Writers always had special hobbies, such as Balzac's coffee addiction when he wrote, Flaubert's day break and night's writing, Hemingway's penchant for standing and Marc Twain's love of sailing adventures. Among these hobbies, there are some that appear frequently, such as the love of music. It is all too common for writers to be "music fans" at the same time, with Haruki Murakami obsessed with jazz, Milan Kundera and Herman Hesse fond of classical music, and Yu Hua was also obsessed with classical music, not to mention the great lyricists in ancient China who were proficient in musical rhythms. Why do writers love music so much? What is the relationship between music and literature?
Writers who are "music fans"
There are many foreign writers who like music, among which Haruki Murakami should be a very familiar one for Chinese readers. According to statistics, from his debut work "And Listen to the Wind" to the publication of "Tokyo QitanLu" published in 2005, the names of musical pieces and musicians appeared nearly 800 times in his works. He was very fond of directly invoking music as the title of his novels, such as the hit "Norwegian Forest" from the British rock band Beatles' song of the same name, "Colorless Tasaki And His Year of The Parade" implied Liszt's piano suite "The Year of the Parade", "South of the Border, West of the Sun", "Dancing Dance" and "The End of the World and Cold Wonderland" are also from the titles of the music.
The record wall in Haruki Murakami's study
Haruki Murakami loves jazz the most, and once wrote "Jazz Group Score", which is dedicated to musicians in the history of jazz. He also has a soft spot for rock and classical music in the 1960s and 1970s, and "Afternoon Musical Time with Seiji Ozawa" is a recording of his conversation with the famous Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa.
Jazz Score
Haruki Murakami mentions in his collection of musical essays, "No Meaning, No Swing" (yes, the title is also from a jazz piece), that "books and music are two keys in my life." He has repeatedly talked about the influence of music on his creation, especially the rhythmic use of music that inspired his novel creation. He applied the free rhythm of jazz and improvisation to the novel, making the pace of the novel fast and slow, and attached great importance to the improvisation in the novel. He attached so much importance to the rhythm of the novel that he thought that if a person lacked a sense of rhythm, he would not even have the qualifications to become a writer.
"No Meaning, No Swing"
Compared with Haruki Murakami's status as a music lover, Milan Kundera almost embarked on the road of professional music. His father, a pianist and music professor, taught him to play the piano from an early age, and he later studied composition with the famous Czech composer Paul Haas. The passion for music also profoundly influenced the creation of Milan Kundera, who once spoke in The Art of the Novel about the influence of music on the creation of the structure of his novel: "Every part of my novel can be marked with a musical mark: medium speed, rapid plate, soft plate, and so on. In almost every novel by Milan Kundera, the influence of music on his creation can be seen, and he compares the thematic words of the novel to the "sound column" in music, the multi-line narrative of the novel to the polyphony of music, and the different parts of the novel to the various paragraphs of music, and the rhythmic changes of music have a huge impact on his creation.
The Art of the Novel, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2013
Although he became famous in literature very early, when it comes to music, the Chinese writer Yu Hua is completely halfway out of the family. According to his essay collection "Literature or Music", it was not until the age of thirty-three that music really entered Yu Hua's world, and in half a year, he bought almost four hundred CDs, and Yu Hua himself described: "Music suddenly made me feel the power of love, like hot sunshine and cool moonlight, or like a storm to my heart." ”
Literature or Music
His love of music soon influenced Yu Hua's composition, and he learned the narrative of the novel from the narrative of music, which is basically the narrative of art, he understood the folk and modernity of art from the narrative of music, from Gardner's Bach's "Passion of Matthew", he understood that "the richness of the narrative is actually incomparably simple after moving to the extreme", from Shostakovich's "Seventh Symphony", he "heard the power of 'light' in the narrative".
These music-loving writers have talked about the influence of music on their creation, so why does this influence happen? How closely is there a connection between music and literature?
Homologous music and literature
As it is said in the Book of Rites, "Poetry, words and aspirations." Song, sing its voice. Dance, move it also. Music and literature (poetry) are actually homologous in the beginning of human civilization, and they were inseparable for a long time, whether it is Western epics or Chinese "Book of Poetry", which were originally used for chanting. Mr. Zhu Zhiqian wrote in the "History of Chinese Music and Literature": "Literary history and music history are simultaneously integrated. ”
History of Chinese Music and Literature
Words are the product of the close integration of music and literature, Ge Xiaoyin in the "Fifteen Lectures on Tang Poetry and Song Poetry" talked about the origin of words: "The abuse of words can be traced back to the folk song words of the Sui and Tang Dynasties", unlike the Lefu poem "Selected poems into singing", the words are "relying on the sound to fill in the words", the characteristics of the system such as sentence form and rhyme of the words are closely related to the melody, so the relationship with music is closer. The people of the two Song Dynasties, such as Liu Yong, Zhou Bangyan, Jiang Kui, etc., are all musicians who are proficient in musical rhythms. When Zhou Bangyan was in charge of The Dasheng Mansion, he standardized the tonality of words and created new word plates such as "Six Uglies", and he paid great attention to the harmony of words and sentences and musical rhythms, which further tightened the sound rhythm of words and opened the precedent of the "Grammar School". Nowadays, although we admire the bold word style of Su Shi and others, at that time, the gelu words represented by Zhou Bangyan were the authentic lexicography. Su Shi opened up the realm of words, sometimes did not pay much attention to the harmony between words and music, became "the one who could not be bound in the song", at that time was often criticized by the lyricists who adhered to the orthodox style of lexicology, Li Qingzhao criticized Su Shi for being "a scholarly person", but the words he made were "all poems that cannot be read". It can be seen that words and music are closely related.
In the history of Western music, especially in the field of opera creation, the relationship between lyrics and music is often debated by musicians, as Hanslik said, "Music and lyrics are always usurping each other's rights or making concessions." Mozart is typical of adherence to musical principles, arguing that good music can make people forget the worst lyrics, and in his operas, the lyrics are probably not the most outstanding. In contrast to him, Gluck and others placed more emphasis on the status of poetry in the opera, and Berlioz distributed two thousand copies of the musical commentary to the audience before his famous Symphony of Fantasies was performed. This may have been Berlioz's triumph, but in Mendelssohn's eyes, the evaluation became "he was a cultured, educated, amiable gentleman, but the music was badly written."
During the Romantic music period, the influence of literature on music was obvious, literature profoundly influenced music in terms of lyric text, script source, title content, etc., Berlioz's "Faust" and "Romeo and Juliet", and Schubert's art songs all borrowed literary works to express musical themes. The question of the high and low status of music and lyrics has caused so many controversies in the history of music, does not it just prove the depth and close connection between music and literature?
We also seem to understand why writers love music so much and can draw so much creative wisdom from music. Music and literature may have different means of conveying feelings, but they both give readers/listeners similar emotions, and in terms of narrative techniques, there are so many places to learn from each other. Music and literature are both treasures of fatal appeal to each other.
bibliography
1. History of Chinese Music and Literature, by Zhu Qianzhi, Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2006
2. "Without Meaning, There Is No Swing", [Japanese] Haruki Murakami / by Lin Shaohua / Translation, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2012
3. "Literature or Music", Yu Hua/Author, Yilin Publishing House, 2017
4. The Art of the Novel, Milan Kundera/ by Meng Mei/ Translation, Life, Reading, Xinzhi Triptych Bookstore, 1992