Follow the sound and follow the way

Just after Christmas and the beginning of the new year, Switzerland is in a long snow season.Unlike the heavy snow in February, the snowflakes in January are mostly delicate and soft, falling gracefully on the grass and roofs, covering the town with a thin layer of white.

This white coat can cover the land, but not the lake.The turquoise lake at the door of the house embraces the snowflakes day after day, shimmering without fear of the cold, and never freezes.

The same is true for Evan Lin, who is from California and has the spirit of Cantonese dog barking snow.

On Sunday evening, he volunteered to go out in the snow to deliver the cookies baked by Mukang to Tim and Eugene's house, and he stood in his garden contentedly watching the snow for a while before returning home.

Mu Kang covered his head with a hot towel when he was head-on.

Mu Kang wiped his head and said, "I told you not to stand outside and get wet in the snow."

Lin Yan buried his whole face in the towel: "I like snow."

Mu Kang threw the towel on the sofa, grabbed Lin Yan's hand and stuffed it into his arms: "Every time I come back, my hands are so cold."

Lin Yan hugged Mu Kang dependently: "You are hot."

Mu Kang sullenly said, "What would I do without me?"

Lin Yan looked at Mu Kang tenderly: "I can't do it without you."

Mu Kang felt relieved, and leaned over to kiss Lin Yan, until he kissed his lover's cold lips before giving up.

"What are you listening to?" Mu Kang went to the front of the stereo to pick up the record, "Let's play a large-scale chamber music to suit the occasion."

"Planck." Lin Yan sat on the sofa and started making tea, "Rogé played..."

"...the one with Aubade." Mu Kang pulled out the CD and said with a smile, "It really fits the occasion."

Lin Yan said "hmm": "I wish the recording goes well."

Qiu Liming for violin, Li Chongyuan for cello, Dennis Bain for flute, Xiao for oboe, Lu Xifeng for trumpet, Andrew Henley for French horn, and Fang Zhimu, who was recently touring in France and just arrived by train an hour ago. Gather in L city in winter.After four days of rehearsal, everyone is ready to go, and the recording work of "Evan Linand His Friends" is about to start.

The two snuggled up on the sofa, drank tea, listened to music and chatted. Mu Kang held the tea in his left hand, and unconsciously stroked Lin Yan's slender fingers with his right hand, and said casually, "I just sent the file to Sean."

Lin Yan: "Is it all done?"

Mukang: "Yes."

"I heard from Steve that Sean's publishing company is very good at publicizing the academy judges." Lin Yan said, "I guess they might give you the best original music."

"It doesn't matter." Mukang said, "I care more about tomorrow's recording."

Lin Yan took a sip of tea: "The arrangement is very good, and the recording can be finished in at most two days."

"Try to finish it in one day." Mu Kang took Lin Yan into his arms and complained in a low voice, "This group of people is too annoying. If I want to kiss you these days, I have to wait until dark."

The snow stopped in the early morning, and the next day was a fine day with no clouds.At nine o'clock in the morning, the couple arrived at the recording studio on time.This is the most commonly used booth in L City for the label that Lin Yan cooperates with. It can accommodate a hundred-member band and has two Steinways.

The two-piano "The Fourth" was recorded first in the morning. It stands to reason that except for Lin Yan and Mu Kang, other people don't have to come so early.However, as soon as the two of them set up the microphone with the sound engineer, a group of idle musicians came in one after another, and the sofa gradually filled up, and finally Andrew and Lu Xifeng who arrived had to sit on the ground.

The sound engineer was Nathan, a taciturn black-haired handsome guy with a beard.Lin Yan waved to the crowd through the glass, and sat down with Mu Kang in front of the piano. Nathan came out and sat in front of the mixer, opened the score in silence, and hung the monitor earphones around his neck .

Dennis responded quickly and asked, "Do you use headphones?"

Nathan glanced back at him: "Yes."

Andrew: "Don't be kidding, brother, there are so many of us."

Nathan: "I love to use headphones for chamber music."

Li Chongyuan: "Please."

Nathan hesitated for a moment, and reluctantly took off the earphones: "I'm afraid it will affect work efficiency."

Qiu Liming smiled and said, "No, the two of them come here at most twice."

Andrew: "Twice can't do it, the song is quite long."

Dennis: "I think once is enough."

Fang Zhimu seconded: "I feel the same way."

Lu Xifeng got excited: "Come, come, I'll be the banker, [-] Rifas bet a few times, and Nathan will come too."

Guan Xiao started to take out his wallet: "I bet twice."

Nathan said rigorously, "I'll look at the score first."

Lin Yan and Mu Kang in the room watched in bewilderment as the sound engineer suddenly left the seat and joined the crowd. They muttered to each other mysteriously for 5 minutes, and then returned to the mixer to read the score with normal expressions.

Ten minutes later, Lin Yan signaled to Nathan that he was ready, and everyone quieted down, looking through the glass at the two unfamous pianists in the room.

The ceiling is brightly lit, and the recording studio is spacious. Warm yellow wood walls surround two pianos placed opposite each other. From the perspective of the control room, the piano player seems to be in the center of the stage.

In an instant, the scenes overlapped, and time whistled and flipped back, bringing several insiders who knew the situation back to Mukang's graduation concert in his senior year.

Eleven years ago in the warm spring of May, he and he also sat face to face on the stage in front of the piano, and used a wonderful chamber music performance to explain precisely to more than 11 audiences what a musical soul mate is.

Lu Xifeng stared blankly at the two people in the recording studio, and whispered, "Fuck."

Li Chongyuan leaned on the sofa and sighed: "It seems to be familiar."

Guan Xiao murmured, "Yes."

Qiu Liming explained to Dennis and Andrew: "They acted like this more than ten years ago."

Dennis asked in surprise: "Evan and Kang have known each other for so long?"

"Yes." Fang Zhimu sighed, "I still remember that concert was a non-mainstream combination of two pianos, a small violin, a large violin and a bass. I have listened to the live recording for several years."

Qiu Liming raised his hand: "Xiao Ti is me."

Li Chongyuan continued: "The big mention is me."

Everyone spent half a minute reminiscing about the beautiful past, and laughed restrainedly or wantonly.

There is nothing to be sad about. The colorful past has been favored by fate and continues to this day. Not only are everyone there, but there are also new friends who hit it off.

Nathan made a "silence" gesture to everyone, pushed the power amplifier away, the "Recording" light turned on, and the recording studio instantly became audible.

One minute later, the full sound of the piano spread throughout the control room through the monitor speakers.

"The Fourth" is the longest track on the entire record.The work has no title meaning, and is divided into two movements according to the musical structure.

The first movement, Allegronontroppo, is a fugue with a slightly faster speed, and uses pure polyphonic counterpoint to analyze the fourth theme exclusive to Mu Dahui.The two pianos have a total of eight parts. The theme is repeated countless times in the form of sequence, reverse order and simple variations. The parts are closely connected and the context is complex. The composition has a significant purpose of study.

The second movement, Allegroconfuoco, is a fast twelve-tone composition technique. Except for the theme, there is no melody, no consonant intervals and chords, and no lyrical fragments.The two pianos converge the elusive notes into a thread, and then weave it into an overwhelming and dense sound network with their superb performance skills. This is a purely experimental movement.

Very difficult, very egotistical, very unpleasant.

But it is the most comprehensive and thoughtful annotation and exploration of the fourth theme exclusive to Mu Dacai.

The whole piece is about 10 minutes long, and the technical requirements are extremely high. The two performers in the recording studio played engrossingly, and a group of musicians in the control room were all sweating, and they were almost confused by these tangled notes. up.

It was not easy for Lin Yan and Mu Kang to finish playing without any mistakes. When they came out, their foreheads were covered with beads of sweat. After listening to it once, they made up their minds.The next song is "Mia" written for cello, French horn and piano. Li Chongyuan and Andrew followed Nathan in to set up a microphone and move a chair. Like a class."

Qiu Liming: "Have you been writing for a long time?"

Mu Kang: "I wrote it for more than half a year."

Lin Yan: "It's been a long time since I changed it."

Fang Zhimu wiped his face: "I underestimated you, I thought you two were going to sing a love song duet."

Guan Xiao: "Give me a few copies of the scores, and I'll take them back to the professor of the composition department."

Dennis: "I'll have to go back and listen to the recording when it comes out."

Mukang said confidently: "I can listen to it for more than ten years."

After the room was set up, Lin Yan took a sip of water and went in to talk to Li Chongyuan and Andrew. Nathan got up and walked in front of Lu Xifeng, and said without thinking, "I recorded it again."

Lu Xifeng jumped up: "Yes, the market is open."

Dennis immediately said, "I bet it once."

Lu Xifeng: "Let's see... the bets are right on Dennis, Harvey, Fang Zhimu and Nathan..."

Mu Kang: "..."

"100 yuan per person." Lu Xifeng divided up the money, put his head into the calculations, and said in a daze, "That's not right, am I losing money?"

Nathan sat back in front of the mixer without saying a word.

Qiu Liming: "Oh."

Guan Xiao shrugged: "I lost money too."

Dennis said hypocritically, "What a pity."

Fang Zhimu: "Hahahahaha."

Lu Xifeng said unwillingly: "Fuck, come again?"

Mu Kang clicked his tongue: "That sounds good."

Seeing Lin Yan gesturing towards Nathan, Lu Xifeng had no choice but to sit back on the ground in silence.

Unlike the slightly showy "The Fourth", "Mia" is a mournful adagio built in the key of g minor.Mukang wrote two new melodies for it. The cello, the instrument closest to the human voice, is responsible for confiding, the French horn in F, which is closest to the woodwind, is used to appease, and the piano balances the overall heavy atmosphere with beautiful harmony.

The music starts with a piano solo, the four-bar chords lay out the emotional background, and then the cello plays the first theme, and the French horn enters when the theme is repeated for the second time.The second when the voice part fills in the details, the audience is inadvertently pulled into the story, ups and downs with the cello's wail, and whenever it encounters a desperate situation, the French horn leans forward to keep up, with the clear and pure piano and Voice together to give a dependent response.

Until the end of the quiet Coda, the cello and piano suddenly pulled away, and Andrew clenched his right fist to block the mouth of the horn.

The whole piece came to an abrupt end with the plucked strings of the cello and the short jumps of the piano.

Composer Mu Kang used emotionally charged music to construct a childlike but desperate story to commemorate the African horn princess in Lin Yan's heart and the thousands of innocent lives who suffered in the eastern plateau of country C.

"Mia" made a re-recording of the cadenza of the French horn. When it was completed, it was just at lunch time. I recorded two works in the morning, and the progress is gratifying.Li Chongyuan took Lu Xifeng and Guan Xiao out to buy pizza and came back. A group of people gathered around the sofa for half an hour to finish their lunch, and started recording a piece without stopping: "" written for violin, cello, oboe, trumpet and piano. Strugglers".

The configuration of this work is non-mainstream, and the writing method is also non-mainstream.The violin and cello are one group, the oboe and trumpet are another group, the wind music describes the relentless flood, and the string music tells the struggling heart. Harmony strings together the whole.

The whole piece begins with two bars of high-pitched horns, followed by the piano, which plays the theme and three variations at a presto speed. The oboe's sharp long line legato lays out the dazzling sunlight of the equator, and the strings are severely pressed down.

Until the first tonality collapsed, the piano took the opportunity of the modulation to break the scene, leading to a soft melody like dusk.The violin confronts the trumpet with the five-bar high-position overtone of the E string, marking that the hearts of the people have fought back since then, and the unyielding cry of being torn with tragic fate runs through the entire Coda.In the last section of the whole piece, the [-]/[-] time is filled by the quarter accents played by all four voices in unison.

"I have to do it again. Trumpet missed a few high notes, and Oboe missed a note." Sitting in front of the mixer, Mukang said, "Thank you, everyone. I know this piece is difficult for wind instruments."

Lu Xifeng raised his trumpet to express his apology, and Lin Yan made an OK gesture.

The "Recording" light comes on and the music starts playing again.This time, Lu Xifeng and Guan Xiao played normally and did not bubble up again. "Strugglers" was recorded at 02:30 noon, and only the last song "Elves in the Forest" remained in the recording work.

Mu Kang adapted this work originally written for the symphony wind orchestra into a version for violin, cello, flute, French horn and piano. Dennis, Andrew and Lin Yan are all familiar with the piece, and there is no need for Mu Kang to oversee the work .He briefly explained to Nathan, and asked Guan Xiao to go out and buy coffee for everyone.

At noon, the sky in L City is blue, the air is cold, and the winter sun is shy and tactful, timidly kissing the red bricks and window sills of the quiet old street.Mu Kang led Guan Xiao out of the alley where the entrance of the recording studio was, and came to a small statue square.

There was a trash can in the corner of the square. Guan Xiao's eyes lit up, he took out a cigarette case from his pocket, and handed one to Mu Kang: "Smoking?"

Mu Kang took it casually: "I haven't smoked for more than half a year."

Guan Xiao: "Teach me how to quit smoking?"

Mu Kang said with a blank face: "I will not spread the word, and I will not change my life."

Guan Xiao: "..."

The present tense smoker and the past tense smoker reunited next to the trash can for the first time in a year.Guan Xiao, who had been holding back for several hours, couldn't wait to take a puff, leaned against the wall and enjoyed the solid feeling of nicotine entering his lungs for a while, and said to Mu Kang, "They should have finished recording when we go back."

Mu Kang: "Hmm."

Guan Xiao: "I thought it would take two days to record."

Mukang: "A chamber music album, no need."

Guan Xiao took a puff of smoke: "Actually, I didn't quite understand why you named this disc "EvanLinandHisFriends"."

Mu Kang didn't answer the call with a cigarette in his mouth.

Guan Xiao said again: "I just figured it out just now."

Mu Kang signaled Guan Xiao to continue with his eyes.

"EvanLinandhisfriends, it's not just our group of people." Guan Xiao took a puff on his cigarette and said logically, "This record is from inside to outside, from Mia, Strugglers, Elves in the music, to Dennis, Andrew, we... are all EvanLin's friends."

Mu Kang raised his eyebrows, pinched the cigarette holder with his fingers, and said with some surprise: "You are worthy of being a professor."

Guan Xiao concluded: "EvanLin's friends are not only the protagonists in the story, but also the interpreters outside the story."

A fleeting smile crossed the corner of Mu Kang's mouth, and he said with certainty, "That's right."

"It was shocking when I figured it out." Guan Xiao pointed at Mu Kang and exclaimed, "You are so romantic when you talk about love."

Mu Kang slowly exhaled a puff of smoke, shook his head and said, "It's not romantic."

Guan Xiao: "Huh?"

Mukang: "The word romance is too deliberate."

Guan Xiao: "...What do you mean?"

Mu Kang stared at the bronze statue in the center of the square, and said slowly: "Romance is lyrical, appealing, and can be manufactured."

"I made this recording, neither to create romance, nor to appeal to the idea of ​​love."

Guan Xiao was stunned.

"Chairman Qiu said before that the relationship between me and A Yan is more than just love." Mu Kang turned his head and glanced at Guan Xiao, "Can you understand?"

Guan Xiao thought for a while: "Probably... I can understand a little bit."

Mu Kang nodded: "Before, I could only half-understand it. It wasn't until I finished writing this album that I realized... When I wrote the song, I really didn't think about those love affairs."

He raised his hand to raise the cigarette to his mouth, but did not touch it, let the cold wind blow away the smoke rising from his fingertips, and said in a low voice: "I just... want to record the part of me influenced by him in the language of music, And the part of him that I see."

Guan Xiao was silent for a while, and then said, "Although you think so, I still heard it."

Mu Kang: "Hear what?"

Guan Xiao said clearly: "Love."

Mu Kang was stunned for a while with a cigarette between his eyes, the sunlight leaped into his dark pupils, slowly bringing out a touch of warmth.

He put out his cigarette and said with a smile, "Well, that's why I told Chief Qiu the same way."

"To me, that's love."

Mu Dacai always faces his heart without any concealment in composing, and deliberately expressing his feelings is neither his purpose nor his original intention.

The friends of Evan Lin in his writing are on the African plateau, in the tropical torrent, in the depths of the jungle, on the other side of the ocean, and beside each other.

Some are still struggling on earth, and some have returned to heaven.

Music is like a high-dimensional universe, all-encompassing, breaking the blockage of time and space, ignoring the barriers of dimensions, allowing EvanLin and his friends to cross distance, time, life and death, and get together from time to time.

Music is like the quantum world, engraved in the depths of cells.When love is the body and the soul, every note that grows from the heart and pours through the fingertips will always inadvertently reveal the warm face of being loved.

_________________

Note:

The BGM of this chapter is Planck's "Alba".

Morning Song: Francis Poulenc-Aubade, "Concertochoréographique", is a chamber music work written by French pianist and composer Francis Poulenc for piano and 18 instruments. It was premiered in 1929.

There are two reasons why it is suitable for the occasion: one is that the configuration rarely uses all the instruments in "EvanLinandHisFriends"; the other is that the mood of this song is ups and downs. Although the length is much different, it is similar to the overall music trend of "EvanLinandHisFriends" .