Chapter 272 The popular harmony course (4K 2-in-1)
More than 600 teachers and students in the classroom were waiting with expectant eyes for Fan Ning, the honorary professor of the Department of Composition, to talk about his "Introduction to Harmony".
They were all curious about this great musician who could write so many wonderful works including the "First Symphony". What on earth was he thinking about when composing? Including "Introduction to Harmony"
How will the four courses within it have a profound impact on the current situation of artistic creation, as he said before?
"Let's look at something casually first, something purely intuitive and without going into depth." Fan Ning started with this sentence.
The chain gears slid, and three small sliding blackboards, each with a score of 16 bars in length, gradually dropped to the appropriate height behind Fan Ning.
They are fragments of famous orchestral works by masters from the medieval period, the Authentic period and the Romantic period respectively.
"They are all very familiar works. Do you think there are any changing trends?" Fan Ning asked.
From a seat near the front of the stage, a few more professional responses came from the audience, which showed that these students had a solid foundation.
Fan Ning laughed when he heard this: "To put it bluntly, as the times move forward, the notes are becoming denser, the rhythm is becoming more difficult, the number of lines and temporary sharps and flats in the score are increasing, and of course, their expressiveness and drama are also gradually expanding."
There is no profound and abstract summary that even fans of the outer courtyard can understand.
"We all aspire to write good music like the masters, so the textbook "Composition Science" defines some commonly used musical vocabulary names, summarizes some commonly used writing procedures, and then the most important thing is to combine the amazing music of the masters.
The heart-pounding fragments are compiled into cases and discussed in different categories."
"All in all, our artistic creations are mostly driven by inspiration. The role of theoretical textbooks is to accumulate the essence of inspiration from the masters into a tower for us to refer to and imitate."
"It's always a good idea to study the works of our predecessors. Those geniuses stand at the highest point that human inspiration can reach. If we don't follow the path opened by the masters, we may accomplish nothing."
"But the problem is, it's too difficult to learn." Fan Ning pointed to the music examples, "I used to doubt my life because of them. Why can't I write these exciting music? My ears say it sounds good, and my brain says it sounds good.
No, you won’t be able to learn it if you follow the rules.”
Fan Ning's complaint caused a burst of sympathetic laughter from the audience.
It turns out that this talented composer's feelings when facing the master are the same as our perspective.
"The problem definitely does not lie with the masters, right? The problem lies with ourselves. Most ordinary people are not so inspired. Although they are willing to use diligence to make up for the gap, art does not seem to buy our account."
"There is something wrong with our analysis and learning methods!" Fan Ning said frankly, "And now that the Romantic music vocabulary is becoming more and more complex, an extensive theoretical system like "Compositionology" can no longer meet the needs of the artistic period! Use inspiration to sing
Fighting alone is dangerous and not universal. We urgently need rational assistance and theoretical innovation!!"
"Before innovating the "Composition Science" system, we need to clarify one issue first - "
"When we talk about composition, what are we talking about?"
Fan Ning turned around and circled two ovals on the score on a blackboard with two swipes. They were narrow and vertical, one on the left and one on the right.
"This is harmony."
"The time of music flows from left to right on the score. When we pay attention to the 'vertical' relationship when composing, our mind will tend to think about the feeling of 'multiple notes sounding at the same time', so there is
"Harmony".
He made two strokes of "swish" again, and circled two ovals on another score. This time they were long and narrow, placed horizontally, one up and one down.
"This is counterpoint."
"When we pay attention to the 'horizontal' relationship in composition, we are actually conceiving the melody. Now no one will write boring monophonic music. In the polyphonic fragments we will think about how to make two or more melodies coexist harmoniously.
, even for keynote segments, we will consider how the movement of the melody should complement the movement of the bass and other accompaniment parts, so we have "Counterpoint."
For the third time, Fan Ning drew several large dotted lines on the score.
"This is the form."
"Imagine a vertical axis, and then imagine a horizontal axis."
"Thinking about harmony tends to be vertical, but not always vertical. When harmony follows the changes in music, it takes on a horizontal meaning."
"The thinking of counterpoint is horizontal, but not always horizontal. When considering how the pitch and rhythm of the two melodies complement each other, it takes on a vertical meaning."
"The difference between harmony and counterpoint is not clear-cut. There is also counterpoint in harmony, and there is also harmony in counterpoint. When the former thinks about the larger scale, the music fragments written tend to focus on the main key, and when the latter thinks about the larger scale, the music fragments tend to focus on the main key.
Polyphony and when the vertical axis of harmony and the horizontal axis of counterpoint meet together, they form a 'face'!"
"The 'face' is the macro structure of the work. We need to think clearly about which 'faces' the music will contain, whether it will be repetition or change, and what comes first and what comes next, so we have "Music Form Analysis"."
"And finally."
This time Fan Ning took a handful of red, blue, green, and yellow chalks.
He dyed the note heads of different parts of the score with different colors.
"This is the orchestration."
"We not only invented an instrument, but with the same pitch and rhythm, different timbres will produce completely different effects. We must consider what kind of character we should give them, so we have the "Orchestration Method."
"Now, back to the original question, when we talk about composition, what are we talking about?"
"Vertical harmonic progression, horizontal melodic counterpoint, horizontal and vertical interweaving and surface-based musical forms, and the choice of instruments with different timbres and characters. This is the direction that the extensive "Composition Science" should be refined, and it is also the direction that I will study in the autumn semester.
"Harmony", "Counterpoint", "Form Analysis" and "Orchestration" will be introduced in four months."
Some concepts or ways of thinking that were vague in everyone's minds were gradually erased by Fan Ning.
It turns out that a musical work and a set of composition theories should be considered according to these four dimensions. It’s not like I haven’t considered them in my daily life, but many times I am too tangled and confused, and my thinking has never been as clear as today!
"It is true that music writing is not a mathematical problem." Fan Ning said, "We use theory to guide composition step by step, and we may not be able to write master-level works, but the key lies in - proportion, or probability!"
"The vast majority of us cannot become music masters, but by combining reason and inspiration, it is easier for ordinary people to get as close as possible to their great ideas. The originally mediocre craftsmen may become young artists; the original young artists may become
Become famous artists; and those seekers who have risen to higher places and are only short of the last barrier may lack a fusion of reason and inspiration."
Many people think that music theory is something only mediocre college students can learn, and that real masters use their inspiration as they please and produce masterpieces frequently. This is not true. This is actually some kind of wishful thinking.
If you look up the biographies of music masters carefully, not to mention all of them, at least 80% to 90% of them will find words similar to "In XX, I studied harmony/counterpoint/composition with so-and-so at a certain university, or with so-and-so".
Masters are precisely those who have the most solid knowledge of music theory.
Fan Ning opened the lesson plan he prepared: "Well, it needs to be emphasized again that due to limited class time, it is impossible to explain in depth. My four courses are only 'introductions'. Please focus more on changing your thinking, seeking inspiration, and constructing
New knowledge system framework.”
"Then, let us start from the first course "Introduction to Harmony" and gradually embark on the artistic path of integrating rationality and inspiration."
More than 600 teachers and students who have fully entered the state are sitting at attention, holding pens tightly and listening to the lecture with their ears pricked up.
"Two tones sounding at the same time are called 'harmony', and three or more tones sounding at the same time are called 'chords'. The continuous progression of different combinations of them is the change of 'harmony' in music." Fan Ning got straight to the point,
Be concise and concise.
"There are three commonly used chords: a combination of three tones is called a triad, a combination of four tones is called a seventh chord, and a combination of five tones is called a ninth chord."
"In our conventional vocabulary, the chord structure is a superposition of thirds. The lowest note is the 'root note', and the higher notes are called 'third notes' and 'fifth notes.' No matter how the upper and lower relationships of the notes in the chord change, these names
They are all fixed and unchanged.”
"When we use chords, we can use them in the original position or inversion. Taking the simplest C major triad as an example, do-mi-sol is in the original position, and changing the octave position of some notes is inversion.
After raising do by an octave and placing it on top, it becomes mi-sol-do, and the span of high and low sounds becomes six degrees, so this first inversion is also called a 'sixth chord'; then raise mi by an octave and place it on top.
After becoming sol-do-mi, since the span includes a fourth and a sixth, this second inversion is also called a 'four-sixth chord'."
"Now I'll ask two students to come up to the stage and write down the root positions and inversion tables of common chords."
Fan Ning first sorted out the simplest definition of harmony, from composition and inversion to the TSDT (dominant-subordinate-dominant-dominant) functional system of the positive triad.
If "Basic Music Theory" is high school mathematics, then courses such as "Harmony" are roughly equivalent to calculus. For students in first-class public school music classes who already have a solid foundation, it is easy to understand after listening to these things, just like high school graduates studying
Freshman courses generally have a natural transition.
However, everyone feels that Professor Fan Ning's summary is extremely systematic and comprehensive, extremely clear and orderly. This part alone surpasses the popular "Composition Science" in terms of "teaching plan quality".
"Then let's start teaching the basic principles of four-part harmony writing."
From here on, the audience felt extremely surprised for the first time.
As the most basic form of serious music, four-part harmony is similar to art sketches and piano scales and arpeggios. It is the first basic skill that composers must practice.
A sketch is also a treasure of art when it is finished, and scales and arpeggios are also sounds of nature when they are played. In the same way, even if the masters write a simple musical framework using four-part harmony, it will still be so beautiful that it can make you cry.
But it is painful for beginners.
I have memorized all the principles and understood all the cases. I can master it as soon as I learn it, but I can’t write it down as soon as I write it. There are imperfections everywhere, and it sounds very embarrassing and unpleasant.
Among the several music academies in Tioleon, those who can compose the simplest four-part harmony beautifully and melodiously can be called ruthless wherever they go. No matter how talented they are at the piano, even the grade leaders have to obey.
For the vast majority of students who are not enlightened, it can be described as a "metaphysical" existence.
There is no other way. We can only follow the cases extracted from the works of masters, feel it, imitate it, and try to modify it repeatedly. If you can't learn it, you don't have enough inspiration.
But next, Fan Ning completely restored and embodied the hidden principles behind it!
Starting from the basic principles, he taught everyone how to write bass, explained the connection skills between sixth and third chords, terminated/passed/auxiliary fourth and sixth chords, and various situational applications of dominant seventh chords.
As for why the master's works are so good, he analyzed how the key notes in those fragments played a role, and named them by function as passing notes, auxiliary notes, lingering notes, and pre-occurring notes.
He pointed out that a beautiful harmony of the masters was the alternating use of dense arrangement and open arrangement. Finally, he also elaborated on practical techniques such as harmony connection method and melody connection method.
All the perceptual cognitions were confirmed by rationality, and these people who had been thinking hard on daily life were relieved. Moreover, when the clouds came out, they also discovered their huge misunderstandings in the past.
——The music that I always thought sounded beautiful in the past must have been composed with a large number of colorful chords due to an explosion of inspiration. If I fail to taste it in daily practice, it is usually attributed to insufficient inspiration.
Fan Ning's demonstration made them discover that the first problem in harmony writing is not to spread inspiration and find colorful chords, but to first arrange the existing chords in the four-part harmony.
Rigorous and accurate!
The connection of each part, the conflict and resolution direction of intervals, whether chords should be in original position or inversion, which notes can be omitted and which ones can be repeated and emphasized. The reason why a serious music is natural is that more notes will appear redundant and fewer notes will appear redundant.
The reason why the structure does not exist is precisely because the creator refined the simplest musical materials, instead of abusing colors throughout the piece, piling up double tones, thickening the octave, or stuffing a large number of arpeggio passages to create momentum.
As long as you follow these principles proposed by Fan Ning and understand these techniques, you can write a few measures of very pure and beautiful classical four-part harmony even by simply using I, IV, and V chords!
The 600 audience members in the audience were completely convinced.
As Fan Ning said, harmony is an "empirical discipline" and the reference standard is good-sounding music. However, people's acceptance of "good-sounding music" varies in different periods.
However, he has thoroughly understood the experience of "how to make music sound good" and turned it into a theoretical rule that can be practically implemented!
Although it is tiring and troublesome, it is really useful. I no longer have to search for inspiration when writing and modify it randomly!
The plan for this round of courses was 3 mornings and 9 hours. In the evening after the first day, Fan Ning continued to polish the follow-up lesson plans in the office of the administration building of the conservatory. He suddenly felt that the image of the person outside the door was in his mind.
Outlined in my mind.
So Fan Ning raised his head with his pen and said: "Dean Xu Ci, please come in."
The "bang bang" knock on the door came a beat late. Professor Xu Ci, who opened the door, hurriedly took off his hat: "
Professor Caron, please urgently negotiate, can the venue of the second class tomorrow morning be changed?"
Several old friends have passed away. Xu Ci, who is already the dean of the conservatory, is currently the most familiar with Fan Ning in the school. He is one of the attendees of today's class, and he is not polite at this time.
"What happened?" Fan Ning asked in confusion, "Isn't the quota for this course fixed at 400? And more than a hundred small stools can be added to the walkway in the open space?
"You don't know how violent the response is." Dean Xu Ci said with a wry smile, "Given your popularity, you were already so popular before class that you were asked to add seats, but the response after this class spread again. Starting from noon, the Music Academy
We have received a large number of new requests for auditors, including students who did not get extra seats today, faculty and staff from the Music Academy and other colleges, and people from the music industry from other schools.”
"Now the number of people who want to attend has exceeded the number of students who have chosen courses! Many people are looking for connections to get a spot, and they all come to me one after another. There are even people who can't get there in time from other cities and call to inquire about Professor Fan Ning's "He"
When is the next lecture on "Introduction to Acoustics" scheduled for next month? I can only reply that I have no answer yet and ask him to pay attention to your "Introduction to Counterpoint" at the end of October."
"The school has fully anticipated your popularity, but I really didn't expect that an internal elective course would be extended to the outside world!"