A Translation Draft with Section Notes
Quotations and recurring critical terms are annotated section by section; Chinese originals are retained in the notes.
Preface
Apart from serving as a medium of human exchange and as a seasoning that enriches daily life, art also has an inward spiritual value for the independent individual. This, too, is an interesting dimension. Many qualities of Eastern aesthetics - detachment from the world, an air of standing apart from it, an emptiness of mind broad enough to receive all things, and a moral capacity vast enough to bear them - come into play within such solitary reflection.
When art truly kindles a person's passion, the independent individual always brings immediate sensation and lived understanding into the act of appreciation. This process cannot be shared with others, just as a true listener for the music of high mountains and flowing water is hard to find. To attend to this self-sufficient, self-reflective aspect of art not only allows it to join organically with ideas, aspirations, and other spiritual concerns, but also broadens the space in which synesthesia may be discussed.
If formal beauty were the more important value in art, then elaborate ornament and monumental scale could themselves endow art with worth. But if the content and implication of art matter more than formal beauty, then the higher pursuit of art is to express the richest significance through the simplest form.
Modern artistic styles, taken as a whole, tend to place form above theme. Once abstract things enter human life, they eventually give rise to concrete experiences and understandings. A person's interest in, and grasp of, the abstract and the concrete turns and circulates beyond the edge of consciousness. Thus one often extracts abstract structures from concrete affairs, while unconsciously assigning concrete themes to abstract forms. Here the appreciation and creation of art remain forever alive.
Scattered Reflections on Poetry and Music is such a work. Seen from within, it seeks the eternal: with outmoded language it discusses outmoded arts and outmoded ideas, constructing for itself a system at once complete and partial. Seen from without, however, its very mode of presentation is modern art. It has an independent perspective; it proceeds from a modern understanding of poetic atmosphere[Pref.1]; it employs an immediate form of synesthesia; and it presents a modern person's reading of the historical unfolding of classical art. Not to mention that "speaking of music through poetry, and of Dao (The Way) through music"[Pref.2] is itself unavoidably abstract.
Recently, in order to adapt my White Parasol Fantasia[Pref.3] for performance, I revised the piece I wrote last year. When I first composed it, I drew upon the chant material of the Shurangama Mantra, intending to express the theme of freedom and firmness in spiritual cultivation. Now, as the work approaches completion, I suddenly feel that, setting aside its meaning, in formal terms the music bears some resemblance to Kandinsky's paintings. I have always delighted in seeing unity within opposition and harmony within contradiction - between ancient and modern, between different artistic media, and between implication and reality. Thus, on a sudden impulse, I wished to write a detached preface for a "complete" Scattered Reflections on Poetry and Music.
March 31, 2025
I
Gathering and parting in the human world come easily. At the Orchid Pavilion gathering of Wang Xizhi, when he looked upon the causes that had moved men of old and found them "as though joined by a single tally,"[I.1] he was filled with melancholy, hoping for those who would later read his words. By the time Wang Bo lamented that "famous sites are not constant, and splendid feasts are hard to repeat,"[I.2] more than three hundred years had already passed in a flash - to say nothing of today. When people follow an impulse of delight, each finds his own joy. Yet once feeling changes with circumstance, the vanished heart of the past can no longer be found. Feeling remains hard to relinquish, and so it seeks a resting place in what is constant across ten thousand generations. Thus the person has passed away, but the writing endures.
In themselves, the things in which people find satisfaction admit no hierarchy. Yet once there arises the wish to preserve fleeting brilliance, and once one compares it with the jeweled writings left by former ages, distinctions begin to appear among what one inclines toward and what one rejects. What is honored may be called inspired appeal[I.3], realm[I.4], or innate sensibility[I.5]; in the end it comes down to its Marvelous[I.6] and its authenticity[I.7]. For acts of discrimination arise from a refusal to receive impermanence with joy and from the clinging that follows; within this there is inevitably craving and delusion. Yet writing contains the author's character[I.8], and true talent and feeling shine forth within it. Through this, one may know what a person loves.
II
The Marvelous[II.1] is that which is not confined by ordinary thought and can give rise to inexhaustible meaning; authenticity[II.2] is that which returns to the nature of things and moves human beings beyond the limits of time. Ancient writings of the highest realm[II.3] and the most beautiful poetic atmosphere[II.4] often came from those who had attained Dao (The Way).[II.5] Laozi wrote, "Attain utmost emptiness; hold fast to quietude. As the ten thousand things arise together, I watch their return."[II.6] Its reach is deep and far; its heart is compassionate and broad. No prose under heaven surpasses it.
The Chan master Huineng said, "From the first, not a single thing exists; where can dust alight?"[II.7] To contemplate this is suddenly to feel detached from the world. Even without thorough awakening, one receives something of its spirit: direct entry into the clarity of mind, with nothing left to bind it. Later, when Daowu Tianhuang answered Longtan Chongxin by saying, "Let nature roam at ease; with conditions, be open and unbound. Exhaust the ordinary mind, and there is no separate holy understanding,"[II.8] this was not only the bodhi mind. It gathered up the principle of every arising aspiration under heaven: naturally subtle, able to break attachment and preserve the true.
III
When poetry and prose write of worldly matters, they may still, from time to time, possess a transcendent Subtlety[III.1] and a freedom of the moment. Wang Wei writes, "I walk on until water's end, then sit and watch clouds rise."[III.2] His person is calm and self-possessed, while the painted realm[III.3] is spacious and far, the talent rich and deep. Li Bai writes, "A lonely sail, a far-off shade, is lost in blue; only the Yangtze flows to heaven's edge."[III.4] The words seem spoken from beyond heaven and earth. Such lines are truly the crown of writing.
Wang Wei and Su Shi possessed minds inclined toward awakening, yet the Marvelous[III.5] of poetry and prose is not limited to Zen insight. When Li Qingzhao reveals longing - "Who sends a brocade letter through the clouds? When geese return in lettered flight, moonlight fills the western tower"[III.6] - when Li Yu laments his fate - "Forest flowers have lost their spring red: too soon, too fast; helpless against morning's cold rain and evening's wind"[III.7] - and when Yan Shu savors spring - "On the pond, three or four flecks of green moss; under the leaves, one or two orioles sing; the day is long, and willow-down drifts light"[III.8] - each speaks from the heart in clear and elegant words, leading common feeling into an enduring realm[III.9] and taking hold of the human heart.
IV
Since antiquity, the Chinese have honored elegant music and marvelous sound. When Confucius heard the Shao music in Qi, he did not know the taste of meat for three months, saying, "I did not imagine that music could reach such a point."[IV.1] Of the Shao, the Master said, "It is completely beautiful, and also completely good."[IV.2] The Zhuangzi records the Yellow Emperor performing the music of Xianchi in the wilds of Dongting: "At first I heard it and was afraid"; "being afraid, I was overwhelmed"; "again I heard it and grew slack"; "being slack, I withdrew"; "at last I heard it and was bewildered; vast and silent, I no longer possessed myself."[IV.3] In this it drew near to Dao (The Way) - "Dao may be borne, and one may go together with it."[IV.4]
The highest music is both perfectly good and perfectly beautiful, and can bear Dao (The Way).[IV.5] Yet the rise and fall of the world is inconstant. After the chaos of the Warring States and the harsh rule of Qin, barely more than a century had passed by the early Han, and already the Classic of Music was lost; the sound of Shao was heard no more. Since then, countless pieces have scattered and vanished, like Guangling San. By our own day, the original melodies of tune-patterns such as Po Zhenzi and Die Lianhua have all been lost to transmission; only their names remain.
V
Fortunately, the honoring of high and subtle music, and the habit of asking after Dao (The Way) through sound,[V.1] did not arise in China alone, but belongs to people everywhere. Western music has flourished to the present day, rigorous in its procedures and wide-ranging in its borrowings. Since Western learning began to travel east, Chinese music - from national anthems to popular songs - has drawn upon its harmonies and modes. Heine aptly said, "Where words leave off, music begins."[V.2] This idea spread widely. Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, and others all gave it many forms; what they awakened may be said to share one substance under different names with Canglang's claim that "words may end, yet meaning is without limit."[V.3]
Kant, that sage of critique, marked the limits of reason. In discussing what sound can reach - how it penetrates the human heart and wanders beyond science - later generations seized especially upon the detached significance of instrumental works, whose form is pure and whose implication is far-reaching. Thus there arose, once again, the claim that "music bears Dao (The Way)."[V.4] In addition to creating new works, musicians through the ages also expanded their meanings: above, embodying the breadth and benevolence of sages; below, pitying the sufferings of common people. With the rise of Romanticism, masters looked back to antiquity and contemplated the present, sought the eternal, felt the authenticity[V.5] of nature, and opened the boundaries of imaginative thought. For a time, a hundred flowers bloomed.
Human nature is broad but shared; hearts and principles answer one another. Now and then, the shape of a Chinese poem happens to meet the poetic atmosphere[V.6] of Western music. Set beside each other, each becomes vivid in its own right. I will therefore speak of music through poetry and try to observe its reach.
VI
Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, in the depth and distance of their realms[VI.1] and the precision and subtlety of their counterpoint, may be called exemplary within Western music. In temperament, character[VI.2], and stature, they resemble Wang Wei, Li Bai, and Du Fu in the realm of poetry, though their inward natures differ. Bach belongs to an earlier age. He made foundational discoveries in harmony and counterpoint, and because he was formed by older styles, his music is pale and elegant in color yet profound in implication. Its subtleties often lie within the smallest phrases, and its melodic turns arrive with perfect rightness. By nature it possesses a realm[VI.3] of clarity, spaciousness, and serene delight.
If one were to use Wang Wei's poetry to describe Bach's melodies: Partita No. 1 is like "after clear rain, the open fields grow wide; to the eye's end, no stain of haze remains";[VI.4] French Suite No. 5 is like "I enter Yellow Flower Stream, always following the green stream's course; the hills turn it ten thousand times, yet the road is less than a hundred li";[VI.5] the Air from Orchestral Suite No. 3 has the feeling of "at sunset, hills and waters are fair; I drift in my boat, trusting the homeward wind";[VI.6] and in Orchestral Suite No. 2, the Minuet is still like "cold mountains deepen into green; autumn waters murmur day by day,"[VI.7] while the Badinerie has "again I meet Jieyu drunk, singing wildly before Master Five Willows."[VI.8] Scene and feeling merge; inspired appeal[VI.9] brims over.
VII
Mozart's music is fresh and natural, tossed off as if by an effortless hand; yet within it are a thousand transformations, all fused into one. It may be called the sound of heaven. Mozart's temperament was free and expansive. Although it differs from Li Bai's chivalric spirit, the unworldly flight of his melodies is singular, and in this it approaches Li Bai's poetic style, beyond the reach of Haydn and others of his time.
Consider Piano Concerto No. 20: "I set down cup and chopsticks, unable to eat; I draw my sword and look all around, my heart bewildered."[VII.1] Piano Concerto No. 23: "Peach Blossom Pool may be a thousand feet deep; it is not as deep as Wang Lun's farewell to me."[VII.2] The sixth movement of the Haffner Serenade: "Clouds call to mind her robe, flowers her face; the spring wind brushes the balustrade, dew rich on the bloom."[VII.3] Symphony No. 35: "Mountains end where the plain spreads wide; the river enters the vast wild. Under the moon, a flying mirror; clouds arise and bind a sea-tower."[VII.4] And by the time of Symphony No. 40: "Those who left me behind - yesterday's days cannot be kept. Those that trouble my heart - today's day is filled with care. A long wind, ten thousand miles, sends autumn geese; before this we may drink deep on the high tower."[VII.5] Its clear, flowing, unbound thought rings at the ear.
VIII
Bach came earlier than the others. In his own day he was not greatly celebrated, yet later he was beloved by Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann, and others, and his influence reached far. In this respect he closely resembles Tao Yuanming. Yet when one listens to Bach and reads Wang Wei, one feels naturally at ease; when one reads Tao Qian, one is stirred into a certain disorder. Although Tao Yuanming and Wang Wei are both poets of fields and gardens, both creating a realm[VIII.1] of nature, one is plain and tranquil, the other spacious and far; their inward natures differ.
The frankness of Tao's nature and the lightness of his wind secretly answer Mozart. The second movement of Piano Sonata No. 9 speaks gently and at length, like "picking chrysanthemums by the eastern hedge, I glimpse South Mountain at ease. Mountain air grows fair at dusk; birds return together."[VIII.2] Within leisure, there is a warm and peaceful joy.
IX
Scholars commonly define the Classical era as beginning in the year of Bach's death and ending in the year of Beethoven's final work. Beethoven stood at the meeting point of classical grace and the new Romantic tide. Because he was troubled by his ears, he was especially observant of suffering; because his heart was direct and his nature fierce, he bore an aspiration toward all living people. His creation of realms[IX.1] was as true as immediate presence, and he generously sought to relieve the suffering of the present world.[IX.2] He also possessed a transcendent orientation and a broad, open mind, and could fully reveal the vigorous flourishing of life. Only with Beethoven did Western music acquire its majestic atmosphere and deep inward resonance.
Where his musical character[IX.3] is dark, vigorous, plain, and sincere, he may be compared to Du Fu. The Grosse Fuge is like "boundless falling leaves rustle down; the endless Yangtze rolls on and on. A thousand miles of autumn grief, ever a guest; in a century of illness, alone I climb the terrace."[IX.4] The third movement of Symphony No. 9 is "with the wind it slips into night, moistening all things silently,"[IX.5] and the realm[IX.6] it paints also has the Subtlety[IX.7] of "among ancient trees, no human path; from blue hills, where comes the bell?"[IX.8] The third movement of Piano Sonata No. 29, the Hammerklavier, is so deep in feeling that it reaches everywhere: it contains "moved by the times, flowers shed tears; hating parting, birds startle the heart,"[IX.9] and also "the old man of Shaoling chokes back sobs, in spring walking secretly by Qujiang."[IX.10] Yet it also has "turning back to wife and children - where is sorrow now? I roll up books and poems in a joy near madness."[IX.11] Only after many turns does the fourth movement arrive at "looking back on the desolation just passed, I go home: neither wind and rain, nor clear sky."[IX.12] Such a spirit is rare in any age.
X
Beethoven's spirit of standing apart from the world and his open, transcendent poetic atmosphere[X.1] appear most often in his late works. Their radiant brilliance approaches the ci poetry of Su Shi and Xin Qiji. In the first movement of Piano Sonata No. 28, "in the crowd I searched for her a thousand times; suddenly I turned, and there she was, where lanterns thinned";[X.2] the fourth movement returns toward "the east wind at night releases a thousand trees of blossoms, and blows them down as stars like rain."[X.3]
Piano Sonata No. 30 begins from "I would ride the wind and return; yet I fear those jade towers, for at such heights the cold is hard to bear."[X.4] After its melody turns and returns several times, it also carries the feeling of "at night's end, wind quiet, silk-like ripples level; from this small boat I depart, consigning the rest of my life to rivers and seas."[X.5] By Piano Sonata No. 31, it remembers "the moon should bear no hate; why is it always full when we part?"[X.6] and "may we all live long; though a thousand miles apart, we share this lovely moon"[X.7] runs through it from beginning to end. As for his bold or tender works of the prime of life, the famous examples are many: Symphonies Nos. 3, 5, and 6, and Piano Sonatas Nos. 8, 14, and 23. Their musical thought is vast and unrestrained, vigorous without losing high elegance[X.8], grand in narrative yet delicate in structure; today they are known in every household.
XI
Li Shangyin writes, "This feeling may await recollection; only at the time it was already lost in bewilderment."[XI.1] Yan Shu sings, "Helplessly, flowers fall away; as if once known, the swallows return."[XI.2] These two poems, each moved by something glimpsed between clarity and haze, share a similar meaning. Schubert's style is dreamlike and illusory. When it reaches the place of "pure beauty," it feels as though separated from this world, unlike reality itself; it, too, possesses this sense of misted uncertainty. Although it differs from the strange intricacy and literary brilliance of Li Shangyin's poetry and prose, the two are alike in their deep, tender feeling and single-hearted devotion.
Thus Impromptu No. 1 is "let not the spring heart contend with flowers in bloom: every inch of longing turns an inch to ash";[XI.3] Impromptu No. 2 is "last night's stars, last night's wind; west of the painted tower, east of cassia hall. Our bodies have no paired phoenix wings; our hearts are linked by a single subtle thread";[XI.4] Impromptu No. 3 is "Heaven's will pities hidden grass; the human world cherishes the late clearing";[XI.5] and Impromptu No. 5 is "wind and dew in the pale dawn; behind the curtain one rises alone. Orioles and flowers both laugh and cry - whose spring is this, in the end?"[XI.6] Schubert admired Beethoven and took him as a model, yet his sonatas are not solitary and proud in Beethoven's manner; they possess another flavor. For instance, the fourth movement of Piano Sonata No. 20 has both the friendship of "within the seas, one true friend; at heaven's edge, as close as next door"[XI.7] and the delight of "just when Jiangnan's scenery is at its best, we meet again as flowers fall."[XI.8] Piano Sonata No. 21 is tender in feeling and richly varied, and the line "the sunset is boundlessly fair, only it is near dusk"[XI.9] fits its essential meaning exactly.
XII
Mendelssohn's mind is delicate: soft but not cloying, splendid but not gaudy. At times it carries a feeling like yearning and admiration, like weeping and complaint. Let Du Mu's poetry suggest its meaning. Songs Without Words No. 7 speaks earnestly: "slowly your traces begin to fade; far and long is what my heart awaits. In autumn hills I think of your parting, melancholy at cassia-flower time."[XII.1] Songs Without Words No. 15 is warm and winding, like "warm clouds like powder, grass like cushions; walking alone along the long embankment, I see no one. Across the ridge peach blossoms dim like red brocade; half a stream of hill-water shines fresh as green gauze."[XII.2] His Fantasia is mournful, clear, and cold, with "two poles of setting sun above the creek bridge; half a wisp of light smoke in willow shade. So many green lotuses lean against one another in grievance, turning all at once, backs to the west wind."[XII.3]
Mendelssohn was especially skilled in string writing. His Violin Concerto is his most renowned work. In the first movement, amid the great waves of floating life, there is the poetic atmosphere[XII.4] of "a faint sun, shimmering, falls upon the cold sandbar."[XII.5] The second movement is distant, bright, and quickened, as though "soft and rippling, white gulls fly; green so pure, deep spring could dye a robe. North and south, people grow old on the road; the sunset long escorts the fishing boat home."[XII.6] It draws the heart toward reverie.
XIII
Schumann moves people through keen talent, distinctive taste[XIII.1], and utmost sincerity. Though he lacks a transcendent character[XIII.2], and though he is accomplished in short lyric suites rather than deep and far-reaching large works, his imagination is rich, his style luxuriant, and his transformations extraordinary; fine works are by no means absent. In the language of Li He, Papillons, depicting the scene of a ball, begins with the lightness of "spring waters newly rise; young swallows fly; a small-tailed yellow wasp pounces on flowers and returns."[XIII.3]
The second piece of Kreisleriana has the plain elegance of Li He's description of kudzu cloth: "softly, softly, it should be woven with river rain and empty sky; in the rain, the sixth-month wind of Orchid Terrace."[XIII.4] Again, the first movement of Fantasie in C major, Op. 17 is dense, antique, and heavy; grief rises from within, like "thoughts pull so hard tonight the heart must straighten with pain; cold rain summons the fragrant soul to mourn the man of books."[XIII.5] The second movement bursts forth with high ambition, in the feeling of "armor flashes toward the sun, scales of gold opening,"[XIII.6] clean and exhilarating for a time.
XIV
Chopin's music can reach the state of "joy without excess, sorrow without injury,"[XIV.1] and his talent and feeling surpassed his age. Take Ballade No. 3: its expression is full yet exactly measured, comparable to Su Shi's "spring is not yet old; a fine wind, willows slanting. Try climbing the Transcendent Terrace to look out: a half-moat of spring water, a city full of flowers; mist and rain darken a thousand homes," and also to "do not face old friends and brood over the old country; take the new fire and try the new tea; poetry and wine should keep their year."[XIV.2]
Nocturne No. 1 begins from "before the evening mirror, grieving the passing scene; future meetings with the past remembered in vain."[XIV.3] Within it are also "clouds part, the moon appears, flowers toy with their shadows" and "the wind is restless, people are quiet; tomorrow fallen red should fill the path."[XIV.4] Nocturne No. 3: "I have often envied that jade-carved gentleman among men; Heaven must have begged for him a lady delicate as sugared cream."[XIV.5] Nocturne No. 4: "the moon climbs the willow's tip; people meet after dusk."[XIV.6] Nocturne No. 13: "a broken moon hangs from sparse paulownia; the water-clock is spent, people first fall still. At times a solitary figure passes to and fro, vague as a lone wild goose."[XIV.7] Nocturne No. 20: "with tearful eyes I ask the flowers; the flowers say nothing. Scattered red flies past the swing."[XIV.8] The natural flow of his music, its generous measure and high elegance[XIV.9], may be glimpsed from these examples.
XV
In nobility of musical character[XV.1], Chopin stands unmatched after Beethoven, yet compared with Mozart he is graver: his flights of thought at the piano carry all the sufferings and joys of the human world. For a time they are free and graceful, but afterward the heart cannot help being left with lingering sorrow. His Fantaisie, feeling the grief of a lost nation and a broken home, is ardent in its heroic aspiration. Following the solemn darkness of the Funeral March, it awakens "slant sun, grasses and trees, ordinary lanes; they say Jinu once lived there. Think of those days: golden spears and iron horses, swallowing ten thousand miles like a tiger,"[XV.2] and finally entrusts its hope for a moment to "settle the king's affairs under heaven, and win a name before and after death."[XV.3]
Again, Ballade No. 4 begins from "I recall the full bloom of Kaiyuan days; even small towns hid ten thousand households."[XV.4] Suddenly it becomes "carts rumble, horses neigh; travelers wear bow and arrows at the waist. Fathers, mothers, wives, and children run to see them off; dust hides Xianyang Bridge."[XV.5] By the end: "Have you not seen the shore of Qinghai, where old bones have gone uncollected since ancient times? New ghosts cry grievance, old ghosts weep; in dark sky, wet rain, their voices wail and moan."[XV.6] Vast, solitary, and desolate, its aftersound does not cease. The first movement of Piano Sonata No. 3 again paints military grandeur; between "a cup of turbid wine, home ten thousand miles away; Yanran uncarved, no plan to return"[XV.7] and "earnest rain at the third watch last night; once more, one cool day stolen from floating life,"[XV.8] it finds an open-hearted release. Among Romantic sonatas, its state of mind is without equal.
XVI
Schubert discovers supreme beauty in what the heart cannot bear to relinquish; Schumann speaks directly from the breast and finds his own pleasure; Chopin's music makes sorrow and joy arise together, and its superiority lies in the authenticity of its realm[XVI.1]. The other two do not reach it. Even so, the sorrow in Chopin's sound remains unresolved. By contrast, Liszt is straightforward, expansive, and utterly different from Chopin: deep in philosophical thought, splendid in literary color, carefree and bold like Li Bai, vast and distant like Chen Zi'ang.
In Vallee d'Obermann, he looks upon a secluded realm[XVI.2] and grows deeply moved. It opens with "the bright moon hides behind tall trees; the long river sinks into dawn sky. Long, long is the road to Luoyang; when shall this meeting come again?"[XVI.3] His Sonata in B minor is wave upon wave, vast and forceful, showing a strong chivalric spirit. From the peril of "by morning evade fierce tigers, by evening evade long snakes; their teeth grind, they suck blood, killing men like hemp,"[XVI.4] it rises into "silver saddle lights the white horse, swift as a streaming star. In ten steps he kills one man; over a thousand miles he leaves no trail."[XVI.5] Those willing to spill brain and blood wish to protect "mountain flowers like embroidered cheeks, river fires like drifting fireflies"[XVI.6] and "wild bamboo parts the blue haze; flying springs hang from emerald peaks."[XVI.7] Only after all dangers have been traversed does success arrive, so that there is "laughing up to heaven, I stride out the gate: are we the kind to dwell among weeds?"[XVI.8] Yet who can know whether "the garrisoned pass, if held by faithless kin, turns into wolves and jackals"?[XVI.9] The beginning and end answer each other and lead one to deep reflection.
Yet Liszt's music is elaborately carved and overabundant; it cannot avoid a certain cluttered absurdity, and at times seems showy without substance. The purgatorial scene of the Dante Sonata, after much clamoring, is less piercing than a phrase or half-phrase in Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 32. Thus, though Liszt's atmosphere is grand, upright, and bright, it is still not enough to surpass Chopin.
XVII
The music Brahms wrote in youth bears great ambition and firm conviction. In Piano Sonata No. 3, whenever it endures hardship, there is always the consolation of "a time will come to cleave the waves with long wind, and set a cloud sail straight across the sea,"[XVII.1] like a candle in the dark night, enough to relieve the hearts of those troubled by misfortune. Yet when one turns to his late works, they are unexpectedly like Xin Qiji's words: "Now that I have tasted every flavor of sorrow, I would speak, yet refrain; I would speak, yet refrain, and only say, 'What a fine cool autumn.'"[XVII.2] His pieces then are often small, concentrated, and refined, only then reaching enduring resonance.
Everyone knows Brahms learned from Schumann, yet the spirit of his music is in truth like Schubert's, only still more sorrowful. In Intermezzo in A major, Op. 118, No. 2, a warmth of floating life rises within a desolate realm[XVII.3], and the feeling is so deep that only Li Yu's "beyond the curtain, rain patters; spring is failing. The silk quilt cannot withstand the fifth-watch cold. In dreams I do not know I am a guest; for one brief hour, I crave pleasure" and "running water, fallen flowers: spring has gone. Between heaven and earth"[XVII.4] can be placed beside it. For one who feels it, it is almost unbearable to look to the end.
XVIII
Tchaikovsky's sound is gorgeous and intense, dignified and elegant. His melodies are handsome, graceful, and winding; his textures are rich and mellow. Within the wave of Russian national music, he stands apart. The first movement of the Serenade for Strings is "the spring wind is endless with Xiang River longing; I would gather water-plantain blossoms, but am not free."[XVIII.1] The second movement is "orchid breath steeps the mountain cup; pine sounds tune the field strings. Shadows drift beyond hanging leaves; fragrance passes before fallen flowers."[XVIII.2]
Yet Tchaikovsky's compassion for the world and his melancholy weeping are still greater than Mendelssohn's. The second movement of the Violin Concerto is "a lone boat, a straw-cloaked old man, fishing alone in the cold river snow."[XVIII.3] The Romance is "distant things are valued by the world; the traveler's heart alone is wounded. Returning light gazes into the forest's edge; rustling, no fragrance remains."[XVIII.4] "June: Barcarolle," from The Seasons, is "sunlight clears over the Xiaoxiang islet; clouds break on the peaks of Goulou" and "feeling congeals, vainly yearning for the scene; ten thousand miles of Cangwu shade."[XVIII.5] And the fourth movement of Symphony No. 6 has "dwelling apart against the mountain wall; at year's end, startled by separation. In the open wild, woodcutters' songs arrive; in the empty courtyard, ashes fall."[XVIII.6] To hear it is to be moved beyond one's own control.
XIX
After Romanticism, those who followed Beethoven sought enduring meaning in the flourishing vitality of music, each building a grand realm[XIX.1] within large symphonic forms. Although none again possessed Beethoven's moral fiber, this did not prevent the appearance of gifted masters, exquisite ideas, and dazzling variety.
Wagner magnified Beethoven's atmosphere and made many contributions to narrative, harmony, phrase structure, and symphonic form. His imposing works are often drawn forward by linked "guiding motifs" (Leitmotifs)[XIX.2] that signify characters and make images vivid; he threads events and feeling through "endless melody" (Unendliche Melodie)[XIX.3], extending without break. Thus the whole is luminous, vast, and magnificent. Mahler's symphonies are grand in force, all-embracing, profound in subject, and rich in afterthought. Although his depth of realization seems not yet mature - he speaks directly of life and death, which can make the listener skeptical - the solemn brightness of his sound is certainly enough to move the soul.
XX
Music has a natural tradition of improvisation. Before and during the Baroque age, this was the main way in which many gifted musicians displayed music's charm, and also the principal reason music retained its marvelousness and vitality. Yet when people began consciously to pay homage to the great musical figures of the past, vertical comparison, to a certain degree, unsettled the naturalness of musical creation and appreciation.
The greatest composers of the age of canonization, such as Bach and Beethoven, were themselves famous improvisers; yet because of their respective habits of composition,[XX.1] they indirectly became the main challengers to improvisational performance. By the middle of the Romantic era, traditional musical improvisation had already faded from the stage. Entering the twentieth century, amid changes in social life and human exchange, classical music and fashionable music gradually came apart. Avant-garde composers were no longer satisfied with a common harmonic language. Diversified commercial value became increasingly visible in musical activity; the ways in which music bore spiritual value broadened; and the fashion for pursuing implication and profundity correspondingly receded.
XXI
By analogy, the scattering and loss of the East's highest music and the failure of tune-pattern melodies to be transmitted may belong to the nature of human beings, and not merely to bad government and the calamity of war. For music moves people by technique, not by Dao (The Way).[XXI.1] The Zhuangzi says, "Benevolence and righteousness are the temporary lodgings of the former kings; one may stop there for a night, but cannot dwell there long. Encounter them too often, and reproaches multiply."[XXI.2] What the world esteems is the same.
Prose may illuminate Dao (The Way), and music may bear Dao (The Way);[XXI.3] yet when Dao (The Way) becomes a beauty to be possessed, it loses its Dao (The Way).[XXI.4] When the human heart has no master and will not rest, even the beauty that bears Dao (The Way)[XXI.5] cannot long hold it. Thus Laozi teaches that "bright Dao seems dim,"[XXI.6] and the Chan tradition transmits the teaching of "not establishing words and letters."[XXI.7] Wang Xizhi, when delight was exhausted and sorrow came, said that death and life are also great matters, and waited anxiously for later readers.[XXI.8] If one had Tao Yuanming's detachment - "when I die, what more is to be said? I entrust my body to the same mountain"[XXI.9] - why would there be any need to investigate the higher or lower degree of realm[XXI.10]? Music is the same: to make music in the present and take joy according to conditions is, for that reason, to accord with Dao (The Way).[XXI.11]
XXII
It is well understood that "the maker easily achieves craftsmanship, while the inheritor finds ingenuity difficult."[XXII.1] The heroic figures of post-Romanticism inherited Romanticism's compositional techniques and musical implications. Amid the modernization of society, they broke through the traditions of musical creation and continually produced new auditory experiences.
In France, Debussy, Ravel, and others sought stillness within motion and wished to merge with pictorial realms[XXII.2]: "one may call it unfeeling, yet it has feeling."[XXII.3] Their tonal colors transform with delicacy; their timbres are bright and pleasing; their formal layers are expansive. People of the time called them Impressionists. In the German-Austrian world, Schoenberg, Webern, and others sought to reconstruct the rules of tonality by reason, in order to exhaust music's tensions. Although they drew often upon Wagner and other predecessors, their sound was strange, and the world found it difficult to understand. Yet many musicians loved it for its extraordinary newness; people called them the Second Viennese School.
XXIII
In the post-Romantic age, Russian music stood apart and gradually became a great spectacle, beloved by the world. Scriabin's music began as refined, gentle, and harmonious; yet because his spirit was unsettled and often entered visionary states, his sound became wavering, soaring, and shadowed, thereby revealing all the more its bright and gorgeous temperament[XXIII.1]. Stravinsky broke through the limits of tonality and separated musical expression from ideological consciousness. What continues without end in his music comes close to primitive instinct; yet in its madness, boldness, and pleasure that forgets sorrow, modern people delight.
Rachmaninoff may be called an old survivor of Romanticism. Although he made innovations in harmony, he could not bear to leave behind the established language of tonality. His feeling is deep and far, finely and densely woven; the longer it gathers, the richer it becomes. When at last it melts free like ice, it seems as if the world collapses and only the music remains. Rachmaninoff's Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 are both works for the ages, with deep and lasting influence.
Prokofiev's music is strange and extraordinary, with an inspired appeal[XXIII.2] beyond the ordinary, unconstrained by the presence or absence of tonality. His harmony is distinctive; his melodies are grotesque yet never lose elegance; his poetic atmosphere[XXIII.3] may be called subtle. He is not confined by differences among schools. If one must sum him up in a single phrase, he approaches Surrealism. Piano Sonata No. 2 and Piano Concerto No. 3 both reveal this singular style. Although Prokofiev is comic and mocking, and his tone color can be sharp and abrupt, his feeling is natural. When he meets a point of resonance, the true form appears at once. He is no ordinary figure; his nature and character[XXIII.4] are fully worthy to serve as a model for later generations of aspiration.
Respectfully set forth by Shi Kaiwen
September 30, 2024 - February 15, 2025