"不与人沟通的音乐只能死亡"——致年轻一代

此文为作者在其网站 (www.chengqigang.com)上就现代音乐创作观念致青 年音乐爱好者的一封信。文 中对西方音乐的现状和现代 音乐理论原则条分缕析、鞭 辟入里。并以其自身的经历 和思考,重申音乐作品必须 接受社会和听众检验的观 点。本刊特转载此文,以飨读 者。

When I was young, I was deeply influenced by the Romantic music, and by the Chinese cultural traditions brought to me by my family. These are the two elements that I can never break away from. Later, when I was studying with Olivier Mes-siaen, I got acquainted with avant-garde music in Europe, and mastered parts of the composition techniques of the 20th century music. In the process of upgrading composing theory and practice and enriching my life experience, I gradually found the shortcomings in the principles of the contemporary music theory. If the tonality is withdrawn from your composition, or precisely speaking, the basic principle of sound vibration is disregarded, then the rest of the things turn up to be much easier. All you have to control is the register, interval, colour, rhythm, volume and structure. To us who have been trained in music with tonality, music of this kind, though seemingly difficult to write, will become very simple as long as you understand the basic rules in it.You would then no longer care about melody and tonality, which are the most difficult things to deal with,or the complex matter of organic relations between tonality and all the other elements. The simplified music thoughts produce conditions for complexity of music scores and help create some exponents of music of this genre, who boast of the complexity of the music which is actually so simple and easy. This even goes to the other extreme end where music that can not be described in words is good music by no means. I have this strong belief that music is an independent art form that can exist without necessary interpretation in language. The vitality of music works lies in itself. The natural frequency of sound vibration in the air is the essential medium that creates the association of man with music, while natural temperament, equal temperament and all the tonalities and modes arising from them are spontaneous results. The possibilities of composing music on the basis of tonality or atonality are so infinite that would never end at the Wagnerian style. Compositions of music with atonality increase at the utmost one option for music creation in the 20th century, but it is absolutely nonsense if someone differentiates the levels of music on the basis of tonality or atonality.