如果閣下很年輕﹐不是台灣出來的﹐不喜歡看電影﹐對古典音樂沒興趣﹐那你很可能不知道我這篇文章在談什麼﹐但如果閣下喜歡古典音樂﹐又身為「吾家有女初長成」的父母﹐那有部老電影你一定要去找來看﹐這部電影不但讓你有機會欣賞古典音樂中的精品﹐驚艷好萊塢最漂亮女明星之一的風華絕代﹐更出人意料的是這部電影間接證明了掌門人在《Happy Journey 小丫頭》那篇文章裡的理論非常正確。
Rhapsody 台灣翻譯成《狂想曲》﹐是 1954 年伊麗莎白泰勒主演的一部音樂片。伊麗莎白泰勒在兩部電影中最漂亮﹐黑白片是 A Place in The Sun《郎心如鐵》﹐ 彩色片就是這部《狂想曲》。我第一次看這部片子的時候﹐雖然年紀還小但印象非常深刻。什麼原因﹐我也不知道﹐電影中兩位男主角﹐伊麗莎白泰勒愛那個拉小提琴的愛得死去活來﹐而那個彈鋼琴的又愛伊麗莎白泰勒愛得自斷前途。同時﹐我也一直想知道電影中﹐小提琴家和鋼琴家在演奏會上﹐用很長的時間演奏的究竟是那兩支曲子(現在在 Youtube 上都可以找到)。
來美國後﹐開始因為不知道這部電影的英文名稱是什麼﹐後來為別的比較重要的事情忙﹐於是把想重看這部電影的事給忘了。有段時期老回台灣﹐在「光華市場」附近賣盜版老電影的鋪子裡想找這部電影也找不到。直到盜版被禁﹐光華市場沒了﹐台灣也不常回﹐一晃幾十年就過去了。最近在電視上終於有機會把這部電影從頭到尾好好再看一遍﹐結論是﹕在那麼多以古典音樂為主題的電影中﹐包括以約翰史特勞斯生平為主的《翠堤春曉》﹐以修曼﹐克拉拉﹐布拉姆斯三人故事為主的 The Song of Love﹐得奧斯卡獎的《莫扎特傳》(Amadeus)﹐以李斯特故事為主的 Song Without End﹐和蕭邦故事為主的 A Song to Remember﹐如果要我只能選一部看的話﹐我選《狂想曲》。
《狂想曲》中用將近 8 分半鐘的時間演奏柴可夫斯基的《 D 大調小提琴協奏曲》﹐這支D 大調是古典音樂中有名的 “3 D”之一﹐出現在電影裡的次數不少﹐最有名的鏡頭是在 The Right Stuff 裡當太空人穿上太空裝一字排開﹐大步向前而行時響起的背景音樂。電影中更用了將近 10 分鐘演奏拉哈馬尼諾夫(Rachmaninoff)有名的《第二號鋼琴協奏曲》。這隻曲子﹐剛柔並濟﹐收尾時氣勢磅礡﹐和電影中第二號男主角的內心感受﹐非常吻合。如果記得不錯的話﹐瑪麗蓮夢路的經典喜劇《七年之癢》中﹐居然也出現過這支協奏曲。我一直有些終生無解的問題﹕我喜歡小提琴多過鋼琴﹖還是喜歡鋼琴音樂更多﹖鋼琴家和小提琴家﹐誰比較偉大﹖如果兩者對決﹐誰是贏家﹖這部電影倒有點像小提琴決戰鋼琴的味道﹐重看這部電影﹐我更相信我的答案就是沒有答案 -- 我喜歡小提琴的音樂和喜歡鋼琴的一樣多。
我第一次看這部電影的時候﹐不知道電影裡有孟德爾遜的《 E 小調小提琴協奏曲》﹐布魯克的《蘇格蘭幻想曲》﹐薩拉沙蒂的《流浪者之歌》。這些曲子都是喜歡小提琴者的最愛。但這部電影中除了音樂動人外﹐它的劇情幾乎是回應我在《Happy Journey 小丫頭》裡提出的理論。那篇《Happy Journey 小丫頭》的文章﹐是我女兒高中畢業時寫給她的。文章中我建議女孩子在擇偶上應該選愛她多過她愛的男孩子。在選擇職業上﹐應該聽心 (heart) 說什麼﹐而不是聽頭 (head) 說什麼。
前不久﹐我的一位朋友﹐她本人是學理工科的博士﹐說她朋友把這篇文章寄給她﹐我朋友問我﹕「你對兒子的建議也是和你給你女兒的建議一樣的嗎﹖ 」我聽後笑著說﹕「原則上應該是一樣的吧」。我知道她問這句話的意思﹐在我的建議中﹐女孩似乎不需要太在乎事業﹐也勿需賺錢養家。這問題不是三言兩語可以回答的﹐但是女兒擇偶﹐選愛她多過她愛的絕對是正確的建議。男人和女人最大的不同是男人需要的是了解﹐女人需要的是愛。《狂想曲》電影中那個拉小提琴的問伊麗莎白泰勒﹐妳究竟要我怎樣﹖伊麗莎白泰勒說﹕我要你需要 (need) 我像我需要你一樣多。那個男的對音樂的愛﹐和琴藝的追求超過一切﹐難怪兩人的愛情不會有結果。
懷南補記﹕如果你像我一樣喜歡音樂片﹐你會很欣賞我這篇文章的資訊﹐如果你不喜歡音樂片﹐這篇文章你可以不看。不過話說回來﹐如果你年過 50﹐只對阿扁的兒子是不是曾經召妓這樣的議題有興趣﹐我建議你可以考量開始喜歡一些比較美麗﹐比較軟性﹐比較有深度的東西。這對你是比較有好處的。為了省你的事﹐我把《狂想曲》裡兩段音樂演奏的片段放在下面。喜歡古典音樂的朋友可以去看/聽。本來想直接連上﹐但沒有成功﹐請輸入 Rhapsody Liz Taylor 到 youtube.com 。然後click "Favorite scene from the movie (II) "和 "Favorite scene from the movie (IV) ". 雖然有些麻煩﹐還是值得的。 Hope you like it.
懷南補補記 (7/30/10)﹕文章上網後收到一位讀者的長信頗值得與各位朋友分享。藍色字是我的回應﹕
Dear Mark,
Thanks for spending time to write me a long letter. I hope you won't mind my "q & d" (quick and dirty) way to reply some of your comments:
I have read your “寫給老影迷看的”. It is a very good article. I really enjoy reading it. Here is my comment.
I agree with you on the statement “男人和女人最大的不同是男人需要的是了解﹐女人需要的是愛”. Logically, this leads to the statement “我建議女孩子在擇偶上應該選愛她多過她愛的男孩子”. If this is a theorem, then the corollary is “我建議男孩子在擇偶上應該選了解他多過他了解的女孩子”.
(I totally agree. However, when we were young, we either thought that she understood us or we didn't see "understanding" was such an important requirement)
I watched the movie “Rhapsody” long time ago. However, I like “Song of Love” more for some reason. Anyway, each move is unique & just hard to say which one is better.
(and that's why in my writing, I rarely used the more absolute and subjective words such as "good" or "bad". I was very careful and tried to tune down my opinion by using words such as "I like" or "I don't like" to give some space.)
Like you said, here I use heart instead of head. The music played in the movie & all the music you mentioned are all classic, good & great. If I can only choose one I like most for piano & violin, here is my pick: Beethoven’s Piano Concerto #5 (Emperor) & Brahms’ Violin Concerto.
(I like both very much. For your information, I wrote and listed my favorites pieces in one of my essays)
As to which instrument is greater, Piano or Violin? Indeed there is no answer. The better question to ask is “Which one is more influential, Piano or Violin?” For this, my answer is Piano.
(Since I have no talent of any music instrument, I often wonder which instrument is hardest to learn?)
I feel that the fingertips are the most sensitive parts of human body. When you play piano, your whole body is in free mode & you have ten fingers at your command & service. You can also use your feet to accent and enhance tonal effect (three foot pedals). You can exert almost whole body weight on the keyboard. From this viewpoint, piano is really the most effective instrument to express & convey your emotion. Violin is a very effective instrument too, however, the player uses five fingers only. The side way string movement is another way to convey emotion. The question here is which one is more expressive, five fingers or the arm? From my viewpoint, five fingers are more flexible & powerful than a single arm. After all, you also use both arms in playing piano. In playing violin, you fix your chin on the instrument & don’t use your feet at all. In other words, you body is not completely free. In fact, most composers use piano as the main tool in composing music. However, we must mention some advantages of violin such as more portable & extensive use in the orchestra. I’d say the best combination for musicians is to be able to play both piano & violin since both of them are unique & complement each other. But if you want me to pick one & only one as the most influential, I say Piano, period.
(about 20 years ago during my peak years of playing tennis, one of my friends asked me whether I'd prefer to play tennis at US Open or to know how to play piano. I said playing piano, and all my friends were surprised by my answer. Obviously, you know how to play music instrument. I envy you)
I used to write blogs for my class of NTU. Recently (July 8, 2010), I wrote one related to Chopin & Schumann. It touched the movies you mentioned in your article. I like music as you do. However I had hard time to share or discuss music with my friends by email or letter since there is no audio. Thanks to YouTube, it is an effective tool that solves my problem. I sort of feel sorry for the people in Mainland China since they can’t access YouTube.
(I did know they can't access to Youtube, what a shame)
Here are some excerpts of my blog (hope you enjoy reading it):
Both Chopin & Schumann were born in 1810 & so this year, 2010, is their two hundredth anniversary of birth, a bicentennial celebration. It is proper & fitting to say something about them.
Chopin is popular in his piano music. Sometime he is called 鋼琴詩人. In fact he composed no symphonies, operas & very little orchestral work. His virtuoso is in the piano works. He is considered the most non-German of all great composers.
(Oh Oh, the greatest non-German composer is (was) Tchaikovsky)
Chopin had an interesting encounter with George Sand. 桑女士 , a woman frequently wore man’s clothes & indeed intended to act like a man. She wrote many novels quite popular at her time. Chopin was under her spell until he died. The fortunate things coming out of this perhaps was some of his brilliant piano works dedicated to her. Chopin’s famous music form, etude, is unique. The etude (練習曲) is a piano work written for students. However some of them are very good & romantic. Chopin Etude op.10 no.3, Tristesse (Sadness, 離別曲) is one of them. The title’ Tristesse’ was added later by publisher because of Chopin’s nostalgic mood to his homeland. His another romantic piano piece is Andante Spianato in G, Opus 22. I never heard this one in Taiwan. I heard it the first time on radio several years ago. This is one of his most romantic piano works. There are several movies from Hollywood for Chopin. “A Song to Remember” (中文 title: 一曲難忘, 1945) is one of them. I have seen VHS video released for this movie, but can’t find it on DVD, not in Netflix either. I did find some video clips from YouTube.
Chopin Met Liszt in Paris, a clip from ‘A Song to Remember’
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aDnNJ6aEWc&feature=related
A clip from ‘A Song to Remember’, a performance staged by George Sand & Franz Liszt. It was supposed to be played by Liszt. Instead Chopin played in the dark, a surprise to the audiences.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqdy4GXSh-E&feature=related
Concert Tour Highlights, samples of his great music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whqxHIeSGn0&feature=related
Chopin: Etude op.10 no.3, Tristesse (Sadness, 離別曲), played by Kempf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKTfcX8NbaM&feature=related
Chopin: Andante Spianato (click button on the left side of ‘views’ to see more explanation)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5G4HBRsHx4
Schumann is considered to be the most romantic of the Romantics. We often heard some of his tunes in the school, for example, the happy peasant 快樂的農夫, tramarel(夢幻曲) etc. He is unique among most composers that he also wrote music critic, encouraged & supported the late comers. His writings about music (in high quality) appeared mostly in the Neue Zeitschrift f r Musik ("The New Journal for Music"), a publication that he jointly founded. His romantic encounter with Clara Wick was well known. His most popular works include Symphony #1(Spring), #3(Rhenish), Carnaval, many songs, piano work Traumerei, Fantasy in C, concerto in A minor etc.
As a person, Schumann is much more controlled & dedicated to what he wants & what he think is right. He pursued Clara with zeal & dedication is far more respected than the weak & meek behavior of Chopin’s dealing with George Sand. Schumann was also quick in recognition of a genius & gave the approval. Instead Chopin seemed in failure to recognize the merit of Schumann’s work ‘Carnaval’. Hollywood likes romantic story. The movie ‘Sound of Love’ (1947) is for Robert & Clara Schumann. Same as ‘A Song to Remember’, I couldn’t find it in Netflix. However, I did find it in YouTube. Some of the music mentioned above can be found in the following links:
Happy Peasant (快樂的農夫), a tune we heard in the elementary school
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKmpQjjQOBA&feature=related
The beginning of the movie 'Sound of Love'
Ironically, the opening theme is the piano concerto #1 of Franz Liszt, not Schumann.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP_iU-lcZ5Y&feature=related
Widmung (Dedication) from ‘Sound of Love’
Here we listen to two versions of Widmung, the original one from Schumann & arranged version by Liszt. It seemed Clara didn’t like the Liszt version at all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3eOggcKLqk
Waltz by Brahms (for the introduction to the next link ‘Brahms & Clara’)
This waltz is one of the most romantic works by Brahms.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJcoaIeH3GI&feature=related
Brahms & Clara from ‘Sound of Love’
The melody of Brahms’s waltz showed up at 1:54 & Brahms proposed to marry Clara. However, the fate intervened at 4:18. Widmung, the song Schumann dedicated to Clara showed up. Brahms realized that was the end of the affair, an affair to remember. This is the most romantic & poetic moment of the movie. (By the way, from 6:35 to 9:06 is the famous Piano Concerto in A Minor by Schumann. 6:35-7:27 is 1st movement, 7:28-9:06 is 3rd movement.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm-Zh0R6nMY&feature=related
By the way, 0-1:00 of this clip is the 2nd movement of symphony #1 by Brahms. I paid little attention to this movement before. After watching this movie, I realized this is really a very romantic movement Brahms had ever composed.
Traumerei & the end of the movie 'Song of Love'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V35e5MNjLJI&feature=related
Widmung (Dedication, Liszt’s version) played by Lang Lang
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBdffJHZ2LM
Thanks for the information. They are pearls in the eyes of music lovers. A word of warming from 掌門人﹐天下很多故事都是美麗的謊言。 這的確是個殘酷的事實.