Dragon's Origin

Wang Sheng listened with his eyes closed. To be honest, these court musicians were really good. At least, after listening to it the first time, Wang Sheng thought it was almost as good as the film scores he had heard on Earth.

"How is it?" Master Yu asked Wang Sheng, barely suppressing his excitement after the performance.

"This isn't something I should be commenting on," Wang Sheng said to Master Yu with a smile. "This is your responsibility as the conductor. How was the overall performance of the piece, how well did each musician cooperate with you, which parts weren't played well enough, whether it's the rhythm, the dynamics, or the tempo, all of that needs to be commented on by you as the conductor so we can improve when we cooperate next time."

Seeing the suspicion in Master Yu's eyes that he was shirking responsibility, Wang Sheng continued, "After you've finished your internal summary, I'll offer my feelings as an outsider." He scanned the eager faces of the musicians waiting for his evaluation and asked with a smile, "Isn't that the right order, the right way to do things?"

"That's right, internal summary first," Master Yu said, satisfied. The musicians were satisfied as well.

Right in front of Wang Sheng, Master Yu began to scold the musicians one by one without any politeness. This was Master Yu's style; guidance definitely had to be strict. And the musicians being scolded were happy to take it. Being scolded by Master Yu was a stroke of good fortune in three lifetimes; others didn't even have the chance!

After scolding each person individually about their shortcomings, their mistakes in cooperating with the team, and their failures to coordinate with Master Yu's conducting gestures, Master Yu and the musicians looked expectantly at Wang Sheng, waiting for his evaluation.

"Strike while the iron is hot. Follow what Master Yu said earlier, make the corrections, and play it again," Wang Sheng ordered without hesitation. "There's still a little something I haven't figured out yet. I'll listen again to get a feel for it."

No one had any objections. Master Yu immediately conducted everyone to start playing again. As for whether anyone would suspect that Wang Sheng had no real insights and was just using this as an excuse to stall for time, anyone who dared to think that way definitely didn't want to stay in this team. Not long ago, Wang Sheng had pointed out the shortcomings of each person one by one, with substance and accuracy. Could someone without real insights say those things? Since the Marquis said he hadn't figured it out yet, it must be a very important flaw.

As Wang Sheng said, striking while the iron was hot, the effect of the second performance was significantly better. The emergence of this new role of conductor also required a period of adjustment. Even though Master Yu was highly respected and no one had any objections, they were used to playing individually, and now they had to follow the rhythm of Master Yu's baton, which still required an adaptation process.

When Master Yu conducted the internal summary again, his tone was much better; it wasn't scolding anymore. Not to mention Master Yu, the musicians themselves could clearly feel this transformative change. They regarded Master Yu's comments as if they were imperial edicts, and they became even more expectant of Wang Sheng's comments.

When everyone's eyes turned to Wang Sheng again, Wang Sheng finally spoke.

"I won't say anything about the individual playing techniques of each person," Wang Sheng said, carefully choosing his words, and then said to everyone, "During the process of listening, I discovered a small deficiency. How should I put it? I feel like the overall sound is very thin."

Thin? Everyone was confused. What did he mean by thin?

"This piece is obviously a combination of the qin and the xiao, so the guqin and the xiao are definitely the main instruments, there's no doubt about that," Wang Sheng said, recalling his experience listening to orchestras on Earth. "However, the accompaniment sounds a bit thin. It's not that your volume is low, nor is it a problem with the musicians or the music, but that it lacks a kind of reverberation."

"Reverberation?" Master Yu was also hearing this term for the first time, and couldn't help but ask, "What is that?"

"It's the effect of having multiple people play the same instrument," Wang Sheng replied. On Earth, would any symphony orchestra be called a symphony orchestra if it didn't have several or a dozen violins and several or a dozen cellos?

"Although the timbre of each instrument is similar, it's impossible for each one to be exactly the same," Wang Sheng continued to explain. "Take the erhu for example. The sound effect of a dozen erhus playing the same piece is more reverberant than a single erhu."

Master Yu was a master, and immediately realized the difference between this and the music he had enjoyed before. He instantly fell into contemplation.

"Multiple people playing the same instrument creates a reverberation effect?" He muttered, and it seemed like he had already imagined the feeling of so many of the same instruments playing together. He suddenly slapped his thigh. "That's right!"

Standing up, Master Yu was about to have everyone try it out. But when he looked at everyone, he realized that it probably wouldn't work right now. There was only one musician for each instrument, and Master Yu himself was the kind of person who hated learning multiple instruments before mastering one. Where would he find the people to test this effect?

"Hmm! I have a few old friends. I'll call them all over," Master Yu began to think about who to find. Now that Wang Sheng had reminded him to this point, it definitely wasn't enough to rely on these court musicians alone. He needed to find a group of experts to experiment with. "That's right, I'll have them bring their apprentices too."

Ahem, Wang Sheng coughed softly. Master Yu immediately woke up from his self-talk and looked at the group of court musicians staring at him expectantly. After thinking about it, their cooperation these days had been good. At least these little guys respected him and listened to him. In that case, it wouldn't hurt to give them a little benefit.

"You, each of you is allowed to bring two people here," Master Yu wasn't an unreasonable person. He just hadn't met a kindred spirit before. Now that Wang Sheng was here, just the things Wang Sheng said were enough for Master Yu to digest and absorb. Giving these court musicians some spots would only bring benefits and no harm.

"In addition, see if you know anyone who is suitable to be a conductor," Master Yu gave everyone another task. "Someone who has a comprehensive understanding of instruments and music, preferably a young person, bring them over." He turned to look at Wang Sheng and couldn't help but shake his head. "Actually, the Marquis is the most suitable, but he's not willing."

Everyone agreed with this. When it came to conducting, no one was more suitable than Wang Sheng. Unfortunately, as Master Yu said, Wang Sheng wasn't willing.

"Let's take it slow!" Wang Sheng laughed. "You guys slowly find people to experiment with. I'll complete the accompaniment score for 'Pipa Language' first, and then we'll try playing it when everyone is here."