Beethoven and the Blind Girl, by Friedrich Bertemüller (1845-1913).
Rudolf Buchbinder in front of The Beethoven's Tomb in Vienna's Central Cemetery
"My Beethoven - Life with the Master"
The movie "Soul Breaking blue bridge" recreates the scene of musicians extinguishing candles one after another
Music in Paradise Castle – The Biography of Bach by John Elliot Gardner
Manuscript of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata ◎ Wang Jiyan
In last week's article on the opening concert of the 2022 new music season, the Beijing Symphony Orchestra's public account introduced the works performed in the second half: "In the second half of the concert, Huang Yi, one of the most high-profile young conductors in the international music scene today, will conduct the Beijing Symphony Orchestra and present Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in C minor to the audience. Just as I was admiring this untitled normative writing, the next paragraph that followed was "Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is the most representative of his total symphony compositions..." It turns out that this text is uncertain whether Beethoven's Fifth Symphony needs to be titled. ”
Entanglement of punctuation marks
The public account of the National Centre for the Performing Arts has been consistent in this regard, that is, concertos and symphonies are all added to the title of the book, such as "At the two-day concert of the 14th anniversary of the establishment of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, the orchestra will work with Rao Hao to bring Chopin's "Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor" and the piano concerto "Yellow River" to the audience under the direction of music director Lu Jia. In the second half of the two concerts, Lu Jia will conduct the orchestra to perform Dvořák's Ninth Symphony 'The New World'".
When it comes to the writing of music titles, our orchestras, performance agencies and the media have always been fragmented, and it is hard to expect that this situation will change in a short period of time. One of the reasons why it is difficult to achieve unification and standardization is that everyone does not care too much and feels that they are insignificant and trivial. If you compare the expression habits of various scripts in Europe, the birthplace of symphonic music, you will find that in fact, normalization can be achieved by reference.
In the case of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, for example, neither the native German of Beethoven, who composed this masterpiece of the symphony, nor the English language, which is more widely used in publications, programs, and audio productions, does not bear the title of the book. The reason is that when a symphony or concerto, suite, sonata, etc. is only identified by the key and the sequence number as the title of the piece, although it refers to a specific work, that is, a piece made by a composer based on a certain key and ranked as the number of similar works, it is not suitable for the function of the title of the book, that is, to indicate the title of the book, the title of the article, the title of the newspaper, the file name, and the title unique to a certain work of art. That is to say, it is one or one of a certain type of work, with tonal and ordinal numbers, and in many cases there is a uniform number of works carried out by the composer himself or for all the works of the composer as a sign, most commonly identified by the opus abbreviation of op. or by the initials of the person doing the numbering work, such as K or KV of The K or KV of the person who numbered Mozart's work.
If a symphony has a title, such as Dvořák's Ninth Symphony "Self-Renewal", in the case of the entire title being titled, the title that really deserves the "title treatment" has to be solved, as the public account of the National Centre for the Performing Arts has done, putting the title in quotation marks. This is not necessarily undesirable, because in European languages such as English and German, the title is in quotation marks. But in the Chinese's writing, the quotation marks play another role, that is, to arouse some kind of doubt or doubt, specific to the "new world", which becomes "what new world?" or "Self-Counterfeit New World". In fact, questioning is not non-existent, and whether the new world, or the non-new world, is indeed a question. The title of Dvořák's symphony masterpiece, which more Chinese listeners are familiar with and accustomed to today, is not "From the New World", but "From the New World", although the former is undoubtedly a literal translation closer to the original "From the New World". The reason is that this symphony was composed in New York by Dvořák, a Czech composer from the "Old World", expressing his impressions and feelings about the Americas as the "New World", and in the context of our acceptance of this symphony, the "New World" becomes the "New World".
According to the way the Ninth Symphony "New World" is written, the piano concerto "Yellow River" should also be written as the piano concerto "Yellow River", and few concert programs are written as such. The solution is the same, that is, to borrow the practice of the birthplace of the symphony, and to put the content of the song title other than the title directly in the text without the title of the book.
Tampering Forgery Extension
It is very rare that the "title" of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which seems to always be shadowy, "Destiny", does not appear in the above-mentioned beijing symphony orchestra statement. Could it be that the clarification of the title of this symphony in recent years in musicological research, especially in Beethoven's research field, is reflected here? This is also too optimistic, because the subtitle of the third paragraph of this text is "Interpreting the Classics, Closing the Door of Destiny". That is, "fate," a "title" that has been identified by more and more scholars and musicians as a pseudo-title, can be late, but never absent, as the familiar quote about justice says.
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony as a "Symphony of Destiny" and the idea that this symphony represents "fighting against fate" and "choking the throat of fate" have had a profound impact all over the world. But the fact is that Beethoven did not write "destiny" or related words on the score of this symphony, and all his letters and talks never mention that the symphony has any connection with "destiny".
So why did "Destiny" become the title of this symphony? Anton Schindler, who had been Beethoven's assistant and took care of various performances and publishing affairs, wrote after Beethoven's death the book "The Beethoven I Know", in which Beethoven one day pointed to the opening of the first movement of his symphony in C minor and said: "That's how fate knocks!" ”
The Schindler had a bad reputation for destroying documents and falsifying documents in Beethoven's research, and beethoven left behind about 400 talk books (Beethoven's deafness increased in his later years, requiring the other party to write down the conversation when talking to people) was destroyed by himself, and of the remaining less than 150, he crammed in many of the contents forged by himself. Later experts in criminology have confirmed Schindler's unbelievable bad behavior through handwriting identification. It is also a reminder of the need for careful screening of Beethoven's words and deeds as described by a man who had presented himself as Beethoven's spokesman and authoritative interpreter. As for the motivation for the opening of the Fifth Symphony, Beethoven's student Carl Cherny offers a very different account, saying that Beethoven was inspired by the chirping of the goldfinch he heard one morning, that is, there was no "knock of fate" at all!
In the world of classical music, from ancient times to the present, there has been a powerful "title party" that is closely related to "title music", but often irrelevant, because the classical music "title party" is keen on the same thing as its descendants today, that is, to attract attention with spurious pseudo-titles, although, in many cases, it is indeed out of good intentions, and even to admit that their practice has done a great job in promoting the wider attention of musical works and stimulating the imagination and feelings of listeners. There are many works that do not have titles at all, that is, symphonies and sonatas that do not need to be titled, have the title number or quotation marks, and these titles are difficult to delete even if they are proved to be pseudo-titles, and they are always with the work.
One of the most famous examples is Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. If we follow Beethoven's score, this piano sonata should be labeled "Piano Sonata No. 14, C minor, Op.27 Nr.2" (Op. 27, Part 2), but we can see "Moonlight" as the title on the program lists of concert halls and art centers around the world, or on the covers of records or DVDs of major record labels like DG. In Baidu Encyclopedia, it is simply written as "Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor, also known as 'Moonlight Sonata' and 'Moonlight Song'".
The legend surrounding the sonata is widely known, and Friedrich Bertemüller, born 17 years after Beethoven's death, also based on this legend created a painting in what is considered to be "Kitsch", a vulgar sensational work with no artistic value and vulgar taste, "Beethoven and the Blind Girl". The painting also appears in the book My Beethoven – Life with the Master by Rudolf Buchbinder, one of Beethoven's contemporary philistine authorities on piano music, but Buchbinder makes it clear to the reader that the title "Moonlight" is by no means from Beethoven himself, "what makes this work inseparable from the name 'Moonlight' henceforth is that the Romantic poets Ludwig Lylstab and William von Lenz will paddle on a moonlit lake as a metaphor for the first movement." And the paintings based on this mood and the fictional legend, even if they are completely "strange", have to face the fact that they do not rise to the elegance of serious musicians and researchers, but they make the first movement of this "Moonlight Sonata" a highly well-known "pop music", "making this sonata an eternal hit of classicism in a long time and space".
The "title party" also has credit
The "title party" of classical music has shown their talents to leave a permanent "title" in countless works, including more than a hundred symphonies by Haydn, the eldest of the three composers of the Viennese Classical School known as the "father of symphony". One example is the "title" "Farewell" of Symphony No. 45 in F minor, composed in 1772. This "title" does look a lot like the composer himself, because it is highly relevant to the feelings conveyed by the music—the epilogue of the final movement, to be precise—from the form of the performance to the music itself. All the way up to the fourth movement, everything seems to be proceeding according to convention, and there is no sign of saying goodbye. But suddenly, the music shifts from a rapid speed to a slow flex, a sad melody played by different instruments, and the musicians playing it continue to diminish, until finally the lonely chant of the violin leaves a lingering sound.
Is this symphony really a "farewell" scene and a feeling of attachment? Otherwise, why take such a unique ending. Later generations could not find any reliable explanation for this, only legends. One of them was that Haydn and his band of musicians were about to be fired by their master, Prince Estehazi, and that the musicians were neither qualified nor given the opportunity to fight for themselves in the presence of noble masters, when the musicians and servants were of the same rank. Musician Haydn decided to use music to convey the hearts of the big guys. At the end of the final movement, the musicians extinguish the candles on the music stand in front of them after playing their parts, and then they leave, first the horn, then the oboe, the tuba, and the strings. When there are only two violins left on the stage, the poignant sound is particularly touching. Who can not be moved by this heartfelt voice? Prince Estehazi has since dispelled the idea of firing a musician.
The movie "Soul Breaking the Blue Bridge" recreates this scene: the heart-to-heart hero and heroine are dancing, late at night, the final dance song "All the Way to Peace" sounds, the music becomes more and more soft and affectionate, the musicians have played their own voices, extinguished the candles, and left the seat...
In 2009, coinciding with the 200th anniversary of Haydn's death, Daniel Barenboim and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra interpreted the title of the fourth movement of Haydn's 45th Symphony, "Farewell", in a perfect way at the New Year's Concert of that year, impressing the audience at Vienna's Musikverein and the worldwide audience who watched the concert live on television. When the band members kept finishing their performances and leaving the stage with their instruments, Barenboim showed a look of surprise and puzzlement, but there was nothing he could do, so he had to "harden his scalp" and continue to conduct. Just as he was counting how many other performers were still playing on the stage, someone else got up and left. He waved his hand helplessly, which meant "Forget it!" Just go.". When only the first and second violins were left to play on the stage, he left the podium, walked over to the young second violin, touched the violinist's hair with his hands, and his face was filled with a smile that was both grateful and flattering, which meant: "You are such a good boy!" You're not like those people..." But both players also quickly got up and left! The conductor held a baton in his hand and looked at the empty stage with a sad face. Such a dramatic scene, the predecessor "title party" is indispensable.
Of course, there are many works in classical music that "bring their own titles" without bothering the "title party", including berlioz's "Symphony of Fantasies", which has no serial number and is directly titled as the title, and there are symphonic poems "Ode to the Red Flag" and piano concerto "Yellow River".
The English conductor John Elliot Gardner points out in the preface to The Music in the Castle of Paradise – The Biography of Bach: "When words are involved, people's attention shifts from form to meaning and interpretation. The problem is that title music is different from many musical works with titles added by the "title party", the former's title points to a specific meaning, and the title, as a word, can prompt, guide and define the interpretation of meaning.
One of the most typical examples is Smetana's symphonic poem Suite My Motherland, especially the popular second poem "The Voltawa River", knowing its title, appreciating the poetic intimacy with his music and the praise of the magnificent mountains and rivers of the motherland in the words written by the composer himself, which will produce essential changes and sublimation of the musical experience: "In the depths of the Bohemian forest, two clear springs spring out: one warm and gushing, the other cool and quiet, they are the two sources of the Voltava River. The two streams meet in one place, and the waters are rattling and shining. Passing through the Bohemian Gorge, it transforms into a wide river. Through the dense woods, hunting horns blow in the distance. It passes through the grassy fields and pastures, and the dance music of the country wedding is sung on both sides of the river... The river flows magnificently and openly to Prague, through the ancient city of Vysehrad..."
In such music, the title and explanatory text of the words do not necessarily divert the listener's attention from the form, and in the sensitive, attentive listener's mind, the words can even strengthen the attention to the form, such as the two clear springs gushing out from the depths of the Bohemian forest corresponding to the melody of the melody at the beginning of the song with two flutes intertwined.