2015-04-23

【Aiden in English】

        Pop music is just a bass, a beat, and a melody, with an occasional quiet harmony. It’s simple, yet people of the new generation absolutely adore it. But when written down, practiced, and closely inspecting it, the music that I loved suddenly seemed so much duller than ever before.

        Now, everyone hates pop music just because of Justin Biebe, (which I do). I mean that I think pop is so uncomplicated in a musical way. The Montgomery and Bridle Path Band Spring Concert at Bridle Path proved my thoughts when we performed. All of us were dressed in our best attire, which for some reason meant wearing the ugliest sneakers you could find, and with their flashy instruments, I could see some really nice jazz musicians in this band. The hallways were stifling hot, and the fancy clothes were not helping at all. The concert time crept closer, and with the speed of a striking snake, we were hustled on stage. 

        Today’s performance was unique from all the other years. There were the usual, easy, yet beautiful songs, fast and slow, featuring every section. But it was mainly two songs that really felt strong among 6 musical pieces. The first was a jazz piece called “Slidin’ the Blues”. This song featured the trombone section which was huge. There were 18, I believe, trombones in the band, and some had tons of talent. This jazzy tune really got some people rocking to the beat, and it caught me as well. Bobbing to the rhythm was dangerous as a sax player, and so our section had to settle with simply tapping feet. Jazz had irregular notes, bending the rules of classical music, which is also why I like it. No rules to how a chord needs to sound, or how half steps sound weird or how F to B (augmented 4th) is the devil’s tune. With differences like these, people can really only like one side, and I’m sitting in the middle. However, that “middle” is the middle of three sides. I also enjoy pop. Boy, liking pop, jazz, and classical seems like picking A, B, or C when all of them are correct, but there’s no all-of-the-above selection. 

        So the band played “Happy”, another intriguing piece. We also played this piece in Wind Ensemble of North Penn. The pop song was so simple that it didn’t take an advance band to play it. As much as it was cool, the notes weren’t as sophisticated as one would think. We aced the performance, though the grand finale wasn’t as hard as the other pieces.

        Split among the three main music groups is difficult. Pros and cons even out, leaving a balanced diet. But someday, I’ll have to choose a side.

【紅霞譯文】

        流行音樂強調低音、節奏以及旋律，偶爾表現出靜謐和諧，由於曲調簡單，年輕人都趨之若鶩。可一旦整理成章加以排練，再經仔細推敲，我突然發覺流行音樂相當樸實。

        目前因為賈斯汀•比伯主導潮流，人人討厭流行歌曲（本人就是其中一位）。我指的是，單憑從音樂角度來看，流行音樂曲式簡單平淡，在馬徑小學舉行的春季音樂會恰好證實了我的看法。管樂隊全班人馬衣冠楚楚，當然也不排除個別人腳踩一雙醜陋無比的運動鞋，各自握起金管銀號，我不難發現這支隊伍當中有幾位爵士樂演員身手不凡。時下走廊悶熱，身穿西服革履更無涼爽之意，演出在即，大家神速地走進大廳閃亮登台。

        今天的演出與過去幾年有所不同，每段曲子都通俗好聽，節奏不快不慢，但六首樂曲中主要有兩首最扣人心弦。第一首爵士樂《逃避布魯斯曲》由長號領奏，如果沒有記錯，總共有十八位長號手一起表演了這段節選，其中有的天資超群。爵士樂起，不少人情不自禁地跟着節奏搖擺起來，我也沒有例外，只是來回擺動對吹薩克斯管極為不利，因此我們只能用腳尖點地輕打節拍。爵士樂即興，其音階無規可循，不及古典音樂清規戒律說道特多，這也是為什麼我喜歡爵士樂的原因，你大可不必顧慮和弦怎麼配置，半音為啥降得這樣突兀，從F音到B音增四度音程怎麼聽起來像鬼哭狼嚎，鑑於爵士音樂與古典音樂之間諸多區別，無論蘿蔔還是白菜，大家終有自己的喜好，而我則堅持走中庸之道，這裡所說的“中庸”完全基於三種音樂形式，我本人還非常喜歡流行音樂。天呀，喜歡流行、爵士、古典音樂就像要在A、B、C三個答案做出任意選擇一樣，而每個答案都對，但偏偏沒有“上面三個答案全部正確”這種選擇。

        管樂隊奏起了另外一首旋律激昂的《快樂》作品，我們曾在北賓州管樂團匯報演出中表演過這首曲子，流行樂簡捷易行，對技巧功底要求不高，只要作品好聽，吹奏音符並非像一般人想象的那麼複雜，再加上大家鼎力合作，這首壓軸曲的難度反倒不如其它節目。

        流行、爵士、古典三種主要音樂形式爭芳鬥豔，各有千秋，誰都無法取代對方，但總有一天，我會搞清楚自己到底喜歡什麼。