1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Chapter 56 Kikujiro's Summer
Since school hadn't officially started yet, it was easier to book a piano room. When Zhou Yan and the others arrived at the piano room, they found that there were still many empty piano rooms in the building.

If it is after school starts, the queue will basically take a long time. It is difficult to make an appointment the day before and have it available the next day.

First they got the key from the Qinfang Building Management Office, and then the three of them went to Room 204 on the second floor.

After entering the piano room, Jia Guoping tried the piano first, and then said with a smile, "We are lucky, this room is pretty good."

The piano room building in their school was actually built not long ago, and the rooms are still relatively new, but the condition of the musical instruments in each room is difficult to say.

The building is new, but the piano may not be new. There are so many piano rooms in the piano room building. There are pianos that are decades old, and there are also pianos that have been added in the past two years. Moreover, the pianos are not produced by the same manufacturer. They have their own The difference between good and bad.

In addition, the use of the piano room is very intensive, and different people use it, which has different effects on the life of the piano.Some guys, after using the piano, it’s like oiling the keys.

Although the teachers in the musical instrument department come regularly for inspection and maintenance, there are too few people in the department and there are too many instruments in the school, so they often cannot take care of all the instruments in the piano room.

Sometimes students are unlucky and enter a piano room in poor condition, which can greatly affect their mood.

After listening to the notes that Jia Guoping tried just now, Zhou Yan knew that the condition of the piano was indeed not bad. He smiled and took out a stack of music scores from his bag and gave four to Jia Guoping and Yu Ran.

"You guys take a look at the score first."

These scores were all written by Zhou Yan when he returned to his dormitory yesterday afternoon. He did not find it troublesome and wrote three copies according to the different divisions of musical instruments.

When Jia Guoping took the score, he was slightly surprised.

The two of them have a good relationship and understand each other's composition styles. Zhou Yan's style has always been grand and gorgeous, but the score in his hand now is obviously much simpler.

Moreover, the tonality of this piece seems to be that of popular music.

Although he knew it was a soundtrack for a movie, Jia Guoping was still surprised. Zhou Yan didn't think much of popular music before. It seems that his experience outside for more than a year has also changed Zhou Yan's mentality. .

He glanced at the score briefly, then set it up, took out the violin and played a section according to it.

After pulling it, Jia Guoping smiled. This seemingly simple piece of music needs to be played to know whether it is good or not. The previous section makes people feel like they are in the dark night.

After that, Jia Guoping played the latter part of the song.

Listening to Jia Guoping's playing, Yu Ran next to him seemed to be in trance. His whole body was carried away by the melody of the music, and he didn't know where he was going.

The notes of this piece of music are like raindrops, which originally appeared translucent in the light. As the tune progresses, they slowly sink into the darkness and disappear.

Yu Ran's thoughts seemed to be following the invisible water drops and falling into darkness.

When she floated back, she couldn't help but sigh, Senior Brother Zhou Yan is indeed a top student in the composition department, and this piece of music is very pleasant to the ears.

She couldn't help but ask, "Senior Brother Zhou Yan, what is the name of this piece of music?"

"Call Kite."

"The kite... feels more like a kite with a broken string." Yu Ran murmured.

This is Yu Ran's true feeling. This piece of music makes her feel like a rootless duckweed, wandering. If the perspective is a kite, it must be a kite with its string broken, involuntarily fluttering in the sky. .

It crosses mountains and rivers, passes through clouds and rain, but leaves nothing behind, and no one can leave it behind.

Zhou Yan also played a piece of piano, and he felt it was okay. There were not many skills in playing this piece, so it was not difficult to master.

This song was not originally called "The Kite", but "The Rain". It was a soundtrack composed by Hisaishi Joe for the movie "The Summer of Kikujiro".

Zhou Yan felt that this piece of music was very suitable for the part at the end of "Heaven's Reply", where the grandson flies a kite after his grandfather passes away.Both the emotion contained in the tune and the rhythm of the entire tune fit perfectly with the end of the movie.

Seeing Yu Ran in a daze, Zhou Yan called her: "Junior sister."

Yu Ran came back to his senses and looked at Zhou Yan, "Senior brother, what's wrong?"

Zhou Yan smiled and pointed at Yu Ran's back, "Do you want to take the piano off?"

"okay."

Then she remembered that the piano was still on her back, so she quickly took it off, and then studied the music score carefully.

"Let's practice separately first, and when we're almost done, we can try practicing together. So, don't be in a hurry, just take your time."

Seeing that Yu Ran was stunned and seemed a little embarrassed, Zhou Yan comforted her.

Yu Ran took a deep breath, nodded and said, "I understand, Senior Brother Zhou Yan."

……

Then the three of them began to practice their own paragraphs.

The piano room is not big, and playing three instruments at the same time is a bit crowded, but they are all used to this kind of environment, so it doesn't have much impact.

When Zhou Yan was playing, he was also listening to the sound of the cello. Yu Ran's performance surprised Zhou Yan. Although she looked dumbfounded, she was quite professional.

That's right, Jia Guoping has very strict requirements for music, so if the professional level is not good enough, he will not be able to bring people here.

Yu Ran didn't know that Zhou Yan was observing her. At this time, she was already immersed in the music.

There is no trace of showmanship in this piece of music, the emotion is very sincere and it is easy to bring people's emotions into it.

That’s not to say that the music doesn’t have skills. In this world, most good songs require skills when creating them. It’s just that some clever creators will hide their skills so that others won’t discover them easily.

Of course, there are also some songs that are meant to show off skills when they are created.Students in the composition department study composition techniques every day, and "technique" has long been engraved in their bones and blood.

After practicing separately in the morning, they started training together in the afternoon.

It's very simple when you practice separately. The score is relatively simple. They are all veterans and can play smoothly quickly. But it's different when they practice together. The rhythm and emotional resonance between the three of them must be in the same place. Point.

However, the level of the three of them is very good, and the training together is relatively smooth. After half a day, they are already in shape, but they still cannot meet Zhou Yan's requirements.

The most important thing is that the cooperation between him and Yu Ran is not very interesting. Yu Ran's performance is also very good, but the cooperation between the two always lacks a little bit of compatibility.

However, they had only been practicing together for half a day, so Zhou Yan was not in a hurry.

At 05:30 in the evening, Zhou Yan saw that it was getting late, so he said to Jia Guoping and the others, "That's it for today. It's time for dinner. I'll treat you to a restaurant."

Jia Guoping put down his violin, touched his stomach, and said with a smile, "I'm really hungry. What do you want to treat us to?"

"Eat mutton soup, I'll add two portions of mutton for you."

"That's daring."

Yu Ran said from the side, "Senior Brother Zhou Yan, I won't go."

Zhou Yan turned to look at her, "What's wrong, don't you like mutton? How about we change it to something else."

Yu Ran shook his head, "No, today is the fifteenth and I want to go home for the holidays."

"Yes, today is still the New Year." Zhou Yan touched his head.

Jia Guoping shouted, "What's the New Year, the Lantern Festival?"

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "That's right, our family calls the Lantern Festival Xiaonian."

Jia Guoping's eyes widened and he shouted, "What the hell, the Lantern Festival can be called Xiaonian!"

Zhou Yanjie said angrily, "Comrade Jia Guoping, are you slandering our traditional customs?"

"Haha, don't blame me for calling the Lantern Festival Xiaonian. It seems strange to anyone you ask, so you think so, right?"

Yu Ran didn't know how to answer.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Don't embarrass her. Junior sister, if you want to go home to celebrate the New Year, go back quickly. Is your home far away?"

Yu Ran shook his head, "It's not far, you can get there in a few minutes by bike."

"It's indeed not far. Let's go then. You should go home quickly." Zhou Yan nodded. Seeing Yu Ran packing up the cello, he asked again, "Why don't you take the cello home with you?"

"No, it's not convenient to ride a bike."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "I'll just tell you."

……

Zhou Yan and Jia Guoping found a mutton soup restaurant near the school, ordered two large bowls of pure soup with double portions of meat, and had a comfortable meal.

On the way back to the dormitory, Jia Guoping asked Zhou Yan, "Are we going to start recording tomorrow?"

"It depends on the joint training tomorrow. If the effect is OK, then record it."

"You have to hurry up, hiccup~" Jia Guoping burped and continued, "School officially starts the day after tomorrow, so I can continue to accompany you. Anyway, I don't have any classes, but Yu Ran is now in the second grade, and time is still tight. . Besides, after all, it’s not good to ask people to come over for help if it takes too long.”

Zhou Yan nodded, "I will speed up and try to resolve the battle tomorrow."

In addition to not having time later, it is also difficult to make an appointment at the piano room. Zhou Yan can only make an appointment for tomorrow for the time being.

This time he asked Jia Guoping and the others to record only this piece of music, so the time was not particularly tight. It should be no problem to practice together for another day tomorrow.

Of course Zhou Yan couldn't have prepared just this one piece. In addition to "Kite", he also planned to use "Summer" from "Kikujiro's Summer" and then write some small passages himself.

However, he is not planning to record "Summer" for the time being, because he feels that "Kite" and other short passages he wrote should be enough.

If he couldn't get a soundtrack director in this way, he would have no choice but to give up on the project.

……

The next morning, Zhou Yan and Jia Guoping had breakfast and headed to the piano room building. As soon as they walked to the door of piano room 204, they heard the sound of the cello coming from inside.

Zhou Yan and Jia Guoping looked in through the glass on the door, and sure enough, Yu Ran was here.

Both of them were a little surprised. They didn't expect Yu Ran to come so early.

The two of them had already arrived very early, basically at the time when the piano building opened. Yu Ran came earlier than them, which meant that when she came, the piano building might not have opened yet.

Looking at Yu Ran's back holding the cello, Zhou Yan was very grateful. After all, this was originally his business and had nothing to do with Yu Ran, but Yu Ran was still able to be so attentive.

Zhou Yan gently pushed the door open, and then the sound of the cello suddenly stopped.Although Zhou Yan tried his best to move gently, he still made a sound, which disturbed Yu Ran.

Yu Ran turned around and greeted with a smile, "Senior Brother Zhou, Senior Brother Jia, you are here."

"Well, you came so early." Jia Guoping said with a smile, "On the way here, we were still saying that we didn't know when you would arrive, but I didn't expect you to have already arrived."

"Anyway, there's nothing wrong, so I came in advance."

"Have you had breakfast?" Zhou Yan asked.

"Well, I'll come here after eating at home." Yu Ran nodded, seemingly full of energy, "Senior Brother Zhou Yan, let's start now."

Zhou Yan didn't understand where this little girl's energy came from. He smiled and said, "Okay, let's start and try to record this song today."

Then the three of them continued to practice together.

Zhou Yan could clearly feel that after one night, the tacit understanding between the three of them had improved a lot. Especially Yu Ran, her cello was more expressive in this piece than yesterday. This shows that after going back last night Afterwards, she gained a new understanding of the piece.

Sometimes it's just like this. You keep practicing without making a breakthrough, but if you take a break to allow yourself time to settle and allow your brain to digest the accumulated information, progress will appear.

After Yu Ran went back last night, he must have pondered this song by himself.

After a whole morning, the results of the joint practice were very good, and the music could basically meet Zhou Yan's requirements.

However, they did not rush to record. Instead, they went to have a meal first and waited until there were fewer people in Qin Lou before they started recording.

Although the piano building is soundproofed, there is still a lot of noise coming in, so avoiding peak periods can maximize the quality of the recording.

After recording four times in total, Zhou Yan chose the one he was most satisfied with and kept it.

After putting the tape away, Zhou Yan put his hands on his hands and said with a smile, "Brother Guoping, Junior Sister Yu Ran, it's done. I really want to thank you for these two days."

"Don't thank me verbally, come with something affordable." Jia Guoping said with a smile.

"Didn't I just treat you to mutton last night?"

"Junior sister Yu Ran hasn't eaten yet? You can't treat her to a meal. If you treat her, can you not bring me along?"

"Okay, I'll take you." Zhou Yan looked at Yu Ran, "Junior sister, do you have time tonight? Let's go have a meal together?"

"Senior Brother Zhou Yan is not a guest..."

Before she finished speaking, Jia Guoping said with a smile, "Junior sister Yu Ran, don't be polite to your senior brother Zhou. He is a rich man. Let's kill him. Instead of eating mutton soup today, let's go eat roast duck. I haven't had it in a long time." It’s roast duck, I’m craving for this bite.”

Zhou Yan also said, "He's right. You're welcome. If there's nothing else to do in the evening, let's have a meal together."

"Yeah, okay." Yu Ran nodded.

……

After that, Jia Guoping and the others left first, leaving Zhou Yan alone in the piano room. He wanted to record the remaining short passages.

In fact, these short passages have more than one instrument: piano, but for making demos, only the piano is enough. Originally, these short passages are not the main course, just give them a rough listen.

Zhou Yan recorded a total of eight short paragraphs, each between 20 seconds and 40 seconds.

After recording, he would write names and numbers for these paragraphs, and then write out the plots in which these paragraphs would be used.

He worked alone in the piano room until about five o'clock. Seeing that it was almost time, he went to find Jia Guoping.

Jia Guoping was making materials for the start of school the day after tomorrow. He said to Zhou Yan, "You go find Yu Ran first. We will meet at the school gate in half an hour."

Zhou Yan didn't move, "When you finish, let's go find her together."

Jia Guoping curled his lips and said, "What are you doing? What a waste of time. Go quickly. She lives in 205."

Zhou Yan stood there and looked at Jia Guoping, and then he could only go out to find Yu Ran.

Arriving at the girls' dormitory, Zhou Yan stood downstairs and looked up to the second floor, trying to find where [-] was.

While I was watching, a girl on the third floor smiled and said, "Zhou Yan, you are looking for someone."

Zhou Yan raised his head and saw Xu Yuhong from his class. She was standing in the corridor on the third floor with another girl, seeming to be eating melon seeds.

"Hello, classmate Xu Yuhong." Zhou Yan said hello.

"Hello, long time no see. Did you repeat the grade?"

"Well, I will call you senior sister from now on."

Xu Yuhong smiled and said, "Haha, it's not a bad idea if you call me sister. I'm several years older than you. Who are you looking for?"

"I'm looking for Yu Ran from 205."

"Oh, I'm looking for Yu Ran." Xu Yuhong nodded, first spat out the melon seed shells in her mouth, then scratched the wall of the corridor and shouted down at the top of her lungs, "Yu Ran, Zhou Yan is here to find you. So, Zhou Yan is here to find you, then, Zhou Yan is here to find you."

Zhou Yan was speechless. Is this Xu Yuhong a human trumpet? With such a loud voice, she shouldn't study composition. The vocal music department is the most suitable for her.

No, it's not just a speaker, it should be a repeater, saying one sentence three times in a row.

Zhou Yan originally wanted to ask Xu Yuhong to go to 205 to help him find Yu Ran, but who knew that she would just scream through the wall.

Now it's good, everyone in the building knows that he is coming to see Yu Ran.

Yu Ran, who was reading in the dormitory, was startled by these three shouts and quickly walked out with his book.

After seeing Zhou Yan downstairs, she raised her hand and said hello, "Senior Brother Zhou Yan, I'm coming down right now."

Yu Ran ran in first and put the book down, then came out again and trotted downstairs.

Xu Yuhong smiled from above and said, "Zhou Yan, you are not bad, you have integrated with the junior sisters so quickly."

Zhou Yan curled his lips, Xu Yuhong really had no clue.

They Composed 87 has a total of sixteen students, only three of whom are girls. There are naughty boys in the class who have given nicknames to all three girls. The nicknames of all three are related to animals. Xu Yuhong’s most domineering one is Hedong Lion.

At this time, Yu Ran had already walked downstairs. Zhou Yan waved to Xu Yuhong, "Senior sister, let's go first."

Xu Yuhong smiled and said, "Come here often to play when you have time."

When Zhou Yan and Yu Ran turned around, the girl next to Xu Yuhong said with a gossipy face, "Is this Zhou Yan from your class? He looks very pleasing to the eye."

Xu Yuhong nodded in agreement, "Yes, it looks good, but it's a little too small, only twenty."

"Well, that's too young." The girl nodded and asked, "Is he and Yu Ran in a relationship?"

"Then who knows? I haven't seen him for a long time, and I haven't seen them together before. I know that Yu Ran knows our classmate Jia. By the way, Yu Ran is not your orchestrator, don't you know?"

The girl shook her head, "I don't know. I play brass and she plays string instruments. We don't usually interact with each other very much... but it seems that we are not even eighteen yet. There are a lot of boys staring at us."

Xu Yuhong said disdainfully, "Hey, so what if you stare at me? How can you compare to Zhou Yan with those crooked orchestrators?"

"Hey, yo, why are you so competitive about this thing?"

"Our composition department is really good anyway."

"If your boys who compose music are so good, then why don't you find one yourself?"

Xu Yuhong put a melon seed into her mouth, "Rabbits don't eat grass beside their nests. Don't you know this?"

The girl laughed and said, "You are quite picky. You won't even eat anything close to your nest."

Xu Yuhong said seriously, "I am not a rabbit, I am grass."

After saying that, Xu Yuhong turned around and returned to the dormitory, leaving the girl stunned.

……

Although Zhou Yan didn't hear Xu Yuhong chatting with the girl, he knew that if he came to see Yu Ran, it would easily lead to gossip.

The circle of Yangyin is too small, with fewer students than in ordinary middle schools. Things can spread quickly, especially gossip news.

Not to mention that Yangyin is the highest music school in China, specializing in the study of elegant arts. In fact, the students here are not much better at gossiping. Especially these days, many people like to spread rumors about men and women.

The reason why he didn't want to come over just now was because of this consideration.

A beautiful girl like Yu Ran is quite pleasing to the eye, but getting too close to such a beautiful girl can easily lead to trouble.

Previously, Li Tao, who was in Zhou Yan's class, pursued a girl majoring in piano. The girl was just averagely pretty, which aroused the jealousy of several boys.

There was a "flower protector" who looked like a primary school boy. He came to challenge Li Tao and smashed Li Tao's violin.

Zhou Yan didn't deliberately stay too far away from Yu Ran, he just kept a normal distance from her.

Because the school circle is too small, from the girls' dormitory to the gate, the two met several acquaintances, either Zhou Yan knew them or Yu Ran knew them.

When he was approaching the door, Yu Ran asked Zhou Yan, "Senior Brother Zhou Yan, do you have any other songs?"

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Of course, who in the composition department doesn't have a few exercise books?"

Shi Wanchun, the director of the composition department, once said in a class that if you want to be a good composer, your composition frequency must be at least equal to that of the tuba.

This sounds very vulgar, but it does make sense.

Since you have to poop every day, you have to compose music every day.

Of course, when Shi Wanchun talks about composing, he doesn’t mean making a complete piece of music, but just writing anything can be considered a composition.Decide on a musical form today, add a harmony tomorrow, and add some instruments the day after tomorrow. It all counts.

They usually write a lot of complete songs. In addition to the homework assigned in class, diligent students also undergo a lot of composition training on a daily basis. Zhou Yan has a large stack of composition books, which contain songs of all styles.

"Is there any music like "Kite"?" Yu Ran asked again.

"Yes." Zhou Yan nodded, "But it's relatively rare. Our composition majors rarely come into contact with this kind of music. Most of the time, what I wrote before was avant-garde serious music of the [-]th century. "Kite" and the like are all It’s my latest work.”

(End of this chapter)