Wang Guowei divided the scenes described in ancient Chinese poetry into two types: the realm of selflessness and the realm of self. Taking the description of snow scenes as an example, Wang Wei's "sprinkling the sky with deep alleys and quietness, and accumulating dust in the wide courtyards" means that snowflakes are flying in the deserted streets, and thick white snow piles up on the ground in the blink of an eye, writing a kind of emptiness and open-mindedness. The Zen state of mind is the state of selflessness. Su Shi said, "Everywhere in life is similar, it should be like a flying dragon stepping on the snow mud." He used the paw prints of wild geese on the snow as a metaphor for the inevitable and accidental life, and used ordinary scenery to write his feelings about life, which belongs to the realm of self.
European literature in the 19th century was good at describing the state of self and embedding personal emotions in nature. This is the so-called "romanticism". Romantic poets first projected "spontaneous strong emotions" onto nature, then meditated and appreciated them in tranquility, and finally gave them poetic form. In this way, those emotions that don't know where they originate will have sustenance, and people will no longer feel lonely.
Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen", Byron's poetic drama "Manfred" and Robert Schumann's "Manfred" Overture also write about the state of me. After the ice and snow imagery, there are writers and artists Hot and sincere emotions.
Ⅰ The Ice and Snow Kingdom in Andersen’s Fairy Tales
"The Snow Queen" was written in December 1844. In "Perhaps Occasionally," a book about polar climate and human imagination, writer Francis Spafford believes that "The Snow Queen" is an ideal winter story. . In Denmark in winter, a heavy snow falls, and the familiar scenery becomes unfamiliar. Starting from this daily phenomenon, Andersen created a mysterious mythical world, but the core of the story is still the common theme of European mythology - the simple opposition of "warmth and indifference", "emotion and reason" and "wildness and humanity". Peter Davidson, author of "The Idea of the North" and a scholar at Oxford University, also believes that the Snow Queen's palace is "the center of symbolic and literal cold" and is diametrically opposed to all feelings of "warmth". The opposite of rationality is sensibility, just as ice and snow melt in the sun, the antidote to loneliness is love and communication between people.
The story begins with a naughty elf and a magic mirror he made - it is actually a frozen lake, which has the function of magnifying ugliness and minimizing beauty. Later, the mirror broke and the broken lenses flew through the air. If the broken lenses get into someone's eyes, they will turn a blind eye to beauty and be fond of ugliness; if they get into someone's heart, they will become indifferent to others and only desire abstract knowledge. The little boy Gay was one of these unfortunate people. He was eventually kidnapped to the Ice and Snow Kingdom, where there were about hundreds of palaces and the largest area was several miles in diameter. The blown snow piled up the palace walls, the knife-sharp whirlwind became the doors and windows, and the northern lights kept the lights there.
There is a large frozen lake in the Ice and Snow Kingdom, called the "Mirror of Reason". The lake is broken into a thousand pieces, each piece is exactly the same. The term "mirror of reason" brings us back to the beginning of the story. After reading this, we realize that this is a story about sensibility and rationality, and the following plot becomes clear. Gay, who had a broken lens in his eye, could not resist the charm of the Snow Queen and thought she was the cutest woman in the world. The broken lens pierced into his heart told him that rationality and knowledge were the qualities the Queen valued. To Gay's disappointment, all his efforts, whether it was the operation of integers and decimals or his extensive geographical knowledge, could only win a shallow smile from the Queen. It seemed that these were all too common. Gay is determined to challenge a jigsaw puzzle similar to a jigsaw puzzle - using ice cubes to spell out the word "eternal", trying to win the queen's attention and win an approving kiss. At the same time, Gay's good friend, the little girl Gerda, is going through all kinds of difficulties and dangers to find Gay. Gerda finally found the Queen's palace, and Gay was deeply moved by her courage and love, and a tender emotion arose in her heart, which melted the broken lenses in her eyes and heart. Jigsaw puzzles, the Snow Queen and the palace suddenly lost their appeal, and Gay and Gerda returned to their old lives together.
In the battle scene between Gerda and Snowflakes, Andersen made the snowflakes flying in the wind form an army. They "sometimes look like knotted snakes, sometimes like giant porcupines, and sometimes they turn into fat animals covered with hard hairs." Fat little bear". This army seemed powerful, but in fact it was vulnerable. It escaped without a trace in the hot breath of Gerda's breath.
In Andersen's writing, the Ice and Snow Kingdom, "a country further north than Lapland and Finland", is a metaphor for rationality: extreme weather, minimalist colors, extreme order and self-discipline. In this sense, the Ice and Snow Kingdom is beautiful. The magnificent ice and snow palaces are as breathtaking as their owners, and at the same time they are a fatal temptation. Writer Deborah Eisenberg made no secret of her admiration for the Snow Queen. She wrote in her article "The Dizziness of Self" that even after Gay saved the day and returned to a normal life, "we can't help but miss him." The buzzing sound of the sleigh that hijacked him, this sound once accompanied us and Gaye to soar through the sky, marveling at the dazzling beauty of the queen and the ice and snow kingdom, and being willing to pay the price for her illusory promises and kisses." She said that Andersen left Gay in the warm real world forever, but as readers, we are not bound by this. We can open Andersen's books at any time and relive the feelings and shocks that ice and snow bring to us again and again.
In fact, "The Snow Queen" is about Andersen's failed love affair. Gay in the story is Andersen himself, and the Snow Queen is based on soprano Jenny Lind, known as the "Swedish Nightingale". Linde was born in a poor family in Stockholm in 1820. He entered the Royal Swedish Opera House to study vocal music at the age of 9, and had the opportunity to perform on stage for the first time at the age of 10. In 1841, Lind resigned from his position at the Royal Swedish Opera House and went to France to study. In 1844, he went to Germany to develop. Linde was a popular figure at the time and was good friends with the composer Mendelssohn, the Schumanns and Berlioz. Andersen and Linde met in Copenhagen in 1840. Andersen often accompanied the singer during her tours in Berlin, Weimar, London and Vienna. From the winter of 1845 to 1846, the relationship between the two was very close. It is said that Andersen tried to propose to Linde, but unfortunately, the other party only regarded him as a "Danish brother". Probably in Andersen's mind, Linde is the cold ice queen.
Although the critics' evaluation of Linde reminds people of the character of the Snow Queen, in the eyes of the German composers Schumann and his wife, Linde was an enthusiastic person who provided help in times of need. The Schumanns' concert in Vienna in 1847 was met with mediocre response, but Linde's guest appearance in the final performance restored their reputation. Interestingly, in 1848, Schumann also created a musical "Manfred" set in a world of ice and snow, which was adapted from Byron's poetic drama of the same name.
Ⅱ "Manfred": The ice and snow world in the Alps
Byron's poetic drama "Manfred" was written in 1816. This year is a special year both in European history and in the life of the poet. In April 1815, the Tambora volcano in Indonesia erupted, affecting the climate throughout Europe for the next two years. The summer of 1816 was wet and cold, and was known as the "ash winter." Therefore, 1816 became the "year without summer." In this dark May of 1816, Byron suffered the failure of his marriage. In anger and disappointment, he left England and came to the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. There, Byron not only found Shelley, a poet also from England, but also met Voltaire and Rousseau. The cultural atmosphere that was completely different from that in Britain gave him the urge to write. In August 1816, Byron began to write "Man" Fred".
The creation of "Manfred" was mainly influenced by two factors, the most important of which came from the snow scene in the Alps. At the end of August, Byron went to Chamonix and Mont Blanc with his friends Hobhouse and Davis. In mid-to-late September, he and Hobhouse set off for the Bernese Oberland. He was struck by the view of the Jungfraujoch, which later became the setting for Manfred's story. Byron described the scenery on the Jungfraujoch in "A Travel to Augusta in the Alps". The poet felt that everything was "beautiful" and "like being in heaven." There are also some detailed descriptions, such as, "every five minutes you can hear the sound of avalanches around you", and the avalanche rushes down from the top of the mountain "like lightning".
Another influence is Goethe's "Faust". In the summer of 1816, the novelist Matthew Lewis translated some excerpts from Faust for Byron, which may have played a decisive role in Manfred's identity. Like Faust, Manfred was both a philosopher and a scientist, and his pursuit of reason and knowledge mirrored the characters in Goethe's works. "Manfred" tells the story of Manfred, a nobleman living in the Alps who was tortured because he caused the death of his lover Astarte. He summoned 7 elves with language abilities that were different from ordinary people, hoping to use them to contact Astarte's soul and gain her forgiveness. The elves were unable to satisfy Manfred's request, and fate prevented him from committing suicide to escape punishment. Manfred was left with only one option: religious salvation. However, the proud Manfred refused to surrender his soul to religion and chose the Alps as his final destination: "My happiness belongs to the wilderness here, and I only breathe/the thin air of the frozen mountain tops."
The ending of Manfred's story has a profound moral. From the external environment, his castle is located on the top of the Alps, surrounded by white snow and icebergs. Looking at the heart of the character, Manfred has an endless pursuit of knowledge and disdains emotions and secular life. In the third volume of "The Travels of Childe Harold" written at the same time, Byron called the top of the Alps "the palace of the gods of nature" and "the throne of the eternal king", and the people gathered there Icebergs and avalanches have a "spirit-expanding power, an awe-inspiring power." Literary critic Steven Zick believes that the Alps in the story of "Manfred" are not a specific geographical location, but a literary model, or an abstract philosophical concept, which he calls "psychological Sense and metaphysical correlate", characterized by "magnificence, freedom, unremitting improvement and loneliness", representing the science and reason to which Manfred devoted his life.
What's attractive about Manfred is his unwavering devotion to his ideals. There is a 19th-century watercolor painting called "Manfred on the Jungfraujoch" by the British painter John Martin. He painted the dramatic conflict between Manfred and the Alps from a bird's-eye perspective. On the left side of the painting are steep cliffs and bottomless valleys that are barren and spectacular. In the distance, snow-covered peaks stand abruptly, one level higher than the other, connecting with the endless clouds in the sky. On the right side of the painting, Manfred stands on the edge of the cliff, and the hunter is on one side of him. The two of them look weak and lonely in the huge mountain. However, the story of "Manfred" tells us that although a person's body is small, his spiritual realm can be unrestricted. From this point of view, Manfred, who lives in the Alps and does not know his own abilities, is more like a metaphor for the relationship between nature and mankind.
The scenery on Jungfrau also allowed Byron to see this relationship. He wrote his thoughts into "Manfred", giving precious emotional value to the glacier and snow scene. After coming out of the Alps, Byron couldn't hide his disappointment and wrote in his diary: "Coming out of the mountains, my diary will be as dull as the road."
Ⅲ The sound of ice and snow in Robert Schumann’s music
Perhaps due to the similarity and connection with "Faust", in Germany in the 1850s, "Manfred" had twice as many translations as Byron's other works. Composers living in Germany at that time were also very fond of Byron. French composer Berlioz's "Harold in Italy" and Hungarian composer Liszt's "Year of the Pilgrimage" both used music to pay tribute to Byron. . The German composer Robert Schumann may be a special case. What he pursued was not Byron or a Byronic lifestyle, but the spiritual realm of Manfred.
Schumann had a long-standing love for Byron. In 1826, Schumann's father published a German version of a collection of Byron's poems. A year later, Schumann composed the music for one of the poems, "I Have Seen You Cry," and wrote the song "The Crying Man." In March 1829, Schumann, who was still studying law at the University of Leipzig, read the German version of "Manfred" and "tossed and turned over it and couldn't sleep." At the end of August that year, Schumann went on vacation to Switzerland and Italy. In a letter to his mother, he recorded what he saw in the Alps: Although the weather was bad and "the Alps and glaciers were obscured by low-hanging dark clouds," he did not suffer at all. I feel sorry for it, but I think the scenery that cannot be seen and the imagination that comes with it are even more rare. He said: "Human beings are not as unfortunate as they think, because our hearts can always resonate with nature. If I am swept away by an avalanche or buried in a glacier, please don't feel sorry for me; This is a better and more noble way than the sickbed."
In subsequent letters and articles, Schumann repeatedly recalled this trip to the Alps and the imaginary scenery. For example, in a music review published in "Volkswagen Music Zeitung" in 1831, Schumann described the quiet sunset on the top of a snow-covered mountain: "The setting sun slowly sets on the top of the highest mountain, and then the last ray of light disappears. Disappeared behind the mountain. You feel that the white giant on the Alps has closed its eyes, and you also feel that this paradise-like scenery is a gift from God."
In July 1848, Schumann read "Manfred" again and decided to score it. He quickly wrote the lines and composed 15 pieces of music and a script from mid-October to the end of November. In the summer of 1851, Schumann went on vacation to the Alps with his family. At least in terms of time, the composer's two trips to the Alps are related to "Manfred". In March 1852, Schumann conducted the premiere of the "Manfred" Overture in Leipzig. In June 1852, the whole play premiered in Weimar. Schumann was unable to attend due to illness, and Liszt was the conductor. Both the composer's biography and the memories of his friends record Schumann's love for "Manfred". Biographer Wilhelm Joseph von Wasilevskiy recalled that when Schumann once read "Manfred", "his voice trembled and tears flowed from his eyes." Critic Edward Kruger believed that the musical "Manfred" is Schumann's "Portrait of the Artist", and Schumann himself called it "one of his most powerful works."
Because of the philosophical and ideological nature of "Manfred", Byron felt that the story was not suitable for the stage. Critics also warned readers: "You can't expect to get exciting plots...you can only see scenes of poetic shapes and be satisfied with them." Perhaps for this reason, only the overture of Schumann's musical of the same name enters Regular repertoire. The overture can be roughly divided into three parts: the first part is three syncopated chords played at a fast pace, which seems to declare: This is a tragedy. The melody in the second part first ascends slowly by semitones, and then descends by corresponding semitones. Such a melody with gorgeous accompaniment is like standing at the foot of the Alps, first looking up at the ice, snow and clouds on the top of the mountain, and then following the avalanche. Moving downward; the third part is an Allegro sonata structure, and the musical elements of the second part deform and develop here, as if the entire mountain carries Manfred's deep thoughts. In Schumann's music we seem to hear Byron's poem: "My soul will drink those echoes. - Oh, I am / the invisible spirit of beautiful sound, / living voice, breathing and Sound, / the joy of disembodiment - birth and death / are accompanied by the divine voice that shapes me.”
In nature, human beings have found a carrier for their lingering emotions. When human beings are lonely and lonely, it seems that they can best find a kind of relief and comfort in the vast white snow, "alone on a high building, looking at the end of the world". As music critic A. In his article "Mountains, Music, and Musicians," Haight King said: "As long as life remains vexing, vulgar, and fleeting, human beings will involuntarily cast their sights above the trees to study those places where no grass grows. areas, or rocks, snow and glaciers.”
(Guangming Daily author: Wang Dongju, associate professor at the School of English, Xi'an International Studies University)