曹本冶教授《民族音乐学理论与方法》――记谱分析课堂综述之十

作者:发布时间:2008-06-29

时间:2008526日星期一

地点:E研究院512

授课教师:曹本冶教授 

参与同学:林莉君、黄婉、高贺杰、齐江、廖松清、关怡宁、李松兰、文君、邹婧、谢晶晶

 

主讲报告人:陈超(博士研究生)

 

10Frigyesi, Judit. 1993. “Preliminary Thoughts toward the Study of Music without Clear Beat: The Example of ‘Flowing Rhythm in Jueish Nusah,” Asian Music XXIV (2): 59-88.

 

作者简介:以色列人,女,音乐人类学家、音乐学家,是比较早把音乐和文学放在一起考虑的人。在布达佩斯上的大学,研究了东欧的犹太音乐,是唯一一个系统研究大屠杀之后东欧共产党政权之下的犹太音乐的学者。

 

除了简短的引言之外,文章主要分成两大部分,一是在metric和自由节奏之间思考没有清晰节拍音乐的定义并进行研究;一是以犹太音乐为例,研究了西方传统之外的音乐文化中流动节奏的重要性。

首先来看引言部分,它提出了研究该问题的历史源流以及研究该问题的重要性。作者认为:自由节奏现象一直是学者们极感兴趣的话题。同时指出,也许正是由于时间的不精确性使得学者对自由节奏很感兴趣,但也使得无法对它进行仔细的分析。作者认为,对自由节奏的研究不仅从理论的观点来看是值得注意的,它更是我们理解西方传统之外音乐文化的根本。

第一部分,作者针对西方历史上出现的对所谓没有清晰节拍音乐所进行的定义和研究,在梳理历史的同时,提出了过去这些称谓的矛盾和困难所在,并提出了自己的建议。

作者认为,尽管对节奏的研究远不及对调性结构的研究完善和深刻,但西方音乐的历史中有关节奏的主要话题到18世纪也出现了。节奏分析是节奏的前提,因为记谱是基于节奏结构的视觉呈现。但是,记谱和演奏之间是存在着差异的,乐谱如何演奏出来得根据特定的类型(genre)、曲式(form)和风格(style)来确定,而这一切又不是记谱所能够展现的。比如,仅用记谱法就无法表达强音、重音和缓急法(agogic)等风格。

不过,记谱法虽然不是很完美的,但它呈现的是音乐创作的所有基本特征,其原因是乐谱就是表演的出发点。于是出现了所谓暗示性的记谱法。这种表演训练依赖于复杂的口头传统,它包括作品结构的传授也包括那些适当的结构手法。

综上所述,记谱法并不表达表演的真实节奏。然而,它影响了作品基本的、潜在的节奏结构,因此也成了分析讨论的相关起始点。西方的节奏研究产生了很多视觉呈现时间经验的抽象概念的理论,但当运用于音乐时,这些理论不能充分地证明哪个主要是口头的或者哪个没有清晰的节奏。但乐谱又为西方音乐的学派提供了节奏方案的可普遍接受的概念。记谱成为了分析的一种方式,也具备深度分析的可能性,但其自身的不完善性使得记录自由节奏有了难度。主要是因为我们习惯于将分析建立在对规整节拍(metric)研究的基础之上。当然,这是可以理解的,因为在过去的很多年里,在规整节拍中产生了多于自由节奏中的类型(genres)。不过,尽管如此,实际上自由节奏一直都在我们身边出现,殊不见,康塔塔、受难曲和那些法国、意大利歌剧中的宣叙调,协奏曲的华彩段、贝多芬作品的乐器宣叙调等等。但自由节奏在欧洲作曲家的传作中很少出现,因此发展很小。

那么,究竟什么是metric节奏呢?尽管metric节奏的很多特点还没有得到分析,但关于是什么组成了metricity这里有一致意见:在metric音乐中,我们感觉到一系列规则的、不断再现的节拍,这种节拍通常不止表现于一个层次。但是,这种metric的结构是处于某种抽象层面的,在实际的演奏中总是会偏离这些规则的节拍的。而偏离的程度则导致了风格(style)和类型(genre)的不同。因此,从某种意义上来说,所有的metric节奏都是一种giusto或者自由速度(rubato)。

我们不应该将自由节奏当作是metric节奏的对立面一样来定义,因为尽管自由节奏暗指节奏的结构是无周期性的,但事实上,这样的节奏是很稀有的。因为尽管绝大多数所谓的自由节奏是不完全的metric,但它们也不完全的自由。

因此,有学者认为可以在完全的metric节奏和完全的nonmetric节奏之间寻找一个中间的概念,这样才可以作为理解西方音乐传统之外的其他许多音乐文化。在许多非西方的音乐文化传统中,通常会通过改变节奏而使得风格有所转变。

但我们不能因此而断定nonmetric节奏是暗含着即兴性的,不能因为在自由的演奏中看似缺少了metricity或把规整节拍的缺失,和缺少清晰的定义和风格文化界限同等看待。实际上,自由节奏和即兴之间的联系并不是那么简单的:自由节奏的模式适应性很强、用途广泛,metric音乐也可以被即兴创作。某种自由节奏风格根本不是即兴的,并且几乎所有的自由节奏即使完全是即兴创作的作品,也是传统所能接受的框架:个体演奏者最初的想法是被认识到的。

所以,仅从metricity观点的角度考虑问题就显得过于简单了,换句话说,就像仅根据它如何接近或远离metric节奏来说明自由一样。有时候,某种节奏模式的出现并不是偶然的,也许和语言有着紧密的联系,甚至绝大多数声乐类型(genre)的节奏风格(style),都受到言语的影响。但它们又不是简单地模仿语言节奏,因此对风格下定义是困难的事情。

同时,自由节奏结构多样化的重要性并不低于那些metric节奏。我们从对西方艺术音乐的研究得知,即使在有延续的音乐传统中,也有多种多样的节奏风格;有时候即使它们都是metric,在一种风格中暴露出的节奏的一些方面和另一种风格的节奏方面也是没有关联的。

因此,就自由节奏这个术语而言,是存在着很多问题的,而真正对于该术语的混乱是来自于自由的(free这个词的使用。我们很容易将自由节奏free rhythm)(它是指没有清晰节拍的节奏结构)和节奏的自由rhythmic freedom)(它是指创作或演奏习俗的节奏使用手段约束的自由)混淆。“nonmetric”的称谓也会引起误解,因为它意味着某些东西的缺乏和一些偏离了正常的东西。基于以上的论述和考虑,作者建议将流动节奏flowing rhythm)作为一个术语考虑(以代替前面相关的自由节奏的称谓)。

第二部分,作者则以自己对犹太音乐的研究为例,提出西方传统之外的音乐文化中流动节奏的重要性。因为,节奏现象一般被认为是不重要和偶然的,但却可能成为乐曲的特殊风格,而这对揭示文化-音乐关系非常有用。

对犹太音乐而言,其中流动节奏的重要性表明了它是中东音乐传统的一部分。自由节奏经常作为仪式音乐的主要甚至全部材料,其重要性不仅是因为材料的多少来决定,而是它们更多地表现在不同的状态中,它们强调、突出了歌词的部分;它们也使得仪式活动的形式生动而清楚。反而使得那些也会出现于仪式音乐中的metric成了可以被忽略或者替代的插入部分。

接着,作者专门以犹太仪式活动中nusah一词的使用表达了这样的观点。Nusah的意思就是根据特定的仪式活动功能和当地习俗所产生的传统(歌唱)方式。每一个圣假日的每一个仪式活动都有自己的nusah,并且一些牧师也有他们自己的旋律。Nusah不是固定的。一些仪式活动(歌词)可以比其他的活动更自由一些;在一些例子中nusah暗示了旋律的类型(type),在另一些例子中仅仅是音调的框架。领唱者要么被说成是有漂亮的nusah”要么因为他们不懂nusah”而被批评。然而,只有流动节奏旋律有资格(这么评价)。从未听人将metric音调称为“nusah”。但是metric音调可以被忽略或取代,nusah是不可或缺的——如果缺失了nusah的话就没有仪式。

作者发现这个音乐基本上是即兴的:旋律几乎不固定,节奏轮廓(线条)是由歌唱者在现场形成的,有时几乎是因为歌词和场景引发他情感状态的自然流露。然而,表演的基本风格是由礼拜仪式的功能来定义的,和旋律轮廓是如何由nusah体系定义类似。事实上,在旋律-情感体系中,nusah如果不依赖节奏风格体系是不能被理解的,或者更好地说,nusah的概念也包含了节奏因素:旋律的实现是和节奏有内在关联的。

对于局外人而言,也许得通过分析才能区别不同仪式中所用乐曲在风格上的差异。而对局内人而言,在每一种节奏风格内,都有各种各样本土和个人的变体。当然,个人演绎的可能性是由礼拜仪式的功能掌控和限制的。节奏风格的选择有时候也依赖于当地传统,会众的规模、领唱者个人的志向,最重要的是要依赖于对在整体上对仪式整体风格有一致意见。在犹太音乐的流动节奏风格中nusah是最灵活的,允许即兴创作和个人的表达。但是它一直在流动节奏中并在旋律和节奏上服从nusah这个词本身所指对的复杂体系。

最后,作者总结道:绝大多数的曲目,无论我们是否把它们考虑成是metric或者自由节奏的,事实上,它们都包括各种各样独特的节奏风格,这些风格的特点对于表演者和听众而言是显而易见的。这些节奏的细微之处被一代代传下去,并且成了伟大传统不可分离的一部分,它的重要程度并不亚于调性结构。在表演的传统类型中,节奏风格在定义风格(genres)、类型和音乐分类时常常是极其重要的。如果我们将节奏风格的问题放在一边,我们也许会忽略一些东西——这些东西根深蒂固地植于绝大多数音乐文化概念的中心。

 

陈超的阅读体会:

1、我似乎从未考虑过将自由节奏与风格联系在一起来考虑,好像风格是和乐曲旋律或者调性等有关系的,却忽略了有时候节奏的改变就可以变化风格;而这个不仅是对文中作者所提到的犹太仪式音乐的研究而言非常重要,对于中国民间音乐的研究而言也是非常之重要;

2、尽管记谱法对记录一种风格尚存在一定的局限,但它却是局外人了解一种文化的基础,只有先通过一些这样的分析才能切入对一种文化的理解;当然不可否认的是,风格往往是在口耳相传的传承中才能得到更好地体现;同时,风格也是非常个人化的一种东西,因此,有时候也应该算是一种即兴吧;

3、作者尽管提到了自由节奏和风格的研究是理解一种文化的关键,但她并未能提出更为有效的解决记谱和实际演奏之间存在差异的方法。

 

曹老师的点评:

l           文章在前言部分,谈的是西方概念里的节奏自由和节奏自由性的问题。接下来,作者提出其问题;第二部分讲的是节奏同自由节奏之间定义的问题,一是乐谱与演奏的关系——即书写同口传的关系;二是西方对于节奏性的概念;三是犹太教仪式唱诵中“free rhythm”中节奏和语言的关系;然后作者提出了自己的用词“flowing rhythm”(流动节奏);接着用此来解释犹太教仪式唱诵的结构。文章最后是小结,没有真正的结论。

Introduction

l               Western interest and concept on free rhythm

l               Questions involved in the concept of free rhythm

Metric and Free Rhythm: Problems of Definition and Study (Issues of rhythm and rhythmic theory)

l               Score vs performing tradition: written vs oral: theory of Western music vs oral traditions of non-Western music

l               Western concept of metricity

l               Free rhythm

l               Improvisation

l               Rhythm and speech

l               Free rhythm, rhythmic freedom, nonmetric, & flowing rhythm

Flowing Rhythm in Music Outside of the Western Tradition: the Case of Jewish Music

l               Flowing rhythm in nusah of Jewish music

Concluding Remarks

 

l           按上列的文章结构,以下是曹老师希望同学在各节中注意的段落:  

Metric and Free Rhythm: Problems of Definition and Study (Issues of rhythm and rhythmic theory)

此段书写颇为长气,所说实际便是C. Seeger早已提出的有关记谱之prescriptive and descriptive 问题。

p. 60

New results and novel approaches notwithstanding, the underlying premise of rhythmic analysis did not change: theories of rhythm continue to be based on notation, that is, on visual representation of rhythmic structures…The discrepancy between score and performing tradition has always been a known fact of the Western tradition. The knowledge of how the score should be executed according to the given genre, form, and style has been transmitted from teacher to student, from generation to generation.

It can be said, then, that the manner of translating the visual signs into an auditory experience…is the oral tradition of Western music…. Actual rhythm is inconceivable outside of the auditory sphere…. As performers and composers seek repeatedly to base the unique and transforming nature of the musical experience upon the schematic visual signs, so they reveal at the same time how doomed to inadequacy such a system is.

p. 61

At the same time and seemingly as a contradiction, it was a consensus for centuries that notation, however imperfect it might have been, represented nevertheless all essential aspects of the musical composition. There was remarkably little fundamental development in notation since the Baroque era until very recent times….

We are dealing here with something that could be called “suggestive” notation. Its performing practice relies on a complex oral tradition which includes teachings about the structure of the piece as well as those about the proper execution of the structure.

p. 62

…methodological difference: in Western music, theories may choose to deal with the interpretation of rhythmic structures which had been by and large agreed upon (and represented in the notation) whereas, in the oral tradition, the interpretation cannot be based on a similarly clear consensus.

所以,(1)自西方古典音乐传统自身提炼出来的“理论”适用于对此音乐的研究,因为它是自身文化中的;(2)但我们不能期望这些理论一定合用于对世界其他音乐传统的研究(民族音乐学一直强调不能用这种“西方”理论概用于其他体系的音乐文化);(3)同样,源自较“远”局内的西方民族音乐学学者为解决他们对“他者”音乐传统研究的问题而建构的“理论”,是否一定合用于较“近”局内的本土学者对自身音乐传统的研究呢?(4)又,人类学、社会学、语言学等学科为解决他们自己学科所专注的课题而建构的“理论”,是否一定合用于音乐学属性的民族音乐学对解决“音乐”问题的研究呢?

l           Western concept of metricity

p. 63

…there is a consensus about what constitutes metricity. It is generally agreed that in metric music we sense a series of regularly recurring beats which normally appear on more than one hierarchical level. The perception of meter involves an awareness of the regular grouping of various metric accents, of the recurrences of relatively accented and unaccented beats…. the meter is a continuous, underlying element of musical temporality….

       The metric structure is essentially an abstraction: the performance always deviates from the imaginary, exactly regular beats…. In a sense, all metric rhythms are a kind of giusto or rubato.

l           Free rhythm

p. 64

…opposite of metric rhythm, free rhythm (or non-metric rhythm) would imply a rhythmic structure in which no periodicity whatsoever is perceivable. In reality, such rhythmic progression is extremely rare…. The difficulty lies in the fact that although most of the so-called free rhythms are not entirely metric, they are not entirely free either….

l           Improvisation

p. 65

It is important to dispel the generally held notion that nonmetric rhythm necessarily implies improvisation. There is no reason to assume that lack of metricity results from the freedom of the performance, to equate the absence of regular beat with the absence of a clearly defined and culturally bound style. The connection between rhythmic freedom and improvisation is by no means so straightforward: patterns of free rhythm can be entirely fixed and, vice versa, metric music can be improvised as well. Certain free rhythm genres are not improvisatory at all, and almost all of them, even the fully improvised ones, follow a traditionally accepted framework within which the original ideas of the individual performer are realized.

l           Rhythm and speech

l           Free rhythm, rhythmic freedom, nonmetric, & flowing rhythm

pp. 66 – 67

The term "free rhythm" therefore proves to be problematic…. It is not entirely acceptable even in its narrower sense, meaning “free of regular beat,” since in most cases there is some kind of beat present in the performance…. The real confusion…results from the fact that the word “free” cannot be divorced from its colloquial meaning, its allusion to “freedom” in a more general sense. It is only too easy to confuse “free rhythm” -- that is, rhythmic structure without clear beat -- with “rhythmic freedom” -- that is, rhythmic device free of constraints of compositional or performing conventions…. The designation “nonmetric” is equally misleading for it implies the “lack” of something, some deviation from the “normal”…. it would be better to dispense with either the terms “free” or “nonmetric”: I suggest “flowing rhythm” as a tentative term.

Flowing Rhythm in Music Outside of the Western Tradition: the Case of Jewish Music

l           Flowing rhythm in nusah of Jewish music

p. 77

       As we have seen, the melodic and structural features of the nusah are realized through their interrelatedness to rhythm. What is transmitted as the “traditional way of reciting” is not merely a melodic framework but a complex stylistic entity that includes structural principles and various aspects of rhythmic and performing style all of which together define the boundaries of nusah. There are no general rules regarding the fixed and free elements; what is personal choice in one case, may be part of the definition of the nusah in another. Among the flowing rhythm styles of Jewish music that is, all the genres of sacred readings… the nusah is the most flexible, allowing for improvisation and personal expression. But however flexible the nusah may be, its stylistic boundaries are clearly defined: it is always in flowing rhythm and complies melodically and rhythmically with that complex system that the word nusah itself refers to. Rhythmically, individual expression manifests itself within the boundaries of flowing rhythm, through subtle differences of the rhythmic style.

此处所说,类同我所用的“fixity” and “flexibility”——定与活,或固定与非固定两极变量思维。

Concluding Remarks

p. 78

       Most musical repertoires, ...metric or in “free rhythm,” consist…of a variety of distinct rhythmic styles whose individual character is often immediately apparent to both performer and listener. These rhythmic subtleties have been handed down from generation to generation, … an inseparable part of the Great tradition, no less important than tonal structures. The rhythmic structure that manifests itself in an individual performance is rarely entirely improvised… musicians conform to pre-existent types and styles of rhythm as much as they follow melodic styles and types, and the rhythmic style is often crucial in defining genres, types, and categories of music.