longer be expressed by words of experience. A near-stagnant silence permeates the classroom, except for those "things" that are still struggling in a strange posture.

Fanning seemed to speak again, her voice low, yet it pierced the air like a tangible ray of light:
"The harmony, counterpoint, Schenk, convergence, and transposition we have learned before are all illusions."

In a single sentence, he made a startling remark, but he immediately added, speaking slowly and heavily:
"Or rather, they are appearances. They are not errors, like blind men touching an elephant; they truthfully describe the parts they touch, but they are not describing the elephant itself!"

He slowly raised his right hand, his five fingers spread out, as if to grasp the invisible presence in the air.

Does the following sentence sound familiar?

“Indeed, just as the ‘Gathering Point’ and ‘Radiance’ were once located at the highest point of the world, the full picture of divinity could not be seen, only a partially collapsed silhouette could be described. This is why there are the seven phases and the secret power of history, the mystery of music, and the ‘radiance’ of art. Similarly, there is a ‘Source Point’!”

Fanning's voice carried an almost painful reverence. "'The Convergence Point' is destroyed, and there is no art in this world now, but it once existed. That ineffable, inaudible, absolute musical essence once existed. My conclusion today is the origin and destination of all sounds, the 'radiance' that pervades all dimensions, and the 'first cause' that drives all artistic phenomena!"

"This 'First Cause' itself is infinite chaos, pure possibility, and truth leading to truth! His position is too high; mortal beings and witnesses are not essentially different when facing Him. Only in order to be captured by the limited perception of artists and formed into specific works, He must 'collapse'!"

"He must strip away most of his infinite truth, his vast 'sparks,' leaving only an extremely limited aspect, and project it onto a specific, low-dimensional plane of cognition."

Fanning paused for a moment, allowing this concept, which had not yet been "named," to seep into the minds of the entire world like a poison.

Now, listen carefully.

“Harmony!” Fanning’s left-hand fingers lightly plucked, as if an invisible dominant seventh chord had fallen on the piano keys. “It is the surface grammar formed by the collapse of the ‘first cause’ in the extremely narrow dimension of vertical tension and resolution. It captures the sporadic echoes of ‘inclination and satisfaction’ in the ‘glowing’!”

“Counterpoint!” He intertwined his fingers in the air, drawing polyphonic lines. “It is the rational precepts formed by the collapse of the ‘First Cause’ in the dimensions of independent lines and synchronicity, reflecting the broken reflections of ‘order and interweaving’ in the ‘radiance’!”

Fanning's gaze suddenly sharpened again, and the three timeless words that had appeared many times before appeared on the blackboard: foreground, middle ground, and background.

“而申克分析法！它天才地窥见了一个更深层的坍缩结构！但它追溯到的那个所谓背景，那个所谓基本结构——那条‘3-2-1’，那条‘1-5-1’——就是源头了吗？”

This work, which is not a musical piece but surpasses all that he has written so far, is about to be completed. Fanning poses questions and answers, his tone becoming increasingly fervent!
"That's still not the source! It only gave us a tool to observe the 'first cause,' a lens with adjustable magnification! The information is still collapsed. No matter how much you magnify it or how much you shrink it, what you see is still a structure under a specific fractal perspective!"

“But the theory of pitch sets!” He suddenly turned in another direction, “It captures the collapse phenomenon more precisely, more atonally, more distorted, more hidden. On the question of ‘what it is,’ it is almost truly close to the ‘first cause’! But unfortunately, the ‘first cause’ pervades the entire world and is constantly changing! The theory of pitch sets is just an infinitely precise camera; what you capture is always a partial, static thing!”

“As for the final theory of musical transformation!” Fanning almost shouted, “it merely describes the path left by the power of the ‘First Cause’ as it leaps, deforms, and transmits between different collapsing structures! Doesn’t it resemble something? That’s right! The Transcendent Realm! The words, teachings, evolutionary traces, and divine legacy of the Witness Lord form the Transcendent Realm, but you can never obtain all of the Witness Lord’s true knowledge through the Transcendent Realm!”

Time seemed to stand still in the entire distorted "lecture hall".

All the writhing shadows, the flowing slurry, and the cracked walls came to an eerie halt in the face of this series of denials. Only the omnipresent, ghastly green light, like the beating of a dying heart, flickered uncertainly.

Indeed, about a dozen "gentlemen" eventually walked out, but they only walked from inside the classroom to outside, and were still blocked by the dense "wall of people".

The rest of the blurry figures under the brim of their hats made no further attempt to make a move.

They instinctively concealed all their presence, as if trying to shrink themselves into an inconspicuous point.

An unprecedented vigilance replaced all their previous "interest" and composure.

The person behind it definitely heard it.

This includes another dictator who initially tried to offer a knife, but Fanning rejected his "good intentions."

These beings heard it; Fanning was about to touch upon that realm even the "secret of the end" remained shrouded in secrecy—the realm that unified all musical theories, whether the rational "candle" or the chaotic "end."
"Now, finally, let me tell you my name. The name of that unified theory, what exactly is that 'first cause'—"

Fanning's gaze swept over the figures tormented by desire and fear one last time, and a cold, compassionate smile appeared on his lips.

"The secret of endless rest."