The soul of a musical instrument

Nguồn: FB Tuan Le.

2017/12/15.

Quỳnh Giao – translated by Lê Tuấn

We in the East are not surprised when told that everything in the universe might have a soul. That soul could be a devil or an angel. Sometimes, reincarnated, it becomes a two-legged creature with a whole range of feelings - happiness, anger, love, and hate - and morphs into a human being. That’s why we have the “The Amorous Ghosts Chronicle” (stories of gorgeous and lissome female ghosts seducing and copulating with male earthlings) and other fairy tales. In 1988, music lovers were treated with “The Red Violin”, a beautiful film by Francois Girard. The film was a Canadian, Italian and English co-production. The film depicts the story in 1681 of one Nicolo Bussoti who lives in Cremona, Italy, a village famous for its instrument-making artistry. His young wife passes when Bussoti just finishes a violin, and her soul integrates itself into her husband’s instrument with its blood red veneer. She and the violin transcend time, space, and still exist among us today. I am sure “The Red Violin” will stay with viewers for a long time. We Easterners were deeply affected by it. For it looks very much like an Oriental saga but with an Occidental slant. Aside from Bussoti, Cremona had another family whose fame for the instrument-making art was passed from generation to generation. The name was Stradivari. The most famous among the Stradivaries was Antonio who was born in 1644 and died in 1737. He was a master craftsman of violin, cello, harp, and also guitar. He made about over one thousand instruments known as “The Stradivariuses”. Around six hundred still exist today. Each is deemed a treasure. The public can view these gems at two locations: The Music Spanish Museum where the King’s collection is on display; and the U.S. Library of Congress with three violins, one viola and one cello. Out in the music world, two Stradivarius Cellos gain fame on the account of their celebrated users. These are the cases of two of the greatest cellists of our time: one young, one old - Yo Yo Ma and Mstilav Rostropovitch, who play their famous instruments with virtuosity. A Russian, Rostropovitch was born in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1927. A wunderkind at a very young age, Rostropovitch studied piano with his mother when he was four; then cello with his father at ten. The perennial greatest cellist of all time, Pablo Casals, was also his teacher. Later, he learned composition and conducting. He turned into a celebrity in the Soviet Union, earned a Stalin Medal at 23, and became a (favorite son?) national treasure of the regime. But his misfortune started when he showed his love for freedom in addition to his friendship with Solzhenitsyn. He was banned from performing and later, stripped off his citizenship. He and his family emigrated and lived in America where he became music director and conductor for the National Symphony Orchestra at the U.S. Capital. In 1989, when the Berlin Wall collapsed, Rostropovitch returned to his homeland and performed amid the ruins of the tyrannical regime. In his possession since 1974 is a historic cello named “Duport Stradivarius”, made in 1711. The instrument has a scratch in 1812 caused by Napoleon - known for his adeptness in handling wars – who, nevertheless, showed his ineptness in handling a musical instrument. As a rule, when crude power meets with delicate art: art bleeds. If we use that as a metaphor then the scene where Rostropovitch played cello to serenade freedom at the foot of the shattered wall is a breathtaking spectacle. In 1990, Russia gave him back his citizenship but by then, he had already become a citizen of the world and a goodwill ambassador for UNESCO. He has been very active in movements advocating freedom for arts and politics. The other cello has an even more storied past. Younger than the “Duport” by one year, the “Davidoff Stradivarius” roamed the earth until it landed in the possession of an American billionaire in 1928. It was then purchased by Mrs. Ismena Holland, who gave it to her goddaughter, Jacqueline Mary du Pré. Despite her French name, du Pré was a British subject who was born in 1945 at Oxford. She was heralded as one of the greatest cellists ever lived and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (a dame) in the 1976 by the Royal Court. She was married to Daniel Barenboim, an eminent pianist and conductor. Their marriage was compared to that of Clara and Robert Schumann’s; and together they produced some great works for the arts. Alas, her dainty fingers eventually became paralyzed from arthritis, which plagued her for 15 years. She put down her instrument for the last time and left this earth one day in October 1987. She was 37 years old. There might have been a disharmony between her soul and that of her instrument, for after 1970 du Pré stopped playing with the “Davidoff” and started using another cello. A person ventured an explication: “Her overwhelming and fiery technique went against the nature of her instrument. The more fiercely she played, the more her instrument resisted. She should have caressed it instead.” Who said it? Her best friend? Or another cello virtuoso who dared say the truth? And of course, that person was right. His name is Yo Yo Ma. Ma was born in Paris in 1955. His mother was a singer, his father a musician playing in France. They came to America in 1962 and Yo Yo Ma started to appear on television with Leonard Bernstein when he was 8. An introduction to Yo Yo Ma could be unnecessary or it could be insufficient. Ma studied at Julliard and Harvard. He has performed solo with all the renowned orchestras in the world. He also played duet occasionally with Condoleeza Rice, a world-class concert pianist and former U.S. secretary of state. He plays with an antique cello, the Montagnana, made in Venice in 1733. He also owns two more American-made cellos - one is traditional, the other modern (made of carbon fiber). But for him, the most sentimental memory lies with another cello. Before she died, du Pré gave her “Davidoff” to a person worthy to be its patron. Ma re-tuned it and only uses the “Davidoff” when he plays the Baroque. That’s harmony. With such perceptiveness in instruments, Yo Yo Ma could very well be a protagonist in an Oriental novel about The Soul of a Musical Instrument. He was born fifty years ago on October 7. Will Yo Yo Ma celebrate the half-century mark of his life filled with music by re-naming his cello the “du Pré Stradivarius” and caress it and coax out of its soul the sound of laments of (for?) Jacqueline’s?

Quỳnh Giao- Translated into English by Lê Tuấn.

Và đây là hai điện thư chúng tôi trao đổi với nhau sau đó: "Subject: Hồn Cầm Phong Sương. "Dear QG, Bài này tặng QG. Tôi có thêm bớt một vài chữ, một vài chỗ cho rõ nghĩa và nhấn mạnh về cái chất Đông Phương của bài viết. Nếu QG để ý thì thấy tôi bắt chước văn phong của QG khi chuyển sang tiếng Anh. Hy vọng nó lột được ý tác giả. Nếu QG nhận thấy chuyện đó thì thật ra bài này của QG và vì thế không cần nêu tên người dịch. QG có thể sửa chữa hoặc thêm bớt tùy ý. Những chữ có dấu hỏi đằng sau là đề nghị. Tùy QG chọn. Hy vọng những người bạn Mỹ của QG và NXN thấy được văn tài của QG qua bản dịch này." 

"Anh Tuấn thân, Bản dịch của anh thật trác tuyệt. Không hiểu sao đọc bản Anh ngữ lại có vẻ sang hơn đọc nguyên bản. Thanks a million, ông anh!. Giao sẽ chuyển cho những người bạn Huê Kỳ của mình, và hãnh diện giới thiệu mình với họ... Best, QG"