Old-time musicians

"Bow skills?" Julius asked in surprise. Google search reading

"I have marked the upper and lower bows at key places." She removed the sheet music and moved it to a position facing the conductor's podium.

From a closer distance, Fan Ning saw some sparse "V" up-bow marks and "∏" down-bow marks, as well as some upper bracket legato marks.

"That's it?"

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Fan Ning shook his head: "And I found that even the members of the group were not completely unified on what you were marking. Just now, the musicians in the fifth, sixth, and seventh rows behind you used bows that were inconsistent with yours in measures 79 and 80. The students in the seventh row realized something was wrong, so they simply changed it to a long bow and pulled out more than 20 notes at once."

Hearing this, some of the other voices who had experienced minor flaws just now felt guilty.

Professor Fan Ning not only has a sharp hearing, but also has a particularly good memory.

"In this fast passing phrase, not only are you messing up, but you are also messing up the second violin part, and even the colored third note of the woodwind section in the semi-cadence has been weakened by you, Miss Julius, don't you You are just the concertmaster, or the concertmaster of the entire orchestra. This is your dereliction of duty. How do you usually lead your team members to train? "

"I want them to follow me," Julius said. "Professor Fanning, is there anything wrong with my performance? Why is it dereliction of duty?"

"There is a problem." Fan Ning denied her point of view mercilessly. "This is not your solo occasion. Your failure is that you did not think about the entire musical structure from the position of the principal."

Julius tried to explain: "But I studied the band fragments and made all the expression marks. I also thought that the pitch was fine. The bowing method was also divided according to the normal way. They only need to keep up. I took notes. I also shared it and told them to go back and practice more.”

The eyes of many musicians were focused on the two of them, and Fan Ning suddenly felt like this scene had happened before.

It should be the concert hall of the college. At that time, I was sitting in the audience and listening, and the person standing on the podium was Teacher Anton. He has a good-natured personality, and due to the setbacks in his creations in those years, he always thinks that he is grateful for the musicians' willingness to perform his works, which leads to the failure of the next performance.

Exactly the same.

After certain issues were pointed out, the exchange progressed to this point, and after the questions raised were compromised, there was only one sentence: "Go back and practice again", and the rehearsal continued as if nothing had happened.

Fan Ning slightly restrained the idea of ​​scolding the concertmaster until he was bloody.

Mr. Anton is no longer here, and there is no point in simply venting his emotions. He can neither punish according to the practices of professional symphony orchestras, nor is it appropriate to persuade all dissatisfied principals to quit.

Moreover, he has always held the view that the authority of a conductor is not conferred by this position, but comes from his insight into music and his accumulated trust in the musicians.

The student orchestra has already assumed the function of music education. To slowly correct the unhealthy trends in the orchestra, the most important thing is to let the principals of each section understand their responsibilities...teaching them well is also a good preparation for their future professional symphony orchestra. Develop or identify candidates.

Not everyone is as hopeless as others.

He calmly explained to the students: "In the orchestras of the original style and earlier periods, as long as the string group determined the up and down bows and the broken bows, they could basically play a uniform effect. But with the later string playing techniques The expansion, rhythm patterns and orchestration textures have become more and more complex. This extensive model can no longer meet the needs of music. Strings must not only consider up and down bows and broken bows, but also need to unify the player's breathing rhythm in specific passages. As well as the starting and ending points of the bow movement, the vibrato should not be too free and loose."

"In a passage like a 76-bar rapid passage, the same bow is used. Some of you move the full bow, while others only move half of it. It will sound like every note is on beat, but the effect is still messy. The truth is, it’s the same string tremolo. Imagine someone is playing at the tip of the bow and someone is playing at the base of the bow. Do you think the sound effect will be satisfactory?”

Many string musicians looked thoughtful at this time.

For the same piece of music, the notes are obviously correct, but sometimes I feel that there is a gap between the performance and the performance of a professional orchestra. Perhaps this is the reason.

Fan Ning turned his attention to the right side: "Classmate Roy, please share with everyone how you think and do this section from bars 76 to 102."

"Okay." The girl nodded immediately.

"Although the violin has already played a more emotional passage here, the cello is still playing the Andante for the time being. This is a descending bass line. In order to express the resentful and implicit tone, I asked the team members to touch the bow hair to the piano. The position of the string is controlled near the cardboard, and the G string is played in four positions..."

"There is a crescendo in bar 79, but I think you should not use too much force here. There are two reasons. First, the note density of the violin and viola here is too high, and the relationship is in thirds. If the cello is too aggressive, the texture will be blurred. , Secondly, there are several downbeat chords in the score, and the melody sounds are also in the woodwind section. If the bass is too heavy, it will be difficult for their timbres to blend in, and the audience will feel top-heavy..."

Fan Ning nodded and agreed with her analysis: "There is a crescendo, but you can't exert too much force. Then tell me how you deal with it?"

The girl replied: "I designed the bowing method for this section to be played with the upper half bow, starting from the tip of the bow. During the melody, I asked the group members to follow me and gradually move the force point to the root of the bow. In this way, the distribution of the bow sections can indirectly achieve a crescendo of musical feeling."

Fanning looked at Roy with encouragement: "Continue."

The musicians listened attentively to the explanation of the cello genius girl. Even many students in the string group have taken out pens and started to make marks on the score.

It is very likely that the sense of crisis caused by the quota limit.

"Then the cello was quickly passed through the sentence, similar to the emotion of 'undercurrent surge'. At the beginning of the practice, we also felt that it was difficult to be neat and unified. I organized everyone to discuss. In the exchange, I found that it was not because of our technology, but that we fell into a misunderstanding of solo thinking..."

... Misunderstanding of solo thinking? Many people's interest was raised. As students of performance majors with very solid basic skills, most of their usual piano practice is indeed solo or concerto.

"The misunderstanding is that since these notes can be played in low positions, everyone defaults to this most direct method - from the perspective of solo thinking, the low position has a large finger spacing and is easy to grasp the pitch, while the high position has a small finger spacing, so we have no reason to increase the risk of pitch. But later we found that although this is correct, there is a characteristic of playing in low positions: frequent string changes!"

"This doesn't matter in solo, but in ensemble, because each person's bow switches on the string with a slight time difference, it becomes an obstacle to our uniformity. Later, I designed a new fingering method, which is played entirely on the D string. Although the position is higher and the pitch is more difficult, since it does not involve changing strings, our bowing does not need to be too scattered. After concentrated practice, , and finally solved the problem of unevenness. "

Fan Ning nodded and said loudly: "Pitch and neatness are the most basic requirements of the string group. The leaders of the other four parts, do you know how to solve similar problems in the future?"

"In Roy today, I saw a rigorous attitude towards art and a passion for music research. She knows how to respect every musician by analyzing the score. When encountering problems, she tries and discusses with her team members, collects everyone's opinions, and finally gives a solution... This is especially what every leader of the part present should do. "

"You don't want your team members to lose the opportunity to perform in the capital because of your dereliction of duty, right?"

Fan Ning's peripheral vision inadvertently swept Julius's not very good face.

...It's inconvenient to directly attack you, the leader of the orchestra, right? Can't I set up a few other excellent leaders first?

Hearing Fan Ning's praise, Roy's eyes smiled again, and a small dimple appeared on her cheeks, but she suddenly realized that the musicians' eyes were all on her, so she tilted her head slightly to the other side.

"Do it again, and continue after the exposition." Fanning took up the baton.

After the theme's andante, the music came to the middle section symbolizing the storm. In the uneasy tremolo of the strings, the timpani played intermittent rolls, interspersed with short chords of the brass.

"Timpanist, make your crescendos and decrescendos more dramatic."

After listening again, Fanning reminded again: "Recall what effect the thunder you heard in stormy weather was? What is the difference between thunder in the distance and thunder near? What was the feeling of the thunder that scared you?"

"Your crescendos and decrescendos are too smooth, try the method of processing from slow to steep."

The timpanist nodded and followed the band to process it again according to Fanning's requirements.

"It's still a little bit short of feeling. Come on, when the band rushes up in bar 144, smash it down boldly, make a sudden and strong effect, and then roll it. Look at my hint."

"Very good. Keep going." Fanning praised loudly in the band's unison.

There is a transitional section dominated by the woodwind group at the end of the middle section. The main melody is a reminiscence duet between the flute and the oboe, while the bassoon intermittently blows out disturbing and foreboding bass.

"The flute's tone is too high, the oboe's tone is too low, and the bassoon's bass is not closed. Start again from bar 220." Fanning called a halt again.

After repeated attempts, even picking out the woodwind group alone, there was no improvement. Fanning pointed out the names of the three leading voices: "In this section, the pitch and uniformity are both problematic. Who of you will speak up and talk about your personal ideas."

Another surprise attack? This senior Fanning is wrong. Professor Fanning's hobby is so unique.

Several people looked at each other, not knowing whether it was because Roy's speech level was too high before, or they felt that they could not make sense.

"Joan, you say a few words." Fanning deliberately called her name.

Although her face was a little bad at the beginning, her performance was always good. She took the initiative to choose a type one paper in the sight-singing and ear-training test before.

Later, as the performance progressed, her state gradually returned, and she even had a vague tendency to lead the team. The people in the woodwind group felt more and more that following her voice seemed to be more stable than following the principal.

So Joan took the flute she was holding, and the little girl stood up. The soft voice floated in the rehearsal room, attracting many people to look back.

"Um...this duet melody spans a wide range. The oboe has an extreme bass, and the flute has a higher range. It is necessary to listen to the other party's voice closely when playing. In terms of pitch, I can only talk about it. How to avoid playing the flute too high..."

"Um... I just listened to the performance of two senior sisters. The problem is that the intensity is too high and the air flow is used too much, causing the sound to be hard and tight. Then the effectiveness of the sigh is too low, and the sound drops downward after the air is deficient. It's so powerful that it causes you to lose your balance when you raise it later. I suggest you practice using sighs to support the production of sound, and appropriately amplify the air outlet to fully vibrate and produce a stable pitch. "

"This section is really difficult for students who play bassoon, because every time they enter the rhythm point, it is on the sub-downbeat. As a low-pitched instrument, the internal control point of the mouth is originally located at the back, with a lower vibration frequency and a slower pronunciation speed. We have to go slowly, it will be more difficult to grasp... My suggestion is to focus on listening to the plucking sound of the double bass students in the previous beat, and imagine that your voice is 'brought out' by them, so that it will not be easily misplaced... I usually I will also pay close attention to Professor Fan Ning’s gestures when playing, and make a shoulder-shaking movement similar to preparing for a shot, giving some tips to my teammates..."

"That... is purely a personal suggestion. Seniors and seniors can refer to it themselves." She smiled at the people around her and sat back in her seat.

...As expected of Professor Fan Ning's former principal flutist, she is actually a junior student from another department. She is not a music major and yet she is so good. It's terrible. Everyone felt the gap again.

"Do you remember everything Joan said?" Fan Ning asked.

The three original principals of the woodwind section nodded like garlic.

"I would like to add two points. There is a big difference in the flexibility of the keys of the woodwind group. The distance between the keys and the base of the mid-bass instruments is larger, while the distance between the keys of the treble instruments is small. I suggest that after the rehearsal class, you think about making the key movements more uniform. training methods.”

"Furthermore, since the size of your pipes and mouth shapes are different, the vibration frequencies are quite different, and the mouth shape and intensity will be deviated due to different airflows. Everyone must be highly concentrated mentally and auditorily. The chief must first maintain your stability and let others have a standard to listen to.”

"If you understand, continue."

"Trombone section, have you noticed that the two A notes in bar 235 have different timbres every time? Try again."

After a while, Fan Ning pointed out the problem again. Unexpectedly, the chief trombone who had previously questioned his assessment rules stood up.

The boy took the initiative to speak: "In front of this is the mid-to-high range, which suddenly jumps down from the octave, and then jumps up again at the sixth level. When playing this note, you should pay attention to the changes in the mouth. The bass A mouth opens first, and at the same time Add air later, otherwise the air pressure and air velocity will decrease and the sound will be inconsistent.”

Although he is not as detailed as Roy and Joan's sharing, and he talks about principles and problems, which is inspiring, he can still show his thinking and concisely point out the solution.

It is Fan Ning's idea to start with the key few, the vocal chiefs, and gradually lead everyone to change the rehearsal atmosphere.

So he smiled and encouraged: "Very good. The big jump behind is the same."

…Seeing you rolled up makes me feel relieved.