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4 Songs in Chinese 聯篇曲

音樂視頻＊樂譜＊故事＊評語

《聯篇曲》:《相思苦》，朱淑真《山查子》，李清照《声‭声慢》，李白《月下獨酌》

Bitter Taste of Love  ⁕  Haws  ⁕  Sounds Slowing  ⁕  Drinking Alone

2nd Song, Haws —  feeling a terrible sense of loss《山查子》

On Choi May-Chu’s watercolour/ ink painting. A popular poem by a woman poet of Song Dynasty and obviously about an affair – a taboo subject then in China.

第二首注重蔡美珠的的水墨水彩，這首朱淑真詞，人人會背吧，在這𥚃用來表達我感到失落。

3rd Song, Sounds Slowing — deepest sorrow《声声慢》

On Choi May-Chu’s traditional Chinese paintings and watercolour. The poem was by China’s most revered woman poet (Song Dynasty).

第三首注重蔡美珠的國畫和水彩。這首李清照詞如此有名，要表達的感情不用我多言了。

4th Song, Drinking Alone Under the Moon — deep loneliness

《月下獨酌》

This is more on Choi May-Chu’s Chinese paintings and abstract art. The poem was by Li Bai (Tong Dynasty). His works were integrated in Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. Li Bai drowned trying to grasp the moon’s reflection in the river from his boat while drunk. 在第四首我比較注重蔡美珠國畫和抽象方面的。李白詩仙的詩，人所共知，不用介紹了。這詩表達我那時候看似瀟灑地對酒當歌，其實無比孤寂。

The Score 樂譜

Audio recording of the proper Chinese pronunciation of the 4 poems, read by Jiang Hua (姜華), BBC Chinese Service 曲詞正確讀音:

FOUR SONGS music videos

《聯篇曲》音樂視頻

Performed by Nancy Yuen (soprano) and Philip Edwards (clarinet)

Jane Webster narrates.

Where there are multiple videos for the same song, there are slight differences in image editing.

In 2017 my old classmate Choi May-Chu replied to my Christmas card with her painting of lotuses and herons. I liked the painting and it gave me the idea that I could use her artwork to create a music video for the Four Songs. May-Chu was supportive and sent me a DVD containing many of her artworks and photos, allowing freedom of modification. She also painted new works and took photos for me, and supplied inspiration, such as the shadow motif in the 4th song Drinking Alone. I included my own video clips to enhance motion. As it was her painting of lotuses that gave me the idea in the first place, I put emphasis on lotuses, and used a lotus photo by a former staff member of our old school, Mr Leung, as material for a moving lotus motif to contrast with May-Chu's.

There was much to consider: What May-Chu sent covers a long period of time and reflects her life, how was I to present them to show the beauty of her work at different times? Most of her paintings have nothing to do with my Four Songs, how was I to merge them with the music and words and to create movement? How was I to modify my videos clips and her photos to match the style of her artwork? Because of my health, I worked rather slowly. I took time to look at what May-Chu sent me for inspiration. After a few months, I chose a group of colour sketches that seemed to be her earlier work, and added some motion and created the video of the first song Bitter Taste of Love. I had no idea what to do with the 2nd song, so I uploaded the 1st song as May-Chu had waited for some time to see what I might do. She watched it and liked it. A few months later, I used her watercolour as the theme and completed the 2nd song Haws. A few months later, I put emphasis on her Chinese paintings and lotuses, merging with my video clips and completed the 3rd song Sound Slowing. Another few months, with the shadow motif and more abstract images and my video clips, the 4th song Drinking Alone was done. As this is actually a song cycle, I combined the four songs, one without narration, and one with. The complete four songs with narration is the one with all the visual materials of May-Chu and mine, and is musically complete expressing the pangs of love from feeling unease, to loss, to deepest sorrow, to deep loneliness. It's narrated by Jane Webster, an RAM alumna and award-winning mezzo whose career includes opera and West End musicals. As it is my story, in each song there is at least one image of me at that time.

Although May-Chu and I spent six years in the same school, we didn't do much together in school. When we reconnected in 2017, we are both much battered by the vicissitudes of life. She's in Taiwan and I am in the UK, and we communicate via emails. However, I remember her beauty, her charm and her talents. One can turn life's twists and turns into a piece of creative art to be appreciated.  

演出者: 女高音 阮妙芬，單簧管 菲臘愛德華氏, 珍韋斯特朗誦。

2017年我發出一些自製聖誕賀卡，真光同學蔡美珠回賀，是一幅她畫的《清荷羽白》，我很欣賞，覺得風味很適合配合我那四首一組的《联篇曲》做音樂視頻。視頻圖象是不停改變的，否則不能稱為視頻，圖像改變要配合音樂節奏和曲詞，需要很多圖像，很感謝蔡美珠支持和了解，寄給我一DVD，內有很多她各種不同風格的畫和攝影，容許我自由裁改，又有求必應的再加添，還特別為此畫了些新作和影了些相，又給我提供靈感，譬如第四首《月下獨酌》其中影子的變化，就是和美珠互動得到靈感的。我加入一些我影的視頻來增加動感。因爲是見到美珠畫的荷花而起了做這組音樂視頻的念頭，所以對荷花作了點特寫，還把一張真光前教職員梁熾恆先生影的荷花做素材，做成有動感的圖案與美珠的荷花相呼應， 既是我的故事，每首曲都有我在當時的型象。

但要考慮的太多了：美珠多年來的畫作，其中包含着她的人生，怎樣才能表現她不同時期作品的美好呢？大部份畫作與我作的《联篇曲》無關，怎樣才可以與音樂融合和産生動感呢？如何修改我影的和她影的去配合她畫作的風格呢？我多次經歷大症，影響了身体，做事慢手，我把美珠寄來的看了又看，想了又想，數月後選出一組似是較早期的顏色素描，畧加動化做成第一首《相思苦》的視頻，不知道什麼時候才能想通如何去做第二首，怕美珠久等，便先上傳了，美珠看了說喜歡。數月後以美珠水彩為主，再用軟件圖畫化和動化彼此影的做成第二首《山查子》。數月後以美珠國畫為主，加上彼此影的和梁生那張荷花相做成的圖案，做成第三首《声声慢》。又數月，用彼此影的和她為此畫的包括抽象型式的，和與她交流得到影子變化的靈感，做成第四首《月下獨酌》。這本是應該四首合成的組曲，先合成《联篇曲》無朗誦版，最後合成《联篇曲》有朗誦版，這個有朗誦版才是包括了所有美珠和我視覺材料和音樂的視頻。

我和美珠雖然是中一開始做同學，在真光六年彼此接觸不是很多，到2017再聯絡時，彼此都已歷盡滄桑，而她在台灣我在英國，只能電郵交流，但我記得她的美麗，她的氣質，她深得褚遂良神韻的書法，和她的靓畫。文藝創作可以把經歷過的人生波折昇華成為可以欣賞的美好。

Though the PDF score here is for soprano and clarinet, the songs can be sung by lower voices and accompanied by clarinet, cor anglais, flute or Chinese flute (see suggestions in the score).

When I was young I believed in love and friendship. Yet my love hurt me for kicks. I was very good to my best friend, yet she moved in with my boyfriend because it was useful for her. Like spoilt children, for them, it's just a game. I felt stupid for wasting my feelings on those who did not cherish me. It was so painful that for some time I felt numb – as if nothing had happened. Years later, that pang became inspiration for writing the song cycle Four Songs (also called Four Love Songs in Chinese). I wrote the words in Chinese for the first song. Realising I was not much good writing in rhyme, for the rest of the songs in the cycle, I used famous poems from the Song and Tang Dynasties – they expressed how I felt at the time well. Then I wrote melodies for the songs as inspired by the sound and meaning of the words. Though my professional musical training was Western Classical, as a small child in Hong Kong my first impression of music was Cantonese opera in which a performer would modify the melody/rhythm according to the sound and meaning of the words, and the accompanying instrument flexibly imitates/follows the singing. What I heard as a child influenced how I wrote for the voice and the accompanying clarinet. I have heard free renditions of existing music by Western Classical musicians (e.g., Purcell’s Dido and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons), but I have yet to come across free rendition as dominated by the lyrics. I think this might due to the importance of harmony in Western Classical – certain notes have to come together vertically at a certain time, while my song cycle was about two lines (vocal and instrumental) flowing freely horizontally. Though the songs sound Chinese pentatonic, there are notes outside the scale and glissandos. Pitch fluctuation and tuning outside the well-tempered scale is also a characteristic of the music I heard as a child. Traditional Chinese music in Western notation often looks simplistic and is not a true picture of the real sound. Perhaps the flexibilities in rendition…etc., as mentioned above, explain some of the reasons.

Thank you to Mark Argent for editing my translation into a more poetic version.

More info & cultural background: download Music is Happiness CD book in PDF format and see pp.16-21.

年輕時對愛情和友情有憧憬，真心去愛但說愛你的人卻傷害你，我對我最好的朋友非常好，她卻搬去我男朋友處住，太痛了，好一陣子感覺麻木，好像什麼都沒發生似的，在他/她而言，不過是遊戲，是自己蠢，把感情浪費在不懂珍惜的人上，多年後，這種傷痛成為作曲的靈感。這是一組四首的《聯篇曲》，第一首表達開始感覺不妙，第二首表達感到失落，第三首表達深深的傷痛，第四首孤苦地對酒當歌。第一首的曲詞是我寫的，這樣，曲調和用字可以互相遷就，但曲詞唱起來還可以，讀起來自己也覺得不行，其實很多唐宋詩詞更能貼切地道出我當時的感受，所以第二首曲詞用朱淑真《山查子》，第三首用李清照《声声慢》，第四首用李白《月下獨酌》。這些詩詞太美了，字不能更改，所以我是跟隨字音來作曲，寫出了中國味的曲調，不適合套上我在皇家音樂學院學的西方和聲伴奏，而我小時候接觸到的粵曲，由一件樂器自由地跟隨和模仿歌者旋律的伴奏型式在《聯篇曲》派上用埸了。我居住英國，本科和演出埸地屬西方古典音樂，在唱每首曲前誦頌曲詞英繹，這樣，不會中文的觀眾亦能欣賞，亦可能會引發他們對中國詩詞的興趣，以下視頻的誦頌者本身是位歌唱家。雖然四首曲可個別演出，但四首連貫一起聽才能完全領會到我那番經歷。

Use the following links if streaming of the above video is slow

若視頻卡慢可用以下鏈接看

YouTube:  https://youtu.be/KRuilNrEdq8

  Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/343216736

Comments 評語:

"Just had a look/listen to your Drinking Alone piece.  It's an interesting amalgam of the images, voice and music. The voice has a distinctive sound — but I don't know enough to understand it fully — sort of chino-operatic. Please forgive me if that is totally sacrilegious — but I do like that haunting sound  — combined with those cosmic images".   — Vivien Finch (see above)

剛剛看了/聽了你的《月下獨酌》音樂視頻。這是圖像、歌聲和音樂的有趣融合。歌声獨特，但我沒有足夠的認識去完全理解，只覺得有點像中國戲曲，請原諒如果剛才講的像是褻瀆神明，但我確實喜歡這令人難以忘懷的歌聲與那些宇宙圖像的結合”。—-維維安·芬奇 (見上文)

"At long last I had uninterrupted time to look at the paintings and listen to the video — all of it is utterly sublime and words cannot describe it.  The haunting sounds of the clarinet echo humanity’s need to forget, to reach beyond itself and ultimately to transcend.  It’s so beautiful."   — Christa Darragh, former neighbour, studied German Language & Literature at Birkbeck College, founder of poetry groups in Wanstead, Warminster and Towcester.

“終於找到時間不間斷地看形象和聽這視頻，一切都令人感到無比昇華，無法用言語來形容。單簧管那令人難以忘懷的聲音呼應了人類需要忘懷、超越自己我和最終實現超脫，太美了。＂—-姬麗斯坦·達拉格，前鄰居，曾在伯貝克學院學習德國語言和文學，是溫斯達、沃明斯特和托斯達等地的詩歌團體創始人。

Use the following links if streaming of the above video is slow

若視頻卡慢可用以下鏈接看

YouTube:  https://youtu.be/BVXlNNrdpt4

  Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/299500897

Comments 評語:

“ This week is hectic but I just took a moment off to watch your video which I think is very beautiful, both music and words, although I am sure the words are more evocative in Chinese than a rather mundane translation. “  

— Margaret Morley (see above)

“這週很忙，但我仍抽空看了你的視頻，這視頻非常美，音樂和文字亦然，相信中文會比這英文翻譯更令人回味。 “  —- 瑪格烈摩利（見上文）

“ Now, most important. I absolutely loved Sounds Slowing — the music, the imagery and language. Taken as a whole, it is beautiful — but beautifully morose and bleak.  Always a paradox. ”

—- Vivien Finch, Suffolk and Essex coastal dweller, music amateur, teacher, memoir writer and London JP... charities: Canine Partners, Medical Detection Dogs (making huge strides in cancer detection) and Dogs Trust (biggest rescue and re-home charity in UK)

“現在鄭重地講，我非常喜歡《声声慢》，包括音樂、圖像和文字。作為一個整體，它是美麗的，但美麗得憂鬱和淒涼，很有點矛盾。 ”

—-維維安·芬奇，音樂愛好者，教師，回憶錄作家和倫敦地方執法官...犬慈善工作者。

At the bottom of this page is the earliest recording of this work for soprano and cor anglais performed by Kathryn Harries and Jane Mitchell.

Use the following links if streaming of the above video is slow

若視頻卡慢可用以下鏈接看

YouTube: https://youtu.be/g3RgWZhehDI

  Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/343218347

評語 Comments: ＂剛欣賞兩位好同學的真情互動作品，美妙之至！無論曲、畫、歌聲、朗誦均妙絶！詳細的述說我也拜讀過兩次，作品的完成實在不簡單，從中可見兩位的經歴和感受!＂—-黃國凱，真光校友和前國文教師，中國信徒佈道會合約編輯。

Just enjoyed the sincere interactive works of two good classmates, it's wonderful! No matter the music, painting, singing, recitation are all wonderful! I have also read the detailed description twice, and the completion of the work is really not easy, from which you can see the experience and feelings of the two!"  —  Wong Kwok Hoi, HK True Light Middle School alumna and former Chinese language teacher, contract editor of the China Christian Evangelistic Association.

聴到耳油都出来，無得頂！你对音樂實在很有才華，你和蔡美珠各有不同的天份，但合作得很投入，彼此有共鳴，好難得呀！我們真有福,可以有机会欣賞你俩的傑作精品. Although I don't have musical cells but I do appreciate it very much.  — E.B., 另一真光校友，Hong Kong True Light Middle School alumna.

Use the following links if streaming of the above video is slow

若視頻卡慢可用以下鏈接看

YouTube: https://youtu.be/rHP9G5BrlQ8

  Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/359281183

Comments 評語:

“The songs are so melancholy, they have left me feeling quite subdued! ”

— Margaret Morley, RAM alumna, sister of J D Morley.

“這些歌太憂鬱了，讓我感覺很壓抑！”

—-瑪嘉烈摩利，皇家音樂學院校友，大衛的姊姊。

(Referring to Music is Happiness CD) "The stand out for me was the Four Songs, a beautiful voice powerful and all four of the songs desperately sad but avoiding, to me, too obvious sentimentality. And a soulful clarinet."  

— Mike Smith, a retired accountant living in East London whose interests are Epping Forest, bird watching, and DIY.

"（在《樂在其中》CD中）對我來說最突出的是這四首歌，優美有能量的女高音，所有四首歌都極悲傷，但並不是多愁善感。 還有那深情的單簧管。”

—-米克史密夫，住在東倫敦的退休會計師，興趣是艾坪森林、觀鳥和自己動手維修。

Use the following links if streaming of the above video is slow

若視頻卡慢可用以下鏈接看

YouTube: https://youtu.be/8_wp8qrG66g

  Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/291977810

Use the following links if streaming of the above video is slow

若視頻卡慢可用以下鏈接看

YouTube: https://youtu.be/0YLAy66SpYU

  Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/291978218