民间旋律的交织与素材变形带来的(非)连续性(上)——解读陈怡《八板》(1999)

Interactions of Folk Melody and Transformational(Dis)continuities in Chen Yi’s Ba Ban(1999)(Ⅰ)

与众多接受过西方作曲训练的中国作曲家一样,陈怡在创作钢琴独奏曲《八板》(1999)时,将中国民间音乐中令人回味的旋律片段融入西方后调性音乐的写作中,而这一整个过程可以借用变形理论((2))进行充分的阐明。乐曲中所引用的民间同名曲调[八板]为丝竹乐中的“母曲”。在丝竹乐这类支声型复调音乐中,原型[八板]的音高得到了丰富的加花装饰,节拍也在先前规律的68板(拍)上进行了扩充。陈怡的这首作品,不仅多次对丝竹乐的音色进行了模仿,还通过引用并装饰极具辨识度的乐句,再现了这首民间乐曲是如何把控听众对于时间流动的感知。然而,在这一进程中,音乐通过结合西方钢琴作品中典型的炫技音型,呈现出了多层次的线性动机变形思路。与此同时,自由的节奏不禁唤起了人们对另一种中国传统民间音乐——山歌的想象,这也是作曲家所提及的灵感来源之一。从整首作品的发展脉络来看,最初,音乐的线性连续性(由音高序进带来的心理预期)((3))建立在了民间曲调[八板]的素材之上,之后,该连续性虽因多个后调性结构元素的引入而被打断,但后者此时还未能在逻辑上构成一个指向明确的关联。不过最终,这些后调性音乐元素还是像乐曲开始处的[八板]曲调一样,在音乐的时间性方面占据了主导地位,而[八板]此时则转化为非节拍的律动。另外,鉴于山歌和丝竹乐所折射出的鲜明气质(尤指性别隐喻方面的)差异,笔者认为文中所述的有关作曲家对于节奏的处理可与女性主义理论中的一些观点产生共鸣。

Chen Yi’s Ba Ban(1999)for solo piano,like many works of Western-trained Chinese composers,situates fragments of evocative traditional folk melody within a post-tonal discourse that is well described by transformation theory.The eponymous folk tune that it quotes is a standard of the sizhu(“silk-and-bamboo”)repertoire.In sizhu performance practice,the evenly pulsed rhythm of the 68-beat melody is augmented and each pitch is highly“flowered,”that is,decorated.Chen’s piece,often simulating the timbral quality of sizhu heterophony,reproduces some of the directed temporal qualities of this repertoire by quoting distinctive phrases and elaborating their pitches.Intermingled with this discourse,however,it presents multilinear threads of motivic transformation through virtuoso figurations typical of Western piano repertoire.The free rhythm evokes a different folk music tradition,mountain song,that Chen mentions as inspiration.At first,as the post-tonal structures are introduced,they disrupt the linear continuity of the Ba Ban folk tune and create an undirected associative network.Eventually,however,they gain control over temporality as firmly as Ba Ban did at first,and then Ba Ban itself is transformed into ametrical pulse.Considering the contrasting gendered connotations of mountain song and sizhu,I suggest how my narrative of these rhythmic processes might resonate with some ideas of feminist theory.