1990: Starting from Baojia Street

After Li Yinghai said Zhou Yan's name, applause from the audience broke out after a short delay.

The reason why the applause was late was that no one expected Zhou Yan to win the second prize.

Zhou Yan has indeed been exposed to the public a lot in the past two years. If we only talk about public popularity, all the other people in the hall today tied together are not as good as Zhou Yan.

However, in his professional field, Zhou Yan's qualifications are too shallow, and he does not have any particularly well-known works. He has never won any major composition awards before.

This time, he suddenly appeared and won the second prize, which surprised most people.

It was especially surprising when Zhou Yan's name appeared together with those of three predecessors, Xu Zhenmin, Zhu Jian'er and Luo Zhongrong.

Everyone thought that the last second prize winner was at least a composer from the same batch as Xu Zhenmin, but unexpectedly it was Zhou Yan, who was in his twenties.

Not only were other people surprised, Zhou Yan himself was also surprised. He didn't expect that the organizing committee would actually give him a second prize.

There is a huge gap between the second prize and the third prize, because there are only six first prizes and second prizes combined, which means that Zhou Yan is at least in the top six this time.

Among the top six are industry leaders such as Xu Zhenmin and Luo Zhongrong.

What surprised him even more was that the organizing committee had changed the name of his work without his permission.

When he submitted his work, he did not change the name of the work to cater to this call for submissions, and still used the original name "Xu Sanguan", but the organizing committee changed the name to "Symphony No. 3".

Why did the main organizing committee change the name to "Symphony No. 3"? Is there any special reason?
Generally speaking, a writer's symphonic works are named "Symphony No.", which means this is his symphony No., which is related to the sequence of creation.

It is called a name, but it is actually just a number.

Since there is the "Third Symphony", it usually means that there are already the "First Symphony" and the "Second Symphony" before it.

In fact, before "Xu Sanguan", Zhou Yan had written more than two multi-movement symphonies, but the only one that was performed publicly was "Eternal Night".

If the organizing committee was considering the symphonies he had performed publicly before, then "Xu Sanguan" should have been named "Symphony No. 2", instead of jumping directly from the first to the third.

Or is it that simply because the name "Xu Sanguan" contains the character "three", the organizing committee just used it?

This reason is a bit far-fetched.

Having said that, no matter what the reason is, can the organizer change the name of the participating work without authorization?
Even if you want to change it for some reason, shouldn't you tell him in advance?

There was no time for Zhou Yan to think about these things at the moment, as countless eyes were cast on him.

Huang Wencan, who was standing next to Zhou Yan, was very excited when he heard that Zhou Yan had won the second prize. He clapped his hands so hard that Zhou Yan felt pain just watching him.

If you don’t know, you might think that Huang Wencan and Zhou Yan are very close, and he was so happy when Zhou Yan won the award.

"Teacher Zhou, please go up and receive your award." Huang Wencan said with a smile. He seemed even more anxious than Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan nodded and stood up.

However, he did not leave in a hurry. Instead, he stood there for a while, waiting for the other three winners.

Among the four second prize winners, the age gap between him and the other three is too big, and he should let his predecessors go ahead.

Xu Zhenmin in the front row turned around and looked at Zhou Yan, then smiled and said, "Let's go, Teacher Zhou, let's go together."

"After you."

Xu Zhenmin nodded, without any hesitation, and walked forward first, with Zhou Yan following closely behind him.

Zhu Jian'er was the first to go up and took the medal and certificate from Li Yinghai. The two chatted with each other with a smile.

Later on, the same thing happened to Luo Zhongrong and Xu Zhenmin. The speed of awarding the second prizes was obviously much slower, mainly because Li Yinghai would talk for a while after giving each award to each person.

After the first three people received their awards, Zhou Yan also walked up to Li Yinghai.

Li Yinghai first handed the medal and certificate to Zhou Yan, then said with a smile, "Seeing you young people standing on the stage, I feel that our country's music is becoming more and more promising. I have heard your Symphony No. 3, it is very well composed. I heard that the inspiration came from a novel by Yu Hua?"

Zhou Yan nodded, "Yes, the original name of this work is "Xu Sanguan"."

"This work has a bit of Bach's flavor, and the emotions gradually reach a climax in the constant repetition, which is very consistent with Mr. Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary career. The repetition is about difficulties and setbacks, but we can gain strength from these repeated difficulties and failures. The name of the Third Symphony is also interesting. When people hear the Third Symphony, they will think of Beethoven's Heroic Symphony, and that piece itself was written to commemorate the great man."

Zhou Yan raised his eyebrows. Perhaps the organizing committee changed the name of this work to "Symphony No. 3" for this reason.

The original title of Beethoven's "Third Symphony" is "Napoleon Bonaparte Symphony". It was written to praise Napoleon Bonaparte, so the Third Symphony gives people the impression of praising a hero.

From this perspective, it is indeed very consistent with today's event.

It may be that the organizing committee really wanted to give him the award, but felt that the name "Xu Sanguan" was really irrelevant, so they took the initiative to change the name to make it more reasonable for this work to win the award.

However, there is another story behind the Third Symphony.

Originally, Beethoven's "Third Symphony" was indeed written for Napoleon Bonaparte, because in Beethoven's heart, Napoleon was a revolutionary ideal, a modern Prometheus, who brought the spark of hope to mankind and was a hero of the world.

But later, when Beethoven heard the news that Napoleon proclaimed himself emperor, he tore off the title page and changed the title to "Heroic Symphony - Written in Memory of a Great Man".

Facing Li Yinghai's praise, Zhou Yan said modestly, "Teacher Li, you are too kind. I still need to learn more from you."

"Ke Yu, keep up the good work. Although you are young, your skills are mature and your creative ideas are very advanced. Many things expressed in the score have also given me some inspiration." After praising him, Li Yinghai said earnestly, "You can usually write some sketches or even popular songs, but you can't miss the big works. You are so young, you shouldn't waste your talent. Your teacher was also very worried when he talked to me before. Today, this work won the second prize, and your teacher should be very pleased."

After hearing Li Yinghai talk about his teacher, Zhou Yan was somewhat interested.

The teacher rarely said these things to him. He told him not to be idle. He said this when he was still undergraduating from college, but as his fame grew, the teacher never said it again.

In fact, Zhou Yan also understood that in the eyes of his teachers, the new age and pop songs he wrote could only be regarded as entertainment in his spare time. If he wanted to make great progress in music, he still had to conduct further research and create more great works.

But Zhou Yan has always believed that the traditional music circle is too small and not powerful enough.

His senior brothers, such as Tan Dun, Qu Xiaosong and others, are all extremely talented and have made a name for themselves abroad, but their influence is limited to a small circle and cannot bring confidence to the Chinese public at this stage.

How many of the excellent works written by Tan Dun and others have ordinary people heard of?

On the contrary, those skits and New Century that are looked down upon by people in the circle can allow more ordinary people to participate. Although Zhou Yan had his own ideas, facing Li Yinghai's instructions, he nodded and responded, "I understand, Teacher Li."

Li Yinghai smiled and grabbed Zhou Yan's arm, "Come on, this is a rare opportunity, let's take a photo together."

Although Li Yinghai was not very strong, he held Zhou Yan, and Zhou Yan did not dare to move at all, for fear that if he struggled, the old man would be in trouble, so he could only be held by him and walk among the other three.

The other three people consciously left a middle position for Li Yinghai, and he directly pulled Zhou Yan to the middle.

Zhou Yan was startled and said quickly, "Teacher Li, I'll just stand aside."

Are you kidding? He is a young boy in his twenties. Taking a photo with a group of seniors, he stood in the center. That was too outrageous.

Li Yinghai pretended to be angry and asked, "Why, you still despise us old guys?"

Zhou Yan hurriedly explained, "I'm not..."

"Why don't you just stand here? If you look carefully at our situation, you will know that you should stand in the middle."

Luo Zhongrong said with a smile, "Yes, Zhou Yan, you are young and the tallest, so you should stand in the middle, and the four of us should stand on both sides, so that it will be symmetrical."

"Today, we want to take advantage of your youthful energy."

Before Zhou Yan could say something else, Luo Zhongrong came up and grabbed Zhou Yan's arm. He and Li Yinghai almost trapped Zhou Yan in the middle.

The two gentlemen were old and feeble-armed. If Zhou Yan wanted to break free, he could just swing his arms and ten more of them would not be able to catch him. But the problem was that he could not move around.

Since he couldn't resist, he could only bear it.

Standing between the four seniors, Zhou Yan felt numb.

If this happened 20 or 30 years later, the news of him grabbing the center position that night would probably make headlines.

Zhu Jian'er said with a smile, "Zhou Yan, let's take a photo. Smile."

Zhou Yan could only force out a smile. This smile wasn't uglier than crying, but it was not much different.

Finally, the group photo was over and the two old gentlemen let go of Zhou Yan's arms. He felt as if he had been pardoned. He quickly bowed to the others, turned around and walked off the stage.

Luo Zhongrong said with a smile from behind: "Young people just have good legs and feet."

"That's right. This guy looks quite skinny in his clothes, but when you hold his arm, you'll realize he's quite strong."

"Let's go, let's go down too."

……

After the second prize was awarded, the host walked to the front with a microphone and said, "Next, please enjoy Zhou Yan's "Third Symphony."

The symphony orchestra in the back was ready. As soon as the host finished speaking, the lights in the back came on and the conductor gave a start gesture.

Unlike most of the other winning pieces, this was the first public performance of "Xu Sanguan" and the audience were quite looking forward to it, after all, it was a second-prize winner.

The key point is that Zhou Yan is so popular now, and many people want to see what level Zhou Yan is at.

People in the industry want to see the quality of Zhou Yan's new song, while people outside the industry are interested in this new work simply because of Zhou Yan's fame.

Only excerpts from this piece of music were played, but a lot can still be seen from these few minutes of excerpts.

When he heard the middle part, Huang Wencan couldn't help but glance at Zhou Yan next to him.

Zhou Yan's "Third Symphony" is amazing in its application of polyphonic techniques.

The interweaving of voices is complex and delicate. The multiple voices are independent of each other yet echo each other. Each part has its own unique melody line and rhythmic pattern, and the texture is very rich.

A harmonious musical dialogue is formed between the upper and lower parts, giving people the feeling that different voices appear at the same time and tell different stories, but these stories are all part of a big story and do not deviate from the main line.

The reason why it is so harmonious is inseparable from the rigorous counterpoint between the voices.

In terms of melody, the melody of this work is beautiful and smooth...perhaps the main thing is the smoothness.

Compared with the works of the Romantic period, the melody of this "Third Symphony" does not have exaggerated emotional ups and downs, but is more like the gurgling of water, steady and smooth.

If you listen to the melody of a certain section alone, you won't feel anything, and it may even seem mediocre, but if you look at it as a whole, you can appreciate something special.

This overall sense of melody is mainly presented when multiple voices are interwoven.

In the composition of harmony, Zhou Yan made a lot of semitone progressions and perfectly integrated harmony and polyphony.

Naturally, Huang Wencan thought of Bach.

Could it be that Zhou Yan is a follower of Bach?
However, when listening to the second half, Huang Wencan felt that Zhou Yan only paid a little tribute to Bach in terms of technique, but the content presentation was completely different. For example, he actually heard some Chinese folk tunes in it.

Huang Wencan remembered what Li Yinghai had just said.

Isn’t the combination of Chinese and Western cultures that Teacher Li talked about the same as Zhou Yan’s?

Speaking of which, Zhou Yan is really bold in writing. He simply takes other people's skeletons, fills them with flesh and blood, and puts on clothes. In this way, what others see is what he wants to present.

In recent years, some composers in the circle are thinking about innovation, experimentation, and avant-garde, some are thinking about developing the nation and tradition, and some are thinking about integration.

Zhou Yan should be the third type of person, but Huang Wencan has never seen anyone so brave before.

Saying that Zhou Yan is bold does not mean that he used something that no one has used before. On the contrary, everything Zhou Yan used has been used before.

Many people are unwilling to do this because they are afraid of being accused of not having their own unique style in their work.

However, what Zhou Yan made today still shows his uniqueness in creation.

From this point, we can see that Zhou Yan was very confident when he was creating. (End of this chapter)