Old-time musicians

Variation 3 is still going on. Fanning's right hand seems to be playing double notes, but in fact it contains two melodies chasing each other. Sometimes fingers 123 are responsible for one, and fingers 345 are responsible for the other. They stretch and switch back and forth between complex finger changes of the same note. The left hand plays a continuous and undulating group of fast notes as always, forming a third counterpoint relationship.

Every time a "note head" with obvious imitation characteristics appears, Fanning deepens the touch of the keys and uses a heavy and short pedal to highlight the horizontal color. As this variation progresses, in addition to the pleasant listening experience, its layers and order are increasingly presented to the listeners.

First, the Marquis of McAdam responded, and then the three masters. By the middle and late stages of this canon, the seven members of the inspection team in the front row of the ceremonial seats had all left their seats with their backs and sat up straight.

"I underestimated the quality of this variation!" Viadrin's big hands tightly grasped the wooden handrail. "When I heard the second bar and found that it was a canon, I was really surprised, but I really didn't expect that Carloen could write it as long as the previous variation, and the quality was still so high afterwards."

Christopher's mind flashed through many outstanding church musicians he had met and listened to. Suddenly, he thought he saw the organist Vien playing on the stage.

If the performance of the aria and the appearance of the variation were the beginning of the surprise of the audience, then the appearance of the variation 3 canon was undoubtedly a watershed, a watershed from surprise to shock.

Those who dare to create canons in improvisational occasions are all music masters with extremely rich artistic accumulation, or geniuses like the one who won the full-time organ position at the Royal Academy of Music in his youth.

Canon is not the name of a song, but a polyphonic technique. It is very simple to say. It requires the creator to write a "reproducible" melody.

But not all melodies can do this. It must meet the following characteristics: when the "copy" is staggered and played at the same time as the "original melody", the two can still maintain the harmony of the counterpoint relationship, thus forming a strange effect of imitation and pursuit, until the last harmony is merged together.

This undoubtedly carries the philosophical meaning of the relationship between "self" and "other self", and even has the mystical thought of the relationship between "representation" and "will".

The two canon melodies in the right hand are intertwined and integrated, and the left hand plays the last group of bright and pleasant, ups and downs of broken chords, and the music comes to an end.

At the end of Variation 3, Fanning on the stage breathed a sigh of relief.

If the "Goldberg Variations" is divided into the early, middle and late stages, the most difficult technically in the early stage are the 3rd and 5th variations, which can be regarded as passing the first difficulty more smoothly than expected.

The compactness of the right hand chasing, the stability of the left hand running, the breath retention of the long notes, the ups and downs between the parts, and the horizontal harmonic colors highlight that he has done a good job.

After adjusting the time of two breaths, Fanning returned to the keyboard with both hands. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th fingers of the left hand reproduced the theme direction with strong bass, and the elegant interval of jumping appeared in the high pitch area, and continued with the remaining fingers of both hands, imitating in the two middle parts below.

Variation 4, four-part, Paspiel style, this genre can actually be regarded as a fast version of minuet, the whole variation is expressed in a bright three-beat rhythm, showing a noble and elegant posture.

This is the most obvious variation that highlights the theme in the early stage, which can better help the audience sort out the logical main line of the music. The rhythmic patterns of each part are relatively integrated, and the counterpoint relationship is mostly column chords, which is easy to stabilize when performing. In his treatment, Fanning tends to boldly use some heavier pedals to make the harmonic color more colorful.

The left hand plays the octave G note, and the right hand moves to the sixth double tone ending in the main chord. Fanning decisively releases the pedal to cut off the residual sound. Then he gently takes a breath, and his right hand touches the keys in a sharp way, playing a fast sound stream similar to the perpetual motion pattern in the middle range. At the same time, the left hand interweaves in between, making ten-degree jumps back and forth between the bass and treble.

Variation 5, two-part, a toccata or touch piece with the characteristics of a technical exercise, the most difficult variation in the early stage of the music.

Fanning breathes carefully, his eyes fixed on his hands flying on the keyboard.

One of the important reasons for the high difficulty of the whole work is related to historical factors.

Since Bach originally created it based on the harpsichord with a double-row keyboard, each variation contains a large number of passages with intertwined ranges. It is often the case that the upper part gradually moves to the bass area, or the lower part moves to the treble area. Sometimes, several parts are even "entangled" in the same narrow area with dense common notes.

If it is a double-row keyboard, both hands have their own duties and do not interfere with each other, but on a single-row keyboard, trouble comes. The performer must design a strict fingering to avoid the lines of "fighting" between the parts. Not only must it consider which note to play with which fingers, but also consider from which direction to reach out and hit the key.

So the audience saw that sometimes Fanning had one hand running at high speed while the other hand kept jumping left and right in between; sometimes the two arms were crossed together, with the right hand playing in the bass range and the left hand playing in the treble range; there were even a few clips where Fanning held his playing palm high up, and the other hand, as if trying to survive in a crack, first "tapped" a few notes above the back of the former's hand, and then went around to the bottom of the palm to play back and forth.

Such baroque dazzling techniques can make the audience's hearts swell just from the presentation on the screen.

In the closing paragraph, Fan Ning's right hand crossed over his left arm and struck a few scattered notes in the bass area like chestnuts in the fire. After that, the misplaced voices reunited and distanced themselves, and his hands returned to their original positions, bringing out a light and circuitous theme. Chord tone group.

When did I become so strong? Fan Ning took a big breath and asked with doubts in his contentment.

This variation is too easy to encounter some flaws. In my previous life, I had been playing with it for a while, but once I played it at a faster speed, there would always be mistakes here and there. I didn't expect that today's performance would be so perfect.

Without enough time to think about it, Fan Ning played the flowing bass again with his left hand, and a melody with dotted long notes and descending scales as a combination with his right hand.

Variation 6, Canon. Starting from the second measure, Fan Ning's right hand once again overlays a melody with the same direction as the previous one. The only difference is that the overall pitch has moved up one degree.

The undercurrent of the bass and the interweaving long and short canon melodies once again allowed the audience to experience the interesting musical inspiration.

"It's Canon again!?" At this moment, the old Master Swearinck almost couldn't sit still.

He has a very wide range of musical works, and he also knows one thing very well: whether it is serious music or popular ditties, many well-known melodies are not unbeautiful, but if they are played separately from themselves, I am afraid most of them will sound like multiple The chasing and interlocking characteristics of the dissonant Canon melody like a gramophone cassette destined its interpretation to be extremely stringent. Once there is any lack of consideration in the early design, even if the rhythm pattern is slightly changed, it will be impossible to proceed at all. Go down.

One time is enough, a second time? How dare Fan Ning take such a big risk?

Master Schillings' thoughts were churning with excitement at this time: "Canon's seemingly simple but in fact advanced technique, many composers have racked their brains and can barely achieve the harmony of the sound, but he still doesn't think it is complicated enough! Two lines Canon uses a complex three-part progression, writing an extra continuous flow of sound in the bass part to enrich the harmony and emotional effects. Could it be said that Mr. Fanning has reached a level close to that of Cassius in his polyphonic music attainments? What is the level of this great man?”

It seems that techniques such as Canon are far less dazzling than the ups and downs of the Romantic period, but the timbre effect and depth of thought it presents are unsurpassed by any technique. "All complex principles are Can be deconstructed into concise and regular units." The steady rhythm shows the ever-changing vitality.

"That's enough! No variations are needed, these two canons are enough! No, one is enough!" Master Niemann leaned out from the audience seat, "If today's creation is The ability test is the only link. Regardless of other dimensions, he will undoubtedly get one of the nominations for 'Boethius Artist' this year!"

"Which number is it?" Taking advantage of the pause in the music, someone in the audience below spoke quietly.

"This is already the sixth variation. It may not be as good as the master's interpretation in terms of length, logic, and technique, but it completely surpasses those mature artists."

"Even without any rational analysis, it still sounds good! It sounds so good! I hope he can sort out the musical score after it's over."

It should be nearing the end. This is the expectation of all listeners at present. As long as there is a more emotional closing variation, or simply returns to the original quiet and holy aria, this will be a perfect improvisation.

An interesting smile appeared on Fan Ning's face. He started with a sounding G with his left hand, and played a singing melody with a distinctive dotted rhythm with his right hand.

Variation 7, a two-part jig with a free and casual style. The audience immediately realized that this was a very interesting variation. The two melodies run through a distinctive dotted rhythm pattern from beginning to end, with improvised decorative vibrato, and the music image is smart and playful. .

“Here we go again, it doesn’t look like the ending variation.” Master Nieman’s insight was very keen. “Variations 1, 4, and 7 are three dance styles, 2 and 5 are touch pieces, and 3 and 5 are touch pieces. 6 is a canon song. I seem to have a premonition of something."

His friend Xilins next to him turned his head and lowered his voice and said: "If my guess is right, will he continue to choose a technical touch song for the next song?"

"Have you also discovered this pattern?" Nieman responded quietly, "Mr. Fanning seems to want to build a sound building in groups of three." When he said this, he suddenly found that he could not breathe. I can’t stop trembling, “If Variation 9 is also a canon, that’s too bad.”

This is simply amazing!

Then, Fan Ning played a descending broken chord in the lower part, and his right hand played the 16th note in the reverse upward direction. As expected, the 8th variation is a touch song with the nature of technical practice. When it ends, the previous Several people in the row held their breath and watched Fan Ning's next move attentively.

Variation 9 starts with a weak and gentle intensity. With the free counterpoint of the low part, the high part starts from the B note, playing a quiet ballad. After a bar, imitation also appears in the middle part. A similar melody, but moved down two degrees, starting on the G note.

"Sure enough," these two leading figures in the music industry suddenly felt numb.

Each three variations form a group, and the "dance genre-tactile genre-canon genre" is presented in a cyclical manner, gradually climbing up. Fanning is using this structure as a "building material unit" to build a towering sound building!

But the reason why the two masters reacted in this way is not just because they successfully predicted the emergence of canons, but because they discovered a more surprising fact!

-In the third variation, Fanning used the same degree canon, the sixth variation was the second degree canon, and the ninth variation was the third degree canon.

You can still play like this! ? ! ?

What is a fucking show of skill, what is a fucking show of skill!

!

These two people... One is Schillings, who is called "Gillette's successor" by the music industry for his talent, and the other is Niemann, who is elegant, elegant and easy-going. These two people have already burst out incoherent swear words in their hearts!

Fanning continued, playing a cheerful melody with a long string of ornaments in his left hand, followed by the alto, treble and alto parts, which followed suit, with a passionate rural pastoral mood.

Variation 10, a four-part fugue, is similar in style to the gavotte, which is the most secular and chic dance in the romantic French court on the Blue Planet. Its structure is unusually compact and strict, clean and neat, without any affectation.

"This fugue is extremely exquisite." Viadrin found that as the music progressed, there were always brighter highlights to attract his attention. "The 4-bar theme was presented 8 times in succession. The first 4 times were presentation, the middle 2 times were development, and the last 2 times were reappearance, which was exactly 32 bars. Only the most basic structure was retained. There was no nonsense throughout the whole piece, but the essence and fun of the fugue were fully presented."

Variation 11, Touch, two-part, the musical ideas are all based on a descending sixth scale + dotted rhythm pattern. The two melodies are interspersed very tightly, presenting the beauty of alternating switching and sparse and dense echoes.

Variation 12, Canon, under the clear repetition of bass lines, two melodies in a fourth relationship are staggered by one bar to chase each other.

But this Canon has a more jaw-dropping feature: the two melodies are not simply imitations, but are deformed by "reflection". The direction of the melody that enters after the second one is a mirror image of the original melody, and they can still produce harmonious sounds together!

"He's done something wonderful." Master Niemann shook his head and smiled bitterly. "Is this the fourth cycle? Not only does the canon imitate an interval increase by one degree, but it also uses the reflection technique. Can this thing be improvised on stage? I think I need to think about it carefully when I'm alone."

"What I'm most concerned about now is how high he can build this building." Schillings said slowly.

Niemann said very seriously: "There are currently 4 groups of 12 variations, plus the beginning and the end, which is 14 parts. The logical structure is impeccable... This interpretation has convinced me. He is not a young composer at all! In a few days, I will go to his concert in person to listen to the "Violin Concerto in E Minor". After the art festival is over, I will certainly make a solemn suggestion to the inspection team to include him in the nomination of the "Boethius Artist". "

"It should be about the same." Master Sweelinck, who is over 80 years old, couldn't help but grumble:

"There are not many buildings in the whole Santaram Castle that can be built this high, right?"