1990: Starting from Baojia Street

After Zhou Yan said this, he felt a little emotional. He had been busy outside in the past few years, and a lot of things at school had been neglected. Sometimes he almost forgot that he was a teacher.

Because he had been teaching for so many years, suddenly one day, he did not appear in the classroom or on the podium often. He did start to feel a little uncomfortable and missed teaching students on the podium every day.

With a slight smile, Zhou Yan continued, "When you were rehearsing just now, I was also listening to the whole process. After listening, I feel very gratified. The school's enrollment in recent years seems to be very successful. The overall level of your batch of students is very high."

This sentence is a bit of a polite remark. The level of this group of students is similar to that of other classes. There is nothing outstanding about them. Moreover, it is impossible to hear anything from just a few songs, unless each of them is singled out for a solo performance by Zhou Yan.

Although Zhou Yan's ears are capable of hearing clearly the performance of each member during the performance, this kind of temporary repertoire, combined with the ensemble, cannot reflect the overall level of a performer.

Ye Guangjie asked them to come up, certainly not expecting him to find fault with the students, but mainly hoping to encourage them.

Therefore, Zhou Yan was not stingy with his words of praise.

After finishing his compliments, Zhou Yan continued, "Of course, it is precisely because your level is so high that you should practice more often. The orchestra's performances are a good opportunity to practice, but when you are not performing, you should strengthen your weaknesses. I have seen some young people with very good levels who focus too much on performances and neglect their daily training, which ultimately leads to their level not being able to reach a higher level. It is really a pity."

This is Zhou Yan's heartfelt words, and it is also a common problem for many performers. After many performers have too many performances, they have no time to focus on their daily training.

After all, compared to training, performing is much more interesting.

This situation has happened before in their piano youth orchestra. Many students think about performing every day and usually only practice the pieces they will perform on stage.

For example, Ma Dongfang, for a period of time, practiced "Drinking the Yangtze River Water Together" and "Journey to the West Fantasy" very hard, hoping to perform better during the performance.

In the end, it was Zhou Yan who stopped it and stipulated that they must ensure enough time for practice and study.

Many performers remain the same for one, two, or even ten or twenty years, because they neglect regular practice and learning and always stay in their comfort zone.

After Zhou Yan finished speaking, before the students said anything, Sun Dong next to him complained, "Director Zhou, you don't know, the conditions of the school's piano rooms are very poor, and there are not enough of them. In recent years, the school has enrolled more students, and it is really difficult for students to reserve a piano room. Sometimes, if they have reserved a piano room, it's okay if they are studying violin or other majors, but if they are studying piano, many pianos in the piano room can't be used. I'm not saying that the teachers of the instrument department are irresponsible and don't take good care of the pianos, but the budget is limited, and many pianos are not in good condition even if they want to maintain them."

Ye Guangjie nodded and said, "Yes, and the piano room is soundproof..."

"Soundproofing should be fine, the piano room was built not long ago."

"Some of them do have problems..."

Zhou Yan felt something was wrong when he saw Ye Guangjie and Sun Dong singing the same tune.

Why did these two suddenly complain to him about the school facilities? And in front of the students? It was inappropriate for a teacher to complain about the school infrastructure in front of the students.

There are not enough practice rooms, and some of the pianos are indeed old.

Every teacher and student in the school needs a piano room. It’s okay during non-peak hours, but problems often arise during peak hours.

Moreover, conflicts often arise among departments over matters concerning the piano rooms.

At present, the Central Conservatory of Music has not implemented a fixed piano room system. Practice rooms are reserved by oneself. Whether or not one can reserve a practice room depends mainly on how early the reservation is made and how the management office arranges it.

Unlike later, students in each department had fixed piano hours. For example, students in the piano department had a quota of 150 hours per month, students in the folk music department had 120 hours, and students in other departments had 90 hours.

Now, because there is no such system, students majoring in piano often make a fuss, saying that they are the ones who need the practice room the most, but they are not allocated more time.

The piano room building is open sixteen hours a day, but it is still not enough.

However, Zhou Yan couldn't solve these problems.

Zhou Yan narrowed his eyes and looked at the two people, thinking that these two people didn't want him to donate a piano to the school...

This is treating him as a rich dog owner.

If Ye Guangjie and Sun Dong really wanted to get some benefits for the students from him, it would be a bit of a desperate move.

But Zhou Yan could also understand that the current situation of the Central Conservatory of Music was indeed very troublesome.

The Central Conservatory of Music moved to No. 58 Baojia Street in 43. At that time, there were only five tube-shaped buildings in the yard besides an ancient building. In 75, Premier Zhou Enlai personally approved the construction of the new school building.

Ten years later, a 16-story piano room building and a 7-story comprehensive building were completed and put into use in 86.

At the beginning, these buildings were barely sufficient, after all, the school only enrolled about a hundred students each year at that time, but now the number of students enrolled each year has more than doubled, and the number of students on campus has exceeded a thousand.

Today, the teaching rooms at the Central Conservatory of Music are already very crowded.

The school has also considered expanding the school building, but this is not something that can be accomplished overnight.

Moreover, the school’s main focus in recent years has been the establishment of the “211 Project” and there is no time to do other things.

A few days ago, Zhou Yan talked about this with Liu Lin. It can be seen that Liu Lin was also very worried about the project approval.

Liu Lin's health has not been good to begin with, and his complexion has been getting worse recently.

Last time, Liu Lin himself said something discouraging, saying that he might not be able to hold on until the 211 project is approved.

Liu Lin had wanted to take sick leave before, but because he was really concerned about the 211 project, he insisted on taking it until now.

The last time Zhou Yan met Wang Ci Zhao in the principal's office, Liu Lin was talking to Wang Ci Zhao about the project establishment of the 211 Project. Now all matters concerning the project establishment of the school's 211 Project have been handed over to Wang Ci Zhao.

Wang Ci Zhao is good at socializing and is indeed a suitable candidate.

Outsiders see the Central Conservatory of Music as being in a prosperous state, but few know that the school has a lot of issues that are causing it a lot of stress.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "In the past ten years, the school has developed rapidly, and teaching resources are indeed gradually stretched. The leaders are also trying their best to find ways to help everyone solve these problems. In a sense, I am a lucky person."

When the students heard Zhou Yan say that he was a lucky man, they became interested and curious why he said that.

"I entered the school in 87, when the practice rooms and the comprehensive building had just been built. It was not difficult for us to use the practice room at that time. We could usually make an appointment for the practice room during the golden hours in the evening. If it was during the daytime during the week, the practice room could basically be reserved at will."

The students all showed envious expressions. Who doesn’t want to be able to make appointments to the piano room at will?

"Teacher Zhou, you were so lucky before." "Yes, I am extremely lucky. Our seniors didn't have any decent practice rooms to use. Last time, I talked to Director Guo, Guo Wenjing. You should know that he is my senior in the same department. When they were in school, it was extremely difficult to practice the piano. They often had to run to the teachers' homes to borrow pianos... For our composition department, one good thing is that pianos are not a necessity."

"Brother Guo majored in violin, which gave him an advantage over other students who majored in piano. When he was composing, he could often just hold a violin and start."

Originally they were talking about the shortage of piano rooms, but when they heard Zhou Yan talking about the school's past, the students listened with great interest.

Although they are not from the composition department, they have heard many stories about the department.

There are two famous generations in the composition department.

The first generation is that of Tan Dun, Guo Wenjing, and Ye Xiaogang, and is known as the golden generation.

The other generation is the generation of Zhou Yan, Jia Guoping and Li Tao ten years later, which is called the Silver Generation.

In comparison, the Silver Generation seems to be less noticeable. Jia Guoping is still studying abroad, and Li Tao went to Zhou Yan's studio to do music composition. Zhou Yan, the most famous, is more famous because of his popular works.

"Teacher Zhou, what instruments do you use when you compose music?" a student asked curiously.

"Of course I'll use the bamboo flute. Teacher Zhou's bamboo flute is so amazing."

"Yes, I heard that Mr. Zhou is a master at playing the bamboo flute."

Zhou Yan majored in bamboo flute. Many students know that folk music still often plays Zhou Yan's songs, including "Floating Fragrance", "Drinking the Yangtze River Water Together" and "Journey to the West Fantasy".

As word spread about Zhou Yan's bamboo flute skills, they became more and more exaggerated.

His bamboo flute level was indeed similar to that of students who specialized in learning bamboo flute at the time, and was even in the upper middle level. However, after so many years, there has not been much improvement, let alone master level.

Zhou Yan smiled and waved his hands. "When I compose music, I basically use whatever instruments I have at hand. If I really don't have any instruments, I just use my brain to imagine it. When I have time, I will use instruments to verify it."

In fact, this is also the norm for most composers. When composing, musical instruments can only be auxiliary, and more often they rely on theory.

This is quite different from pop composition. Many pop song composers don't even understand music theory. They can just pick up an instrument and play it a few times, or even hum it themselves, and still create nice pop songs.

Because popular composition only requires simple melodies, music theory is not a must.

They don't need to understand anything about harmonic direction, texture, or orchestration.

At this time, Zhou Yan changed the subject and talked about the orchestra's performance. "Oracle Bone Script is Brother Guo's most eloquent work this year. In the music, he described the ancient legend of Nuwa mending the sky. In this work, he used fifteen instruments, mainly percussion instruments. The shocking feeling of the vocal part and the metal percussion instruments complement each other."

"Oracle Bone Script" is a chamber music piece for mezzo-soprano and fifteen instruments. This is not the first time that Guo Wenjing has shown his interest in percussion instruments, but it does indicate a change in his choice of melodic material.

When the students heard Zhou Yan's comments on their performance, they held their breath. This piece of music had been performed in Europe and received unanimous praise from music critics. One can imagine the pressure they were under.

Especially the girl in charge of the vocal department. After all, she is the only one in the vocal section, and her good and bad performance are very obvious.

Zhou Yan also looked at the girl. "Perhaps because this is a rehearsal, you want to put more passion into tomorrow's official performance, but I suggest you learn more about the story of mending the sky and find the feeling. I heard your control in the middle and low range, but the power is slightly insufficient. The mezzo-soprano in the vocal part should describe the scene of the sky breaking apart, causing chaos, the earth ablaze, and countless evil beings suddenly appearing, chasing and devouring innocent humans. Nuwa cut off four huge turtle legs to support the sky, repaired the defects, and restored order. Your singing needs to be full of fiery and heart-wrenching feelings, and the control of madness should be as free as possible, and it must not be hysterical..."

The female student said anxiously, "Teacher Zhou, please speak slower. I can't remember it all at once... or I can take a piece of paper and write it down."

Zhou Yan waved his hand, signaling her not to be nervous, "Don't remember these, just feel it."

After talking about the vocal section, Zhou Yan talked about the instrumental issues. "The four metal percussionists need to be stronger. In this score, silence is an important factor. Every single sound seems to break the continuation of silence. And the rhythm must be steady. Even when playing with all your strength, you must keep it steady and there must not be any problems. The essence of percussion is power control and stable rhythm."

Zhou Yan looked at the harp again, "Did you notice that Brother Guo only used perfect fourths and perfect fifths for the mezzo-soprano solo and harp sections?"

The students all nodded. They naturally noticed it, but they didn't know why. Guo Wenjing didn't explain this to them when he came before.

Seeing them nod, Zhou Yan smiled and said, "This is one of Brother Guo's changes. His current musical vocabulary and melody rely more on perfect fourths and perfect fifths, and have become more harmonious. Perhaps you have heard Brother Guo's previous work, Diary of a Madman, which was already very melodic. He found a good balance between modernity and melody. From Diary of a Madman to Oracle Bones, it is an attempt, a change, and also an extension and development. If you can understand the changes in between, you will naturally be able to better understand the work Oracle Bones."

When Zhou Yan was saying this, the conductor of "Oracle" kept nodding. Although Zhou Yan was talking to the harp player, in fact, what he said was more useful to the conductor.

At this time, Sun Dong couldn't help but applaud. "Director Zhou is worthy of being from the composition department. Your analysis of the song is really brilliant. I even have the illusion that you understand this song better than Director Guo. The last time I talked to Director Guo, he didn't seem to understand these changes in himself very well."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Because when creating, we usually don't think so much. For example, regarding the perfect fourth and perfect fifth, Brother Guo himself may not know why. It's just that there is a voice in your mind telling you to do this, and it's not conscious. At this time, we are more willing to follow the voice in our hearts. Many times, we can't explain the good results of the work, because these are properties that cannot be explained theoretically."

Ye Guangjie laughed and said, "Why do I feel like you are giving us a composition theory lesson?"

"This isn't called a composition theory class. It's just a hobby trial at best." Zhou Yan laughed. "That's all for today. I won't bother you with rehearsal any longer. I hope you can all perform very well tomorrow."

Sun Dong led the applause, "Okay, let's send Director Zhou off."

Zhou Yan waved his hand, turned around and walked off the stage.

Joey Wong was already waiting at the edge of the stage, and the two of them left the concert hall together.

Seeing Zhou Yan walking with a tightly wrapped girl, the students couldn't help but gossip.

"This can't be Mr. Zhou's partner, right?"

"Isn't Mr. Zhou married?"

"What a pity, I didn't get to see what Mr. Zhou's girlfriend looks like."

"I thought Mr. Zhou was with Joey Wong."

"Yeah, it was spread before."

Ye Guangjie coughed lightly, interrupting the students' gossip, "Did you remember what Teacher Zhou said just now? Although time is running out, there is still a chance to adjust. Teacher Zhou is not teaching now, it is not easy for you to hear him teach you."

"Thank you, Captain, for helping us get such a good opportunity." A student immediately flattered him.

Ye Guangjie was delighted, but he remained calm on the surface. "If I don't do this for you, who else can I do this for? Okay, rehearse well." (End of this chapter)