1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Nomura Shu and Sakai Izumi chatted with the people from Qingyinfang for a while, and then the intermission began.

Today's program will take at least six or seven hours to record, and it is impossible to record it non-stop. It is also lunch time, so we will pause for everyone to eat.

TV Asahi's menu was a little worse than Zhou Yan expected, and most people ate the same thing.

Zhou Yan and Kudo Shizuka's lunch boxes only contained sushi, grilled eel and some vegetables.

For Zhou Yan, who is on a diet, this box lunch is still very good. The only drawback is that the soup on top of their grilled eel rice is a bit too salty.

Zhou Yan felt that Neon's diet was a bit extreme. Many things were too bland, and many things were extremely salty. For example, he had eaten their ramen before, and it was so salty that he couldn't eat it.

That stuff was so salty that Xu Sanguan didn't even want to eat it before donating blood.

At that time, he wondered if the store had overturned it, but he heard from others that the saltiness was normal in Neon.

After dinner, before the program recording started again, Shu Nomura found Zhou Yan: "Mr. Zhou Yan, can I talk to you alone."

Zhou Yan glanced at Nomura Shu, then nodded, "No problem."

They said they were chatting alone, but Zhou Yan still brought the office staff to act as translators.

Nomura led the two of them to the next room. After closing the door, Nomura got straight to the point and said, "Mr. Zhou Yan, can you go on stage to interact with the guests today? Not much, just a few minutes."

Hearing this, Zhou Yan laughed. Although Nomura Shu made this request just now, he felt that the TV station should have planned it in advance.

Asahi's idea is very simple. Zhou Yan finally came here. If he can be coaxed to show up on stage, the ratings will definitely rise.

You know, before this, no variety show had invited Zhou Yan. Of course they want this kind of gimmick for a variety show to debut.

Zhou Yan thought for a while and said, "It's not impossible, but you must promise me two things."

Seeing Zhou Yan relent, Nomura Hide looked happy and said immediately, "Please tell me."

"First, ensure the broadcast time of Qingyinfang. I can't cut off their time just because I take up the time."

Shu Nomura nodded immediately, "There is no problem at all. After you come on stage, their scenes will only be more, not less."

"Well, secondly, it's over when you come to me. Don't go looking for Kudo Shizuka. I know that in Neon, my scandal with her has attracted quite a lot of attention, but I don't want your show to speculate on it."

Nomura Hide was stunned for a moment, then nodded and said, "No problem, we won't bother Shizuka anymore."

In fact, Zhou Yan guessed what the TV station was thinking. They had indeed thought about inviting both Zhou Yan and Shizuka Kudo to the show. There was no need to deliberately speculate on the two of them. As long as they were on stage at the same time, they would definitely receive attention.

But since Zhou Yan said this, Nomura Shu could only agree that the cooperation with Zhou Yan would be long-term, and they did not want to lose the big for the small.

The TV station where Neon has the best relationship with Zhou Yan now is their TV station, but if Zhou Yan is unhappy, he can always switch to cooperate with other TV stations.

NHK has recently been eyeing Zhou Yan and wants to build a good relationship with Zhou Yan through the "Three Kingdoms" concert.

If the relationship between TV Asahi and Zhou Yan breaks down, NHK will probably laugh out of their dreams.

After hearing that Nomura Shuu agreed to his request, Zhou Yan asked again, "Then what are the specific arrangements for me to go on stage? Let me have a chat with you?"

"Well, let's just chat. If possible, of course we hope you can show off your talents, such as playing the bamboo flute."

"I didn't bring my bamboo flute."

Zhou Yan had never thought about going on stage, so it was naturally impossible for him to bring an instrument.

"We have one at the station. Do you want to prepare one for you?"

"No need." Zhou Yan shook his head.

He never shared wind instruments with others.

After thinking for a while, he added, "There is no need to prepare anything. If you want to play, I will use Qingyinfang's instruments."

"it is good."

……

The lunch break was not long. Not long after Zhou Yan chatted with Shu Nomura, the recording started again.

Qingyinfang played the second song "Guanghan Palace". This song is in the "Yulinling" album and is more popular among neon people. It is very popular and the audience at the scene is also familiar with it.

However, the audience had only heard the version with violin as the main instrument, and Qingyinfang's version felt refreshing to them.

The previous song "Missing Through Time" highlights the performance of the pipa, and in this song "Guanghan Palace", the erhu is the protagonist.

The erhu version of "Guanghan Palace" is a little more sad than the violin version, with a stronger sense of farewell.

After the performance ended, everyone in Qingyinfang sat down again. Nomura Shu smiled and said, "Actually, both "Missing Through Time" and "Guanghan Palace" are relatively familiar songs to everyone. However, the version we heard before is different from today's version. The version played live by Qingyinfang is very different, and the version played live today was also adapted by Zhou Yan himself. "

"Which version is better, I think everyone has a different opinion, but in the new version, we can feel many different things. I have a suggestion, that is to invite Zhou Yan to the stage and let him talk about it What were you thinking about when we were talking about the adaptation?

Before Nomura Shu finished speaking, the audience applauded. Everyone turned their attention to Zhou Yan, and the camera was also pointed at him.

Zhou Yan nodded to the camera, then stood up and walked to the stage, and the translator quickly followed.

The staff quickly brought a microphone over. He took it and said with a smile, "Hello everyone, I'm Zhou Yan."

"Mr. Zhou Yan, it's an honor to have you come to the stage and tell us about the new versions of "Missing Through Time" and "Guanghan Palace". Do you have any special ideas when adapting them?"

"Actually, there are not many changes. The reason why you think the difference is big is because of the change in orchestration. Each instrument has its own unique features. The pipa has a special sound, a relatively loud volume, and the sound quality is crisp and bright, with rich fundamental tone. The overtones are very penetrating. The piece "Missing Through Time" highlights the timbre of the pipa and has a very sense of space. "

"I divide orchestration into three categories. The first category is to embed orchestration thinking into composition. This is easy to understand. That means that when I create music scores, I have already considered the setting and distribution of instruments, the selection of timbre and With the layout, the orchestration and music creation are integrated and inseparable. In most cases, the music I create is like this.”

"The second category is to first create a work and then complete the orchestral orchestration, such as today's two pieces. In this case, the composition will affect the orchestration, and the orchestration will promote the composition and influence each other."

"There is also the third type, which is to orchestrate other people's works. In fact, I think this type is not essentially different from the second type."

"Based on the second and third types, I would like to mention a concept, which is the degree of freedom of orchestration..."

Hearing Zhou Yan talk about the topic so professionally, Nomura Hide felt a headache.

It's not that the professional content Zhou Yan talks about is not good, but it is too difficult to understand. Not to mention ordinary viewers, even Shu Nomura himself can't understand it.

Fortunately, Zhou Yan also knew that ordinary people could not understand, so he did not go further. He just briefly talked about the freedom of orchestration and brought the topic back, "In general, I combined the characteristics of the music itself and Qingyinfang. The performers made some simple arrangements for the music.”

When Zhou Yan finished speaking, Shu Nomura took the lead in applauding, "As expected of a teacher at the Conservatory of Music, his theoretical knowledge is so great. I would like to ask a question, do composers like you, Mr. Zhou Yan, need to know most of the instruments?"

“I can’t say I understand it, but it’s best for a composer to understand the timbres of most instruments. If you have the spare capacity, you can learn more about instrument techniques, which can help the composer create.”

"As far as I know, you are proficient in various musical instruments, such as bamboo flute, piano, violin, shakuhachi, guitar..."

Zhou Yan smiled and waved his hand, "No, I have been learning the bamboo flute since I was a child, so I am a little familiar with it. I also know a little bit about the piano and violin. As for other instruments, my level is very amateurish."

"You are so humble. I wonder if we would be lucky enough to hear you play an instrument live?"

"No problem." Zhou Yan nodded and looked around the scene. Then he saw Zhu Lanxi's Erhu and said, "I see that everyone was very interested in the Erhu version of "Guanghan Palace" just now, so I will give it to you. Let me demonstrate the erhu and let you see how big the gap is between me and the professional players.”

Hearing Zhou Yan's words, the scene burst into laughter. Regardless of whether Zhou Yan's words were serious or joking, they somehow made the audience laugh.

Shu Nomura also nodded. He found that Zhou Yan actually had a sense of variety show. Although he didn't talk much, his performance was better than the girls from Sakai Izumi and Qingyinfang.

The sense of variety show is a very subtle thing. It doesn't mean that you have to be deliberately funny to have a sense of variety show. Like Zhou Yan, he obviously doesn't tell jokes and is even serious, but it still makes people feel interesting.

Shu Nomura has met many creators, and he found that the thinking of many creative geniuses is different from ordinary people. For example, some directors, writers, and musicians have very different ideas from ordinary people, and what they say is also very interesting. And Zhou Yan is a combination of director, writer, and musician, so it seems reasonable that he has a program effect.

After Zhou Yan got the erhu, he briefly tried it and then played a piece, which was a combined version of "Drinking the Water of the Yangtze River" and "Guanghan Palace".

His level is indeed very average and cannot be compared with Zhu Lanxi's. The audience can hear it, but the general audience's feeling is not so obvious. They think Zhou Yanla's performance is already very good and very professional.

After finishing this piece, Zhou Yan hugged the erhu and smiled and said, "I just mentioned three types of orchestration. The first one is to create music scores based on the orchestration. Now I can show you how to experience it live."

Nomura Shu said in surprise, "Mr. Zhou Yan, do you mean to compose a piece of music on the spot?"

Zhou Yan nodded, "That's what it means. I want to create a piece of music that matches the sound of the erhu. Of course, since it is created on the spot, the music will definitely not be very complicated."

Before the translator could translate Zhou Yan's words, there was already a burst of cheers, because they all saw Zhou Yan nodding.

Shuya Nomura said with a look of surprise, "That's great."

Shu Nomura was already very satisfied with being able to bring Zhou Yan to the stage to show his face, but he never expected that Zhou Yan would compose a song on the spot for such a favor.

Improvisation is Zhou Yan's specialty. In the video tape released by their TV station in cooperation with Tomson, Zhou Yan demonstrated his improvisation skills in Jiangjuntuo.

Although "Borrowing Cucumber" is not a hit among Zhou Yan's many songs, it is also very popular among some listeners because such brisk songs originally account for a small proportion.

Some TV shows and TV series with a relatively relaxed style also like to use songs such as "Sanmao", "Borrowing Cucumber" and "Sneak Joy" as background music.

Before playing the song, Zhou Yan spoke again, "I promised a good friend that I would give her a gift, and this next song will be considered a gift to her."

Zhou Yan said "she", but the translator said "he", so the audience didn't think much about it.

Shizuka Kudo was the only one at the scene who knew what Zhou Yan meant. Tomorrow is her birthday, so when Zhou Yan said this now, he obviously meant that he wanted to give her this piece of music as a birthday gift.

Shizuka Kudo leaned forward, holding her chin with her hand, looking at Zhou Yan quietly, waiting for his performance.

Zhou Yan didn't say anything else after that. He took a deep breath and was ready to start playing.

When Shu Nomura came to see him at noon, he began to think about what music he would play if he went on stage.

Originally, he thought that just playing some old songs would be enough, but thinking about Shizuka's birthday tomorrow, he wanted to give her a little surprise.

Other gifts he could only give to Shizuka privately, but a new song could be given to her in front of so many people at the scene.

Deciding to play new music, Zhou Yan began to think about what to play, and then he thought of a song, "Snow Flower" by Mika Nakajima.

This song is widely circulated throughout Asia, and there have been many cover versions. There are several Chinese versions alone, which shows everyone's love for this song.

Although the cover version sung by a certain Korean artist is of average quality, it is also popular among many fans, which shows that the song itself is indeed very good.

The reason why I thought of this song is that it is suitable for playing with violin or erhu. Among the instruments in Qingyinfang, except bamboo flute, dongxiao, and erhu, he can only play it, but he really can't play the other instruments.

Moreover, the theme of this song is love, so it is more suitable for Kudo Shizuka.

Zhou Yan did not play the intro of this song, but started directly from the main song.

Originally, there were some whispers in the studio. When the tune of "Snow Flowers" sounded, there was no other sound except the music. Everyone held their breath and concentrated, trying not to make any sound.

Even the cameraman was careful not to move too much for fear of ruining the artistic conception.

The main song of "Snow Flower" has a simple melody that is very pleasant to the ears. It is very similar to the songs that elders sang a cappella in my ears when I was a child. It feels like the wind is blowing gently, and it is like snow falling slowly.

However, after a short period of time, the mood improved a little, as if there was a softly moaning woman walking on the snow in the forest, expressing her love to her lover, but she seemed worried about gain and loss.

Love is a very complicated thing. When happiness comes and people imagine the future, the more beautiful they imagine, the more afraid they are of losing what they have in front of them. The tune of "Snow Flower" expresses this complex feeling. mood.

Winter is coming, and lovers cling to each other to warm each other. A beautiful future lies in the spring after winter. But when spring comes, what will the world look like? Whether this relationship can still be so strong, there is no way of knowing.

The melody of this song has a unique magic that can draw the listeners' thoughts into the music.

Izumi Sakai was filled with surprise. She had always known that Zhou Yan was talented. Everyone in Neon should know this, but she didn't expect Zhou Yan's talent to be so exaggerated.

Can you create such a beautiful melody just by improvising on the spot?
There is a Chinese idiom called "looking at the ocean and sighing", which means that when you see great things, you will feel your own insignificance. Sakai Spring has such a feeling at this moment.

She originally knew that there was a sea, and she also knew that the sea was very big, but only by walking to the sea could she truly feel that the sea was vast and majestic beyond her imagination.

It turns out that a person's musical talent can really reach this level.

In fact, Izumi Sakai and Zhou Yan also had some connections. Zhou Yan previously shot an advertisement for Panasonic and wrote the song "Meteor". At that time, many people in Neon voted for a Neon singer to sing this song, and she was also on the list. Among the orders.

Her company also tried to find Zhou Yan to help her write songs, but they never got it done.

At that time, their company paid great attention to the song "Meteor" because Zard was originally a rock band. Compared with other songs written by Zhou Yan, "Meteor" was more suitable for them.

But unfortunately, this song didn’t get it either.

Just when Izumi Sakai was surprised by Zhou Yan's talent, what she didn't expect was that the surprise was yet to come.

When the chorus of "Snow Flower" sounded, many people at the scene widened their eyes. The tune suddenly became firm and passionate from worrying about gains and losses just now, as if to say, no matter what the future holds, I must persevere. .

Compared to the verse, the chorus has a much stronger impact on the ears, and the tune is so catchy that you can even hum it after listening to it once.

But no one hummed along because they didn't want to ruin the beauty of the moment.

Didn't Zhou Yan say before that because it was composed on the spot, the song would be very simple? But now why do they feel that this song is not simple at all and sounds very complete.

In fact, what they don't know is that what Zhou Yan said is complicated because compared with other traditional songs, this is a pop song after all, so the tune is relatively simple.

If it wasn't simple, I'm afraid it wouldn't be so catchy and catchy.

If the person on the stage had been replaced by someone else, some people might have doubted whether it was a live creation, but that was Zhou Yan. They had no way of doubting Zhou Yan and would only think that Zhou Yan was really awesome.

Kudo Shizuka has not changed her movements since the sound of the erhu sounded. She has been supporting her chin with her hands. Her eyes are now full of stars.

She suddenly heard the scene of Zhou Yan teaching her to play the piano in Yangyin's faculty dormitory the year before last.

At that time, she played a few notes casually, and Zhou Yan composed the song "Little Hand Holding Big Hand".

And every time she recalled that time, she felt blushing. It was also that time when she was sure that she had completely fallen in love with Zhou Yan.

I am really happy to have a boyfriend who is a composer.

No one noticed Kudo Shizuka's blush at this moment, and even if they did, it didn't matter, because the stars in the eyes of the young female audience members were denser than Kudo Shizuka's, and their faces were even redder than Kudo Shizuka's.

Shu Nomura couldn't help but sigh, this man is so charming, I'm afraid not many girls can escape his grasp.

In recent years, although Zhou Yan has not appeared much, he has fascinated the female fans of Neon.

In the past two years, Neon has only asked for the most handsome foreign stars, and Zhou Yan has always been at the top of the list, and there is no suspense.

In fact, he is not only the most handsome foreign male star. Last year, in a survey on the popularity of Asian male stars, Zhou Yan also ranked first, beating several popular male stars in Neon.

Zhou Yan's only shortcoming is probably that he can't sing.

If Zhou Yan can sing again and occasionally plays and sings by himself, his lethality will be even higher.

Of course, maybe Zhou Yan can sing, but he doesn't usually speak. Anyway, they have never heard Zhou Yan sing before. (End of chapter)