Old-time musicians

Fan Ning looked down at the palm-sized piece of folded letter paper in the envelope.

It was only a small page when unfolded, and the writing was written in light purple aniline ink.

There shouldn't be much content in the teacher's legacy letter.

The first thing he looked at was the payment time at the bottom.

November 8, 912 in the New Calendar.

Yesterday was the 22nd and today is the 23rd, written two weeks ago.

To dear student Carolne Van Ning:

I have been thinking about writing this letter recently, and I finally made up my mind today.

Because my condition is really bad. Frankly speaking, I will die at any time. I just don’t know the specific time, so I must explain a few small things first.

You gave me a lot of advice and inspiration for the symphony we are writing. Thank you very much. It is absolutely subversive. After I die, you can continue writing it on your own. If you can complete it, you can participate in the work selection competition as your "First Symphony" and then premiere it at the graduation concert. You don't have to be ranked fifth, and you don't have to declare that it is related to me.

If you can have a successful debut, you may be able to get a glimpse of some revelations that I haven't had before.

Compared to those nobles, you came into contact with the piano too late. In my opinion, although you have talent, your basic skills are really worrying. Please come to visit Sir Viadrin at No. 43 Keziton Street in the East District. I have already contacted him, but he will be out for a while recently. It would be safer to go there in December.

Please pay attention to this! Otherwise, whether you want to be a composer, conductor, pianist, or just want to be a music scholar in school, this will become an obstacle to your artistic career.

My manuscript and all related information are in my notebook, and I will pass it on to you through Xilan Conor.

May you be accompanied by music and sunshine in this life.

Your sincere teacher: Anton Konar

"May you be accompanied by music and sunshine in this life." Fan Ning felt his nose was a little sore when he saw this.

This was the first time that he felt that his memories and those of the original owner were indistinguishable from each other.

He read it several more times.

In fact, he was encouraged to finish writing "Symphony No. 1" before graduation, and he was told what inspirations he might get after its premiere, and then introduced him to a piano teacher.

"I will do as you say, teacher" Fan Ning read the letter over and over again, thinking silently in his heart.

This seems to be connected with participating in the selection contest of the school graduation concert and the content of the time-travel text message?

It seems that I have to go to the group meeting in the afternoon.

Fan Ning stuffed the letter paper back into the envelope, put it in his pocket, and opened the thick and large notebook.

On the first page of light gray engraving writing paper, there are a few large characters written as a simple cover:

"Symphony No. __ in D major", with spaces in the middle.

More than two-thirds of the following pages are the manuscript of the score. Fan Ning didn't read it now and just skipped it.

Next is

journal? Teacher Anton’s diary?

The dates are intermittent, but all within the last few months:

August 11th. I bought a very interesting antique at Prudence Auction House today. Some of the chord sequences recorded on these scrolls are astonishingly beautiful, and some are mysterious. Hey, no one raised the price at all. I got it for only 5 pounds. Those stupid aristocrats and capitalists only see sculptures and famous paintings as art. Spencer Cecil, where did he get the recommendation?

August 12th. Good things come in pairs, and the school's old library occasionally has surprises. Today I discovered a book called "Sound Flow, Texture and Dreams", which was published in 1892. It's not that far away from now, but I just didn't expect it. There are people who are so proficient in the Noa language these days. It took me a whole day to translate more than one page, but I didn’t want to stop at all.

August 20th. I’m so tired and I don’t want to teach them tomorrow.

August 28th. Why is it still so hot? I think my translation work should be done in the swimming pool. Great Sun God, may you rest for a while?

August 29th. I froze to death during rehearsals today, the weather in Uflandsel is really retarded! I'm going to take a nice hot bath when I get back.

"Symphony No. 4 in a minor" premiered, conducted by myself, and its popularity was even lower than the previous one. My composition skills may really be getting worse. Alas, I don’t care about the sarcasm of the music critics, but the fact that many audience members left midway made me want to cry, and I felt sorry for the musicians who had worked so hard to rehearse. Carolyn Van Ning was sitting in the front row, so why did she burst into tears later? Are you sad for me because you see my popularity waning?

September 12th. If only I had an airship.

September 15th. Breakthrough progress has been made in translation and phonetic research. The book "Sound Flow, Texture and Dreams" records many methods of exploring musical inspiration in dreams. I have full confidence in the next symphony I am composing.

September 18th. So, after mastering the dream control method, you become a knowledgeable person?

September 19th. Professor Zimmerman from the Holy Janus Kingdom Conservatory of Music wrote to say that he had learned about the premiere of my "Symphony No. 4 in E minor" and had also purchased my published score. He put forward a lot of professional opinions in the letter. Although he finally expressed a positive conclusion, I was really ashamed. Those comments were so pertinent and so obvious, I should have discovered them myself! If it could be modified in advance, even partially, would the premiere result be different? I'm going to write a nice reply to thank him.

September 20. Zimmerman, that idiot! His musical ideas are as rotten as the old feces floating on the surface of the Pshor River! I don't think there is anything that needs to be revised in my Symphony No. 4 in E minor. Although you can't understand it, my time will come.

It was Conor's birthday. We had a party at home with five or six students. Carloen Van Nin played the piano well today, but he got the wrong notes when he was praised. His basic skills are really worrying.

September 28. I had that dream about the door again, all kinds of colors, crimson, pale white, black and gold, all kinds of scenes, the door of the wooden house, the door of the playground, the door of the pet cage, and when I woke up, I felt someone whispering behind the bedroom door.

October 12. My success rate in entering a lucid dream is getting higher and higher. This feeling of knowing that I am dreaming is really wonderful! My control over dreams is getting stronger and stronger. I can even create some characters and plots at will. This experience is as fascinating as the creator.

October 13. To be honest, I often feel that the mysterious chords in the fragments of the musical series are a bit scary. They always appear in my dreams with some terrible things.

October 14. I tried to write a short prelude with the mysterious chord material. Its color and sound effects are so charming.

October 16. Maybe I shouldn't enter the clear dream so frequently. They do bring unprecedented experience and musical inspiration, but I have been pressed by nightmares recently, and my heart feels very burdened.

October 17. I burned the score of the prelude. It shouldn't exist at all.

October 19. In recent days, I have been rehearsing the "Eighth Symphony" of the great music master Gilles.

October 20. Is this horn principal an idiot?

October 30. I have no chance. I am old. My body has already been put into death in batches, sometimes the hair falls off, sometimes the teeth are loose, and sometimes I am easily tired. I saw the portrait of myself when I was 35 seven years ago. It was completely different from the portrait of me now in my 40s. If I were 25, I would have become a sentient being. Now? I have already died many times. (*Note 1)

November 7. Didn’t I stop testing dreams? Why am I still █████ (can’t see clearly)

November 9. Hahahaha, this is what it feels like to become a sentient being. There are such light and colors under the surface of the world!

November 10. The painting on the living room wall seemed to be blinking.

November 14. I was completely awake today.

November 15. How did they come out?

The handwriting is already very messy here.

November 19. I got angry at Xilan for a small matter. I really shouldn’t have done that.

November ██. The existence of sentient beings must be false. If it is true, then dreams may not be false? This logic should be very clear.

The last page of the diary.

██/██: I regret it. I shouldn't have ██? ? , nor should I have peeped into ███? ? ?

Don't record your dreams!

Don't try to test or control dreams!

They will come out by themselves! ! ! !

...

The two hurriedly separated, one rushed to the group meeting, and the other cooperated with the school's funeral preparations.

Fanning walked on the campus, but the picture in his mind stayed on the last page of the diary for a long time.

Now he only felt that this matter was really mysterious and thrilling, and even a little absurd.

The source of the matter currently known is the sound series fragments and the mysterious book "Sound Flow, Texture and Dream" obtained by Professor Anton Konar.

The professor followed a certain method discovered in the research and experienced a magical clear dream, and began to explore the connection between this and becoming a "knower".

"Could it be that the music I just recreated from my past life, which gave me a feeling of spiritual strength, and the mysterious subtitle progress, may eventually point to this extraordinary road?"

In front of the winding cobblestone road, there is an open corridor outside the auditorium, and the hall door with golden leaf patterns is half open and half closed.

"I didn't expect the registration line to be so long."

Fanning looked at the stage.

Today is the preliminary registration for the works selection competition. Two teams lined up in front of the long table. Everyone came forward to take the envelope test questions and was registered by the staff.

But at this moment, the two-level differentiation in the queue is too obvious. One line of teams has a long queue, and the other line has only ten people.

This is because there are two types of competitions, corresponding to different colors of envelope test questions-

White envelope: represents a small solo or chamber music small work, the preliminary test content is "limited time composition", those who register can go back after the meeting, and come on time to submit the work at the same time tomorrow.

Black envelope: represents a large-scale work that requires the participation of a symphony orchestra. The initial test content is "improvisation". You will be examined by professors and judges in front of everyone.

At the annual graduation concert of St. Lenya University, everyone is eager to have their work accepted or to get the opportunity to perform on stage.

This is related to the success rate of staying in school after graduation, and it also greatly adds to the future artistic career.

In an imperial public school, you have a lifelong decent career and income security, or become a respected member of the family, or complete the consolidation and transition of the class, or take the first step to become a famous artist.

However, the threshold for creating large-scale symphonic works is extremely high, and the difficulty is not at the same level as that of small-scale works. Except for some top students in the composition and conducting departments of the third and fourth years of college, everyone is willing to pursue it but cannot participate.

Apart from other things, the improvisation in the first test is already very discouraging.

When asked to expand a musical material on the spot, most people can't even come up with eight bars, and they are "publicly executed" when they go on stage.

This caused a serious imbalance in the number of people queuing on both sides.

Fanning walked towards the small team and looked at the stack of black envelopes six or seven meters away from him.

"Carlon, are you standing in the wrong place?" Several students majoring in music leaned out from the long queue on the opposite side in confusion.

More and more people were watching Fanning queue up, and they were talking about it.

"Am I seeing right? Carloen Fanning, is he from the composition department or the conducting department?"

"He's a music major, right?"

"Are you kidding me? Why would a music major want to join in the fun? Just write a skit."

"Wait, he'll be embarrassed when he performs impromptu."

"Haha, does he think he's the chosen one? There's only one spot per year for large-scale symphonic works, and a concert only lasts that long."

"Maybe he learned some advanced composition techniques from Professor Anton Konar?"

"Professor Konar? His works when he was young were okay. Do you think anyone listens to his later works?"

"I heard that Professor Konar committed suicide last night."

Team leader Cecil, who had just refused his request for leave, also turned around from the front of the team.

"Director Fanning, what masterpiece are you going to write?"

He looked at it with interest, with a hint of imperceptible contempt in his eyes.

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*Note 1: Adapted from Montaigne's "Capriccio"