Old-time musicians

"Marcus has good explosive power, but judging from the performance in the rehearsal hall, his performance is a bit self-righteous, and his desire for personal performance trumps his professional foundation. According to the standards of current students, he is a good member of the group and is not suitable to be the principal trumpet."

Faced with Roy's inquiry, Fan Ning stated his views concisely and concisely, but without missing the key points.

So the girl opposite nodded, checked the person's name, wrote down a few keywords, and prioritized them.

"Lomuir, a first-year music major, a substitute member of the symphony orchestra, has studied French horn since he was a child, and his French horn score last semester was better than most performance majors. He was also recommended by Lu." Roy went on to the next one.

"The timbre is wandering between astonishing and tragic. I asked him to practice more with my roommate Calvin and include it when it improves. Otherwise, I'm afraid he will explode during the official performance." Fan Ning continued to comment.

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"Edith, second-year violin major, official member of the symphony orchestra, recommended by me, pretty good junior girl, wants to try out as second violinist."

"The pitch is better than I expected, but the stamina is a bit weak. Her style of holding the bow with the wrist may not be suitable for the long string tremolo in my symphony. Let her know the situation. If you are very willing, you can give it a try... In addition, this lesson Sister, you need to practice more on your sight reading, it’s so bad.”

After completing the screening of a dozen people, the two took a short rest.

Roy yawned and smacked her mouth very cutely. Then she smiled and said: "Mr. Fanning, although you have decided to accept most of them, Roy feels that you are reluctant to do everything... "

Fan Ning put the office chair back slightly and said, "Not everyone is like you, my principal cello lady."

"Really? Seriously?" A bright light flashed in the girl's eyes, and then she deliberately showed a suspicious look.

"Seriously." Fan Ning nodded slightly and said seriously, "You know, sometimes I really can't understand why most people, the vast majority... no, why almost all the musicians of the St. Lenia Symphony Orchestra , don’t pay attention to the score at all? Not only do they not pay attention during the performance, but they also said that they don’t have this habit at all.”

"They always only focus on their own parts and count the beats, never listening to other people's ears, just waiting for the conductor to give him a hint when they make a mistake... I will not deliberately glare at a certain person if it is not an outrageous mistake. Humanly, I have a lot to deal with, individual slight disconnects, and I expect the musicians to adjust on their own.”

"Roy, to be honest, you are the one with the most overall view of everyone. Joan, Sheeran and Lu's playing skills are not any weaker than yours, but at this point, they are not as good as you at the moment."

…Fortunately, when I had a chat with Mr. Fan Ning before, I felt that he attached great importance to score analysis and had done a lot of homework and preparations in advance.

Facing Fan Ning's praise, Roy felt very proud at the moment. Her cheeks had dimples when she smiled, and her blue eyes were filled with sweet light.

She asked again in a pleading tone: "But Mr. Fanning... do you think it would be too high a request for this kind of student symphony orchestra?"

Fan Ning shook his head: "The symphony orchestra of the University of Saint Lenia should not be of this level at present. It is not worthy of so many music masters who have come out of here... And you must know that I am not demanding that the musicians will be The score is studied thoroughly, but they should train their thinking to roughly know the functional position of each part's voice - is it the main melody or the countermelody? Is it the power provider of the rhythm or the secondary one? Accompaniment texture or background sound? In certain passages with emotional changes, do you need to lead the changes in advance, or do you need to delay the changes? These are some of the most basic points..."

"Roy has been trying to pay attention to these. So if he is the chief, is there anything else Mr. Fanning values ​​more?"

Fan Ning thought for a while and then said: "If your level allows, I hope you will pay more attention to it, such as the passages where multiple instruments play in unison. The principal should know whether his voice is the main tone that the composer wanted, or whether it is used to modify it. The secondary tone of harmony is another example when a band plays a long column chord. You should also know which component of your voice is the melody tone in the chord, the root tone, the inner tone, or whether it is connected to the preceding and following chords. The different processing methods will give the entire sound effect a completely different effect..."

Roy nodded in realization, "No wonder there is such a big gap between the top professional symphony orchestras in the empire and our own orchestra! Even Master Meyer's earlier relatively simple and beautiful authentic symphony has the same music. There seems to be nothing wrong with our playing, but it sounds completely different!”

"...I can only say that the factors that affect the performance of symphony are too complicated, and they are different from solo and chamber music. Roy really admires you for having such a deep understanding in the field of conducting, and you have a pair of extremely sharp people who can learn from the majors An ear that finds trouble in the playing of Number Ten.”

Fan Ning smiled calmly when he heard this: "The level of rehearsal now is actually not as good as one-tenth or two of the results in my mind. If I want to criticize it harshly, it would be 'just listen', but that's all I can do for the time being. If I were Sheng Lai I am the music director or permanent conductor of the Nia Symphony Orchestra. With their rehearsal attitude, I will not give them a chance to go on stage unless I train them to achieve the effect I want. In the final analysis, there is still something wrong with the overall atmosphere of the orchestra. The conducting professors have such a good temper..."

When chatting here, Fanning looked at his pocket watch. It was already past ten o'clock in the evening.

"Aren't you going home to sleep?"

"I don't feel like sleeping after chatting with Mr. Fanning. Why don't I leave with you later?"

"I'm not leaving tonight." After Fanning finished speaking, he saw Roy looking around and asked, "What are you looking at?"

"I'm looking at the sofa to see if it's big enough..." Roy took a look at Fanning's expression while drinking coffee, "Just kidding, my car and driver are downstairs... Anyway, leave when you're sleepy."

"Do you blame me for what happened to Spencer Cecil?" Fanning looked straight into Roy's eyes.

"I don't blame you, but I feel wronged. You made me get criticized." Roy pouted.

Looking at the charming appearance of the girl in an orange dress, Fanning's smile deepened a little: "How about a plan to compensate you?"

"Why? Because I just said I felt wronged? Or... because I said I don't blame you? So you think I understand you very well?" Roy's mouth went from flat to puffy.

"No, no, no, don't get me wrong. It has nothing to do with this. It's because you've been working so hard to help me choose people recently. I'm touched by you..." Fanning deliberately showed a playful look, and took a sip of coffee.

"You..." Roy pretended to be angry and waved his fists twice.

Although the two had maintained a tacit consensus before, at this time, the emotions conveyed in each other's eyes finally became more relaxed.

The girl sorted out her expression and said seriously: "Mr. Fanning, the reason why I left later is that there are some suggestions about this symphony. If you trust Roy, maybe you can try to consider it."

"You say."

Roy said seriously: "On the one hand, reduce the number of instrumentation requirements. You know that after the rise of romanticism, our college, like other professional orchestras, has gradually expanded from two pipes to three pipes, but your "First Symphony" is actually four pipes, especially the most exaggerated, you asked for 5 trumpets and 7 French horns! The most fragments of the French horn instrument alone are divided into 4 parts. …”

“On the other hand, perhaps some of the excessive annotations and expression marks can be appropriately deleted. Although more and more students have tried ‘title music’ in recent years, academic professors actually prefer ‘pure music’ in their hearts. You may need to take more care of everyone’s expression level in some passages. For example, you marked the instructions from p (soft) to fff (very strong) and then to p in just one measure, which is a bit difficult to play... and in the last movement starting from measure 650, you made a strange request to let 7 horn players stand up and play, which is simply unheard of...”

“Thank you, Roy.” Fanning’s tone was sincere and his eyes were warm.

Roy blinked and smiled, then waited for him to continue giving feedback.

Fanning was silent for a long time, then asked: “Is the internal inspection situation of the nominated works in the past two days... relatively general?”

“You are still the first.” Roy answered calmly at first.

"I understand." Fanning smiled lightly, "This is because I had a huge advantage in the improvisation and chamber music voting at the beginning, and I was more than 5 points ahead of Cecil... But with the current progress, I guess I am not much ahead of him, right?"

"Mr. Fanning's sense of smell is too sharp. Roy didn't mention it at all before... You are only 1 point ahead now. More than half of the members of the school, professors of the conservatory and orchestra members have made their choices. Maybe in a day or two, the final result will be settled."

Fanning's face showed a thoughtful look.

After more than half of the people made their choices, his 5-point advantage was reduced to 1 point.

If I estimate it roughly according to this trend, what is the probability of getting the first place in the end?

It feels like flipping a coin and you can't predict the head or tail.

The girl paused and said: "But in fact, I think at least 70% of the current results have nothing to do with your "First Symphony" itself, but...the attitude of the school after that incident."

"Tell me about the other 30%." Fanning looked into Roy's eyes.

"Another 30% about the music itself? ... Well, there are indeed issues with the scale of the instrumentation and the terminology of expression in your opinions. For the points I just mentioned, they think this is a kind of 'control desire that does not match the qualifications' and is too unorthodox..."

"Anything else?"

"In addition, they also mentioned that your melody structure is too old-fashioned and simple, which does not conform to the refinement and delicacy of romanticism, and the polyphonic texture is too complicated, and you use a lot of vulgar market or rural tunes, but you integrate them with elegant and noble composition techniques inappropriately, and... In some musical image creation techniques, you have returned to the state of being too deeply influenced by Professor Anton, such as foggy sound bands, brass forte, and superimposed variations of a large number of repeated motives, etc..."

Fan Ning listened quietly.

When the girl said this, her tone became very gentle: "Mr. Fanning, Roy especially wanted to premiere your "First Symphony in D Major" at the graduation concert, so he told you all their attitudes in such an intact way..."

As he spoke, Roy's voice gradually became a little more excited: "To tell you my true feelings, I think all the issues they mentioned are extremely stupid prejudices, including Uncle Huxley! ! ! Those are your innovations and breakthroughs, the beginning of the maturity of romanticism. These days, every time I hear its incomplete performance, or imagine some fragments, I am filled with joy, or my whole body is filled with joy. I even shudder. Sometimes, when I play my own part, I have a stronger feeling than in "Death and the Maiden". I am thinking about it as I move my bow, how on earth did you write it? Crying deeply over it…”

The temperature dropped sharply after late at night, and the girl's thin figure was shaking a little. She took a deep breath and pulled up the slipped shawl again: "But, these are still my inner words... The first two points, the number of orchestrations Why should I mention the problem of too many requirements and expression terminology first? It’s because they are the easiest to make temporary compromises and adjustments! This will not involve too many note-level modifications, and you can completely rely on the information I disclosed. Do some optimization, and then Roy will try to convince the remaining people who have not made a choice, and try to keep our advantage that has been eroded by more than half..."

"It may sound a bit frustrating. Why should I compromise with the style preferred by the academy? Right? But what I am most afraid of now is that the opportunity is gone. This will also be a blow to other students currently participating in the rehearsal. I am willing to be in front Do this, and after you slowly gain fame, we will export our more prophetic ideas to the art world."

"Miss Roy, I have taken everything you said to heart."

Fan Ning looked at the shivering girl, stood up and closed the ventilated door and window of the office, and then said with a warm smile: "Last time at the hotel, I was a little rude and waited for the graduation concert to be over. How about inviting you to dinner?"

Wait for the graduation concert to end. After hearing this sentence pattern, Roy was finally sure that Fan Ning was seriously considering her suggestion.

The small cup of coffee that Fan Ning poured for her was always kept at the most suitable temperature. She sat there for a while, watching Fan Ning opposite, repeatedly flipping through various music scores and manuscripts, memorizing things.

After drinking the coffee in small sips, the girl stood up and said, "I'm sleepy."

"I'll take you down."

The night was as cold as water, and the two of them walked all the way to the car on the main road opposite the school administration building.

Fan Ning's finger touched the car door handle, but he stopped and did not pull it open.

After a long while, he raised his head and asked, "How is the situation over there?"

"As always, if Roy encounters more special troubles, I will tell you in my dream before."

Fan Ning nodded, and the two stood face to face next to the car for a while, and then he asked, "Is there anything else?"

Roy pursed his lips, lowered his head to consider, then raised his head again: "The school already knows who 'Purple Bean Cake' is."

"What do you mean?" Fan Ning's expression condensed.

"Yes, it is a further verification than two days ago." Roy nodded, "During the day today, Dean Fabian has reported the results of the investigation to all members.

"And sent a copy to the Special Patrol Office."