Appreciation of the Violin Concerto "Butterfly Lovers":

The Violin Concerto "Butterfly Lovers" is recognized as "our own symphonic music" and "is a class and a nation becoming artistically mature. sign". Li Ling, a famous Chinese music critic, believes that it "opens up a new field for the nationalization of symphony" and "blazes a model path for the nationalization of Western music." Abroad, it has also gained a high reputation and is considered a "charming, novel and original work", "the most beautiful melody" and "truly great art". The author believes that the reason why it has won such an honor lies in the gripping subject matter, the vivid display of the pictures, and the ingenious combination of Chinese and foreign art. ?

1. Choosing a gripping story as the subject matter?

The author chose a well-known love story such as "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai", one of the four great legends in China. As the theme content of the concerto. Love itself is an eternal theme. People love to hear it, enjoy it, and never tire of talking about it. Moreover, such a beautiful love story is even more attractive, which arouses the curiosity of the audience to a certain extent. , which increases interest and shortens the distance between the work and the viewer. ?

2. Image "Picture Display"?

Appreciating "Butterfly Lovers", even without accompanying pictures, one can still feel that the moving pictures are unfolding before one's eyes. . The main reason for this effect is that through careful orchestration design, the author cleverly arranges the instruments according to the characteristics of the instruments and the needs of the plot of the music, making the music more vivid, so that the different scenes can be vividly displayed, and the specific performance As follows:?

Part One - Presentation Department. At the beginning of the music, the solo flute played a bright and beautiful melody on the soft string background, and then the oboe played a beautiful and charming melody, showing the first picture: under the bright spring light, pink willows, flowers and flowers beside the grass bridge bloom. Then, accompanied by the light arpeggios of the harp, the solo violin played a beautiful and moving love theme. This was followed by a sincere dialogue between the cello and the violin using polyphonic techniques, showing the second scene: the scene of Cao Qiao’s sworn vows.

After a beautiful violin cadenza, the solo violin played a bright, lively and playful second theme in the light and lively accompaniment of the band. The music is sometimes lively and lively, sometimes gentle and happy, sometimes passionate and joyful, and sometimes smooth and lyrical, showing a third picture: a picture of the wonderful life of the classmate for three years. They either chased and played, or chatted for a long time, inseparable and close to each other. The ending suddenly turns into an adagio, and the author's regretful mood uses a desolate and weeping melody to show the fourth scene: farewell in the pavilion. ?

Part 2 - Expansion. The music turns low and dark. The eerie gongs and timpani, and the panicked violins and cellos, bring us into this tragic struggle. The brass plays the violent and cruel theme of feudal power with severe rhythm and gloomy tones. The solo violinist used the rhythm of a traditional Chinese opera to narrate the grief and panic of Yingtai. This is followed by the orchestra's intense Allegro tutti, which sets off the decisive rebellious tone of the solo violin. It successfully portrays the unyielding spirit of resistance between Britain and Taiwan.

Afterwards, the above two tones formed two contradictory aspects. They continued to appear in different tones. The contradictions and conflicts became more and more sharp and intensified, gradually forming the first The climax is the fifth scene: a fierce anti-marriage scene. When the band played in full, it seemed to be full of longing and longing for a happy life, but the answer given to them by reality was the pressure of powerful feudal forces represented by brass pipes. After that, the music turned into an adagio, and the solo violin played a sad and sad tone, which was full of sadness and weeping.

The dialogue between the violin and the cello, at the right time, vividly expresses the mutual love between Butterfly Lovers and shows the sixth scene: meeting on the balcony. Then the music takes a turn for the worse, with the strings rapidly syncopating the rhythm, passionate and decisive, and the solo's loose part and the band's unison allegro appearing alternately. Yingtai sometimes cried out to the sky and the earth, grief-stricken, sometimes in a roundabout way, bursting into tears. After Yingtai gave a desperate cry to the sky, he stood up and threw himself into the grave amidst the deep gongs of grief and anger. At this time, the orchestra sounded and the music reached the climax of the whole song, which showed the seventh scene: crying souls and throwing themselves into the grave. . ?

Part Three - Recapitulation. The wonderful cadenza melody of the flute, combined with the progressive glissando of the harp, brings people to a fairyland of freedom, equality and enchantment. The violin with a muted instrument softly plays the love theme of Butterfly Lovers, showing the last picture: Hundreds of Flowers Competing for beauty and dancing with colorful butterflies. This is the sublimation of people's good wishes and a heartfelt praise of Butterfly Lovers' love. ?

The work gives people a picture from beginning to end. What makes people applaud is that the author can use the sonata form of Western concertos and symphonic instruments to give full play to the symphonic effect. It also has our national characteristics and makes the melody Beautiful, colorful, easy to understand, accepted and loved by people. ?

3. The ingenious combination of Chinese and Western arts?

The success of "Butterfly Lovers" also lies in the ingenious combination of Chinese and foreign arts. The author creatively uses the musical image of the violin concerto to express the dramatic story. Folk stories, and using specific musical language and expression techniques familiar to the people, make the music image more vivid and moving.

?

In the creation of the musical image, the author absorbed the tunes from Yue Opera, but it was not an imitation of the Yue Opera "play" style, but based on the formal characteristics of the concerto, the content and tunes of the original drama were modified. Comprehensive refinement to develop and create. Structurally, according to the needs of the title content, the sonata form of Western concertos is used to express the dramatic conflicts well.

In terms of artistic processing, in order to give full play to the symphonic effect and make it have national characteristics, the singing expression techniques in opera were also absorbed. For example, the presentation part draws on the singing "dialogue" form in opera to express the theme of "Butterfly Lovers"; the "Crying Souls Throwing the Grave" in the development part draws more on and uses the "Ban Ban" of Peking Opera and Shaoxing Opera. The clamorous "tight and slow singing" gradually escalated the tragic atmosphere of Yingtai's crying souls and reached its climax. ?

The instrumentation should have national characteristics as much as possible, and the solo violin performance technique should be consciously approached and borrowed from the techniques and effects of certain bowed string instruments in my country. For example, in the second part of the presentation part, the solo violin uses the key of E to imitate the performance of the guzheng, harp and string instruments to imitate the pipa. The author cleverly absorbs the performance skills of Chinese national instruments to enrich the expressive power of the symphony. The violin also draws on the "half tone" of the erhu "Sliding fingers back and forth" to express weeping emotions; the "Balcony Meeting" in the display department draws on the rhythm pattern commonly used in pipa music, that is, the strong syncopated rhythm, which profoundly expresses Yingtai's respect for feudal ethics in front of the grave. Accusations of blood and tears.

The violin draws on the playing methods, harmony, and orchestration of national instruments, and uses opera expression techniques in the entire treatment to portray the image and tragic mood of Yingtai very profoundly. ?

It is the ingenious combination of Chinese and foreign art that makes "Butterfly Lovers" completely acceptable to the masses even though it uses foreign "sonata form". Even though it is symphonic music played by a Western orchestra, the common people can completely accept it. Appreciation and understanding make this concerto both easy to understand and highly artistic. ?

The success of "Butterfly Lovers" is not only that its theme and content are well-known to every household, but also that its music has exciting power and vividly expresses every plot and scene. In terms of nationalization and popularization, it is a masterpiece. Thanks to bold innovations and successful attempts, as well as the ingenious combination of Chinese and foreign art, it is still full of vitality. ?

On May 27, 1959, the violin concerto "Butterfly Lovers" composed by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang was premiered at the Shanghai Lyceum Theater, with Yu Lina as the violin soloist. This most famous violin piece in Chinese history completed the creation of the nationalization of symphonic music.

The "Butterfly Lovers" Violin Concerto was composed by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao when they were students at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. It was composed in the winter of 1958. It was premiered in Shanghai in May of the following year and was well received. Yu Lina was the violin soloist at the premiere. . The theme is a well-known folk tale, using tunes from Yue opera as the material, using a combination of symphony and Chinese folk opera music expression techniques, carefully conceived and laid out according to the development of the plot, using a sonata-style structure, a single movement, and a subtitle. The main content is "Caoqiao sworn homage", "British-Taiwan resistance to marriage", and "Butterfly in front of the grave". The musical structure is composed of the singing of birds and the fragrance of flowers, sworn vows at Caoqiao, three years as classmates, farewell at the age of eighteen, farewell in the pavilion, resistance to marriage in Britain and Taiwan, complaints from crying souls, and butterflies turning into butterflies in front of the grave.

Source: Baidu Encyclopedia - Butterfly Lovers