The God of Conducting Starting from Absolute Pitch

Chapter 4 Bolero

Chen Qiu didn't know that someone was spraying him behind his back.

After he returned to the concert hall left to him by his parents, he found the relevant music scores and studied them.

At the same time, he also found several different versions of the recording.

The concert hall is not big, but it is clean, empty and without any crowds.

Chen Qiu looked at the concert hall, feeling a little sad. He sighed helplessly and walked straight to the small room behind the concert hall, where he lived.

After casually sweeping aside the clutter on the table, he sat directly on the ground, leaned on the sofa, and played the band's recording.

Just as he felt when he just woke up, the hearing of his ears has increased a lot, and his ability to control the details of music is getting stronger and stronger.

He was also increasingly able to hear what the conductor himself thought about the music.

Contrary to what many people imagine, conducting is not just about standing on stage and performing, or simply rehearsing off stage.

In fact, a conductor has to do a lot.

When on stage, he needs to remind each instrument when to enter and in what way. This is the most basic.

Secondly, he also needs to control the feeling of the music itself and drive the feeling of the orchestra at the right time.

Give the simplest example.

Many people think that what the conductor waves in his hand is just to beat the time. Simply put, it is a human metronome.

But first, you need to be able to function as a metronome under everyone's interference, and be able to accurately hit the corresponding rhythm. This is enough to drive away a large number of people.

Secondly, you also need to know when to take shots together and when to take separate shots.

The feeling of being in sync and split gives the band a different feeling.

Even more extreme, not giving the beat a different feeling to the band.

In fact, the role of command in a stronger team is greater.

Because the stronger the team, the more they understand how to conduct on stage.

The more ordinary or even backward an orchestra is, the less they care about the conductor.

They will play completely on their own, no matter how the conductor guides them, they don't care.

of course!

For example, those in the Vienna Philharmonic who are slightly mentally ill and completely ignore conductors they don't like, and who are fully automatic throughout the whole process, are not included.

What Chen Qiu is doing now is analyzing the music score.

Decide what you should hear every minute.

What kind of feeling should the overall acoustics convey.

As much as possible, when you are on stage, you can roughly know what the music itself is like without the need for music scores.

This requires thinking and analyzing with your brain.

Fortunately, Chen Qiu's brain is very good.

When he was assistant conductor and deputy conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic II, he often did these things.

At that time, because his ears were in an average-to-low condition, even though he had done a lot of analysis, he could not hear many small mistakes during the performance. He was particularly poor in details, so the second group's main conductor changed three or four times. Now, he can't even be promoted from command assistant to commander.

but now……

Chen Qiu almost burst into tears as she listened to the music in her ears.

What does this music feel like?
The power of this detail?
If I had had this ear back then, I wouldn't have wasted so long as the command assistant of the Second Regiment.

Sure enough, becoming a top conductor requires more than just basic skills and hard work.

Talent is equally important. Chen Qiu shook his head, pushed aside all the distracting thoughts in his mind, and focused entirely on the work he was going to prepare next.

Among the three works, he finally decided which one he should choose.

"Bolero"

"Boleiro" is an orchestral work created by French composer Maurice Ravel in 1928, dedicated to the dancer Ida Rubinstein, and premiered at the Paris Opera in the same year.

"Bolero" originally refers to a Spanish folk dance form. "Bolero" created by Ravel did not "process" the existing folk dance tones, but re-created it according to his personal understanding.

The piece uses an expanded three-pipe orchestra, and its unique timbre contrast and unified processing have made this piece one of the touchstones for many orchestras around the world.

Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, this work tests the conductor's control of the overall mood of the orchestra.

Brahms' Fourth Symphony, this piece of work tests the conductor's control of the symphonic harmony between the instruments.

Only Bolero, this piece tests the conductor's control of the timbre of a single instrument and his understanding of the resonance between instruments.

The conductor's own thinking about each instrument is tested.

This is the main reason why Chen Qiu chose this piece.

He lowered his head and listened to other orchestras' performances of Bolero's works. He narrowed his eyes slightly and pondered his understanding of this piece.

C major, 4/4 time, single instrument and combination of multiple instruments.

The speed should be kept as constant as possible, but there should be a speed difference before and after.

It's about 2-3 o'clock.

It is best for the speed to increase at a constant speed, rather than simply increasing directly at the end.

Just like speed, so is the power of music.

Some people would think that the power of a bolero should increase stage by stage, just like going up a flight of stairs.

Some people also think that the power of the bolero should increase linearly, and it is best for everyone not to notice that the volume has changed from weak at the beginning to strong at the end.

It wasn't until the grand ensemble sounded at the end that I felt like I was waking up from a dream, and I was shocked to realize the changes.

Both actually make sense.

Just like painting, dots, lines and surfaces, whether to use surfaces or lines to paint, all belong to personal understanding.

This is what Chen Qiu wants to choose.

These are just choices in the general direction, not to mention the small direction.

Chen Qiu picked up the music score in his hand and started making montage scores and marking attention points according to his own habits.

The eyes are extremely serious.

The corners of his mouth couldn't help but raise.

There is a very sharp contrast with the previous state.

In normal times, he might still be relatively weak and have little pursuit.

But after he really entered the state of music work, all his energy was completely concentrated and he became completely serious.

Whether it's for your own dream, or for the original owner's dream.

He must get the command of the second regiment.

……

Time passed quickly, and before I felt it, the command assessment of the second regiment had already arrived.

(End of this chapter)