Enjoy the music | meditate in listening

Text/Lei Jian

If it were not for a "meditation", Masne would have been forgotten by time and would have been silent.

Masgne

Born in 1842 in the Loire department of France to a family of senior engineers, Jules Emile Masne showed a talent for music from an early age, and was sent to the Conservatoire de Paris at the age of 11. After graduating in 1863, he won the Grand Prix de Rome with a chorus and went to Rome, Italy, for three years, where he began his career as a professional composer. He was a brilliant pianist who could have made a career playing the piano, but after arriving in Paris from Rome he made a living teaching music and playing percussion in some bands, and composing music.

In 1867, his first opera "The Aunt" was staged, and since then Masné's theatrical and musical works have been published, such as "Don Caesar of Bazin", "Elini", "Mary of Mudala", "Eve" and so on. His opera Manon, written in the late 1880s, was also listed as one of the three favorite operas of the French people, along with Bizet's Carmen and Gounod's Faust. Masgne's musical style was very influential in the French opera scene at that time. Romain Rolland commented that in the heart of every French composer lay a dozing Masne.

In 1894 he wrote the opera Deis, in which a violin piece from the second act became a classic and has survived to this day. This is the "Meditation" that is often interpreted by violin masters.

"Deis" is based on the novella of the same name by the French writer François. Born in 1844, Analto François published his first collection of poems, The Golden Psalms, in 1874 and wrote the famous Crimes of Sylvester Ponard in 1881. He became a member of the Académie française in 1896 and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1921. The novella Daisy was written in 1890.

The story takes place in the 4th century. Baphnos, abbot of the Monastery of Antinoy in Bataiyed, Upper Egypt, lived in seclusion for ten years, and one day he recalled his past life away from God in the ashram, examining his mistakes religiously, remembering that he had seen a beautiful Youyis in the grand theater of Alexandria, thinking that she was destroying her own soul while destroying the souls of others, and was determined to save her. Baphonos made the long journey to Alexandria and found Deis. He was amazed by Deis's beauty, he stabilized his once shaken heart, resisted the temptation of Deis to commit herself to him, and painstakingly advised Deis, and finally made Deis, who came from a poor family, repent and followed Baphnos to the monastery in Alexandria and converted to Christianity.

Grandma Albina, the abbot of the monastery, led Deis into a hut with only a bed, a table and a kettle. Deis, who had suddenly woken up, "was filled with infinite joy when she stepped on that threshold." Baphonos sealed the door with mud and told Deis, "I will seal it and let Jesus open it with His own hands." Grandma Dean sent someone to bring water and bread to Deis every day, and gave her a three-hole flute for her to repent and atone for her sins in the hut. Two years later, When Baphnos learned that Deise was seriously ill, he hurried to the convent to visit her and confide in her his admiration. But Deis was terminally ill and muttered to herself, "The sky is open, and I see the gods, the prophets, and the saints... They approached... How beautiful they are! ...... I see God. Then she died in infinite joy. The once fireworks woman became a saint and ascended to heaven, while Baphnos was rebuked by the abbot's grandmother and the nuns' merciless laughter.

Meditations (also translated as "Deis Meditations") is a violin piece in the second act of the opera that shows Deis meditating and repenting in the hut. The music is a three-part process, starting from the pious and quiet line board, the fiber is unstained and transparent, the appearance of the changing tone in the second paragraph indicates the fluctuations of Daisy's heart, and the third part of the music returns to calm, and Daisy's confession prayer is sublimated.

This innocent and quiet piece of music is like Aunt Albina telling Baphnes about Deis practicing in the hut: "From the moment you left, she closed in your enclosed hut. I brought her food, and a flute played at a banquet by a girl of her kind... Deis played the flute all day to praise God, and the virgins were all captivated by the sound of this invisible flute, saying: 'We hear the song of the nightingale in the woods of heaven, and Jesus crucified like the song of a dying swan.' In this way, Deis atonement for her sins. Sixty days later, your sealed door opened on its own... God has forgiven the flute girl's sins. ”

Think about it, from the world of red and green wine to the silent monastery of the world, the brocade and jade food suddenly became coarse cloth, there was no repentance, no heart like water, absolutely unable to accept this earth-shaking change, and would not be so quiet and pious. That is why Masne wrote down this sacred music, which is so quiet that it is best to listen to alone.

Originally a song that expressed the divine spirit of religious repentance, with the passage of time, its spiritual connotation has changed, and it has become a piece of music for people to pin their emotions and meditate. All those who learn the violin, without exception, will sing this famous song with the violin. In the 1990s, the British magazine Classical CD listed the 20 most popular violin pieces according to the number of recorded versions, and this less than 6-minute "Meditation" ranked ninth with 48 versions. And that's not to mention, most of the 20 violin pieces selected are huge works, with three exceptions: Bach's "Partita", Saint-Saëns' "Introduction and Whirling Capriccio" and Masne's "Meditations", not even Sarassati's Carmen-themed Fantasia.

The opera "Deise" is rarely performed now, and "Meditation" is not a frequent repertoire at concerts, but occasionally violinists play this skit when they return from solo concerts. In my opinion, most Western classical music needs to be listened to in a concert hall or with friends, except for Masne's violin piece "Meditations" that needs to be listened to alone, and to be listened to in a quiet environment without disturbing ears, and any murmur will destroy the mood conveyed by the notes. Because only when you calm down, your thoughts will follow the music into the composer's heart, listen to the composer, and communicate with him in the air.

【About the Author】

Lei Jian, media person, philharmonic person. Since 2019, he has written articles to interpret Western classical songs from the perspective of reading original literary works, and has become a series.