Dai Chuan's new album "Chivalrous", the "happy to carry the road" mentioned in the copy first caught my attention. There are very few popular music works in the impression that can define "zaidao" as an appeal. It can only be said that Dai Tsuen really stands in a higher dimension to recognize music, and the ultimate goal of the creation and presentation of his works has gone beyond simple auditory stimulation and advanced to a deep level of thought and spiritual influence.
Of course, if you stand in the traditional point of view, this kind of thinking is extremely self-consistent. Because the use of music to shape personality and indoctrinate ideas has always been a fine tradition of our nation. It can be seen from this that the core of the album "Chivalrous" is actually to return to the roots, prompting the song to return to its original state, while highlighting the musical expression and at the same time being able to exude cultural charm.
This is a difficult "topic", and it is not a routine "national style" to achieve the goal. In "Chivalrous Journey", Dai Quan is precisely actively jumping out of the conventional rules and making unlimited attempts, integrating the elements of trend music and national opera, integrating Chinese culture into the modern context, and realizing the perfect combination of national style and national essence. It's not that there are no musical works that do similar things, but it always seems to fall in front of several types of problems: either formalization, the depth of fusion is not enough, resulting in the music is not pure. Either there is a lack of balance, between modernity and tradition, and between local and international, there is always a lack of harmonious coexistence...
The album "Chivalrous" has found a solution to the problem. Even if we don't talk about its spiritual and cultural attributes, just pay attention to its various measures at the musical level, it is good enough. Dai Tsuen clearly has a clear musical blueprint, and he knows how to frame the entire album. He also has a comprehensive approach to how to create and produce ideas. This is not accidental, because this is a natural "outburst" that he has experienced after accumulating in abundance. The previous studio works such as "Wukong", "Don't Play Tsuen", and "Passers-by" are the process of his continuous in-depth exploration, and when he comes to this "Chivalrous Journey", it will naturally have results.
The effect here can be understood as, first of all, that he has developed a distinct personal style. Now it is possible to define his works in terms of "Dai Tsuen-style national style", because there are different temperaments and flavors in them. Secondly, he has also developed a unique skill, singing, creation, production and other dimensions, he has shown a commendable doorway, which is the recognition refined through the practice of successive works. In the end, of course, he also created an exclusive concept, about music, about text, there are systematic thinking. This album "Chivalrous" is essentially a conceptual product.
In this sense, the album "Chivalrous" can be described as a collection.
Its success spans both macro and micro. At the macro level is the concept. The content contained in "Chivalrous" is not unfamiliar to us, so the extremely easy situation is that it is "cliché". In order to create freshness, the album is the first to subdivide the overall concept into three directions: "hero", "guest" and "line". This distinction can concretize abstract content and be more precise in terms of track settings. "Chivalrous" wind bones of "Chivalrous Travel", "Moonshine Mountains and Rivers", etc., "Guest" tender "Yellow Plum Smoke and Rain", "Pouring", etc., "Walking" of the free "TaoQing" and "Blowing in the Wind", each song corresponds to a unified imagery, and the songs can be related to the feeling of a series, which in turn makes the album have a hierarchical and dynamic development.
The existence of the concept is bound to enhance the sense of narrative, which means that the album's interpretation of "chivalry", "guest" and "line" is in a "storytelling" way, rather than statically displayed. As a result, the things and people in the song will appear vivid and vivid. Just like the album's eponymous track "Chivalrous Journey", it is clear that the chivalrous spirit in literary works and folklore is vividly presented.
I think you can understand that the album is to construct a chivalrous world for the listener, in which the ancient and modern flashbacks are staggered, and the rivers and lakes are projected with reality. It's an imaginative idea that deserves to be supported by music that is equally imaginative.
Although he attaches great importance to tradition, Dai Tsuen's thinking is not rigid and conservative, on the contrary, he is an advocate of subverting established rules. To illustrate this point, it is necessary to mention the album's many exquisite aspects at the micro level.
One is the unconventional song structure. The album can be called the "National Treasure Award", the Peking Opera in "Chivalrous Travel", "Moonlight mountain and river", the Huangmei opera in "Huangmei Smoke and Rain", the Kunqu opera in "You Are Not Stained in the World", the "Daoqing" involving Yangzhou Qingqu, and the Nanjing dialect and opera in "Falling Heaven". The emergence of so many traditional theatrical elements is destined to affect the structural design of the song.
We can no longer measure it in the regular format of popular songs. In terms of the song "Daoqing", the laying logic of the whole song is to combine modern music with traditional opera, specifically to form a dynamic interaction between "song" and "drama". This is quite innovative in substance. In this song, which is inspired by zheng Banqiao's "Ten Songs of Daoqing", "Old Fisherman", there is a silent, untraceable natural generation between modern music and traditional opera. There is no sense of separation between the "song" part and the "drama" part of the song, and the transition between the passages is completed through the transition of music and the echo of vocal singing. Another example is the magnificent "Moonshine Mountain and River", which appears in the Call and Response of Peking Opera and Nianbai-style rap, and the promotion of the song has always maintained the state of "competition" between China and the West. Therefore, its sense of hearing will be distinguished from the usual popular songs to a certain extent, not the sequential main song chorus progression, but the free and bold improvised "pairing".
Such a song fully interprets the definition of a good spirit.
Second, the arrangement of the music is complicated and not complicated. There are many national elements, but instead of relying on simple addition to enhance the auditory effect, it is more in a precise proportion. Dai Tsuen is good at grasping the main points and giving the song a specific charm with iconic instruments. The erhu solo in "Pouring Drink" shows sorrow and thoughts. The flute in "Dao Qing" plays the length and tranquility of affection with a delicate sound. The guzheng that appears together with "You Are Not Frosted in the World" and "Mountain Rain Is Coming" shows Qingyue and beautiful sounds. The jumping bamboo flute of "Falling World" is brisk and dashing. The flute in "Blowing in the Wind" is a figurative expression of the artistic conception of "red dust like a dream".
The pursuit of artistic conception is the focus of the arrangement. Especially in the process of the collision of different musical elements, the dreamy mood of the strange and bizarre is particularly strong. Taking "BiYi" as an example, the arrangement logic here has the characteristics of "ambient music", with the core of creating a sound field with a significant sense of space. In addition, it is to make different musical elements achieve a novel combination, the piano and strings of the main body to add electronic dot timbre, electric guitar, four strings, harp and other plucked timbre convergence, coupled with sudden out-of-tune processing, the overall soothing march is full of unexpected changes. That's what's special, there's always something unusual in a seemingly ordinary design.
Third, the ever-changing vocals. While the album showcases Dai Tsuen's comprehensive and groundbreaking musician abilities, as a singer, he further strengthens the appeal of the vocals. What should the vocals that fit into the concept of "chivalry" look like?
Atmospheric, majestic, resolute, far away... These include. On this basis, he placed more potential on the vocals in his works, especially when interacting with various national operas, and the complexity of Dai Tsuen's voice colors was fully displayed. In "Chivalrous Journey", it is the penetrating power of Zhiyuan, "Pouring" is the gentleness of affection, "Huangmei Smoke and Rain" is the gentleness of low groaning, "Moonlight Mountain and River" is the tenacious tension, and in "Falling Heaven" is the relaxation of freedom. Usually on the same album, the vocals of the singers emphasize coherence from beginning to end, and Dai Tsuen shows a "amorphous" diversity. In my opinion, this is precisely through his voice in the interpretation of the spiritual essence of "chivalrous behavior", dashing and frank, fearless and sincere.
To put it simply, listening to him sing is an artistic pleasure and a spiritual shock.
Overall, the album "Chivalrous" is the most idealized work of Dai Quan at this stage, and it has done the best in all aspects. It is crucial that the national essence is carried forward in an innovative way and the culture is passed on in a unique form.