cobalt
cobalt

我是cobalt。

China Gates & Phrygian Gates, John Adams, 1977

(注:这是2020年5月10日的文章,现从我的博客转移到这里来。)


最近很迷Adams的这两部作品,都是钢琴独奏,China Gates五分钟左右,Phrygian Gates二十二分钟左右,分三个乐章。John Adams是美国极简主义(Minimalism)作曲家。搜索的时候竟然发现了他的个人网站,上面有他对这个作品的详细介绍。这可是1977年的作品诶!稍微有些惊讶。在那里发现了有意思的东西,因为我单纯听难以从作曲层面听出什么东西,毕竟cobalt的音乐水平有限。那么在这里节选地分享出来吧,并配上我拙劣的翻译以供参考。(如果大家有兴趣听的话,可以先从比较短小、结构和技巧比较简单的China Gates开始听起,可能会比较有感觉。)

The 1970’s was a time of enormous ideological conflict in new music when the assumptions of post-Schoenbergian aesthetics finally began to be challenged by composers who saw little future in the principles of serialism. … Minimalism, although an admittedly reduced and at times naive style, offered me a way out of this bind. I found the combination of tonality, pulsation and large architectonic structures to be extremely promising.

19世纪70年代,新音乐领域充满意识形态上的冲突。那时,后勋伯格主义美学假设终于开始被那些不认可序列主义原则的作曲家所挑战。……而极简主义,虽然确实是个简单的、在当时看来不成熟的流派,却引领我走出了上述的困境。我认为极简主义中,调性、律动、庞大的建筑般的结构组合起来,极其有潜力。

Phrygian Gates is a 22-minute tour of half of the cycle of keys, modulating by the circle of fifths rather than stepwise à la Well-Tempered Clavier. The structure is in the form of a modulating square wave with one state in the Lydian mode and the other in the Phrygian mode. As the piece progresses the amount of time spent in the Lydian gradually shortens while that given over to the Phrygian lengthens. Hence the very first section, on A Lydian, is the longest in the piece and is followed by a very short passage on A Phrygian. In the next pair (E Lydian and Phrygian) the Lydian section is slightly shorter while its Phrygian mate is proportionally longer, and so on until the tables are turned. Then follows a coda in which the modes are rapidly mixed, one after the other. “Gates,” a term borrowed from electronics, are the moments when the modes abruptly and without warning shift. There is “mode” in this music, but there is no “modulation”.

Phrygian Gates这部二十二分钟的作品,以五度圈的方式在调上移动了半圈,而没有采用类似《巴赫平均律键盘曲集(The Well-Tempered Clavier)》逐级移动的方式。乐曲的结构像方波一样,在Lydian调式和Phrygian调式之间来回切换。随着乐曲进行,在Lydian调式上的时间逐渐缩短,而Phrygian调式的时间逐渐加长。因此,最开始在A Lydian上的一段是作品中最长的一段,紧接着一段非常短的A Phrygian段落。在下一个对子中里面(E Lydian和 E Phrygian),Lydian段稍微变短,Phrygian段按比例变长,随后与此类推,直到形势调转。然后跟着一段结尾乐段,两种调式一个跟一个地快速切换。曲名中 “Gates” 这个从电子学借用来的术语,指的是模式突然转换的瞬间。不过这里的「模式(mode)」指的是音乐中的调性(mode),而不是调谐(modulation)。

What makes Phrygian Gates still interesting for me is the topography of its form and the variety of keyboard ideas, many of which suggest the rippling of waveforms. Sometimes these waves are smooth and tranquil; sometimes their surging and stabbing figurations can be as violent as a white-water expedition. In most cases I treat each hand as if it were operating in a wave-like manner, generating patterns and figurations that operate in continuous harmony with the other hand. 

让我至今对Phrygian Gates这部作品感兴趣的,是它形式上的拓扑和键盘想法上的多样性,其中大部分都暗示着一种波浪起伏的形态。这些波浪时而细腻平静,时而汹涌翻腾,强烈得犹如激流勇进。大多数情况下,我将每只手都视为以波浪状操作,从而产生与另一只手连续和谐地运行的规律和音型。

Phrygian Gates is a behemoth of sorts and requires a pianist capable of considerable physical endurance and with an ability to sustain long arches of sound. China Gates, on the other hand, was written for young pianists and utilizes the same principles without resorting to virtuoso technical effects. It too oscillates between two modal worlds, only it does so with extreme delicacy. It strikes me now as a piece calling for real attention to details of dark, light and the shadows that exist between.

Phrygian Gates在各种意义上显得像个庞然大物,需要钢琴家能够具有相当大的身体耐力和维持长音弧(?)的能力。相反,China Gates是为年轻的钢琴家作的,虽然遵循相同的作曲原则,但没有诉诸于复杂的技巧。它也是在两个调式之间震荡,只不过是以一种极其精巧的方式。对于我来说,现在它是一部足以吸引我注意的作品,吸引我注意亮、暗、以及置于其间的阴影,

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