Appreciation of the violin concerto Butterfly Lovers:
The violin concerto Butterfly Lovers is recognized as "our own symphonic music" and "a symbol of a class and a nation's artistic maturity". Li Ling, a famous music critic in China, believes that it "opened up a new field for the nationalization of symphony" and "played a typical road for the nationalization of western music". Abroad, it has also gained a high reputation, and is regarded as a "charming, novel and original work", "the most beautiful melody" and "a truly great art". The reason why it won such an honor lies in the gripping theme, vivid picture display and ingenious combination of Chinese and foreign art. ?
1. Choose a gripping story as the theme?
The author chooses a well-known love story "butterfly lovers", one of the four legends of China, as the theme of the concerto. Love itself is an eternal theme, people love it, never tire of it, never tire of talking about it, and it is such a beautiful love story, which is even more attractive. In this way, to a certain extent, the curiosity of the viewer is raised, the interest is improved, and the distance between the work and the viewer is narrowed. ?
second, the image of the "screen display"?
Appreciating "Butterfly Lovers", even if there is no illustration, people can feel moving pictures displayed in front of them. The reason for this effect is that the author skillfully arranges musical instruments according to the characteristics of musical instruments and the needs of music plot through careful orchestration design, so that the music is more vivid, so that different pictures can be vividly displayed, as shown below:
part I-presentation part. At the beginning of the music, the solo flute played a bright and beautiful tune on the soft string background, and then the oboe played a beautiful and charming melody, showing the first picture: under the bright spring, the grass bridge was full of pink, green and flowers. Then, accompanied by the light arpeggio of the harp, the solo violin played a beautiful and touching love theme. Followed by a sincere answer between the cello and violin with polyphonic techniques, showing the second picture: the scene of the grass bridge becoming sworn.
After a beautiful violin cadenza, the solo violin played a bright, lively and playful second theme in the band's brisk and lively texture accompaniment. The music is sometimes lively, sometimes gentle and happy, sometimes warm and happy, and sometimes smooth and lyrical, showing the third picture: the wonderful life pictures of classmates for three years. They either chase and play, or have a long talk, and they are inseparable. At the end, it suddenly turns to adagio, and the author's sorry mood shows the fourth picture: the farewell of the long pavilion with a sad and weeping tune. ?
the second part-the expansion part. The music turned deep and gloomy. The gruesome gongs and timpani, the frightened violins and cellos have brought us into this tragic struggle. The copper tube played the theme of the cruelty of feudal forces with severe rhythm and gloomy tone. The solo violin narrates the grief and panic of Yingtai with the rhythm of traditional Chinese opera. Followed by the band's strong allegro, set off the decisive resistance tone of the solo violin. It successfully depicts the unyielding resistance spirit of Yingtai.
afterwards, the above two tones formed two contradictory aspects, which constantly appeared in different tonality, and the contradictions and conflicts became sharper and sharper, gradually forming the first climax, namely the fifth picture: the fierce anti-marriage scene. When the band played all the time, it seemed to be full of yearning and longing for a happy life, but the answer given to them by reality was the heavy pressure of the powerful feudal forces represented by copper pipes. After that, the music turned to adagio, and the solo violin played a painful and sad tone, lingering and weeping.
The dialogue between violin and cello, in a timely manner, shows Liang Zhu's mutual admiration to the fullest, showing the sixth picture: the balcony meets the terrace. Then the music took a sharp turn, and the strings quickly split the rhythm, passionate and decisive, and the solo board and the allegro played by the band appeared alternately. Yingtai sometimes wailed, grieved, and sometimes circuitous, sobbing. After Yingtai made a desperate cry to the sky, she stood up and threw herself at the grave in the deep gong of grief and anger. At this time, the orchestras sang in unison, and the music reached the climax of the whole song, that is, the seventh picture was displayed: crying and throwing the grave. ?
part iii-reproduction department. The wonderful cadenza melody of flute, combined with the progressive sliding performance of harp, brought people to the fairyland of freedom, equality and charm. The violin with mutes gently played the love theme of Liang Zhu, showing the last picture: flowers are blooming and butterflies are dancing together. This is the sublimation of people's good wishes, and it is also a heartfelt tribute to Liang Zhu's love. ?
The works give people pictures from beginning to end. What makes people clap their hands is that the author can use the sonata form in the western concerto and the symphony instrument to give full play to the symphonic effect, and has our national characteristics, making the melody beautiful, colorful, easy to understand, accepted and loved by people. ?
third, the ingenious combination of Chinese and western art?
The success of Butterfly Lovers also lies in the ingenious combination of Chinese and foreign arts. The author creatively uses the musical image of violin concerto to express dramatic folk stories, and makes the musical image more vivid and moving with the specific musical language and expression techniques that people are familiar with. ?
In shaping the musical image, the author has absorbed the tunes from Yue Opera, but it is not a "card opera" imitation of Yue Opera. Instead, according to the formal characteristics of the concerto, the author has comprehensively refined, developed and created the contents and tunes of the original opera. Structurally, according to the needs of the title content, the sonata form in the western concerto is used, which shows the dramatic contradictions and conflicts well.
In terms of artistic treatment, in order to give full play to the symphony effect and make it have national characteristics, it also absorbs the expression techniques of singing in traditional Chinese opera. For example, at the end of the presentation part, the singing "dialogue" form in traditional Chinese opera is absorbed to express the theme of "Liang Zhu loves each other"; The "Mourning for the Grave" in the development department draws more lessons from and uses the "reverse board" of Peking Opera and the "tight pull and slow singing" of Shaoxing Opera, so that the tragic atmosphere of crying for the soul in Yingtai gradually rises to its peak. ?
As far as possible, make it have national characteristics in orchestration, and consciously draw close to and borrow the techniques and effects of some bowstring instruments in China in playing solo violin. For example, in the deputy part of the presentation department, the solo violin imitates the guzheng, harp and string to imitate the pipa. The author skillfully absorbs the performance skills of China national musical instruments to enrich the expressive force of the symphony, and the violin also draws lessons from the erhu's "half-tone sliding back and forth" to express the emotion of weeping; The "Loudaihui" in the exhibition department absorbed the rhythm pattern commonly used in Pipa music, that is, the strong syncopation rhythm, which profoundly showed the bloody and tearful accusation of Yingtai against feudal ethics at the grave.
The violin has absorbed the playing method, harmony and orchestration of national musical instruments, and used the expression technique of traditional Chinese opera in the whole process, thus depicting the image and sad mood of Yingtai very deeply. ?
It is the ingenious combination of Chinese and foreign arts that makes "Butterfly Lovers" fully acceptable to the masses, although it is symphonic music played by western orchestras, but the common people can fully appreciate and understand it, which makes this concerto both easy to understand and artistic. ?
The success of "Butterfly Lovers" lies not only in its well-known theme and content, but also in the gripping power of its music, which vividly shows every plot, makes bold innovations and successful attempts in nationalization and popularization, and the ingenious combination of Chinese and foreign arts, which makes it still full of vitality. ?
On May 27th, 1959, the violin concerto "Butterfly Lovers" composed by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang was premiered in Shanghai Lanxin Grand Theater, with Lina Yu as a violin solo. This China's most famous violin piece has completed the genesis of the nationalization of symphonic music.
"Butterfly Lovers" violin concerto was written by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao when they were studying at Shanghai Conservatory of Music. It was made in the winter of 1958 and premiered in Shanghai in May of the following year, with Lina Yu as a violin solo. The theme is a well-known folk story, taking the tunes in Yue Opera as the material, adopting symphonies and Chinese folk opera music expression techniques, carefully conceiving the layout according to the plot development, adopting sonata-style structure, single movement and subtitle. The main contents are "Caoqiao Becoming sworn", "Yingtai resisting marriage" and "become a butterfly at the grave". The musical structure is composed of birds and flowers, grass bridge sworn, classmates for three years, 18-year-old farewell, long pavilion farewell, British-Taiwan anti-marriage, wailing complaint and become a butterfly in front of the grave.
Source: Baidu Encyclopedia-Liang Zhu