第三十二期：Music Atoms - A Study of Interval

概要
好久没有更新YPC系列啦～说起理由真的是很搞笑但又很真实：因为我家电视看bilibili不是很方便！(Please don’t judge me 😳) Anyway，趁着出门在外的日子把这个系列再更新起来吧～

这一期是比较“理论”的一期，讲的是 interval (音程）这个概念。Bernstein说一个音符不能称之为音乐，至少需要两个音符，才能组成音乐性的关系，而随着音符的增多，音乐便从这些“关系”中诞生。在这里他又开展了他的类比大法：一个音符只能当作是一个电子或一个质子，无法单独存在，而至少需要再来一个才能组成最基础的原子，再结合一下组成分子，组成物质。而这至少两个音符组成的关系被称作 interval （音程）。接下来，Bernstein 用尺子为道具具体介绍了音程的概念，介绍了 inversion, Melodic (horizontal) interval, Harmonic (vertical) interval 等诸多概念，并让现场观众演唱了各种音程。最后Bernstein用两首曲目介绍了音程在作曲中的应用。第一首是 Brahms 的 Symphony No.4 第一乐章，其主题是由 3rd 和 6th （为 3rd 的 inversion）组成，并将 3rd 贯穿全曲。第二首介绍的曲目是 Vaughan Williams 的 Symphony No.4 的最后一个乐章。这首 Symphony 在前三个乐章里各种利用 minor 2nd，听起来非常刺激，而在最后一个乐章的 finale 终于出现了 major 2nd～ 虽然 major 2nd在各种音程中也算是不和谐的了，但是在那么多 minor 2nd 的铺垫下，简直就是迎来了一片曙光～ Bernstein 总结非常精辟，”There you have the real magic of intervals: in the hands of a composer who's a genius, a modest, humble little major second can have a mountainous majesty.”

喜欢的Quote
One simple note all by itself is not music — not even a single molecule of music, not even an atom. It's more like a proton or an electron, which, as you know, is meaningless all by itself; you need at least one of each — at least two atomic particles — to create an atom. And in exactly the same way you need at least two notes before you can begin to have an atom of music. Because with that one lonely note, isolated, nothing is happening, it's just floating in space. But once you have two notes [FLUTE] you suddenly feel a relationship between them, like an electrical tension. There's already the beginning of a musical meaning. And with three notes, that meaning increases and before you know it, [BLUE DANUBE]. You see what happened: those musical protons and electrons —the separate notes that is — have combined together forming atoms, which then combined into molecules, which finally combined into recognizable matter, like this wood or this hair, or that Blue Danube Waltz.

Now obviously, major seconds aren't all that wide-open compared to fourths for instance, or fifths which are really wide open; but compared to the scrunchy little minor seconds, which we've been hearing in every conceivable form for three whole movements, this major second seems like the gates of Heaven itself. And there you have the real magic of intervals: in the hands of a composer who's a genius, a modest, humble little major second can have a mountainous majesty.

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1sE411a7rz/

曲目
1. Wagner - Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin
2. Brahms - Symphony No.4
3. Vaughan Williams - Symphony No.4

#YPC