中國音樂的現代化綜論 (2) -- 中國音樂現代化的先鋒--蕭友梅先生

前言: 這篇文章接上篇討論民國初年的中國音樂現代化的經過。明眼讀者一看就知道以下文筆是 Academic English，近似論文的寫作手法了。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) 衝激。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。

New Chinese Music and Tradition (中國新音樂和傳統)

According to Maria Chow, modern China was zealously looking for a “new national musical style that, on the one hand could be dissociated from China’s imperial past and, on the other, would not be seen as western in spite of its being ‘modern’”.[1] A new, modern national music, powered by the advocacy of Xiao Youmei (蕭友梅 1884-1940) and his fellows such as Huang Zi from the National Conservatory of Music (NCM) in the first few decades of the twentieth-century, was exactly such music. It could be used not only to represent modern China but also to establish a new Chinese music tradition.

When discussing this new form of national music, Xiao provides a definition: “What is Guoyue (national music 國樂)? The music that expresses the spirit, thoughts and sentiment of Chinese people of a particular era can be regarded as Guoyue. Thus, the essences of Guoyue are Chinese spirit, thoughts and sentiment. The way to express such essences in music must be in accord with the trend of that particular era, as well as a composer’s personal predilection. There is no need to be confined to any particular instrument [western or ethnic instrument], or musical manner 樂曲形式.”[2] Xiao’s term ‘musical manner’ refers to the analysis of the three main factors of music: content, manner, and instrument. The essence of music lies in its “content – the expressive idea, emotion and mood of music. The manner of music, including melody, rhythm, harmony, and musical design, is its outer body. The musical instrument is only the tool to perform music.”[3]

In fact, Xiao’s idea of ‘western manner-Chinese content’ had already been germinating from his earlier days while he was pursuing the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Leipzig in Germany. The meanings of Chinese spirit and sentiment are elucidated in his thesis when he wrote, “The Chinese are a nation bestowed with rich musicality…..There will be a day that a unified notation and harmony system will finally be imparted and instituted. By then, the melodious Chinese traditional music will have a rebirth and turn into a new chapter, marching into a new era of brilliance and splendor. Under the premise of retaining its national sentiment and spirit, traditional music has been and will ever be a heritage among the Chinese people.”[4] Xiao believed that traditional music would be a valuable treasure for new Chinese music. And the national style (民族風格) lies in the “framework of a musical work”.[5] Chinese people would be able to preserve their own national character in musical content, even when the manner was western. Regarding this western ‘musical manner’, especially the theory of harmony, he further claimed that “the harmonic practice is not music itself. It is just the proper way of harmonizing a tune. We have to make use of this progressive theory of harmony to create our new music”.[6] Thus for Xiao, if the Chinese traditional music were reformed and renewed by applying the western compositional techniques, it would become the foundation of the new music for modern China.

From Xiao’s explanation, the relationship between music and nationality is similar to that of a bottle and its wine. While western technique is the bottle, the Chinese content is the wine. Since the overall trend of China’s modernization was in the spirit of wholesale westernization, it was natural for many composers to employ western techniques (the bottle) when they thought of new music. However, the problem lies in ‘Chinese content’ (the wine). What constitutes Chinese spirit, thought, and sentiment? How can they be expressed musically in a work? Ironically, to many local listeners, some Xiao’s compositional works sound more western than Chinese.

  During an interview for Music Monthly (音樂月) under the title “On Our New Music Movement”, Xiao
apparently had in mind the value of old traditional music when he said of the national quality of music: “…if
we desire to reform our traditional music or create our own Nationalistic School of Music, then we cannot
completely throw away our old traditional music.”[7] Xiao encouraged the collecting, rearranging and
harmonizing of the folk tunes,[8] reaffirming the value of Chinese traditional folk music. These, he believed,
were the keys in distinguishing the style of Chinese music from that of other countries.

待續..... To Be Continued.....… 

David Leung (theorydavid)

2011-02-10 (published)

[1] Maria M. Chow, “Representing China Musically: A Chinese Conservatory and China’s Musical Modernity 1900-1937” (PhD Dissertation, The University of Chicago, The Faculty of the Division of the Humanities, 2005), 27.

[2] Xiao Youmei, “復興國樂之我見 (Restoration of Our National Music) 1939,” in Xiao Youmei yinyuewenji蕭友梅音樂文集 (Collection of Musical Essays of Xiao Youmei), Chen Lingqun et al. ed. (Shanghai: Shanghai Yinyuechubanshe, 1990), 540.

[3] Ibid., 539.

[4] This citation is quoted from Xiao Youmei’s doctorial thesis, “中國音樂考 (A Research of Chinese Ancient Musical Instruments)”, written in the University of Leipzig, Germany in 1916. See Xiao Youmei, Xiao Youmei yinyuewenji蕭友梅音樂文集 (Collection of Musical Essays of Xiao Youmei), Chen Lingqun et al. ed. (Shanghai: Shanghai Yinyuechubanshe, 1990), 8.

[5] Xiao Youmei, “音樂家的新生活 (The New Life of Composers) 1934,” in Xiao Youmei yinyuewenji蕭友梅音樂文集 (Collection of Musical Essays of Xiao Youmei), Chen Lingqun et al. ed. (Shanghai: Shanghai Yinyuechubanshe, 1990), 381.

[6] Ibid., 381.

[7] Xiao Youmei, “On Our New Music Movement,” Music Monthly, vol. 1, 4 (1938). The article has been collected in Collection of Musical Essays of Xiao Youmei . See Xiao Youmei yinyuewenji蕭友梅音樂文集 (Collection of Musical Essays of Xiao Youmei), Chen Lingqun et al. ed. (Shanghai: Shanghai Yinyuechubanshe, 1990), 466.

[8] Ibid., 466.

---

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)

有關文藝復興的一點看法 (2)

前言: 我曾跟學生談到文藝復興在西方美術史中的地位。由於時間的緊迫，我講得很快，加上學生對一般西方通史的知識比較貧乏，所以未能跟得上我想表達的一些我認為是較新，較獨到的見解。下課後，有一位程度較佳的學生提議，我不妨在我的網誌裡再補充一下。雖然我曾為這個題目寫了文章的第一部份 (2011-01-05)，但有些學生跟我說他仍然覺得 Le Goff 的 idea 很深。我是同意他們的看法。要學會和運用一些新的理論去看 History 這個大問題，也的確不容易。可是，如個我在這個網誌裡所討論的觀點是太平庸，我覺得我不須再化時間去寫下去了。因為，我們都可以買一本 textbook 自己學習就已經夠，學生們都不用交學費去上堂。我們做老師的哪裡會有工作可做呢?

正面的去看，如果老師教的東西，學生不是全都明白 (不是全不明白)，這是好的。因為，這可以顯示，學生求學的態度是怎樣? 如果學生的求學態度是誠懇，認真的，他們一定會主動請教老師，也會作出努力，繼續追求答案，直至滿足為止。但很可惜，現今香港的學生，已被那些以搵快錢為教學宗旨的商業性補習社弄得不再懂得思巧，只懂坐在椅上等候 model answer，就連指頭都懶得一動了。


就是由於有一位同學再請教我上一篇 "有關文藝復興的一點看 (1)" 的文章，所以，我就在堂上再化了一些時間去講解一下。經過再講解後，相信同學們也都明白了很多，大概也有七， 八成了。不過，若要掌握一個全新的理論去思巧問題，我相信同學還要付出更多努力。畢竟，世間是沒有免費午餐的。因此，學問學問，先學後問，所以，問，是不可或缺的了。

所以，如果讀者對我在這裡寫的文章，觀點，概念，有任何不清楚，不明白的，我是很喜歡作這裡作出回應。這樣，我就可以多一個題材去寫一篇新的文章。


正文:

I am not ready to write further on this topic at this site, since I have explained verbally in the class. However, what do the readers of the first article need, in my opinion, is some original explanations from the author about the relationships between time, rituals, innovation, collective memory and history, especially in the Reniassiance period. The following discussons are quoted from the book, History and Memory, written by the French historian and philospher, Jacques Le Goff for readers' references.  (David Leung's own comments)

Le Goff:


For the child, "to understand time is to liberate oneself from the present: not only to anticipate the future in relation to the regularities unconsciously established in the past, but to deploy a series of states, each of which is different from the others, and whose connection can be established only by a gradual movement without fixation or stopping point." (History, Le Goff, 3)

To understand time is essentially to demonstrate reversibility. In societies, the distinction between past and present (and future) also implies this ascent into memory and this liberation from the present, both of which in turn assume education, the constitution of a collective memory preceding and extending beyond the individual memory. (History, Le Goff, 3)

Since historical time is usually expressed in the form of a narrative, both in the historian's work and in collective memory, it includes an insistent reference to the present, an implicit focus on the present. This is obviously especially true for traditional history, which has long been primarily a story-history, a narrative. Whence the ambighity of even those historical discourses that seem to privilege the past, such as Michelet's program: history as the "integral resurrection of the past." (History, Le Goff, 7)


Through myths and rituals, primitive thought estalishes a particular kind of relation between past and present: " mythical history is paradoxically both separated from the present and conjoined with it...... Through ritual, the mythical 'separate' past is connected on the one hand with biological and seasonal periodicity, and on the other with the 'conjoin' past which links, from one generation to another, the dead with the living". (History, Le Goff, 7)

The past is defined as the period anterior to the events an individual remembers directly. Most societies consider the past as the model for the present. But there are interstices in this devotion to the past through which innovation and change slip in. What is the role of innovation in societies attahced to the past? Only a few sects succeed in isolating themselves in order to completely resist change.  The societies we call traditional, and particularly peasant societies, are not at all as static as they are thought to be. But if the attachment to the past can admit novelties and transformation, the direction of the evolution it perceives is usually that of a decadence or a decline. Thus innovation presents itself in a society in the form of a return to the past: that is the central idea of "renaissances." (History, Le Goff, 9)

Many revolutinary movements take a return to the past as their motto and ambition: .......
(one example that David Leung quotes here) Nationalist movements, including Nazism and fascism, which tend to inaugurate a completely new "order", present themselves a traditionalist, as returning to the past.
(History, Le Goff, 9)

Individuals composing a society almost always feel the need to have ancestors, and one of the roles of great men is to fill that need. The customs and the artistic taste of the past are often aped and adopted by revolutionaries. (Hisotory, Le Goff, 10)

Collective attitudes toward the past, the present, and the future can be schematically expressed as follows: in pagan antiquity, the valorization of the past predominated along with the idea of a decadent present; in the Middle Ages, the present is trapped between the weight of the past and the hope of an eschatological future; in the Reniassiance, on the contrary, the primary stress in on the present, while from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, the ideology of progress turns the valorization of time towards the future. (History, Le Goff, 11)

In fact, medieval time confines the present between a retroorientation toward the past and a futuro-tropism that is particularly strong among millenarians. Just the Church restrained or condemned millenarian movements, it privileged the past. (History, Le Goff, 11)

S. Stelling-Michaud has maintained that the men of the Middle Ages, tossed back and forth between the past and the future, tried to live the present non-temporally, as an instant that was supposed to be a moment of eternity. (History, Le Goff, 12-13)

...... medieval artists, caught between the attraction of the past, the mythical time of Paradise, and the search for the preogative moment that is oriented toward the future, whether salvation or damnation, sought above all to express the atemporal. (History, Le Goff, 13)

The present is further diminished by the tendency of medieval man to constantly actualize the past, especially the biblical past. The man of the Middle Ages lives in a constant anachronism, ignoring local color, and attributing to ancient people medieval costumes, feelings, and modes of behaviour. The Crusdaers believed that in Jersusalem they were punishing the true tormentors of Christ. But one can say: "the past is not studied as past, it is relived, brought into the present"? It is not rather that the present is eaten away by the past, for only the past gives the present its sense and its significant? (History, Le Goff, 13)

Nevertheless, at the end of the Middle Ages, the past is increasingly understood in relation to the time of the chronicles, to progress in dating, and to the measuring of time brought about by mechanical clocks. "Present and past are distinguished in the consciousness of the late Middle Ages not only in terms of their historical aspect, but also through a painful and tragic sensiblity". The French poet Villonn was tragically aware of this flight of time, of the irremediable passing away of the past. The Reniassance seems to be caught between two contradictory tendencies. On the one hand, progress in measuring, dating, and chronology permit the past to be put in perspective. On the other, the tragic sense of life and death, can lead to epicureanism, to the enjoyment of the present, expressed by poets from Lorenzo and Magnificent to Ronsard:

But gentle ladies, handsome youths,
Who sing and play upon your lutes,
Drink the joy of every days,
For hour by hour it slips away. (History, Le Goff, 13)


(David's comment) From the above statements cited from the writing of Le Goff, one can easily understand why we admit that Medieval men have no historical awareness of the past. They lived in an atemporal sense of time without clear distinctions between the past, the present and the future. But, on the contrary, the Renaissance society was perhaps the first one in the history, possessed with the sense of historical consciousness. Reniassiance people caught their sight on the tragic present, and at the same time, glorified the past with deep passion.

If anyone who does not really understand the above citation (the important statements and arguments) of Le Goff 's idea on time, collective memory and history, you can are welcome to write your questions to me.


Finished........


David Leung (theorydavid)

2011-02-04 (published)

除夕感懷

前言: 除夕將近，一般世俗工作都擱下來，讓各人靜靜地休息一下。看來我也要寫一些感性點的散文以應景。前一陣子的學術性討論文章，只好遲兩三天才繼續寫下去。不過，這一篇散文，也不是全新寫作的。我在多年前已經在一本雜誌發表過，但由於它是我最喜歡的一篇文章，所以我就在此網誌重新發表。希望讀者也可分享一下我的感情世界。


正文:


每年的大除夕，我們一家人，總是開開心心的聚在一起吃團年飯。當然，也少不了可以一嚐婆婆親手做的小菜  -- 清蒸大鯉魚。

婆婆的菜燒得真巧手，就連一些酒店大廚子都承認自愧不如。可是，婆婆從來不會在平時做菜的。但每逢過年過節，她的菜就一定能出現在桌上，更不層令我們失望過。我們若問她原因，她只含笑答道: "若我常常做這些菜，你們就不會感覺到特別珍貴，也不能令你們在節日時，回家一起吃飯的了。"

婆婆很注重一家人在一起吃團年飯。她常常教訓我們道: "國家之所以謂國，就在於團結兩字。若連家也不能團結在一起，何以立國? 我也不奢望你們為國為家作些甚麼，就只希望你們到時到候，能準時回家一聚，不會遲到。"

記得有一次，姊姊因為加班工作，未能趕及回家團年。婆婆吩咐不要開飯，要整家人一直等到姊姊回來才可吃飯。過不多時，飯菜已冷，我們各人的內心也同時感到陣陣寒意。可是，當姊姊匆匆回來後，婆婆出乎意料地沒有像平時的她，但卻聽得婆婆喃喃自語道: "想當年，你祖父南征北戰，為國請命，足足抗戰了八年光景，及至殉國，也未能有一次機會回家團年。現在你們是身在福中不知福。唉! 真是........。" 我們聽過這一番話後，心裡很是難過，從此，每逢過年過節，再也不敢遲歸了。

大約在五年前 (1981年)，婆婆就結束了她那平凡的一生。就像其他平凡的女人一樣，她的心中只愛她的兒女，她的家庭，一生只為家人的團結而操心，直到她生命的路走完，到最後的一息為止。

自婆婆去逝後，家中的景況也就越來越變得冷清。姊姊遠赴國外工作去了，又加上爸媽都是個隨便的人，所以我們一家人大都沒有一起過年過節。今年除夕，爸媽更是連團年飯都不吃，到外地旅遊去。我不禁想起了婆婆臨終時的一番教誨: "你們應要立下決心，從始貫終，小而團家，大而團國，要像婆婆學煮這味清蒸大鯉魚一樣，一定要做到最好為止，才能罷手。你母親樣樣都好，就是性急，不能專心致志地學燒菜。學學這味，學學那樣，到頭來就連一味清蒸大鯉魚也弄得不好了。"

記起婆婆在生時的訓誨，的確使我日後受用無窮。我想，或許至親能給我們為人兒孫最後的教誨，就是當他/她們撒手塵寰時，留低下來給我們那一剎無言的沉靜，牽動了我們無盡的思念，讓我們更懂得珍惜，學會如何去愛，和接受愛，使生命添上一份真誠的意義。



David Leung (theorydavid)

1986 (published)

2011-02-02 (re-published)

What Kind of Borrowing Is It ? (2)

Prelude: Continue the last writing on the topic of "borrowing" in the commerical field. This time I will look at a series of pictures that SCMP call it as Keanu Reeves' Matrix Photos.


The Essay:



Readers can look at the pictures first before I start discussing the techniques and meanings behind these images. Please enjoy appreciating these pictures.

The first photo (at the very top), which shows a ragged man of a weary face, dressing a ragged coat, with a piece of bread holding in his tiny hand,  is the primary image. The newsapaper calls him Keanu Reeves. He just looks like an outsider, perhaps an alien coming from other planets, without belonging to any today's society. He is lonely, sitting on the border of  this so-called civilized, high-tech, prosperious and wealthy world. He is eating, but without tasting. He is meditating, but without thinking. He is "living", but without "life". Everything surrounds him is cood, hard, and strange. In fact, there are many this kind of outsider concealed in every corner of our world. They are minority of the society, who are poor,  hopeless, as well as being discriminated and neglected by the majority. How ridiculous the photo is when you find that Keanu's image is sticked onto another images of a photo, somewhat like a pastiche.


Beside Keanus' original photo, the rest are designed in the style of collage, consisting of Keanu's primary image and other images, which may be taken from a news' photo, adverstiment or movie poster.  Similar to Wyneer's poster, the collage of Keanus' "Matrix photos" is also made from the technique of  "borrowing". However, unlike Wynners' poster which only alludes to a style, this series of photo quotes directly the image of Keanus from its photo. So we usually call this kind of borrowing as  "quotation", instead of "allusion".  Since the outcome style of this kind of collage photo is not only funny but also a mode of black humour, we call it as "parodic quotation". True, no readers will deny that Keanus' matrix photos can bring along a picture of laughter and tear, inviting readers to think, to meditate, like 鄭君綿 's parodic song in the years sixty of Hong Kong.  For example, can we sense the meaning of the picture of the family portrait of Kim Ching Yat, the Chairman of North Korea?  When we see Keanus, a ragged man with ragged coat,  sitting beside Chairman Kim, how do we feel?

North Korea has already been a country notorious for its poverty, starvation, undeveloped, devastating human rights and freedom for many years. Keanus' half-thinking half-upsetting posture, sad face, ragged appearance, just reminds the readers of his North-Koreanean ordinary, tiny, neglected, and hopless  image, which is contrasted with the pride, authority, power and top image of Chairman Kim and his family. Now we may see how collage style can possess high potential of expressivity in an artwork.  Readers can uncover more interesting meaning laid behind all other collage pictures in this Keanus' Matrix series. How about the picture that depicits our small Keanus, who is just sitting on the gigantic hand of the giant-like "Black Knight" of Star War, how much do you understand of it?

In short, when an image from a picture is put in a collage with another image in a picture in order to create a new picture, there always comes up with a question: which one quotes another one? In the above collage pictures, it is hardly for us to discern which photo is the quoted one or which one quotes others. In fact, determining which image is the subject and which is the object is not that important. The far more important is to choose either one to start a reader's interpretation.  From the above brief discussion, it is clear that collage is a very important technique for an artwork to elicit an aura of black-humour. Indeed collage style is easily found in many contemporary artworks, including musical works. Readers should not forget that when objects of different styles, different times, different natures, albeit just a fragment, are collided (not mixing up) to each other in an artwork, there often a new meaning is bestowed to these objects. Next time, I will write more on the use of collage of quotation in contemporary music, in order to acquire more understanding of the so-called postmodern musical style.



Finished...............


David Leung (theorydavid)

2011-01-29 (published)

What Kind of Borrowing Is It ? (1)

Prelude: A student sent me the poster and asked me about the technique of the propaganda laid behind Wynners' concert poster. By chance I read a series of another interesting pictures in SCMP. The technique behind this series of pictures are very similar to that of Wynners'.  Hence, I start my writing........


Let us look at the poster of Wynners' concert progaganda first.

What comes up in your mind as you watch such a poster? It is not that difficult for the old Hong Kong people to recall the ridiculous, however poignant and tragic, experience of the ten years Cultural Revolution in China. The dresses of Wynners are an evocative source, even more shocking than the red printed statements: "To Serve the Fans" and "The Great Leap Forward Concert".  Indeed they wear in the style of Red Army Guard uniform., which is widely known as a symbol of the Cultural Revolution. Although the Red Army Guard comprised of people of different ages, coming from different social classes and backgrounds, one common feature they beared was their almost blindly upholding of every treaty of Chariman Mao's teachings. Under the propelling force rendered by the Red Army Guard, the whole country was immersed in a fervent, albeit unreasonable, politicial movement that upheld the slogan "To Serve the People".  Tragedy then occured. Industry collapsed, production collapsed, farming collapse, economy collapsed, education collapsed, cultures collapsed,  arts collapsed, the society collapsed, then the whole system collapsed, and finally, all the people collaped too. They collapsed because they were served, -- served with starvation, poverty, unedcuated, materials scarcity, and perhaps, also served with innumerous nothingness and emptiness. Even though some older generations have not been directly suffered  from this politiical and socio-cultural disaster, they hardly forget the devastating effects that the "evolution" has brought forth. They suffered from its impacts in the years of sixty when Hong Kong was in the time of riot.  However, for the younger generation, the shockings and impacts of Cultural Revolution are lesser. Perhaps, young people may know something about the terrifying tradegy from the mouths of their grand parents, but they did not really feel such kind of pains. This is because nowadays youngsters did not study history, think deeply of it, learn seriously from it. Maybe we have to say "thanks" to the present government because of rendering such a successful education policy that tends to marginalize the Chinese history of this notorious period of time, though, even the officials are not refused to accept the fact that cultural revolution is a very mistake.

The style of Wynners' poster, therefore, dispersing an aura of black-humour, consisting of somewhat laughter and tears.  Laugter comes from the joyful occasion of a concert, of the funny look and of the postures of Wynners. However, tears do not disappear if your mind is conjured up with the abundant meanings behind such images. No question that the design of Wynners' poster involves the technique called "stylistic allusion", a kind of borrowing technique. Since the aethetic meaning the poster brought with is a mode of black-humour. We can also specify such stylistic allusion to be called parodic allusion. When artists allude to a style for satirical expression, we call it as parodic allusion. Instead of alluding to a pre-existing style, artists borrow, or quotes, materials from a pre-existing work, incorporating into their own works, we term it as parodic quotation. Parody, hence, is an important expressive meaning of Wynners' poster. When speaking of the postmodern style in his book Music Since 1945, Schwartz Godfrey also points out that pardoy is one of the ten particular features found commonly in postmodern artworks, especially in musical works.  However, readers have to be reminded that 20th century parody in music is different from that of Renaissance. Renaissance parodic mass is a polyphonic musical work consisting of a secular theme set as cantus firmus in the tenor voice, whereas, the postmodern parody consists of stylistic allusion borrowed from the other works in order to express a form of humour. For example, a famous Cantonese parodic song with quoted melody is sung by 鄭君綿 的 "帝女花"。The first phrase is sung as : 落街冇錢買麵包，借錢又怕老婆鬧。This parody is expressed in a form of satire or black-humour. When this song was first published, it was a harsh time for Hong Kong people. The economy of the late 50s of Hong Kong is still developing. Poverty was a common soical problem. Great majority of the laymen were struggling for their life. This is why the song became so popular and were widely spread out when it was first released by 鄭君綿 . 



To Be Continued........


David Leung (theorydavid)

2011-01-27 (published)

郎郎琴聲怎樣 "抗美援朝" ?

前言: 昨天報章報導了郎郎應邀到白宮為美方迎接胡錦濤到訪舉行的國宴伴奏，他先與另一位美國鋼琴家四手聯彈了 Ravel 的 Mother Goose Suite，然後又彈了 "中國人心目中最美的歌" 之一的 我的祖國。所以 The New York Times 就以此議論，稱為鋼琴政治，piano politics。這篇短文就是閱過此報導後有感而發的。


正文:


我的祖國 是中共早年拍攝一部反影上世紀 50 年代韓戰反美電影 上甘嶺 的主題曲，它描述祖國的美好山河遭帝國主義走狗侵犯，民眾奮而站起來保衛國家，最終戰勝美國帝國主義。可是，為何輿論會這樣解釋音樂的義意呢?

了解樂曲，聽眾都慣於從一切有關這首樂曲的標題文字作參巧，例如樂曲 的 programmatic title 和那些非音樂性的 programmatic references。其實樂曲標題  我的祖國  已經夠 political sensitive 的了。一般來說，雖然這首歌也是中國 nationalism 民族主義風格的樂曲的一個代表，但其政治意義不會是這麼巨大的。這首歌曲多數會在新春期間於 CCTV 4 等的中央電視四台的團拜式的綜合性節目晚會裡，由軍隊的勞軍團或黨的歌唱名家唱出，如葛蘭瑛等。背景大多伴著那些穿著少數民族服裝的舞蹈員在跳舞。這代表著中國共產黨的 "英明" 領導下，四海昇平，團結合一。聽眾很難不聯想到這些 references。因此，結論是: 如果一首樂曲的演出語境 ，performance context，是社區裡人所共知的，是 經常重覆的，也是很 stable 的，就可以為這首樂曲添上了一個音樂語義上的慣常意義 usual meaning。中國人和熟知中國政治社會和文化的聽眾大都可以理解這首 我的祖國 ，故勿論歌詞如何，其意義就是所謂由黨英明統治下的祖國團結與和諧。

不過相對於 -- 我的祖國 -- 在今次特定的 performance context 裡演出，它的 political meaning 就大得驚人 ，也更敏感了。查實這一次雙方元首的會面場合，是中，美的一場政治，經濟和軍事的角力，這已是人所共知的事實。就是由於這特定的政治氣氛環境底下，郎郎的選曲真的惹起了這場風波。而 The New York Times 就 我的祖國 這首樂曲而評論為 Lang Lang's piano politics，就是從演出背後的大政治氣候而 produce 出來的 semantic meaning 。Times 對音樂所作的解釋，明顯是將樂曲聯系到這首歌的創作背景。將電影情節和故事應用在了解這樂曲之上。不過，我最關心的，不是政治的風波，而是一首樂曲除了它的標題  (title) 和標題參巧 (programmatic reference)之外，還可以包括些甚麼，才能賦予樂曲 semantic meaning。從這次的風波來看，樂曲的演出場合，performance context，是一個很重要的 meaning generator 。Context Defines Meaning，這個原則又一次被證實是可行的理論。如果，我們仍然以 Kant 看 Music for Music Sake (為音樂而音樂) 的角度去 appreciate 這首樂曲的意義，那麼，我們就不應有 Times 的評論了。因為按照 Kant 的理論，所有音樂都會 detached from its original context。T可是，Times 的報導告訴我們，查實很少聽眾會真的以 disinterested 的方式去欣賞和理解音樂的。

從以上淺談，我們不難發覺，除了 樂曲的 title 和 programmatic references 之外，一首曲的 performance context 也可以賦予樂曲一個新意義，只要聽眾熟知這個 performance context 背後的 socio-cultural 或 political meaning 就可以。而且，一個穩定的，固定的 ，不斷重覆的 performance context ，雖然不牽涉到國際性的大政治氣候，也可以為一首樂曲慢慢孕育一個新的 musical meaning 給聽眾，而這 meaning不是由樂曲本身的 programmatic title 或  references 所提供的。稍後的文章，我會探討一下更多其他樂曲，如何在不斷重覆的 performance contexts 之下，產生了新的 semantic meaning，從而引起聽眾的美感反應。


David Leung (theorydavid)

2011-01-25 (published)