Literary Master 1983

Chapter 111 Yu Qie's Day at the Concert

The two top music schools in China are the China National Conservatory of Music and the Central Conservatory of Music.

Guoyin prefers to play folk music with western instruments. The highlight of the performance that day was "Butterfly Lovers". Yu Qie went there exhausted and then met Wang Meng and Liu Xinwu.

You will meet old friends in a foreign land, and you will meet enemies at music concerts.

"How's the novel going?" Wang Meng took the initiative to greet him.

"I'm writing it now."

"'New Reality' is a rare article written from the perspective of the city... Our literary world has always lacked qualified novels of this type. Originally, a group of people wrote it during the Republic of China... but it was decadent music. Now you have filled this gap. I am looking forward to what you can write."

"Yu Qie." Liu Xinwu said, "It's been a while since we last met."

"I read your report at that time, and it was quite good." Yu Qi said with a smile.

Liu Xinwu thought the tone was quite strange. It was not until he sat down on the chair that he realized: Wang Meng often spoke to him like this in a bossy tone.

Damn it, what’s the point of taking advantage of these things?
Liu Xinwu didn't react on the surface, but in fact he was completely frozen and couldn't sleep tonight.

The symphony orchestra was honored to have the writers visit and specially introduced the three of them before the performance.

Liu Xinwu listened carefully to the applause, and the applause coming from Yu Qie felt particularly harsh to him, as it was much louder than his own.

This time he understood the applause again.

To be honest, he hated himself for being so sensitive.

The Butterfly Lovers begins playing:
First there is a violin solo, playing a melodious melody to depict the scene of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai's first meeting. The notes are filled with youthfulness and joy. Then the string group responds with deep chords, as if this relationship will be burdened with the heaviness of fate.

Then the woodwind instruments joined in with soft tones, and their feelings deepened; then came the brass and percussion instruments, and the love reached its climax, with Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai ready to throw themselves into the flames...

At the end, there is a gradually softening melody, and the two people turn into butterflies.

Yu Qi lowered his head, thinking hard.

Wang Meng asked Yu Qie if he understood.

Yu Che said: "The music obviously has a story and layers."

Wang Meng was surprised. According to Zhang Shouren, Yu Qie had never listened to a symphony in a day, but he noticed the change. He patted Yu Qie on the shoulder with joy.

Liu Xinwu thinks that this is different from writing a novel. Who doesn't know how to listen to music?

Then he saw Yu Qie take out a notebook and take notes.

Wang Meng asked Yu Qie: "What are you writing?"

Yu Qie briefly told the story of "Together with You". When Liu Xinwu finished the story, he felt that the situation was not good, and then Yu Qie realized something new:
There is a writing style called "stream of consciousness", and writer Wang Meng is very good at it.

That is to say, in the process of Liu Xiaochun playing the violin, along with the changes in the playing of the violin, he recalled the difficulties he had encountered when he was studying in the past, and these difficulties were interspersed with his father Liu Cheng's silent support for him, which can serve as a process for readers to empathize - they know that the sound of the violin represents a person's life.

The same is true in reverse. When readers know Liu Xiaochun's life, they will understand the beginning, development, climax, and ending of the Violin Concerto in D Major played by Liu Xiaochun, because it corresponds to Liu Xiaochun's life. Yu Qie explained: "My readers really can't hear what the music is about, but after reading this kind of flashback about Liu Xiaochun's piano learning, they will react to the ups and downs of this music, because they know that it is not easy for Liu Xiaochun to learn the piano... This imagination constitutes their feeling about the music."

Oh my god, what a genius!

Is this person new to symphony music?
Why am I here?

Liu Xinwu felt numb.

During the performance, the audience frequently applauded the musicians of the National Conservatory of Music Symphony Orchestra. However, Yu Qie noticed that whenever everyone applauded, the musicians on the stage showed dissatisfaction.

He waited until the show was over before asking the violinist, "Why did you frown when we were applauding just now?"

The violinist mentioned an etiquette of applause: "Don't applaud between movements of a symphony. But we Chinese have heard so few performances that we sometimes mistake the pauses between movements for the end of the entire work and then applaud... This is very embarrassing for the performers and ruins the mood of the performance."

Yu Qie asked, "Were there any cases where the audience did not applaud?"

"Some audience members were stunned, or didn't know when to applaud, and were afraid of being laughed at, so they kept silent... This doesn't mean they didn't like the piece. They might like it so much that they didn't dare to spoil it at all."

Therefore, Yu Qie immediately thought of the ending of the novel. The musical level of Liu Xiaochun's father, the workers, and the farmers must not have known when to applaud when the violin was playing, so he designed a silent plot to make readers think that everyone was indifferent.

It seems that Comrade Liu Xiaochun's efforts were in vain.

Well, it wasn’t actually like that. Yu Qie wrote in his notes: “In this train station, an ignorant child suddenly pointed at Liu Xiaochun, who was in tears, and pointed at the violin of this young performer, saying that he played really well… Everyone reacted and clapped their hands until they turned red. Liu Xiaochun’s tears immediately fell even more.”

This is the "etiquette of applause" in action. The workers and farmers don't know when to applaud, but they want to express their support - to trigger this emotion through a naive child.

This was the result of Yu Qie's listening to a symphony orchestra concert. Another concert at the Central Conservatory of Music finally made Liu Xinwu despair.

The protagonists of this concert are the real-life prototypes of the novel "Together with You" Lin Yaoji and Hu Kun.

Lin Yaoji is a famous violin professor at the Central Conservatory of Music, while Hu Kun is the first young Chinese to win a violin competition award abroad. Lin Yaoji was chatting with Yu Qie under the stage, while Hu Kun was on the stage as the violinist of this concert.

The orchestra of the Central Conservatory of Music tends to be a Western orchestra, so there was no "Butterfly Lovers" this time, but instead authentic Western music from beginning to end.

To be honest, Yu Qie didn't understand, but it didn't affect his writing of novels.

Since the prototypes are around us, it is natural to interview them about their life stories.

Lin Yaoji said: "When we Chinese learn Western musical instruments, what we lack is not skills, but culture."

"What culture?"

"We have solved the technical problems, but we are Chinese. You are playing the violin with your own hands and brain, not just copying Westerners."

Then, after the performance, Hu Kun came down and was asked the same question. Hu Kun said:
"Teacher Yu Qie, I didn't win the award because I imitated the skills of famous artists. I mixed a lot of personal emotions into it."

What both people said were very common words, the kind of clichés that emphasize the need for art to persist in one's own identity and that combine Chinese and Western elements can be said by anyone.

(End of this chapter)