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2011年2月8日 星期二

中國音樂的現代化綜論 (1) -- 中國文化面對現代化的衝激

前言: 早前曾跟讀者談過陶傑所喜愛的一個中國歷史時代,也就是我所喜歡的同一年代 -- 民國初年。我也曾說過,民國初年 (五四之後至1937 年中日戰爭開始時),就像一位風華絕代的中年美女,充滿使人感到醇醉的千嬌百媚和風情萬種。只因這個時代是中華民族在藝術文化音樂的各個領域裡經歷真正現代化的時期,或者,更應該說是對峙著西方式的現代化 (western modernization) 沖激。在音樂發展上,是中國傳統音樂接受西方音樂的洗禮的里程埤。我所談及的風韻醇醉,就是從這個音樂現代化開始。我這一系列文章,就是討論中國音樂的現代化的發展。其中各篇文章有的是以 Academic 英文寫成,也有用中文以隨筆方式寫成的。敬請各同學留意,不要 copy-and-paste。但 idea 就不妨拿來參巧一下。



China’s Cultural Modernization

China experienced its modernization at the time when the western culture was massively imported through the hegemony of imperialism in the beginning of the twentieth-century. From the present perspective, this modernization movement has proven to be an important phase in the entire progression of Chinese music culture. However, the cultural collision was so fierce that the seemingly unshakable traditional structure was seriously distorted. China had never experienced this before throughout its long history. In the Tang Dynasty, for instance, China was in a strong political and social position. Its indigenous culture was able to absorb, transform and assimilate the incoming foreign cultural elements, thus constructing a new, unique hybridized culture of its own without surrendering its original value system. The Indian Buddhism which was imported to Chinese community at this time was an exemplar of just such a successful cultural assimilation. However, the cultural transmission at the time of China’s modernization was totally different. Unlike the situation in the Tang Dynasty, modern China was in a seriously weak socio-political position. The transcultural process was carried out on the basis of neither a China-leading, nor a two-way equal exchange model.[1] On the contrary, it took the form of a strong, brutal conquest which aimed to fulfill a colonizer’s ambitious desire for exploiting greater economic and political advantages from the weaker colonized by destroying its ancient, historically valued socio-cultural structure.

The May Fourth Movement (1919), first appearing as a request for reform at political level and later spreading out to cover different socio-cultural dimensions, together with the New Cultural Movement (1915-1922) were regarded as the reactions to this great imbalance of east-west acculturation.[2] In July 1933, the Sheng Bao Monthly (申報月) in Shanghai published a special issue on “The Modernization of China”.[3] This publication showed that Chinese people used the term “modernization” to describe the cultural confrontation. As Chinese intellectuals and even the masses were forced to recognize the military power and political strength of western imperialism, there was a concomitant awakening of national consciousness. The western educated backgrounds of social elite also compelled them to acknowledge the serious backwardness of the country in areas such as democracy, science, and the military. With the aim of reconstituting a new Chinese culture through, paradoxically, wholesale westernization in order to save the country, Chinese intellectuals, thinkers, and educators, brought about a series of cultural reforms. Xiao Youmei’s notable contributions to institute a new music education system and promote the New Music Movement for modern China were some of the fruits of these cultural reforms.


[1] He Xiaoping, “The Background Behind the Formation of Chinese Music Backwardness Theory (中國音樂落後論的形成背景),” Journal of Music Research, 2 (1993): 8.
[2] On May 4, 1919, nearly three thousand university students protested in the street of Beijing against the decision that despite China being a victor in World War I, Japan – rather than Germany – could take control of the province of Shandong. For a comprehensive study of the May Fourth Movement, see Chow Tse-tsung, The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual Revolution in Modern China (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1964), “Introduction.”
[3] The headline of the Sheng Bao Monthly is cited from a secondary source. See Jiang Binghai, “The Cultural Tradition of China and Modernization,” in Chinese Cultural Traditions and Modernization: Chinese Philosphical Studies, X, Wang Miaoyang, George F. Mclean et al ed. (Washington D.C.: The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 1997), 43.


To be continued............  待續........

David Leung (theorydavid)

2011-02-08 (published)

電影音樂漫談 (5): 從電影音樂作品看音影分離法

前言: 接續上一篇文章 "電影音樂漫談 (4): 電影音樂作品的解構解讀" ,與讀者分享第二首電影音樂作品例子。這首電影音樂樂曲,如果抽離了電影中描繪的 images,還是可以用現代音樂作品的衡量準則 -- OCT -- 去分析了解。它大概六分鐘左右,長度比起 Woody 的 Banana 中的一幕更長得多。相信聽者會較容易接受這段音樂是一個獨立作品。這個例子是日本蜚聲國際的導演黑澤明的電影 "亂" (Ran) 的其中一段影片。

正文:

黑澤明的電影 "亂" (Ran) 的這一幕 episode,是描繪戰爭的殘酷。這個殘酷不單是因為雙方軍隊的互相砍殺,傷亡慘重,反影出戰爭的恐佈可怕。更因為這齣電影的內容是描為身為兒子的貪求權位,竟然反叛父親潘主,以下犯上,合謀造反,弒母殺父。這一幕就是述兩個兒子帶軍隊攻打父親的城郡,殺盡父親的內官妃嬪,以及所有大臣官員,迫父親走上絕路。其內容就活像 Sharespeare 的 King Lear 李爾王,的日本版。權力使人腐化,見盡人性之黑暗,這一幕便是一個明證。黑澤明的導演功力,從他運用鏡頭的方式,和邀請武滿徹譜上原創音樂,亦可見一斑。

觀眾看這一幕時,他們都感受到戰爭和戀棧權力的殘酷。不同一般的拍攝手法,黑澤明在處理這場戰爭時,就運用了動與靜的鏡頭交替刺激觀眾的官能感受。一方面我們看到千軍萬馬的奔騰,軍隊走來走去,一群一群人在 screen 上左右互相穿梭往來,動感十足。但在 screen 的正中點,觀眾卻可以看到鏡頭同時拍攝著一些已經戰死的士兵屍體,和他們各種死亡的姿勢,有些是平躺下來的,有些是掛在欄柵上的,有些是倚在城牆邊的。這些鏡頭所描繪的是靜態的,如硬照般的畫面。雖不是影像重疊,但仍看到畫面上像是有一層 still 的 image layer 擺放在 moving 的 image layer 前面。

至於音樂方面,絕對可以是一個獨立樂曲,有六分鐘多長度。這個 pure western orchestral music,很有 impressionism 印象派的音樂風格味道。 音色以 string 為一個 background sonic layer,再加上冷漠的 oboe,muted horn 等管樂音色去做另一個前景 layer。這兩個 sonic layers 都是獨立的, independent,並以不同調式旋律 Modal melodies 作為骨幹組成的,並同時進行。 但 Takemitsu 的寫作比較自由,melodies 內含不少 chromatic 的不協和 dissonant 裝飾音。再者,兩個 melodic layers ,無論在旋律節奏方面,也是互不相干,不大協調的。這就產生了與鏡頭運用的很相似效果,就是兩層 melody layers 也動中有靜,而靜中有動。還有,一般學生在考試常被扣分的 melody going nowhere,即沒有方向的旋律進行,在這裡我們就聽到很多。Toru Takemitsu 很懂得以這種沒有目的方向的旋律進行,來表達戰爭的無意義,無目的,無建設,只有破壞,只有殘殺。查實這是一個很奇怪的音樂。跟一般樂曲不同,這裡的樂音根本就沒有很明顯的高潮和推進,但卻一樣能扣人心絃。

從電影的角度來看,這幕是沒有任何對白,和沒有任何 FX sound effects -- 即電影中常用的真實聲音配置 -- 就像默片一樣,只有音樂。可是觀眾從聆聽這外不協和的,怪異跳動的音樂本身,就可以明白劇情是在述說甚麼 。他們也感受到是樂和影像來描繪的不悅,殘忍,無奈與可怕。黑澤明的拍攝手法,是希望給觀眾一個錯覺,影像似是慢了一點點。因此音樂的速度也是中速偏慢 Moderato ma non troppa,一點也不快,沒有 energetic 的動感,一些也不似是慣常 express 戰爭場面的音樂。所以,這種音樂和影像的結合方法,有些電影音樂作家稱為影音分離法。坦白說,以純音樂的技巧而論 ,technicality,雖是非常精堪,但 creativity 和 originality 不算是最高的。現在很多電影音樂也運用近似的手法。不過,話得說回頭,黑澤明這齣 "Ran" 也算是很早運用到類似的音樂創作手法的電影了。如再以 劇情為一首樂曲的 programmatic references 來了解音樂,這首 "Threnody of War" (暫時的樂曲 title),也是一首達到八十分以上的現代音樂作品。


總的來說,有些電影音樂,雖是整個電影中的其中一幕,也算是獨立樂曲作品。我認為配樂二字,多少未能反影到它作為一首有研究價值的樂曲的地位。我希望能以此文章,拋磚引玉,讓電影音樂工作者,多吸收作曲理論知識,提升自己的寫作能力,不宜妄自誹薄,以商業流行之音樂無須以學院式學習為由,便塞忠諫之路。如真的是這樣,那麼,commerical popular music 貽矣。

Finished.........全文完........

David Leung (theorydavid)

2011-02-07 (published)