Old-time musicians

The formal dresses of the crowd were too homogeneous, and it was really difficult to find someone in such a large square in a short time.

Until a classmate accidentally discovered that a young man in a black tuxedo slowly pulled out a black baton with light golden patterns from his lapel.

"He's next to me!"

The classmate exclaimed, and then he subconsciously covered his mouth.

"The conductor is here!"

"Carlon Fan Ning is here!"

Finally, more and more people found Fan Ning, but their reactions were exactly the same as the first classmate: first exclaimed, then immediately covered their mouths.

Google search TWKAN

This is because there was no sound in the crowd at this time. They found that their shouts were too abrupt in the sound of music, causing their brains to short-circuit for a while, and they couldn't figure out whether this was a concert occasion or not, and whether they should be silent.

With these shouts, the crowd began to surge.

With the musicians standing in the general area as the center, the people in the inner circle basically did not move, the people in the outer circle gathered inward, and the people at the edge of the square also tried to get closer to the sound source.

The introduction of just a few minutes before had already made them feel an incomparable sense of resonance - there was no real stage, the musicians were right beside them, this was an infiltrating, immersive and ultimate listening experience.

Fanning held the baton, feeling the sense of convergence of the sound field that he had not yet experienced, slowly swept through the crowd, and climbed a triangular-section movable staircase - it was located on a stone brick floor with a wide field of vision, and was originally used as a camera position for cameramen to shoot from a height.

It was not high, only close to three meters, but there was no obstruction nearby, enough for the musicians around to see his movements clearly.

"re, la-re, la-re, la, re, la, re,"

At the end of the introduction, the clarinet played a repeated fourth-degree descending "breathing motive" as the introduction of the theme, the intervals became shorter and shorter, and the mood became more and more cheerful.

When the theme of the first movement's exposition came, Fanning gestured to Roy from a distance. The breathing motive of the clarinet was taken over by her, and the cello played a fresh, lively, and slightly excited melody, which was the "wilderness theme".

The flute played the melodious "birdsong motive" in the secondary theme, which was overlapped with the "wilderness theme" of the French horn, forming a polyphony. A hundred flowers bloomed, a hundred birds sang, and nature was completely revived from the silence. The creatures danced and it was very lively.

Fanning opened his arms and brought out the warm and cheerful ending of the exposition. After a strong beat fell, his right hand instantly closed, the baton lightly tapped, and the other hand made a downward movement, and then slowly moved to the right.

The music returned to the extremely high and weak string friction background sound.

Fanning's left hand was still slowly moving, and his right hand drew a preparatory beat for Joan in the distance, and at the same time, his chin gently tapped down, indicating a quiet mood.

The first movement enters the development section. The first round of development begins with the flute playing the "birdsong motive" again, and the "breathing motive" of other woodwind instruments forms a polyphonic counterpoint. The timbre is tranquil and distant, with a pastoral temperament, like a creature taking a break after a carnival.

The second round of development begins with the descending fourth modulation of the "breathing motive" in the introduction. At the same time, the string music reproduces the low undercurrent of chromaticism, with a contemplative and meditative meaning. The French horn continues to blow the "breathing motive" in the third round of development. Here Fanning made a deformation and changed it to the form of dotted rhythm, which gave the original quiet effect a sense of power.

The scale elements of the "wilderness theme" appeared in the fourth round of development, gradually transitioning to the fifth round of development with the most complex sound effects. At this time, Fanning showed everyone his superb counterpoint skills. In the cheerful descending rhythm of the string music, the "wilderness theme", "breathing motive" and "birdsong motive" formed a triple counterpoint, and finally formed a heart-pounding ensemble whirlwind. The dramatic tension of the harmonic color was constantly intertwined and pulled, and the emotions gradually reached the peak! !

"Boom!——"

Fanning first stood on his tiptoes, then twisted his waist, and pounded the baton at high speed, the timpani and several other percussion instruments fell together, and then the French horn blew a fierce triplet "blooming motive", the foreshadowing of the blooming of a hundred flowers that had been laid out before, now became a spectacle under the accelerated camera!

The recapitulation came, the complete "field theme" was played by the bassoon, the flute and oboe reproduced the "bird song theme", and everyone returned to the sunny field in spring again, shuttled through the breeze, green waves and flowers, and finally ended the first movement with the singing of the singing and dancing creatures.

No one spoke, no one moved, and no one applauded. In the more than ten seconds of rest between the movements, thousands of listeners in the square followed the etiquette of the concert.

Night had fallen, and the gas lamps in various places in the square were very bright, reflecting the faces of each audience. Some of them closed their eyes and waited, while others looked forward to the sound again.

It is still the breathing motive, but the direction is changed in the second movement, from descending fourths to ascending fourths. The cello and double bass play roughly and vigorously, full of power, leading to a simple and passionate dance melody.

Many people find that it has almost the same structure as the "wilderness theme" in the first movement: both are fourth-degree jumps in the first half, and the plain one-two-three-four-five scale in the second half, but after Fanning's deformation of timbre and rhythm, it presents a completely different effect!

Sheeran led the string group to play the triple-beat pattern of "Leandra". Fanning used the most "magical" processing method he thought, inserting one more note into the original two eighth notes of the first beat, turning it into a triplet. This passionate rhythm almost made the audience spin with ecstasy.

The French horn solo played a somewhat tangled semitone, and the dance came to the interlude. The cello played the triple beat, which was another slower presentation of "Leandra". The violin played the first half of the sentence with hesitation, and then the clarinet took over the second half and slid down. There was a hint of laziness in the elegance, which was called "lazy theme" by Fanning. The next theme of the interlude was presented by the string music, with many variations and a sense of intimacy, which was called "chat theme" by Fanning.

The creation of these two musical images is precisely based on Fanning's impression of the guests' words and deeds at the previous country dance. They are processed and developed by the techniques of serious music, re-introducing the cheerful and simple dance music at the beginning, and finally unfolding into a poetic picture of pastoral life, which makes the audience intoxicated and fascinated.

At the beginning of the third movement, Fanning temporarily stopped his gestures and stood still. Lu held the drumstick, held his breath, and carefully beat back and forth on the timpani, presenting another breathing motive like a heavy step.

In this context, the "Funeral Theme" was first played by the double bass. Although it was called "Funeral", in fact, this melody was transformed by Fanning from the nursery rhyme "Jacques Brothers", but a few notes were slightly changed and deliberately changed to a gloomy minor key.

Then, Fanning continued to show his clever counterpoint writing skills. The "Funeral Theme" was imitated and superimposed on each instrument one by one. When the bassoon, cello, and tuba imitated the viola, the oboe superimposed a "joking theme" again. The whole sentence was full of leaps, dotted notes, and glissando, full of sarcasm.

The "Funeral Theme" continued to imitate. The French horn, flute, clarinet, and harp, this simple minor version of the nursery rhyme, finally formed a huge and complex canon. They were spliced ​​with some "sentimental" market minors in the middle section to form a subtle "funeral march" with the utmost irony.

The funeral steps gradually faded away in the sound of timpani. Fanning stood with his eyes closed, his hands almost stopped moving, and his body seemed to be asleep, which gradually made the audience feel peaceful.

Suddenly, his eyes widened, his eyes burst, and his whole body was like a taut bow. His right hand holding the baton split down like lightning!

An explosive band played together, making the audience's heart almost stop for a moment!

The fourth movement, the finale is here!

A series of rapid passing phrases played by the string instruments brought out the "Giant Motive", which was played by the trombone, but only four notes were played before it was rudely interrupted by the "Devil Motive". The descending chromatic fragments were played from the woodwind group, to the string group, and then to the brass group. The timbre changed from soft to sharp, and then to hideous, full of weirdness and evil.

The audience was originally frightened and trembling. They finally heard a group of inspiring horn sounds, but suddenly it turned into such a material. Now all the hairs stood up and sweated!

The two were caught in disputes and struggles. The "Devil Motive" symbolizing fate and evil thoughts wandered and deformed between the various parts, and the "Giant Motive" was always presented in an incomplete melody, as if it was lingering on.

After a period of obstruction and pain, the complete version of the "Giant Motive" was finally presented, played by the French horn, trombone, oboe, and clarinet in unison, appearing on the stage to fight back with a heroic attitude of resistance, and engaging in a fierce battle with the "Devil Motive".

In the middle of the music is a long string lyrical duet, which is sweet with sentimentality and weakness, as if foreshadowing the failed ending of the struggle. Then Fanning reflected the changes to Anton's composition. He laid the foreshadowing in the first movement and gathered them one by one. The former "Breathing Motive", "Blooming Motive", "Wilderness Theme", and "Birdsong Motive" were recalled and summarized one by one.

The "Chant Motive" made its debut. In the eyes of the audience, this is the descending modulation melody of the "Breathing Motive" at the beginning of the music, but it has changed from a minor key to a major key - so it has become the biggest sublimation foreshadowing, with a clear and generous listening experience, symbolizing divinity and purification.

After the "Chant Motive" showed its power for the first time, the restless string fragments sounded, and the interval of the "Giant Motive" reappeared in each voice. This was the hero's last counterattack. At the end of each bloody battle, the entire band was marked by Fanning with expression terms from p (weak) to fff (very strong) and then to p. This playing method, which was repeatedly practiced during rehearsals, was as fierce as a whirlwind at this moment, vividly showing the tragic struggle between people and fate, as frightening as a roller coaster ride!

The most heroic scene of the music was finally unveiled. Under Fanning's instructions, the seven horn players, whose playing state was close to exhaustion, climbed up several rockery with steps in the square, and played the "Chant Motive" for the second time facing the dark sky!

This is exactly the instruction of "standing and playing" originally marked by Fanning in the score!

As the spokesperson of divinity, the blood and power contained in the bodies of the seven horn players finally broke out at this moment, playing the last elegy for the giant!

When the giant fell, when Fanning stopped, when the music ended, when silence returned to the square, thousands of hearts were still beating wildly, mouths and noses were still holding their breath, and inspiration was still resonating.

All the audience temporarily forgot to applaud and move their steps.

They did not listen, but experienced it all.

This experience is from the shadow of the forest funeral to the singing of the spiritual garden, from the awakening of the violin overtones at the beginning to the burning of the orchestra at the end. Although there were some dangerous performance out of control in the middle, and although the ending was destined to be a fatalistic demise, they still tried their best and moved towards the realization of their own value without hesitation.

They felt that there was only one feeling that could describe it:

"Moths fly into the flame, living towards death."