音乐想象力
[ 文：尚怡 ]
在学习音乐的过程中，音乐想象力(musical imagination)是非常重要的，没有想象力的演奏是没有什么生命力可言的。当一个学生成长到中学或大学，而对练琴的概念只限于基本功技术，泛泛的音乐处理，或模仿一些大师的录音等等，那么这位学生的演奏无疑会走入瓶颈。即使读了很多书，有很多作曲技法、结构分析的知识，若不注重这方面的发展，也无法产生本质上的突破。培养音乐想象力是越早越好，很多幼小孩童所表现出的丰富的想象常常令大人觉得是匪夷所思，而一个普遍的现象是，当年龄渐长，孩子们的想象力却日益衰退，最终成为充满知识的机器，如果是学音乐的，则是万事具备、只欠“东风”(音乐的本相-生命)的音乐家。近些年来，我都在尝试从学生学琴的最初级阶段开始，就培养他们的音乐想象力，用口头描述、绘画、写作、即兴演奏等方式让孩子们自己诠释他们所练习的曲子，效果非常好，也使课堂上的那几十分钟变得那么活泼、有趣，以至一些孩子被上课的魅力所吸引，即使有时在家不大情愿练琴，可一想到不练好就无法上好课，也就乖乖地练下去了。有时，当我知道某个学生很爱画画，我就会给他布置一个“特殊作业”，请他回家后把正在练的一首曲子画下来，一周后交给我，我们会有一个简短的讨论，然后，再让他把那幅画弹出来给我听。有时，我会让学生在课上随意想出一个词或一句话，然后请他在琴上用我事先告诉他的调性、节奏型等即兴弹奏，我在另一架琴上用一个固定的和声组合为他伴奏，连奏或断奏、强或若、快或慢都根据他对语言的想象而随时调整。还有的时候，就学生自己弹的或是我弹给他听的一段曲子，我让他说出象什么，一句话，一个词都可以。曾经一个五岁的小男生在我发问后，沉思良久，然后答“fall”(秋天)，我想想，那曲子还真是有点红枫秋日的意境。
下面所选载的是九岁女孩Amy 最近写的一篇故事，是她在弹柯普兰的“猫和老鼠”的过程当中，我要求她用自己的想象，根据音乐的进行及全曲每个部分的速度、力度、表情等记号，写出一个故事，然后，把这故事弹给我听。在写了这个故事之后仅一、两周之内，虽然演奏上仍有许多细节要琢磨，但很明显的，她的音乐活了。
Amy’s interpretation of Copland’s The Cat And The Mouse
by Amy Wann
Once upon a time, there was a cat who always wanted to catch a mouse, but never did. One day, he managed to find him. “Here’s my chance,” he thought. With a good, high leap , he missed the mouse by two millimeters! The cat ran after the mouse with all his might , with the mouse never far ahead. When the cat was getting a bit tired, he sat down to think and rest. The mouse was puzzled. It had expected the cat to chase it some more. The cat saw a slide , with the mouse in front of it. He had an idea. The cat got up slowly, ready to pounce. He ran up a slide and slid down super fast, his paw actually touched the mouse’s tail ! Nevertheless, the mouse escaped, as always. They chased around. The cat was sliding so fast that he slid on a keyboard and didn’t even stop or at least slow down! He slid far to the edge of the keyboard and finally stopped on the next to last key. The cat , who was very tired after this exciting adventure, managed to swagger on the very last key, and slumped down to take a nap. A short while later, the cat had lost sight of the mouse he had been chasing. “Oh, great!” he muttered. He got up and looked around. He saw a tiny mouse, creeping along the floor. Yes! It was the mouse he had been chasing!! The cat tiptoed over. The mouse was far away from him, but he took his time. POUNCE!!!!!!!! The cat almost caught the mouse!!!!! The cat tiptoed away, trying to think of another idea. The cat slid across the shiny wood floor, and pounced three times. POW!!! POW!!! POW!!! The pouncing was SO loud that it made echoes in the house! The cat suddenly noticed the nice weather outside and thought, “Why didn’t I notice such good weather? Mouse-catching can wait. I want to go lie in the sun.” Minutes later, the cat woke up from his dreaming and
remembered the fact that the mouse was not yet caught, and he needed to work on catching the mouse. Thinking about how to catch the fast mouse, he tiptoed over. WHAM!!! He had started chasing the mouse as soon as it saw it. They chased around and around and around. The cat was creeping along the floor quietly, and he was moving ever so slightly. POW!!! POW!!! POW!!! The cat pounced very far three times. Next he ran toward the piano and took 7 climbs to get on top to the keyboard. The cat JUMPED in the AIR, landed on the very first key, and started sliding! He slid all the way down to the end of the keyboard, jumped off and started chasing the tired mouse. The mouse, who was tired , tried one last trick on the sly cat: It ran zig-zagged across the wooden floor, hoping to confuse the cat. But it almost made no difference to it . POUNCE !!! POUNCE!!! POUNCE!!! POUNCE!!! The cat pounced 4 more times and almost caught the mouse! POUNCE!!!!! POUNCE!!!!! POUNCE!!!!!! POUNCE!!!!!!! Finally, the cat caught the pesky mouse! After the cat ate the mouse, he stopped to think: Maybe I shouldn’t have ate the mouse so quickly. But he crawled to his bed and fell asleep.
The End
