In Shanghai, feng control receives a lot of anxious information every day. So I decided to start the "Piano Essay" healing department companion radio station on the WeChat video account "Luo Wei's Healing Pavilion" from the evening of April 11. It's like opening a "late-night cafeteria" that serves healing music, broadcasting from 22:00 every night to 10:00 the next morning, passing on some quiet power.
Young composer Rowe
There is no fixed menu in this "late night canteen", and I wanted to start with my piano essay and gradually add the sounds of nature, as well as the vocals. Every night, I will choose different content to play according to the weather and mood of the day, and accompany everyone to sleep.
Over the years, I have written 364 piano essays, totaling about 1460 minutes. City life is messy, but music can quiet me down. In the beginning, I just wanted to record my mood in the here and now into music as a kind of healing for myself. I often work all night, and after struggling, a beautiful song pops up in the morning.
The shortest of these pieces is only two minutes, and the longest is only more than 5 minutes. Catching up with the wave of Internet audio self-media, they have accompanied many people. One of the listeners had depression and often needed sleeping pills to fall asleep. But he told me that the music was like the sun shining into his life. This became the reason why I insisted on writing piano essays, it turned out that so many people listened to it, listened to it for so long, and it turned out that music can be so powerful.
In June 2021, I saw notes hanging from the trees of sinan mansion
I am a native of Guangzhou, and I came to Shanghai to study more than ten years ago. Piano essays were born in Shanghai, so the most written is Shanghai. Of the 364 piano essays, nearly 250 were given to Shanghai, from "Julu Road Lin Shen" to "The Long Huashan Road", from "Yan'an Elevated Serenade" to "The Bund Walk", which pieced together a special map about Shanghai. Sometimes I add real sounds, such as the sound of driving on the Yan'an Elevated Highway, the rain on Guilin Road, the cicadas on the plane trees in August, and the rustle of fallen leaves in autumn.
At the end of September 2020, after breakfast, quiet Wukang Road
The 365th "Piano Essay" has been recorded, and when I play the piano, I think of the cherry blossoms in Gucun Park, a faint pink. But this spring, the scene I depicted meeting the cherry blossoms was very illusory, so there was also a little sadness in the notes. The title was thought out, and it was called "A Letter to Shanghai from Spring."
I returned to Shanghai on March 22 after my performance in Chengdu. At that time, the epidemic in Shanghai was already very tense, in fact, there was hesitation, either to go back to Guangzhou, with my family, or to Beijing, where there are some equipment for creation and recording. In the end, I decided to go back to Shanghai, because Shanghai has given me more than just inspiration.
In the late autumn of 2020, prepare to record a new essay in the Healing Pavilion
When I was recording "piano essays" in my studio in Shanghai, I suddenly had an idea and wanted to adapt my "Prayer for Blessings" created under the epidemic in 2020 and send it to the city. I first finished recording the piano part, then wrote the instrument into a sheet music, contacted the orchestra to record online, finalized on April 1, and launched on April 4.
In "Blessings," I depict a dawn that may have been spent thinking about it over and over again while conceiving the motive, and the melody naturally flowed in my head. I hope to use this work to convey warmth and firmness, so that everyone can calm down, or relax and sleep well, which may be a small contribution I can make to society. Recently, I will release a song, a song with the Good Sister Band, a very gentle and healing folk song, and listening to it under the epidemic may have a different feeling.
Maoming South Road in August 2021
Our community began to seal on March 28, which happened to be my birthday, and I sent a piano essay "March 28, Good Night, Shanghai". Later, there was an argument in the group in our community over some things, and someone @ me said that there should be a piano concert of the healing department at this time. Now, hopefully my "late night cafeteria" can give them a little comfort.
I live alone in Shanghai during the epidemic, and occasionally I have feelings of loneliness and anxiety, but fortunately I have music. Recently I loved listening to a classical guitar record, "Amway" to everyone, is Yoshiori Muraji's "Music Gift to", which I have looped about sixty or seventy times. They are some well-known masterpieces, including film interludes, jazz songs, etc. Muraji Yoshiori's interpretation is restrained and connotative. I think in times like these, we need a little bit of rational, introverted strength.
In early 2021, see Pompidou on the West Bank
Whether it is life or creation, I will strictly follow a set of my own standard operating procedures. After going out to do nucleic acid, how to disinfect clothes and shoes, how many alcohol wipes and mouthwashes to use, there are standards, try to protect yourself. The same goes for cooking, where all side dishes are prepared in advance, even arranged by color. When I was creating, I also had my own standards, just like piano essays, which used to be mostly romantic, but for a while in the future, I hope to maintain a simple, warm tone.
The Huangpu River across the Chinese New Year's Eve in 2021-2022
In the past, my "piano essays" were naturally written more, such as "The First Fallen Leaves of Fuxing Park", "Spring Sprouts in the Afternoon of Sinan Road", "The Unfinished Rain on Guilin Road", etc. I prefer to observe the city from the perspective of a bystander. But the epidemic in Shanghai triggered me to care more about the people in the city, such as the clerk who stayed alone in the convenience store during the epidemic, and the neighborhood committee cadre who cried on the phone. We all had mixed emotions during this time, but these people made me feel that little kindness could convey tremendous power, and I would love to write them into my music.
Recently, I was sealed at home, and there was a positive in the corridor, so I couldn't be a volunteer, so I could only create well. What I'm writing is an album in collaboration with the Shanghai Library, trying to use music to deconstruct the relationship between architecture, reading, and people. I had planned to go to the library this April to play and record this "Reading Companion" album, hoping that the day would come sooner.
The Bund on June 21, 2021
Perhaps after the unsealing, when we return to the Bund, Julu Road, Huashan Road, those places depicted in the "Piano Essay", I think everyone will have a different feeling and will cherish it more. Just like chatting with friends recently, everyone is dating, and after unblocking, we must meet.
Near the Wukang Building in mid-March 2022