(1) The nationality, regionality and epoch of music and the combination of pictures The
story of the film takes place in a rural village on a grassland in Hebei Province. "My mother" is the most beautiful in the village. The young woman who is upright and young is still illiterate, and according to the old customs of the village, weave the red for the new school. Brave she is the first woman in the village to fall in love freely. In a conservative era, in a remote small mountain village, people still retain traditional customs and concepts. Beside the quiet and beautiful fields, she is shy and innocent in her boudoir.
Therefore, the music produced by Sanbao for this film has a typical Chinese national style. The musical instruments used in the main melody are: Xiao, Di, Erhu, etc. These are all traditional Chinese national musical instruments, and the timbres are Chinese-style melodious, Poignant and tactful. In the melody, the main five tones are the interval relationship of the major third, and the five main tones are C, D, E, G, and A. These six tones are the palace in Chinese classical music. , business, angle, sign, feather.
Using traditional Chinese national musical instruments to play the relationship between traditional Chinese modes and intervals, the Han nationality of the soundtrack is a seamless combination of the time and background of the film's story.
In the undulating field in the picture, the golden sunlight shines on the young and beautiful face of the mother, the red cotton jacket on the mother's body dances like a flame on the lush birch full of life and vitality, the wind gently blows the endless grassland, the sheep. Herds and cows are running on the small road in the village. The golden dust is flying under the sunset in the countryside. The villagers stand at the door of the school with curiosity and awe, watching the new teacher teach. This is the beauty of the East, a kind of beauty that only belongs to The simplicity and quietness of China is full of vitality and beauty.
The lingering, melodious and pure flute sound is the expression of such a pure, shy love. The background music with national characteristics created with the traditional Chinese musical interval relationship echoes and interprets the unique eastern region and national environment. It also tells the time when the story takes place.
(2) The lyrical nature of the music and the fit
of the characters' images have the characteristics of synaesthesia. Often a picture will remind people of a sound, a smell and a feeling.
Zhaodi is an innocent, kind and sincere woman, while Luo Changyu is an upright and loyal man. This is in line with the background music melody and orchestration in the movie.
In My Father and Mother, the background music is handled by a melody played with different instruments and variations. Its melody is simple in composition, and it is constantly swirling in all the background music throughout the film. For example, in the fragment "Tears", the phrase of the main melody played by the three instruments of piccolo, erhu and xiao under the interweaving of deep and heavy string unison played a total of five times. Just as Zhaodi has experienced waiting, parting, and sadness in her life, but she has never changed her sincere love for Luo Changyu for decades.
In the clip "Pie Fan", the background music is played with music box timbre, electric piano timbre and electronic timbre cosmic sound, like crystal clear water droplets on the girl's heart. At this time, there is no heavy string music, and the main melody phrase is played with a music box. After one time, inversion, played a second time by electric piano and cosmic pitch. The music is also mixed with natural sound effects synthesized later: the gentle birdsong.
In the picture, Zhaodi is holding the door frame, her eyes are filled with joy, and she looks at Luo Changyu with affection and shyness, while Luo Changyu's handsome face with rich edges and corners is sprinkled with golden sunlight, bright eyes and white teeth, A warm smile rippled on the corner of his mouth, and only Zhaodi was in his eyes. At this time, a narration was inserted: "My father told me that when he first went to his mother's house to eat pie, his mother stood at the door to greet him, and she remembered how her mother stood at the door holding the door frame, like a picture Painting. He said that he could not forget this painting for many years."
This piece of music is composed of two timbres and transitions. The music box symbolizes the love in the eyes of the mother for the father, and when the picture cuts to the father's face, the electric The timbre of the piano and the cosmic sound is more rounded and thicker than that of the music box. This same melody symbolizes the same love for the mother in the father's heart. This is a musical echo, metaphor and symbol of the love hidden in the hearts of the two, and it is a more introverted but rich expression. Beyond the expressive range and meaning of the human voice.
(3) The combination of the shape of the music and the picture
When giving birth to a child and telling the beginning of the love between the father and the mother, the string music played in unison layer by layer, accompanied by the ticking of the clock, the time and space began to change, the camera zoomed in on the black and white photo, and the picture began to change from the low tones of black and white. For lush green. The ambient sound of the same sound began to sound, the hooves of the horses rang through a golden meadow, and the disturbed flocks and horses raised a cloud of dust, Luo Changyu came to Sanhetun with hope, the first sight he saw When he arrived, the beautiful one in red was looking at his mother. He kept looking back, looking for the red jumping figure, love has come at this moment.
And the music, from the heavy interlacing of strings in black and white pictures to the pure electronic timbre in the color pictures, the film completes a transition in the transformation of the musical mood. The cosmic sound slowly flows on the undulating and vast land of Sanhetun, and the strings of first love in the young people's hearts are gently plucked. The cosmic sound is beautiful and beautiful, simple and crisp. When Luo Changyu looked at Zhaodi, the ambient sound stopped abruptly, and the sound of the universe echoed between the two young hearts in the sound of the movie, like the sparkling ripples in spring water, quiet and beautiful. Under the sunset at this moment, it seemed as if there were only the two of them left in the world. As the saying goes: "Silence is better than sound here".
The abrupt end of the sound effect creates an independent space for two people in love, an ingenious space where love takes place.
In a vertical comparison, in these early films of Zhang Yimou, we can see the perfection of the finely crafted details. Compared with the music in the later films such as "Three Shots" and other films, the film music of the later films, although the investment is higher. It's bigger, but the details are not as meticulous as "My Father and Mother".
2. The perfect fit of music and plot development
In "My Father and Mother", all the background music is the variation and convolution of the same melody, but it fits the plot perfectly. There are 18 background music in the whole film, 1 Cart Cart, 2 First appearance, 3 Deliver lunch, 4 Drawing water, 5 Falling in love, 6 Encounter, 7 Lunch 1, 8 Lunch 2 Pie Rice 2, 9 Leaving the village card, 10 Broken bowl, 11 Time goes by, 12 Hallucination, 13 Art craft, 14 Waiting for him in the snow, 15 Tear drops, 16 Funeral Carrying the coffin, 17 Memory, 18 The road home My father and mother. ①(From Baidu Encyclopedia http://baike.baidu.com/view/173750.htm#4 )
Each piece of music can just take care of the plot, express the fate and psychology of the characters metaphorically, and serve the theme of the film.
In the second part of the background music, "Meeting", Zhaodi sits day after day on the hillside beside the long and winding road, raising her chin and looking at Luo Changyu as he takes the child home under the setting sun. Di's footsteps are mixed with hope and apprehension. At this time, Luo Changyu's background in the picture is a lush birch forest full of green hopes. The children's immature voices sing innocence. In the close-up, Zhaodi looked back at Luo Changyu in three steps. In the camera, Zhaodi left with shyness and joy, and the close-up turned into a panoramic view. This is actually a subjective shot of Luo Changyu, showing that Luo Changyu's eyes are always on. Follow Zhaodi, reluctant to let her go. After Zhaodi walks away, the camera changes to a large perspective. Zhaodi and Luo Changyu in red appear in the same picture for the first time, which shows that the distance between Zhaodi and Changyu's hearts is getting closer and closer. . At this time, Zhaodi walked towards the green field and walked into Changyu's heart.
The background music "First Encounter", the crisp and long flute sound, the rhythm of the loose, slow and lingering, as if echoing in the green valley of the neutral, just like Zhaodi's soft and tender heart. The harmony of the strings is beautiful, lingering and sad, echoing the sound of the flute. In the second round, the tune was raised by one degree, and the volume of the strings was also increased. There was an upward trend on the whole, showing the love of Zhaoti and Changyu when they met and the love of each other. sublimation.
However, just as the two hearts drawn by love were slowly approaching, the political turmoil of that era added an exclamation mark to their love. Changyu, an educated youth, was criticized as a rightist by the Cultural Revolution and wanted to return to the county seat. was interrogated. The two have since been forced to separate. In order not to make Zhaodi sad, Changyu left without her knowledge, but Zhaodi found out that Changyu had left. She was still wearing the red cotton-padded jacket she had when she first met Changyu, desperately running in the birch forest holding the dumplings in the blue and white bowl, she kept chasing, trying to catch up with Changyu's carriage. But girls can't outrun a carriage. Out of breath, she finally fell on the hillside, rolled down, and shattered the blue and white bowl that had been used for a long time. This was the first time the strong Shoti cried so loudly.
At this time, the background music sounded, and the sound of the harp sounded slowly, just like the choking sound of Zhaodi crying, and the heavy string music was mixed with the sadness of parting, and the sadness of parting was rendered. The pitch of the melody is getting lower and lower, with a downward trend. This is a symbol of the deepening loss in Zhaodi's heart. The sound of the harp was like a tear drop by drop, which kept falling. At this time, the solo melody of the erhu sounded, the strings stopped, and there was only the faint sound of the harp in the background, highlighting the loneliness of Zhaodi crying alone, and the desolation of parting. Here, the melody of the erhu has a melody similar to that of the Northwest Qin Opera, and all the phrases are in a downward trending minor scale. Immediately afterwards, the erhu played the melody of the theme song, the strings sounded, and the power suddenly became stronger. It was a kind of cry for Changyu's retention, and it was also a kind of resentment for those who took Changyu away. It is a cry of love. , also foreshadows the waiting and separation of Zhaodi and Changyu after many years. Among them, the ending with Xiao as the end is also a kind of echo, showing the same emotion in the hearts of the two people.
In the final part of the film, the theme melody of the film appears again in the clip "Carrying the Coffin". Time switches back to the present, and the picture changes from color to black and white. On a snowstorm day, my mother donated her life savings to build a new primary school in the village. For her father, who devoted her life to all her life, her only requirement was to carry her father's body home from the mortuary of the county hospital according to custom, and bury it by the well opposite the school.
The background music here is different from all the previous clips, only the flute solo. The music has been processed with echoes, and the sound is empty and silent. The main theme has not changed from the beginning to the end. The death of his father, for his mother, is like Yu Boya and Zhong Ziqi. At this time, the sound of the flute no longer caters to the string music, which is sad and sad. The love between father and mother faces eternal separation of life and death. Reluctant to give up, can not bear, the only person I have ever loved in my life is gone, and my mother has endured great pain and loneliness. The loud cries are not enough to express the pain in her heart for her father's departure, but this lonely flute voice expresses the eternal and loyal love to her father in this life.
3. The wonderful fusion of music and emotion
In "My Father and Mother", the background music and the characters' feelings always have a wonderful fusion, which will become a powerful emotional appeal in the film.
Hope is a force that supports the hope of life. In the clip "Window Flowers", Zhaodi came alone to the old school that had been absent for a long time. She silently cleaned the desks and chairs, and replaced the classroom with new window paper. She was ingenious and ingenious. On the bright red beautiful window grilles. During the long and lonely waiting, she was sure that Changyu would definitely come back to find her.
The sound of the music box sounded, with a persistent hope, playing the main melody of the music of the entire film, followed by the next phrase is a variation of the main melody played by the electronic universe tone. This pure timbre represents Zhaoti's unchanging belief in waiting and memories of beautiful encounters. Especially the variation part of the second half, which is a transition from the original key, which is a kind of firm expectation.
In "My Father and Mother", Zhaodi is always on the run, for the people she loves. In the episode of "Illusion", Zhaodi shed tears silently while holding the baked blue and white bowl that Changyu had used. In her lovesickness, she heard the sound of reading from the school and thought that Changyu was back.
She ran to the classroom that had long been empty, but found that everything was an illusion in her ears.
In this piece of background music, the xiao is the main melody instrument. The beat value of the two notes in the previous bar is increased by two beats compared to the original melody, which is weak and slow. In the melody of the first pass, the two adjacent tones also became portamento, which made the whole piece sound like a tangled sadness of "cutting and chaotic". In the second melody, there is no portamento between the two notes, which forms a contrast with the first melody. This is a metaphorical contrast between reality and expectations. It reflects Zhaodi's constant longing for Changyu Jian and his longing for return.
The finale of the film, which is five minutes and 38 seconds long, is the longest piece of theme music in the entire film. In this piece of music, it can be said that the sincerity, ups and downs and persistence of Zhaodi and Changyu's lifelong love are deduced. In "My Father and Mother", Zhaodi always wears the red cotton jacket and runs on the field that is sometimes sunny and sometimes snowy. At the end of the movie, the picture of Zhaodi and Changyu staring at each other flashes back again and again. Zhaodi, who is as beautiful as a budding flower, always has a smile as warm as the sun on her face, and looks at Changyu with implicit happiness. In the end, when she was on the job list, the picture was fixed on a large-scale overhead shot of Zhaodi running on the field.
This piece of music is ups and downs, lingering and beautiful. The strings are advanced, weak, and then suddenly strengthened, pulling the emotion of the whole piece. The passionate string is a kind of ode to Zhaodi and Changyu's love. At the last note of each phrase there is a faint bass metal wind unison sound, as a coda reinforcement. After the repetition, the sound of the strings suddenly fades away, and the sound of the flute enters the main melody. The sound of the strings is weak, and the sound of the flute is stronger, which is a quiet attitude of telling and recalling. Immediately afterwards, the strings sounded, and after three overlapping decorations of increasingly stronger strings, the music shifted one degree higher, the main melody sounded again, and the sound of percussion set the stage, and then the sound of the strings became impassioned. The sound of the flute is also strengthened, and under the interweaving of the symphony, the sound of the flute is raised again, and the other phrase ends. The ethereal and pure girl's solo humming sounded, without vibrato, it was a natural timbre, and the performance of strength and weakness was very obvious. When the tune was raised, the girl became stronger, poignant and full. In the last phrase, under the emotional foreshadowing of the strings, the sound of the timpani and cymbals sounded, the arpeggios of the harp flowed on the heavy strings, and the sound of the flute and music box returned to the main melody. With a plucked pluck and a weakened string, the piece ends.
This piece of music has an arch-shaped symmetrical structure. The piece is weak at the beginning, and the middle part is made of strings and percussion as a kind of strong force. In the middle, there is a female voice for the transition, and finally the flute is used to make a harmonious and quiet sound. the ending. Emotionally, there is a degree of retraction, release and reservation.
This song contains all the musical instruments that have appeared in the whole film. It is a flashback of life memories, and it is also an echo that has a beginning and an end.
This ending song is insincere in expressing and celebrating the beauty of "My Father and Mother"'s feelings about love, youth and memory. Its structure and orchestration are also perfect for the emotional tone of the whole film. Hearing this piece of music, the figure of Zhaodi wearing a red padded jacket with a smile on her face will appear in front of her eyes, and the song contains deep lingering emotions. For love and life memories, this rich feeling mixed with happiness, tranquility, innocence, beauty and sadness is fully expressed by this piece of music.
The music of "My Father and Mother" perfectly matches the emotion, age, region, plot, picture and overall sound style of the film, and its melody contains youth, love and admiration for the natural environment . There is also a strong narrative and lyricism, which has made a good contrast and protection for the implicit, warm and loving tone of the film. This is a film with very few lines, but its music expresses emotions far beyond words.
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