588. The Fifty State Finals! Reasons to Eat Abalone
The knock on the door did not interrupt the sound of the piano in the room. The door was soon opened, and Old Asa cordially greeted Qin Jian in as if he had been prepared for a long time.
"Good morning, Teacher Assad."
Liao Linjun asked him to understand the problem. Qin Jian stood outside the door and took the initiative to extend his hands. After shaking hands with the other party, he entered the door.
"Good morning, Teacher Assad."
Qin Jian's courtesy made old Arthur secretly applaud. After more than half a month of contact, he knew that Qin Jian was an outstanding young man. This time, the other party's behavior strengthened this impression.
As a highly educated Syrian, even though he now lives in a friend's house, it feels like he is living under someone else's roof. However, this house is still his private territory after all, although it is only temporary.
The living room was not big. Qin Jian was invited to sit at a small tea table. While old Assad was brewing coffee, he briefly looked around the room. The interior was similar to his own on the first floor, but there was an extra layer on the wall.
He couldn't understand a tapestry that looked like a scripture, so it must have been hung up by old Arthur.
In the left corner of the living room is a closed door, and the sound of Ido's piano comes from here.
At this time, old Assad sat opposite Qin Jian with two cups of coffee. "Please use it."
"thank you."
Qin Jian stood up and took the kindness from the other party, then sat down again
Old Assad: "Your German is not bad. I heard that you lived in Germany for a few months."
Qin Jian: "Thank you for your compliment. I stayed in Hamburg for a while to record Mozart, and Uncle Porter always said that my accent was strange." (laughing)
Old Assad also laughed: "He always said that about me before."
Happy opening.
Through Liao Linjun's description last night, old Assad also had some understanding of Qin Jian's basic situation, but as a composer and teacher, he still wanted to personally understand Qin Jian's views on counterpoint.
After all, in his opinion, even if the other party has not learned any knowledge about composition, the Chris Variations he created are enough to illustrate the other party's hidden talent in this field. "Counterpoint and polyphony are compulsory courses in composition courses.
.”
Perhaps the other party has mastered some rules hidden under the composition framework, but lacks a systematic knowledge structure.
Old Assad: "What do you think of Chopin's counterpoint?"
Qin Jian thought for a while and said: "Chopin should be the greatest counterpoint master in the Romantic period."
"Oh?" Old Assad said calmly: "As far as I know, most of Chopin's works are in the main tone style, and there are very few pure polyphonic works."
Qin Jian nodded in agreement: "That's true, but that doesn't mean that his counterpoint skills can't be called an absolute master."
Qin Jian's understanding of counterpoint was limited to some simple superficial knowledge, which he had accumulated in the polyphony class of the composition department in order to practice Bach.
However, combined with the insights gained from practicing now, he still has some very unacademic opinions.
"In a sense, I feel that every work of Chopin is polyphonic. While one hand is playing the main melody, the other hand is also actively singing a melodic harmony."
"I regard this kind of melodic harmony as an independent melody. I think they can be safely regarded as a main melody. If I play the right-hand treble part of the bG major etude as the theme melody of the music, originally
I still play the left-hand part that is defined as the theme melody as the theme melody.”
"In this way, there are two theme melodies in this work, so doesn't it become a kind of polyphonic music? Doesn't this comply with the basic principles of counterpoint?"
"Maybe it's a very naive idea, but from my own point of view, I don't think there's anything wrong with it."
"Because Chopin is such a master of melody, his works deserve to be explored in depth."
Qin Jian finished expressing his thoughts and opinions in one breath. Just as he thought, he came to class. He trusted the counterpoint teacher that Liao Linjun chose for him, so he should have no reservations when facing the teacher.
Express your own opinions and ideas.
Let the other person discover their own problems.
moment.
Old Assad: "Have you ever tried playing like this?"
"Uh," Qin Jian paused, "Not yet." These series of ideas were conjectures he had derived from yesterday's practice on the rapids, and he hadn't had time to try them yet.
Old Assad hummed: "You can give it a try after you go back, and then this topic can be used as another research topic for us. By the way, let me tell you that there was a person in history who proposed a similar point of view to yours."
Qin Jian was curious: "Which one?"
Old Assad smiled and said, "Leave this question to yourself, now we have to start class."
At 8:30 sharp, Qin Jian began his first counterpoint lesson in his life.
According to domestic parlance, this is a true one-on-one master class.
As old Assad began to speak, Qin Jian took out his notebook and pen in case of emergency.
"Counterpoint is one of the oldest music creation techniques in the history of music and the most important writing technique for polyphonic music. It originates from the Latin translation of 'note to note'..."
The course officially begins.
...
...
The whole morning passed while Old Arthur was telling the story. Qin Jian rarely interrupted the other party except for things he didn't understand.
He spends most of his time memorizing these conceptual things.
As a musical subject, counterpoint is undoubtedly the same as any other subject in that it is mostly based on theory and does not have anything advanced or complicated.
Some rules are like theorems and formulas in mathematics.
But it's also anything but simple.
In the same way, just because you understand a mathematical formula does not mean you can solve a problem.
Applying learning in practice to deepen understanding is also true in counterpoint.
When get out of class was over at noon, old Assad gave Qin Jian an assignment, a simple assignment.
Old Assad gave Qin Jian a 4-bar single melody in 4/4 time and asked Qin Jian to use the knowledge in today's class to write a two-part contrasting polyphony.
From the perspective of old Assad, it was as simple as asking Qin Jian to play an Ode to Joy live.
But when Qin Jian faced this melody alone in the small piano room in the afternoon, old Assad would never have imagined that the dignified piano prize winner of the Mozart International Music Competition was biting his pen and making humming sounds from time to time.
This really stumped Qin Jian.
When he really faced writing, he once again lamented the greatness of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Chopin.
By the end of the afternoon, he felt more clearly how difficult composing was.
The hardest part is - when you have countless melody combinations in your mind, you find that none of them satisfy you.
Therefore, the achievements of great men were once again magnified in his heart.
Qin Jian guessed that they might have come here the same way?
It's just that no one knows how they beat their chests behind their backs?