我有几盘巴洛克音乐的光碟,是十几年前在商店清仓甩卖的时候买的,买回来之后多半时间都放在车上的光碟机中。到现在车已经换了一部,那几盘光碟却是旧酒被请入新瓶,依旧是我的座上高朋。在夜里驱车,地平线深处的最后一缕紫色终于走远,太太与孩子都在车内沉沉睡去,相伴的只有远远的几对车灯和萤火虫时而撞在挡风玻璃上的滴答声。我便伸手打开那装着旧酒的新瓶盖,巴赫的 Air on the G
String, Sheep May Safely Graze 和 Sleepers Awake 就徐徐散发出陈年的醇香。
上大学的时候最喜欢的音乐家是莫扎特。在莫扎特的绝代天才面前,别人的旋律都似乎笨重无比。看到有人说年轻人喜欢莫扎特,老年人喜欢贝多芬,我很是为老年人悲哀。那时对巴赫一无所知,但从多年后偶然听到巴赫开始,他的音乐就成了我最好的朋友。每次打开youtube, 最经常搜索的就是巴赫音乐的各种版本。从那时起也发现莫扎特的音乐成了儿童小说,无论情节如何精彩都抓不住我的注意力了。可能是因为我的年纪长了,我的音乐朋友的年纪也该长一点吧。我一直听不太进去贝多芬的音乐。推崇巴赫最力的当代钢琴家Glenn
Gould 说: “The grandeur of Beethoven resides in the struggle, rather than in the
occasional transcendence that he achieves… It might never again be
possible for us to own more than a glimpse of that inordinate state of ecstasy
which Sebastian Bach never thought to question.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crQ8YEUkUjg)我觉得这个评价颇为精辟,尽管后半句有点夸张。巴赫是人不是神,是人就会有人的挣扎 (struggle)。神的没有挣扎的超越(transcendence)只是人的臆想,人的挣扎之后的超越才是真实的。
"A Patronus is a kind of positive force, and for the wizard who can conjure one, it works something like a shield, with the Dementor feeding on it, rather than him. In order for it to work, you need to think of a memory. Not just any memory, a very happy memory, a very powerful memory… Allow it to fill you up... lose yourself in it... then speak the incantation "Expecto Patronum"."
—Remus Lupin teaching Harry Potter the Patronus Charm
胡涣 发表评论于
我觉得Harry Potter 风靡世界的一个重要原因就是那里面的spiritual journey. 同样是神怪奇幻,跟《西游记》和《封神演义》比一下就知道。
我喜欢的一个情节是The Mirror of Erised:
Albus Dumbledore: "Let me explain. The happiest man on earth would be able to use the Mirror of Erised like a normal mirror, that is, he would look into it and see himself exactly as he is. Does that help?"
Harry Potter: "It shows us what we want… whatever we want…"
Albus Dumbledore: "Yes and no. It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts."
这段话来自wikipedia:
According to Rowling, a major theme in the series is death: "My books are largely about death. They open with the death of Harry's parents. There is Voldemort's obsession with conquering death and his quest for immortality at any price, the goal of anyone with magic. I so understand why Voldemort wants to conquer death. We're all frightened of it."
我觉得Harry Potter 的故事不只奇幻冒险,也挺深刻,是一个 spiritual journey. 最喜欢Jim Dale诵读的有声书,绘声绘影,栩栩如生,看电影反而觉得没有意思了。
Very interesting comment by Glenn Gould. I guess all the great artists follow their inner voices, not the trend. All the great men do the same.
胡涣 发表评论于
莫扎特和巴赫的不同的一个原因可能是莫扎特成名太早。在聚光灯下长大可能剥夺了他发展独立思想的机会。
想起Harry Potter一开始两位托孤者的对话:
McGonagall: This boy will be famous. There won't be a child in our world that doesn't know his name.
Dumbledore: Exactly. He's better off growing up away from all that... until he is ready.
Glenn Gould 那段评论还有很多有意思的话,比如(大意):
Bach had absolutely no effect on the public or the musicians of his time... it was not because he was ahead of his time... but because he was generations behind his time.
By the time Sebastian Bach died, it was his sons who were considered the masters of music.