As the originator of impressionist music, Debussy's music works are worthy of the name "sound painting". People once commented on Wang Wei's poems: there are paintings in poems and poems in paintings. Borrowing this evaluation, Debussy's works can be well-deserved called "there is a picture in the song and a song in the picture". But it is not easy to achieve this step: music is a flowing time and space, and painting is a frozen moment scene. But after all, a master is a master. He abandoned the singing melody of The Romantic Period composer as a means of expression, and instead absorbed the techniques of impressionism and symbolism, and applied them to his own works, allowing listeners to reconstruct sounds and pictures with hazy and multi-directional melodies. The most typical example of this way in masterpieces is moonlight. It is precisely because Moonlight has achieved such great success that even today, modernist composers have failed to write, at least failed to write a widely circulated work describing Moonlight.
Debussy's handling of moonlight is undoubtedly special.
2. If "quietness" is the biggest feature of Beethoven's moonlight, then "movement" is the essence of Debussy's moonlight. In his music, moonlight pours out like water and flows slowly, filling the whole room. Debussy's notes are a little scattered, which breaks up the melody. But it is scattered but not chaotic, like overflowing mercury stopping on the floor or steps. Every note gives you a rich imagination.
Beethoven's Moonlight is a story flowing in the moonlight, and the smooth melody tells the story. Debussy's Moonlight is the moonlight itself, and it is a beautiful night.
3. As far as moon-themed music is concerned, Debussy's Moonlight and Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata seem to be "positive narrative logic" compared with Moonlight on a Spring River that denies narrative logic. However, it is also a positive narrative logic. Debussy's Moonlight seems to remain in the realm of lyric prose in the Six Dynasties, while Beethoven's Moonlight is already a Tang poem and a Song poem with xing as the main form of expression. I secretly feel that Beethoven's moonlight seems to "surpass" Bi Biao's moonlight.
In order to illustrate the above conclusions, some necessary work will be done on Debussy's Moonlight and Beethoven's Moonlight.
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Due to the particularity of music art, we can only silently appreciate Moonlight by Debussy, a famous French impressionist composer, without resorting to language.
For this famous impressionist song, all I can appeal to is the following vague overall "impression": for the famous French composer Debussy, the so-called "moonlight" seems to have both the conscious impression of the scenery from the outside and the ups and downs of the inner thoughts.
The analogy between the impression of moonlight and the thought of human heart has also become the theme of Debussy's Moonlight.
Similarly, due to the particularity of music art, we can only silently appreciate Beethoven's famous music "Moonlight Sonata" (the first movement) without resorting to language.
For this "Moonlight Sonata" (the first movement), the author can only appeal to the following very vague overall feelings: the so-called "Moonlight" seems to be more suitable for Beethoven's spiritual diving.
If Debussy's Moonlight is caused by "looking at the natural scenery", the impression has changed; Then, Beethoven's Moonlight sublimated heroic feelings because of "introspection of the inner world". This is the so-called "Xing" in China's poetics.
Compared with Beethoven's masculine passion sonata (the first movement), Moonlight Sonata (the first movement) is a feminine piece of music. When the day passes, the work returns to peace, and the dim moonlight makes the hero examine his dreams, poems, desires and desires in the depths of his soul and seek some kind of peace of mind. Beethoven's Moonlight is a hero's inner monologue and a great man's meditation. Here, the main form of artistic expression should be "Xing", and fanatical pursuit and fiery action are brewing in "positive narrative logic".
It is precisely because the first movement of Beethoven's Moonlight is a hero's inner monologue and a great man's meditation and comprehension that the following third movement is described as "a blazing protest", "an increasingly violent impact" and "an explosion with terrible power" by Karak Kaya, a Soviet music aesthete and music historian, in his book "Masterpiece of Western European Music" to avoid sudden appearance. As Garak and Kaya said, this is a change from "lyrical philosophical meditation" to "struggle" and "action".
Romain rolland's Biography of Beethoven once quoted Beethoven's famous saying: "I am the Dionysus who brewed pure mash for mankind, and I am a fanatic who endowed mankind with the highest spirit". Accordingly, it seems that the first movement of moonlight can be compared to "pure mash" brewed by Dionysus Dionysus, and the third movement of moonlight can be compared to "the highest fever of human spirit" caused by "pure mash". Beethoven's "surging feelings" are indeed "vast spaces" as Garak and Kaya said. The so-called "music aesthetics" and "music philosophy" (see Zhao Xinshan's "Beethoven's Soul") only regard the Moonlight by Le Sheng Beethoven as "gentle as water and polite as a dream", can't they be mentioned in the same breath?
Among western music, the most famous music about moonlight is Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and Debussy's Moonlight. Both of them are called "moonlight" for short. The music world thinks that the former is a myth, while the latter is really written for moonlight. That's the truth. But for 200 years, Beethoven's song, written in 180 1, has been called "moonlight sonata".
180 1 year, after completing the sonata in c minor, Beethoven, who likes to add titles to his work, didn't give it any name, but only called it "fantasy sonata" verbally. Of course, it is impossible to call its first movement "moonlight" or something. Who is he imagining? To a woman named "Countess Juliet". Beethoven had a love affair with her, and all his works were written for her. So why has it been called "Moonlight Sonata" for nearly a hundred years? The initiator is the German poet Ludwig-Lyle stahle (1790~ 1860). He said that listening to Beethoven's music always reminds him of "the moonlight on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland is like a boat rippling on the lake".
The later story is even more beautiful. It is said that Beethoven was walking in Vienna one night when he heard someone playing his own works, one of which was always bad. When he knocked at the door and saw a blind girl sitting on the piano bench, Beethoven was deeply moved and immediately demonstrated. When the host knew that this was Beethoven they admired, he was very excited and begged Beethoven to play another song. The blind girl said that her brother was a poor shoemaker and they didn't have the money to buy expensive tickets for his concert. Beethoven immediately agreed to their request. At this time, the moonlight outside the window was bright and all was silent. Silent night, only the sound of the wind blowing gently through the treetops. Beethoven closed his eyes and slowly played this improvisation, so people called it "Moonlight Sonata".
It is said that the latter story was made up by an unknown author. At that time, publishing and theater owners also knew about hype, in order to expand. The influence of work, they tried to publicize the story. The movement itself is very beautiful, and with this story, the moonlight sonata has been recognized and widely circulated. Although Russian composer and pianist Rubinstein tried to correct this misleading, he said: "In music, moonlight should be expressed by hazy, dreamy, peaceful and gentle gestures, and the first movement of this sonata is completely tragic."
I don't think so, at least it's the opposite for me. It is the title of Moonlight that makes me feel the quiet moonlit night, and it is also the quiet moonlit night that makes the music finally freeze in the faint sadness I want to express.
Beethoven was really sad when he wrote the first movement of this work: he was deaf. What is more unfortunate for a composer than losing his hearing? 1801116 He wrote to his friend Wegele, saying, "What a lonely and sad life I have lived in the past two years. You can't imagine: my ear disease seems to be a ghost, blocking me everywhere, and I am avoiding everyone, as if I were.
Although the second and third movements of Sonata in C minor still embody Beethoven's consistent style of "I will hold my destiny by the throat and never give in", the first movement is really sad. Beethoven himself called it a "fantasy sonata", apparently trying to say that his feelings for Countess Juliet were just a kind of "fantasy". He is deeply saddened by his ear disease.
Knowing this, people still stubbornly associate it with moonlight. Because lonely and quiet moonlight can really make people fall into sad mood. Whether it is the homesickness of "looking up, I found that the moonlight sank back, and I suddenly thought of home" or the wanderer's feeling of "this night in my life is not always good, where can I see the bright moon next year", the sadness introduced by Leng Yue and Beethoven's sadness due to ear diseases are all the same psychological situations. All roads lead to the same goal: all are sadness.
The moonlight is the same. Throughout the ages, no matter foreign composers or China poets, their works are very different because of their different subjective feelings and interests. This undoubtedly has a decisive relationship with everyone's environment and mood at that time. French impressionist composer Debussy (1862~ 19 18)' s Moonlight is a work with different styles.
Moonlight was originally written under the influence of the symbolist poet Wei Erlun (1844~ 1896). From 65438 to 0884, Debussy went to Italy to study, during which he traveled to Bergamo in northern Italy, where he was deeply impressed by the beautiful scenery. When I came back from my trip, I watched Wei Erlun's Moonlight, which inspired me to write the Belga Mask suite, and the third one was called Moonlight, which expressed my impression of moonlight in Bergamo. Because it is more independent, it is often played as a separate track.
The feeling at the beginning of the movement is that the bright moon is in the sky, the snow in the Alps in the distance is like silver, and the whole world is crystal clear; The night sky stretches like black velvet, and diamond-like stars fall sparsely. Under the moon, vilen is serene and comfortable, with the wind whistling and the leaves rustling. Debussy gave full play to the creative ability of music, which not only made people "see" the beautiful scenery of the moonlit night described by the composer, but also entered a beautiful meditation with the composer. Strangely, this is not the kind of sadness brought by moonlight, but the "moon, now the sea is full, at this time the horizon is * * *" open-minded, the silent beauty of "clouds break the moon", and even the sweet memories of "when the moon reaches the willow tip, people meet dusk"
Two kinds of moonlight, two kinds of feelings, this is determined by the composer's mood at that time. Beethoven expressed his sadness. At first, he developed a tragic theme with a slow introduction of four bars, which developed into groans and sobs. The melody part of the right hand gradually broke off and almost disappeared, leaving only the accompaniment sound pattern of the triplet flowing evenly, as if it were a silent pain in my heart.
There are "bright colors" in painting and "bright sounds" in music. The third interval has a feeling of flashing eyes. It reminds people of the bright and glittering moonlight. The long melody line and steady rhythm, coupled with soft and clear harmony, achieve a quiet and far-reaching effect. This is the difference between Debussy's Moonlight and Beethoven's Moonlight.
No one wants to be sad in life, but it often becomes a kind of beauty when reflected in works of art, which is a strange aesthetic phenomenon, not to mention showing the beautiful things in life.
This is why Beethoven and Debussy's Moonlight are loved at the same time.