Cover news reporter Xu Yuyang
Picture according to the interviewee
For a long time, there has been a view in the music industry that music is music itself, and the only correct and effective way for us to appreciate music is through the analysis of music's composition, harmony, structure, etc. However, music is the art of hearing, and it is the most abstract of many art disciplines, the most difficult to describe in words, and the most erratic in personal feelings. A piece of music that a hundred people listen to usually has a hundred different feelings.
Based on this controversy, the music critics have explored the interpretation of musical works to varying degrees, both internally and externally. A musical work can be appreciated from many angles in the vast ocean of art, which is not only the need to understand music, but also the necessity of all artistic exploration.
Listening to Music in a Book
It is in this context that in April this year, Lei Jian's work "Listening to Music in the Book" was published, which was widely praised by the industry. Some of the articles in the book have been published in the "Appreciation" column of West China Metropolis Daily in 2021.
This book is casually sent and listened to in reading. The title of the book, "Listening to Music in the Book", is not only the source of inspiration for the author Lei Jian to write this book- "listening" to music in Western literary masterpieces, but also the result of his picking up and sorting out several small musical manuscripts into a book to feed the reader. In an exclusive interview with Lei Jian, he mentioned that to understand classical music, it is necessary to start from the original literary works that inspire composers to create ideas, and to explore the source from the original literary works.
"Write to yourself" – interpret what you love with what you are good at
Author Lei Jian
Lei Jian was a former professional media professional who, outside of work, loved classical music for decades. Hou Jun, who is also a media person and wrote the preface to "Listening to Music in the Book", recalled that Lei Jian's love and obsession with classical music has reached the level of "addiction", and every time the two meet, the headphones never leave the body. Occasionally, peers talk about music-related topics, and Lei Jian will immediately participate in the topic even if he is "pretending to sleep" on the side, and he is full of interest.
In the summer of 2019, Lei Jian walked to a bookstore after dinner and accidentally turned over the Norwegian writer Ibsen's poem "Pell Ginter". A few days ago, he had just heard the Norwegian composer Greg composed the suite of the same name for the poem. So, with a flash of inspiration, why not listen to Western classical music in the process of reading the original literature? He bought Ibsen's writings home, read a passage of the original work, and listened to the corresponding music.
From this, Lei Jian sorted out familiar music, made a list, found the original literary works, the biographies of writers and composers, and related materials, and consciously read and listened. Sometimes it is to listen first and then read, read and then listen, sometimes read first and then listen, listen and then write. As a result, this reading was out of control. In more than two years, Lei Jian has successively written dozens of musical notes and small manuscripts, all of which are obtained while reading and listening, thinking and thinking.
Many readers in the industry believe that "Listening to Music in the Book" has found a wonderful "entry point". As a media person, Lei Jian was originally a professional writer of "non-professional people". However, placing the "landing point" on the "book" transforms auditory appreciation into visual reading, which in turn extends to rational thinking and literary description. Lei Jian told reporters that writing is the basic skill of media people, and music is a personal hobby. The publication of this book is entirely the result of decades of listening. If there is no accumulation of classical music in the past few decades, without years of continuous reading, without the tempering of writing in media work, there can be no this set of articles, this book.
"For fans" – music is not only audible but also readable
Lei Jian life photos
Lei Jian mentioned that most of the previous understanding of Western classical music came from music critics, but many of them were from music theory to music theory interpretation, at most introducing the composer's life and music creation background, and almost no one introduced the elements of the title music that were taken from the literary masterpiece itself. "It's always a feeling of inadequacy for fans like me who don't understand music theory but love classical music."
Looking through the history of Western music, however, composers have begun to draw inspiration from literary works from the late classical period, especially the title music of the Romantic period. Lei Jian believes that to explore the composer's original intention of composing music from the original literary works should be a good recipe for understanding and interpreting Western classical music and the meaning of the title. Therefore, Lei Jian also does not agree with the one-sided use of curved styles, harmonies, structures, etc. to interpret music.
"The Western classic concert is a concert of the general public, there is no distinction between elegance and vulgarity, but when it comes to the mainland, it has become elegant art, Yangchun white snow, and it is separated from the people by life." I think it's a sad thing. Lei Jian said.
Lei Jian's involvement is not only literary originals, but also paintings, which are also an important source of inspiration for composers. Liszt drew inspiration from Korbach's mural The Battle of the Huns to create a symphonic poem of the same name; the Russian composer Rachmaninoff drew inspiration from the painter Böcklin's masterpiece Dead Island to write the symphonic poem of the same name.
Music is not only audible but also readable, which is the key to Lei Jian's writing of this book. "When I was writing Korsakov's Suite of Heavenly Nights, I suggested that the best way to listen to this suite is to read and listen to it while holding a volume of One Thousand and One Nights." Under Lei Jian's pen, the music spreads outward in the form of a origin, the music is no longer simple music itself, through a piece of melody, composers, writers, poets, painters, a living life jumps on the paper.
In fact, with the performance standards of mainland symphonic music gradually in line with international standards, in recent years, Chinese symphonies have also frequently made their voices around the world, telling Chinese stories in the world's language. As a result, there is also a tendency to create symphonic music based on Chinese folklore, folk customs and even literary masterpieces. Lei Jian believes that this is undoubtedly the effort of Chinese composers and deserves recognition. However, according to his personal opinion, classical music was born in the traditional mainstream culture of Europe, and its creative techniques, rules and thick connotations are also different from popular music and folk music, and it should be viewed dialectically against the current trend of such creation in the mainland.