It is one of the top ten famous ancient compositions of China and one of the top ten famous compositions of guqin. According to legend, it was composed by Shikuang, a musician from Jin State, or Liu Juanzi from Qi State during the Spring and Autumn Period. The extant zither score of "Yangchun" and "Baixue" are two instrumental pieces, and the "Magical Secret Score" says in the explanation of the title, "Yangchun" takes the meaning that everything knows spring and the breeze is light and swinging; and "Baixue" takes the sound of awe-inspiring cleanliness and the sound of snowy bamboo linnets."
"Yangchun Baixue" expresses the beauty of early spring when winter is over and spring is coming, the earth is recovering and everything is thriving. The melody is fresh and smooth, and the rhythm is easy and bright.
Yangchunbaixue (White Snow in Yangchun) is a pipa suite composed of several variations of the folk instrumental music instrument "Eight Panels" (or "Six Panels"). The cycle of the "Eight Boards" variants is reproduced, the individual "Eight Boards" variants are combined together to form a variant relationship, and new material from the "Hundred Birds Toward the Phoenix" is inserted, so it is a variant structure with a cyclical element.
" Yangchunbaixue" is a Taoist martial arts move in Jin Yong's martial arts novel. "This second move, Yangchun Baixue, and the seventh move, Yangguan Sanjie, are the untold secrets of the martial arts of the Easy School".
Different Versions
There are two different versions of "Yangchun Baixue" circulating with two different panels, "Da Yangchun" and "Xiao Yangchun", with "Da Yangchun" referring to the ten and twelve stanzas of the musical score that were compiled by Lee Fong-yuen and Shen Hao-chu. The "Little Yangchun" was handed down by Wang Yuting, also known as the "Quick Board Yangchun," and was widely circulated. The one introduced here is "Xiao Yangchun".
Small Yangchun is divided into seven sections: 1. Exclusive 2. Wind Swinging Lotus Blossoms 3. A Bright Moon 4. Jade Plate Zen 5. Sound of Tie Ce Board 6. Sound of Zither in the Taoist Courtyard 7. Crane Songs in Donggao The sub-title is from the hand of Li Fangyuan, and it doesn't have much to do with the content of the piece.
Seven sections of the piece
Can be divided into four parts, namely, the beginning, the beginning, the end, the end, and the end, which is a variation of the piece with a cyclical element:
The beginning: (1) "The first one is the only one in the world". At the beginning of the piece there is a seventeen-beat long variation of the "eight-panel head",
which is repeated cyclically at the beginning of the next three parts. The melody of the original "Eight Panels" is embellished with techniques such as "spacer" and "flower", and the use of "half-wheel", "pinch-bomb", "push-bomb", "push-bomb", "push-bomb", "push-bomb", "push-bomb", "push-bomb", and "push-bomb" are used. The melody is embellished with techniques such as "half-wheel", "pinch play", "push and pull", etc. The acoustic effect is unique and interesting, which makes the melody of the flower clusters full of vitality.
Bearing section: (2) "Wind Swinging Lotus Flower", (3) "A Round of Bright Moon". These two variations of "Eight Panels", after reproducing "Eight Panels of Head" in a loop on the head, the melody rises twice, moving up in the treble range, expressing a more enthusiastic mood.
Transitions: (4) "Jade Plate for Zen," (5) "Sound of Tie Ce Board," and (6) "Sound of Zither in the Taoist Courtyard" A number of unfolding elements appear in these three passages. The first is the division and inversion of the structure of the piece, and the emergence of new beats and strong syncopated rhythms. The second is the use of fingerings such as "offer", "plate", and "overtones", which make the music light and smooth at times, and powerful at others. Especially in "The Sound of the Piano in the Taoist Temple", the overtones are highlighted throughout the piece, just like "big pearls falling from a jade plate", crystal clear and full of vitality.
Combination: (7) "Donggao Crane Song". This is a dynamic reproduction of the section, expanded at the end, taking a sudden slow and then gradually faster speed treatment, using powerful sweeping techniques, the music atmosphere is exceptionally warm.
Source of allusion
The allusion to Yangchunbaixue comes from the article "Song Yu's Answer to the Question of the King of Chu" in the Chu Rhetoric. King Xiang of Chu asked Song Yu, "Do you have any hidden virtues? Why don't the public praise you? Song Yu said, "There was a singer who came to Ying, Chu, and at first he sang the song "The People of the Lower Country", which was sung by thousands of people in the country. When the singer sang "Yanga Allium dew", there were only a few hundred people in the country. When the singer sang "White Snow in Yangchun", there were only a few dozen people in the country. When the singer added some more difficult techniques to the song, i.e., "quoting the Shang and carving the Yu, and mixing them with the Liu Zheng", there were only a few people in the country. Song Yu concludes, "The songs are higher, but the harmonizers are fewer." The more elegant and complex the songs such as "White Snow in Spring" became, the fewer and fewer people were able to sing them, which meant that the songs were high and the harmonies were few.
Of course, the purpose of Song Yu's discussion with King Xiang of Chu was not to talk about the songs themselves, but to emphasize the huge gap between the elegant and the common, and to justify his own lack of recognition of his own talent. Song Yu goes on to say that "Birds have phoenixes and fish have kuns," which are naturally not comparable to the common things of the world. Song Yu says, "It is not only birds that have phoenixes and fish that have kuns, but also scholars." In the end, Song Yu draws his own conclusion, that is, "The sages, with their magnificent ideas, are in their own way; but the people of the world, how can they know what I am doing?" What Song Yu means is that all the great and extraordinary people in the world tend to be unique, and their thoughts and behaviors are often not understood by ordinary people.
Shen Kuo of the Northern Song Dynasty wrote in his book "Mengxi Bianzhan? Volume V? Music and Law I" pointed out that "Song Yu answered the king of Chu asked" said clearly, "guests have songs in Ying," that is, there are guests singing in Ying. Instead of Ying people singing, not Ying people good singing. Shen Kuo that, Ying for the old capital of Chu, "characters obscene", the reason why and the few, is because they do not know or have not heard the song. Song Yu This is a self-comfort, not a little unreasonable. The Ying people are not familiar with the song "Yangchunbaixue" and accuse them of it, isn't it ridiculous? Shen Kuo also pointed out that some details in the allusion to Yangchunbaixue were later misinterpreted and disseminated, for example, those who were good at singing were called "Ying people", while the original text meant that Ying people were not good at singing.
The allusion to the white snow of Yangchun illustrates the great difference in aesthetic interest and aesthetic ability that exists between different appreciators
The more artistic a piece of music is, the better it is. The more artistic the music, the fewer people can appreciate it. It has to be recognized that this difference has a lot to do with the subjective interests of the appreciators, and sometimes it is difficult to get an objective and fair evaluation. As Ge Hong of the Western Jin Dynasty pointed out in his book Guangbi: "It is hard to love or hate the same thing when you are used to listening to different music." For those who are accustomed to listening to the songs of the Mulberry Pu and the voices of the people in the lower regions of China, of course, they cannot understand the nobility and elegance of the white snow and the yellow bells and dulues of the Yangchunbaixue and the Huanglü. From this point of view, there is not much difference between ancient and modern. Today's people appreciate music, most of them are "into the ear is good, suitable for the heart is fast."
"Who sings with the snow and who is with it? A pluralistic world can't live without "snow singing" and "vulgarity". The more popular any music seems to be, the more supporters it has. This is similar to the fact that the best grossing concerts today are often pop concerts. Of course, high art has its own value, and the older it is, the more valuable it is.
Literary Criticism
In China in the 1940s, Mao Zedong tried to unite high art with popular culture. In his "Speech at the Yan'an Literary and Artistic Symposium," Mao Zedong said, "Even if yours is 'Yangchunbaixue,' for the time being, since it is something enjoyed by a few, and the masses are still there to sing 'Lower Class,' then, if you don't try to improve it but only scold it, then how you scold it will be empty. Now it is a question of unification of the 'white snow of the spring' and the 'lower class', a question of unification of enhancement and popularization. Without unification, the highest art of any specialist will inevitably become the narrowest utilitarianism; to say that this is also purity is only self-appointed purity, and the masses will not approve of it." Unification may have been well-intentioned, but in the era of the extreme left Yangchunbaixue became the object of criticism, and the lower class became politically subservient.
While Yangchunbaixue is referred to as an elegant art, the ancient song "Yangchunbaixue" has been interpreted in many books as a vivid representation of the early spring with its refreshingly smooth melody and lively rhythm, and of the revitalization of the earth as the winter turns to spring, and of the vibrancy of all living things. Obviously, this is a literal interpretation of the words "Yangchunbaixue". The allusion to Yangchun Baixue and the zither song "Yangchun Baixue" are too far apart in time to be musically relevant.
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