Old-time musicians

"New work?"

"So, Mr. Fanning chose to premiere his new work here? Use the work instead of the argument?"

"Is it a short piece, or a complete multi-movement work?" The guests whispered to each other to see if anyone in the know had learned more information in advance.

Music performance is an important element of the salon, and the premiere of a new work is more worthy of attention. As long as it is a premiere of an exquisite short piece, a salon can be frequently mentioned in other social occasions for a period of time, so people's interest is fully mobilized.

The lights in the hall went out briefly, and when they came on again, only the central circle remained.

Four chairs and four music stands formed a simple stage, and three ladies and a gentleman stood in front of their respective seats.

The waiters had entered the hall unnoticed from all around, lighting candlesticks everywhere to create a light and dark contrast, which would not make the stage too dazzling, and let the guests focus on the next performance.

"A performance that was not announced in advance." The candlelight reflected the smile on the face of the Marchioness beside her. "This is a surprise planned for you by our hostess, Miss Roy McAdam, and the young composer Mr. Carloen Van Nin..."

The Marchioness introduced them one by one: "In addition to them, the others are also students of the St. Lenya University Conservatory of Music. The gentleman playing the viola should be familiar to everyone: Lu from the Adair family. The other two beautiful girls are Joan, the daughter of Lord Nisemi, and Sheeran, the daughter of Anton Konar, the late famous composer and conductor of the Conservatory of Music..."

The information of the four performers also made the guests begin to continue to interpret their meaning.

"Mr. Lou Adair, a railroad tycoon, supported him, which foreshadowed Mr. Fanning's artistic personality charm..."

"The two violinists are the two beautiful girls in the front row during the meal, so that's it..."

"I didn't expect that the most noble and dazzling Miss Roy would personally participate in this performance..."

Roy usually has some performance occasions at school, but whether it is the symphony hall or the chamber music hall, there is a sense of distance between the audience and the "stage and off-stage".

This time is the real "chamber music", this rare "cordial conversation" atmosphere makes the gentlemen and ladies sitting next to them, including many young admirers, feel excited.

As for Huxley and several other professors, they are both surprised and quite useful at this time.

After all, this is the home of the Bologna School, and the composers and performers are all students, which adds a lot of glory to their faces.

"So was this Carloen's initiative, or Roy's push? Or is the relationship between the two closer than I thought?" Vice Principal Huxley sat on the soft sofa, sipping a sip of red wine, secretly pondering the details, "This year, the cooperation between the school and the City Concert Hall has received widespread attention from the art world, with both praise and doubt. If the premiere tonight is good, it will be another round of hype in the mainstream media... Well, after all, it still depends on the quality of the music. This should be Carloen's chamber music work for the re-examination..."

After the four people on the stage saluted the audience, three of them sat down first, and the first violinist Sheeran walked to the piano on the side, pressed the keys for calibration, and sat down last.

"String Quartet No. 1 in D minor, "Death and the Maiden", dedicated to the Marquis Paul McAdam... Speaking of which, this is also a title music... Let's leave the next time for the music itself."

Amid the friction of the open strings, the Marquise's introduction ended, and then she walked off the stage.

Fanning put one hand on the armrest of the sofa, changed to a comfortable sideways position, and looked at the four people under the lights from afar.

On the stage, Sheeran glanced at the other three people, then raised his right hand holding the bow slightly, and while accumulating strength, it served as a preparatory beat.

The four people pulled the bowstrings neatly!

The powerful string music played in unison, presenting the D minor triplet motive of the introduction.

This unison was like a collision, pouring, opening the curtain in a tearing manner, and finally lingered on the A major dominant chord.

14 bars, just over 20 seconds of the introduction, the vivid musical image has firmly grasped the audience's tension.

At the beginning of the presentation, the first violin Sheeran played a melody that progressed upward, and at the same time, the other three imitated and developed the triplet motive in the introduction, forming a polyphony with each other, like life struggling to climb, and death pressing step by step. Then the secondary theme was played by the violin and viola, with a sweet pastoral style, and the jumping rhythm was full of vitality.

The conflict between the two is undoubtedly antagonistic. They confront and entangle each other, but are reluctant to start fighting, just like two knights quietly circling in the duel field. They will never draw their swords easily unless they find each other's flaws, which makes the contradiction unresolved from beginning to end.

Finally, we come to the core of the second movement.

The four musicians took a deep breath, and when they slowly exhaled, they carefully rubbed the bows on the strings and played the gloomy and sentimental column chords.

"One piano, one sound, regular rhythm, simple and almost transparent texture... Isn't this a regular four-part harmony writing? Why is the color so deep and so touching..."

Most of the audience present have received professional music training. At this moment, in contrast, they only feel that the four-part harmony they usually write is just a homework question, while here is a great work of art.

Five variations follow the theme. Sheeran's bow plays a sad and moving melody, which is the wishful sentimentality of a girl in her best years. The background laid by the cello's plucking and the middle voice is like a glass of nectar. The wine is poured out by Roy, the cello player, in the second variation. This glass of wine is bright red, very mature, mysterious and even terrifying, but fragrant, tempting people to drink it all.

Many guests were filled with endless sorrow when they heard this, and it was hard not to be curious and curious about the composer. What kind of talent and experience can write such an extremely sad and romantic music?

"The resonance of the soul has already occurred..." In the drunkenness of the third and fourth variations, the audience's mood changed from dancing wildly to sleeping soundly, and Fanning sensed the strange spiritual thread connection.

And the last variation is like white snow covering a dark grave. The interpretation of death here is full of quiet artistic conception, peaceful and melancholy. The two violins ended with a very weak pianissimo at the end, reflecting a pale and gloomy illusion, suggesting a long-lasting and peaceful relief.

At this time, the ladies with stronger empathy and more sensitive emotions have completely substituted into it. Some of them have sour noses and red eyes, and some have shed tears, even sobbing imperceptibly.

The short scherzo sounded, and the beginning and end of the third movement had a rough and strong syncopated rhythm, which turned into a gentle major in the middle. The finale came in a short alternation of light and dark.

The theme here has a heart-pounding development momentum. The confrontation between death and life in the first movement finally unfolded a thorough and fierce conflict. The jumping rhythm stubbornly pushed the words of the steps. Death faded its gloomy face, but it still came as expected. The girl was given a failed struggle ending. The seemingly triumphant and enthusiastic ending actually coincided with the artistic conception of the last movement of the symphony conceived by Professor Anton.

After a strong performance, the four people raised their bows and the notes stopped abruptly.

Fanning drank the sweet and sour prune juice in the glass.

The applause in the salon hall drowned the four musicians like a tide.