"Taoist Nature"
——Talk to Professor Zhang Meilin about singing and calligraphy
Interviewer
Yu Zizheng, tenor singer, executive deputy editor of The Art of Singing.
Guests
Zhang Meilin
Tenor singer, professor, doctoral supervisor, director of the Vocal Art Center of "Bel Canto Forest". Vice Chairman of Jiangsu Musicians Association, Vice Chairman of Yangzhou Literary Association, Vice Chairman of Yangzhou Calligraphers Association.
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Merrill Lynch is auspicious! Welcome to the "Afternoon Parlor" of "The Art of Singing", today let's talk about singing, or about calligraphy?
Zhang: Hahaha, singing, calligraphy together! Singing is isomorphic with the art of calligraphy, but the carrier is different!
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Last year, I went to Yangzhou to watch your calligraphy exhibition, and I had a lot of experience. Not only did I appreciate calligraphy, but I also learned a lot of ideas and methods that are closely related to singing. These two arts are indeed figurative from a formal point of view, calligraphy has a real visual existence, singing has a real auditory feeling, but the objects of both performances are abstract spirit and consciousness, and the artistry of the spiritual level is realized through figurative material means.
Zhang: Yes, there are many similarities between the two expressions! Dynamic contrast, combination of virtual and real, tension performance, rhythm change, and so on. Of course, there is also breathing in the chapter, black and white contrast in the ink method, etc., all of which reflect the philosophical ideas and expressions of calligraphy! The same goes for singing. All the expressive elements covered by calligraphy correspond or exist in singing. Therefore, the vivid artistic vitality must be given rich artistic expression by the performer!
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Let's first talk about the lyricism of singing, what do you think is the key to singing lyricism?
Zhang: Musical lines. The beauty of the singing line is the life of the lyricism of singing, we can clearly see the musical line of the work, but the musical line of the singing is not only the musical sentence and line composed of the notes, but also the musical line of the sound composed of the singer's voice, and the singer uses the sound to interpret the musicality of the work, which is the charm of music. Similarly, the lines in calligraphy are paved with technology and emotion by the writer, and "lyricism" is always the essence of art! Lyricism should always run through all singing; lyricism should be an inevitable attribute of the singer's inner nature, not contrived. Emotionless manifestations must be sluggish and pale.
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I see in your painting the common feature of vocal and calligraphic lyricism.
Zhang: Yes. All the means in calligraphy (penmanship, orthography, ink, chapters) reflect the mood and mood of the writer when he is creating. That is to say, after becoming familiar with the thoughts and emotions expressed in poetry (text), he poured out his creative passion and artistic ideas intended to be the first to write, and expressed the emotions of the second degree of creation in the creation of selflessness, so as to achieve the creative state of both hands and hands and the brilliance of the pen. Among them, the variable posture of the calligraphy, the left and right Gu Pan of the line spacing, and the instant halo of virtual and real ink painting are all the artistic effects required by the art of calligraphy. Singing also needs to pay attention to the vividness of the overall structure and details, as well as the changes.
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From your calligraphy, I see another important factor that is common to singing, and that is the change of timbre. It is often said that singing should maintain the same sound position and the same timbre from beginning to end, and I disagree with this view. I think that the vividness of a work of art lies in change, whether it is painting, calligraphy, singing, it cannot be the same color. For example, calligraphy, although the ink looks black, but in fact, the ink color change is very rich, the change of ink color is the soul of Chinese landscape painting. In calligraphy, this is very important. If a painting is thick with black ink, it looks rigid and lacks spirit. This is the same as singing, if it is the same timbre and the same strength from beginning to end, it will look silly, the so-called "no musicality". The same is true of our usual speech, you communicate with others in the same tone, the same tone, the other party may suggest that you go to the doctor. Therefore, I do not recommend that students keep a tone of singing, in different sections or phrases, the timbre should be constantly adjusted and changed, especially where the song is transposed. Do you agree?
Zhang: Haha, I agree with you very much. For the common problem of artistic aesthetics, everyone should know, today mainly talk about the connotation and extension of calligraphy and singing, this problem is a bit big. As far as your question is concerned, I think that people who sing vocal music are not only singing, but also especially important for the study and edification of sister art, mainly to enhance their own artistic vision, also known as artistic vision. It is good to be informed. Singers sing with a voice from beginning to end, and so obsessive and narcissistic, can not distinguish between high and low, good and bad, mainly or not enough education, cultivation, inner aesthetic orientation is not clear. If the timbre does not change when the song is transposed, and the music processing is still from the end, you can only persuade it to change its career! First of all, the transposition, even the four phrases in a body song are subject to change. Transposition, in a sense, is to change the mood, change the mood, of course, to change the color, change the sound!
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You have a heroic tenor tone, but you don't always sing "firmly", and sometimes your soft voice is charming, so give us an example of how you feel.
Zhang: At best, I can count the "big" lyrical tenor, and the heroic tone occasionally "plays" a little. Regardless of the type of tenor, soft lyrical qualities must be possessed. When any composer creates an opera or song, he must compose the music according to the tone, tone, and tone of the lyrics, and he cannot invert the words, but also design different works structures according to the inner emotions of different characters. Therefore, the singer must respect the basic requirements of the original work and use different sound colors and strengths to shape the character image. For example, although "Nobody Sleeps Tonight" shows The Heroic Spirit and victory posture of Karaf, the whole song is rich in emotion, but it needs to be expressed through different tensions. The first half of the aria is still feminine, and the musical lines should be affectionate and melancholy. When "Vincero" is sung, Karaf's sense of conquest is fully exerted and embodied in his powerful, explosive high notes, rather than being presented with a powerful voice from beginning to end. Carav is both a victor and a bloody boy, but also has a heroic beauty, chivalrous and tender side, the whole aria euphemism, affection and ups and downs. Listening to this aria is like admiring Wang Duo's calligraphy, the whole text is atmospheric and literary, especially the large-scale works he creates are a watershed in the flow of Chinese calligraphy from practicality to artistry. His use of ink is unprecedented, reflecting the distinctive artistic characteristics of majestic weather and personalized writing. The artistic expression of Wang Duo's works is similar to the artistic expression of "Nobody Sleeps Tonight", is the aesthetic isomorphism of auditory art and visual art a secret coincidence, or is it the fit of the art created by the two masters of the East and the West in different forms for the empathy of the human spirit? This may only be known to God.
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There are many aspects of singing that move people, and I just talked about the change of timbre, which in painting is the change of color and light. It is impossible for us to complete a painting with one color, even in ink, there are rich variations of intensity. I've also noticed that in addition to timbre changes, there are many places where singing shows aura that are often overlooked, such as rhythm. Many people will very mechanically follow the rhythm and lose their agility, but the "rubato" (elastic rhythm) of singing is very important, there are free rhythmic changes. The "wild grass flowers by the Suzaku Bridge" that I just saw also clearly reflects the free change of rhythm, not static.
Zhang: This is indeed similar to calligraphy. The letters and seal books seem to have the same rhythm and neat rules, but their internal strength and changes exist, and Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan are obviously different. In fact, when writing, calligraphy, seal writing, etc., must have a sense of action, that is, it has the characteristics of changing the line, otherwise the word is rigid and lacks the living state of life. You see, any art form expresses temperament and life, and apart from the essence of art, that is folk juggling, it is just a little cleverness. All writers in history have come from tradition and are not limited to tradition, tradition teaches you how to write, and creating personality is the goal! Therefore, if tradition is the principle, then the expression must achieve individual liberation and constantly enhance the flexibility of artistic creation. Innovation is always the soul of art!
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Different art forms have their own unique languages, such as the language of music and the language of calligraphy. The wonder of musical language lies in the fact that those notes in the hands of musicians can "conjure" a completely different musical language, especially the musicians of the Romantic period, who can actually write a musical language with a distinctive personal imprint. Therefore, singing should clearly show the style of the work, and different styles of works cannot be sung with the same voice. For example, singing operas and art songs are different; the same opera, singing Verdi and Wagner are still different; the same Italian opera, Verdi and Puccini are also different. Probably the same is true of calligraphy, right? Your painting has the style of Itabashi.
Zhang: My character "stele flavor" is more sufficient, Banqiao gravel paving, I pay attention to the combination of stele and post, and there are characteristics of line intention and fluency! Each word is written after having a different mood for different contents. After decades of studying books, what I have experienced more deeply is the coherence of writing, which is almost the same as the "legato" in our singing, and the coherence of musical sentences is the same as the broken sentence when writing verses. Starting from the basics and the smallest units, we can have a reasonable and complete musical section and a whole article.
The style issue that Master brother talked about is very important. The style is rhyme, taste, and avoids singing. At the extreme, the style itself is the way to sing! Only by mastering the style can we grasp the soul of the work. Verdi pushed the drama of opera to the highest, and the singer must make reasonable use of vocal tension to accurately shape the musical image. Wagner's opera uses exaggerated sound and uses the human voice as an instrument, and from a singing point of view, I have always been opposed. In fact, how many real "Wagner tenors" are there internationally? That kind of intensity, loudness, Asians can't sing!
The use of sound in opera and art songs has different requirements and characteristics, which are determined by style and genre. As an independent genre, art songs require delicate and subtle expression of the work; arias are an integral part of opera, requiring the characters to be emotionally rich, exaggerated, emphasizing drama, loud volume, and emphasizing penetration. In any case, any kind of singing method should pay attention to the durability of the sound, the richness of the sound, and establish a rich "timbre library" to express songs of different styles and genres, which is the basic skill, but also an ability!
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You say "sound library," which I coined a long time ago, and it's interesting, like the color spectrum I had when I was a painter. Then let's look at another picture of your words, I think it's a bit of a mifu meaning.
Zhang: This picture is like a rice cube and not a rice bush, between similar and dissimilar. This work is written on Japanese silk, and the writing on silk is larger, affecting the free movement of the lines, thus slowing down the writing speed. Sometimes, while slow writing is easy to ink, the orthography is slightly "raw", which has a different taste. Words, if too ripe and too sweet, are ills and habits. Of course, the premise is that the orthography and ink method are well understood, and only when writing can it be flexible and changeable and in the law. The atmosphere of books and the breath of literati will always be the unchangeable law of book art. Otherwise, it is a hard pen form like "dancing knife and gun", and away from the calligraphy itself. Among the "Four Houses of Song", I have a special love for rice and yellow, and I also study and work harder. Mi Fu uses the pen on eight sides to strike out, the wind is arrayed, and the writing of the temperamental person is casual and natural. Although he came from tradition, he dared to break through the tradition, making it unique in pen and chapters, and became a person who studied books after the Song Dynasty.
This reminds me of our singing, we should learn from the "Song Four Families", whose works are atmospheric, cultural, majestic and personal. The Song Dynasty was an era of openness and inclusiveness, a hundred flowers blooming, and a hundred schools of thought contending, which produced the "Four Families of the Song Dynasty" and more calligraphers and painters. Our singing should also be diverse and diverse to present the essence of singing art, Guo Lanying, Wang Kun, Wen Kezheng, Li Xinchang, Li Shuangjiang and a large number of singers, each with a distinct singing personality, everyone's artistic performance has left a deep impression on the audience. Therefore, personality expression is the goal of artistic pursuit; not a thousand people, people and clouds, this is a regression, is the wrong person! In addition, in terms of vocal music teaching, the bilateral relationship between teaching and learning should be rational and constantly thinking, and only by teaching according to aptitude and learning according to aptitude can we further promote the teaching results in a targeted manner.
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When I see this work below you, I think of the same changes in music, from "natural" to "free" to "free to do as you please". The so-called "Dao Fa Nature" is maturity, not "nature" as we simply understand it, "Dao" is the spirit, and "Fa" is technology. When the technique and spirit of singing reach unity in a very high state, the "Tao" and "Dhamma" themselves are "natural." "Yes", success also. Therefore, singing, like calligraphy, expresses the "Tao" through the "Law", and there is a Law that seems impossible, and the Road is simple.
Zhang: Like singing, the process of calligraphy from "having the law" to "not being able to" is actually a long and painful process. All the art of art is to improve their "art" in constantly breaking through the bottleneck. Why are there bottlenecks? Because there is thinking and discovering problems, finding problems is to solve problems, break through themselves, and move forward in the "negation of negation". This requires not only vision and self-analysis, but also courage and methods to establish new artistic views and practice methods. What is the purpose of all this? In fact, in order to enrich your own inner and externalized expression, from addition to simplification, it requires you to enrich your own learning and cultivation, and constantly nourish your ability to internalize, and internalization not only needs accumulation, but also needs talent. After internalization, it is done at the end of the pen, that is, creation, which requires talent, to write what you think and think, delete the complex and simplify, and gradually form your own book Collection and Book Volume. That is to say, from the usual training of the Fa to the creation of the inability to achieve a state of free writing, self-out of the machine. Thinking is tiring, breakthrough is painful, and creation is joyful!
When creating, you will experience the unselfishness, the excitement of the heart and hands, the pleasure of the clever hands, and the happiness that lasts for a long time! In fact, why don't we sing like this? Improve yourself in continuous tempering, so as to obtain a full sense of happiness. Therefore, the sublime art is not achieved overnight, it must have perseverance, perseverance, and a wise head, and without the ability to speculate, it will definitely deviate. Of course, the talent that determines success or failure is important, and without it, it can almost only be "outside the door". Art is sometimes lonely and individual, the "savior" is oneself, and thick accumulation is the general law. But for art, it is necessary to work hard and also need to be self-reliant. Full of vitality, free expression, always an ideal, this is not pessimism, because the art is endless, and the pursuit is always a broken circle.
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After chatting about calligraphy and singing for half a day, I suddenly thought that the public account of "Bel Canto Forest" has been for many years, the influence is great, there are many vocal music lovers who have benefited a lot, and on this basis, a national online course has been established.
Zhang: Hahahaha, the "Bel Canto Forest" MOOC has been under construction for nearly six years, and now it is a national high-quality online open course and a national first-class undergraduate course. Of course, this is the result of the joint efforts of our team, and the keynote speaker is me. Such achievements are thanks to the support of the school and the help of social forces! More than 100 lessons were filmed, and the singing guests came from the north and south of the river, most of them were teachers and students from colleges and universities, actors from national and provincial literary and art groups, and a small number of vocal lovers. Because it is a public welfare course, the perennial shooting is provided by Yangzhou Baijia Zhengming Company for free support, and we are deeply grateful! Due to the impact of the epidemic, we have not filmed a new curriculum for two or three years, praying that the haze will dissipate as soon as possible, return to normal working conditions, and add another strength to social welfare activities!
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Yangzhou is a famous historical city, since ancient times, the humanities gathered, famous families, Huaiyang cuisine is more famous in the world, the Sui Emperor poured his strength into opening a canal, Kangxi, Qianlong on Yangzhou never forget, there are countless literati here to leave a famous article, haha, praise! What is your greatest sense of life when you grow up in this beautiful and exquisite city? Are you happy?
Zhang: Yangzhou is a small city, a livable city in the world, the world's capital of gastronomy, 2,500 years of history and culture, the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal, nourishing this ancient small city. As a yangzhou person and a member of Yangzhou University, living in such a city, feeling warm and happy, visiting famous places, walking in the alleys of the city, tasting food, tasting tea and learning books, it is very comfortable! When the money is gone, we still have to return to life, and life and the environment give us more fun and peace.
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In the morning, the water is wrapped in the water, the water is foreskin in the evening, the boat in the slender West Lake is light, and the green birds are singing. Yangzhou, the paradise of slow life, is a place to calm down.
Zhang: Yes. As the saying goes, idleness is the master, leisure is the precursor and condition of artistic creation, and my personal calligraphy exhibition works were efficiently completed in two months (nearly seventy works)! I think the environment affects people and makes it more successful for the completion of works of art.
Interestingly, six years ago in Yangzhou as the main application unit, the Grand Canal of China was approved to be included in the World Cultural Heritage List, the tomb of the Sui Emperor was found in the northern suburbs of Yangzhou, I had the honor to star in the original opera "The River of Luck" in the male number one Sui Emperor, three things happened almost at the same time, you say magic no? The position in the middle of the north and south determines the urban cultural characteristics of the city where it is inclusive, rigid and soft, as a Yangzhou person with Shandong ancestry, I have comprehensively sorted out and summarized the music culture of Yangzhou, and have published three monographs and other papers: "History of Yangzhou Folk Songs", "A Brief History of Yangzhou Music Culture", "Yangzhou Singing Research" and other papers, which can also be regarded as a contribution to Yangzhou people to their hometown.
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The so-called time and place are favorable, the development of Yangzhou does not need our expectations, because it is inevitable, we are looking forward to Professor Meilin to bring us more beautiful songs, to bring us more colorful "bel canto forest", to bring us more flowing and exquisite calligraphy works. Thank you Professor Merrill Lynch for being a guest in the "afternoon parlor", and finally, I also sent a calligraphy to Professor Merrill Lynch, please give more advice.
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