Chapter 456 The College’s Dilemma

After Zhou Yan finished speaking, he also had some feelings. He had been busy outside for the past few years, and he had fallen behind in school affairs. Sometimes he almost forgot that he was a teacher.

Because he had taught for so many years, he suddenly began to feel a little uncomfortable when he was not often in the classroom or on the podium one day, and he also missed the time when he taught students on the podium every day.

With a slight smile, Zhou Yan continued, "When you were rehearsing just now, I also listened to the whole process below. After listening, I felt very relieved. The school's enrollment in recent years seems to be very successful. The overall level of your batch of students is very high."

This sentence is a bit of a formality. The level of this batch of students is similar to that of other classes. There is nothing outstanding, and you can't hear anything from just a few songs, unless each of them is singled out for Zhou Yan to play solo.

Although Zhou Yan's ears can hear the performance of each member during the performance, this kind of temporary repertoire, plus the ensemble, cannot reflect the overall level of a performer.

Ye Guangjie asked them to come up, and he certainly didn't expect him to find fault with the students, but mainly hoped to encourage them.

So Zhou Yan was not stingy with his words of praise.

After saying the words of praise, Zhou Yan said, "Of course, it is precisely because of the high level that you should practice more in normal times. The performance of the orchestra is a good opportunity to practice, but when you are not performing, you should strengthen your weaknesses. I have seen some young people with very good levels who pay too much attention to performances and ignore their daily training, which ultimately leads to their level not being able to reach a higher level. It is really regrettable."

This is Zhou Yan's heartfelt words, and it is also a common problem for many performers. After many performers have been exposed to more performances, they have no time to focus on their daily training.

After all, compared with training, performances are more interesting.

Their piano youth orchestra has also encountered this situation before. Many students think about performances every day, and usually only practice those repertoires that are to be performed on stage.

For example, Ma Dongfang, for a period of time, practiced "Drinking the Yangtze River Water Together" and "Journey to the West Fantasy" to death, hoping to be more outstanding during the performance.

In the end, it was Zhou Yan who stopped them, and stipulated that they must ensure time for practice and study.

Many performers have been the same for one, two, or even ten or twenty years, just because they neglected their usual practice and study and always stayed in their comfort zone.

After Zhou Yan finished speaking, before the students said anything, Sun Dong next to him complained, "Director Zhou, you don't know that the conditions of the school's piano rooms are very poor now, and the number is not enough. In recent years, the school has increased its enrollment, and it is really difficult for students to book a piano room. Sometimes, if they have booked a piano room, it's okay if they are studying violin or other majors, but if they are studying piano, many pianos in the piano room can't be used. I'm not saying that the teachers of the instrument department are irresponsible and don't take good care of the pianos, but the budget is limited, and many pianos can't be maintained."

Ye Guangjie nodded and said, "Yes, and the sound insulation of the piano room..."

"Sound insulation is no problem, the piano room was built not long ago."

"Some of them do have problems..."

Zhou Yan saw Ye Guangjie and Sun Dong singing the same tune, and felt something was wrong.

Why did these two people suddenly complain to him about the school facilities? And in front of the students? It is quite inappropriate for a teacher to complain about the school infrastructure in front of the students.

There are not enough piano rooms and the pianos are old.

Every teacher and student in the school needs a piano room. It is okay during non-prime time, but problems often arise during prime time.

Moreover, conflicts often arise between departments because of the piano room.

Now the Central Conservatory of Music has not yet implemented a fixed piano point system. The piano room is booked by yourself. Whether you can book a piano room depends mainly on how early you book and how the management office arranges it.

Unlike later, students from each department have fixed piano points. For example, students in the piano department have a quota of 150 hours per month, students in the folk music department have 120 hours, and students in other departments have 90 hours.

Now because there is no such system, piano students often make trouble, saying that they are the ones who need the piano room the most, but they are not allocated more time.

The piano room building is open for 16 hours a day, but it is still not enough.

However, Zhou Yan cannot solve these problems.

Zhou Yan narrowed his eyes and looked at the two people, thinking that these two people didn't want him to donate pianos to the school...

They think he is a rich man.

If Ye Guangjie and Sun Dong really want to get some benefits from him for the students, it is a bit desperate.

But Zhou Yan can also understand that the current situation of the Central Conservatory of Music is indeed very troublesome.

The Central Conservatory of Music moved to No. 43 Baojia Street in 1958. At that time, there were only five tube buildings in this courtyard except for an ancient building. In 1975, Premier Zhou personally approved the construction of the new school building.

Ten years later, a 16-story piano room building and a 7-story comprehensive building were built and put into use in 1986.

At the beginning, these buildings were barely enough. After all, the school only recruited about 100 students each year at that time, but now the number of students enrolled each year has more than doubled, and the number of students on campus has exceeded 1,000.

Today, the teaching rooms of the Central Conservatory of Music are already very crowded.

The school has also considered expanding the school building, but this matter cannot be achieved overnight.

Moreover, the school's main focus in recent years has been the establishment of the "211 Project", and it has no time to do other things.

A few days ago, Zhou Yan talked about this matter with Liu Lin. It was obvious that Liu Lin was also very worried about the establishment of Project 211.

Liu Lin was not in good health to begin with, and his complexion has become worse and worse recently.

Last time, Liu Lin himself expressed frustration, saying that he might not be able to insist on the establishment of the 211 Project.

Liu Lin had wanted to take a medical leave before, but because he was really concerned about the establishment of Project 211, he persisted until now.

The last time Zhou Yan met Wang Cizhao in the principal's office, Liu Lin was talking to Wang Cizhao about the establishment of the 211 Project. Now the school's 211 Project establishment has been handed over to Wang Cizhao.

Wang Cizhao is good at communication and is indeed a suitable candidate.

From the outside, Yangyin seems to be in a good position, but they don't know that there are a lot of things going on in the school that make people worried.

Zhou Yan said with a smile, "The school has developed rapidly in the past ten years, and teaching resources have gradually been stretched. The leaders are also trying their best to find ways to help everyone solve these problems. Speaking of which, I am a lucky person."

Hearing Zhou Yan say that he was a lucky man, the students became interested and curious about why he said that.

"I entered the school in 1987, not long after the piano room and the comprehensive building were built. At that time, it was not difficult for us to use the piano room. We could usually make an appointment in the piano room during the golden hour in the evening. If it was during the day in the middle of the week, the piano room would be available. It’s basically a casual appointment.”

The students all showed envious expressions. Who wouldn’t want to be able to make appointments casually in the piano room?

"Teacher Zhou, you were so happy before." "Yes, I am extremely lucky. Our former brothers and sisters didn't have any decent piano rooms to use. Last time I and Director Guo, Guo Wenjing, you You should know that he is my senior fellow in the same department. When they were in school, it was extremely difficult to practice the piano. They often had to go to the teachers’ homes to practice the piano... Like our composition department, one thing is good, but the piano is not good. It’s not a necessity either.”

"Senior Brother Guo majors in violin, which gives him an advantage over other students who major in piano. When he is composing, he can often just hold a violin and start playing."

Originally they were talking about the shortage of piano rooms, but now they heard Zhou Yan talking about the past in the school, and the students also listened with interest.

Although they are not from the composition department, they have heard many stories from the composition department.

There are two generations in the composition department that are relatively famous.

The generation of Tan Dun, Guo Wenjing, and Ye Xiaogang is called the golden generation.

The other generation is the generation of Zhou Yan, Jia Guoping and Li Tao ten years later, which is called the Silver Generation.

In comparison, the Silver Generation seems to be inconspicuous. Jia Guoping is still studying abroad. Li Tao went to Zhou Yan Studio to make soundtracks. The most famous Zhou Yan is more famous for his popular works.

"Teacher Zhou, what instruments do you use when composing music?" a student asked curiously.

"Of course it's a bamboo flute. Teacher Zhou's bamboo flute is so powerful."

"Yes, I heard that Teacher Zhou's bamboo flute is master-level."

Zhou Yan majored in bamboo flute. Many students know that some of Zhou Yan's pieces are often played in folk music today, including "Floating Fragrance", "Drinking the Water of the Yangtze River Together" and "Fantasy on Journey to the West".

Rumors about Zhou Yan's bamboo flute skills are getting more and more exaggerated.

His level of bamboo flute was indeed similar to that of students who specialized in bamboo flute at that time, even in the middle and upper reaches. However, after so many years, he has not improved much, let alone a master level.

Zhou Yan smiled and waved his hand, "When I compose music, I basically use whatever instruments I have at hand. If I don't have any instruments, I just use my brain to imagine. When I have time, I will use instruments to verify."

In fact, this is also the norm for most composers. When composing, musical instruments can only serve as auxiliary instruments, and more often they rely on theory.

This is different from pop composition. Many pop music creators don’t even know much about music theory. They can just find an instrument and play it a few times, or even just hum it by themselves, and they can compose a good-sounding pop song.

Because popular composition only requires simple melody, music theory is not required.

They don’t need to understand any harmonic direction, texture, or orchestration.

At this time, Zhou Yan changed the subject and talked about the orchestra's performance just now, ""Oracle Bones" is Brother Guo's most eloquent work this year. In the music, he describes the ancient legend of Nuwa mending the sky. In this work , he used fifteen instruments, mainly percussion, and the shock of the vocal part and the metal percussion complement each other.”

"Oracle" is a chamber piece composed for mezzo-soprano and fifteen instruments. This is not the first time that Guo Wenjing has shown his interest in percussion, but it can show a change in his choice of melodic materials.

The students held their breath when they heard Zhou Yan commenting on their performance. This piece has been performed in Europe and has been unanimously praised by music critics. You can imagine their pressure.

Especially the girl in charge of the vocal part. After all, she is the only one in the vocal part, so the good and bad are obvious.

Zhou Yan also looked at the girl, "Maybe because it's a rehearsal, you want to put more passion into tomorrow's official performance, but I suggest you learn more about the story of Mending the Sky and get a feel for it. I can hear your control in the mid-bass range, but the power is slightly lacking. The mezzo-soprano in the vocal part should describe the scene of the sky collapsing. It cracked, causing chaos, the earth was blazing, and countless evil beings suddenly appeared, chasing and devouring innocent humans. Nuwa cut off four huge turtle legs to support the sky, repaired the damage, and restored order. It needs to be full of burning and heartbreaking feelings, and the control of madness must be as comfortable as possible, and it must not be hysterical..."

The female classmate said anxiously, "Teacher Zhou, please speak slowly, I can't remember it all at once... How about I get a piece of paper and write it down."

Zhou Yan waved his hand, indicating that she shouldn't be nervous, "You don't need to remember this, you just have to feel it."

After talking about the issue of the vocal section, Zhou Yan then talked about the issue of musical instruments, "The four metal percussionists still need to be stronger. In this score, silence is an important factor, and every single sound is It seems to be breaking the silence, and the rhythm must be steady. Even when playing with all your strength, it must be steady without any problems. The essence of percussion is power control and rhythm stability.”

Zhou Yan looked at the harp again, "Have you noticed that in the mezzo-soprano solo part and the harp part, Brother Guo only used perfect fourths and perfect fifths?"

The students all nodded. They naturally noticed it, but they didn't know why. Guo Wenjing didn't explain this to them when he came before.

Seeing them nodding, Zhou Yan smiled and said, "This is one of the changes in Senior Brother Guo. His current musical vocabulary and melody rely more on pure fourths and pure fifths, and have become more harmonious. Maybe you have heard of Senior Brother Guo's previous work "Madman" "Diary", that work is already very melodic, He has found a good balance between modernity and melody. From "Diary of a Madman" to "Oracle Bones", it is an attempt, a change, and an extension and development. If you can understand the changes in between, it will be natural. I can understand the work "Oracle" better."

When Zhou Yan was saying this, the conductor of "Oracle Bones" kept nodding. Even though Zhou Yan was talking to the harpist, in fact what he said was more useful to the conductor.

At this time, Sun Dong couldn't help but applaud, "Director Zhou deserves to be from the composition department, and his analysis of the music is really wonderful. I even have the illusion that you know this music better than Director Guo. Last time I talked to Director Guo When chatting, he didn’t seem to understand these changes in himself.”

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Because when creating, I usually don't think so much. For example, about pure fourths and pure fifths, maybe Brother Guo himself doesn't know why, but there is a voice in his mind telling you to do this. "

Ye Guangjie laughed from the side and said, "Why do I feel like you gave us a composition theory class?"

"This is not a composition theory class, it's just a trial for interest at most." Zhou Yan laughed, "That's all for today. I won't be here to delay your rehearsal. I hope you can perform very well tomorrow."

Sun Dong took the lead in applauding, "Okay, let us bid farewell to Director Zhou."

Zhou Yan waved his hand, turned around and left the stage.

Wang Zuxian was already waiting at the edge of the stage, and the two of them walked out of the concert hall together.

Seeing Zhou Yan walking with a well-packed girl, the students couldn't help but gossip.

"This can't be Teacher Zhou's target."

"Isn't Teacher Zhou married?"

"It's a pity that I didn't see what Mr. Zhou's partner looks like."

"I thought Teacher Zhou was with Wang Zuxian."

"Yes, it has been spread before."

Ye Guangjie coughed lightly and interrupted the students' gossip, "Have you all remembered what Teacher Zhou said just now? Although time is running out, there is still a chance to make adjustments. Teacher Zhou will not teach now, you It’s not easy to hear him lecture you.”

"Thank you, leader, for helping us get such a good opportunity." A student immediately flattered him.

Ye Guangjie was happy in his heart, but he remained calm on the outside, "If I don't do it for you, who else can I do it for? Okay, let's rehearse well." (End of Chapter)