How we listen to music中文翻译.doc

How we listen to musicAaron Copland1. We all listen to music according to our separate capacities. But, for the sake of analysis, the whole listening process may become clearer if we break it up into its component parts, so to speak. In a certain sense we all listen to music on three separate planes. For lack of a better terminology, one might name these: (1) the sensuous plane, (2) the expressive plane, (3) the sheerly musical plane. The only advantage to be gained from mechanically splitting up the listening process into these hypothetical planes is the clearer view to be had of the way in which we listen.我们都根据各自的能力来听音乐。但是，为了便于分析，如果我们将听的整个过程分成几个组成部分的话，那就会更加清楚了。在某种程度上，我们听音乐分成三个不同的层面，因找不到更好地术语，我姑且把他们命名为：（1）感官层面（2）表义层面（3）纯音乐层面。我把听音乐的过程机械地分成以上假设的三个层面，纯粹是为了更清楚地了解我们是怎样听音乐的。2. The simplest way of listening to music is to listen for the sheer pleasure of the musical sound itself. That is the sensuous plane. It is the plane on which we hear music without thinking, without considering it in any way. One turns on the radio while doing something else and absent-mindedly bathes in the sound. A kind of brainless but attractive state of mind is engendered by the mere sound appeal of the music.最简单的听音乐的方式就是听乐声给我们带来的纯粹的愉悦，这是感官层面。在这个层面上，我们只听音乐而不用思考。打开收音机，一边忙别的事情，一边心不在焉地沐浴在音乐声中。这种心不在焉但美妙的身心状态是由乐声的魅力引起的。3. You may be sitting in a room reading this book. Imagine one note struck on the piano. Immediately that one note is enough to change the atmosphere of the roomproving that the sound element in music is a powerful and mysterious agent, which it would be foolish to deride or belittle.你可能正在房间里读这本书。想象着一个音符敲击在钢琴上。瞬间整个房间的氛围都随之改变这表明了声音在音乐中是强大而神秘的元素，谁嘲笑或轻视这一点，谁就显得愚蠢。4. The surprising thing is that many people who consider themselves qualified music lovers abuse that plane in listening. They go to concerts in order to lose themselves. They use music as a consolation or an escape. They enter an ideal world where one doesnt have to think of the realities of everyday life. Of course they arent thinking about the music either. Music allows them to leave it, and they go off to a plane to dream, dreaming because of and apropos of the music yet never quite listening to it.令人奇怪的是，很多自认为合格的音乐爱好者在听音乐时滥用了这一层面。他们去音乐厅是为了忘却自我。他们把音乐作为一种安慰或解脱。他们进入了一个理想的境界，在这个境界里他们不必考虑现实生活。当然，他们同样也没有考虑音乐。音乐允许他们逃离现实，到另一个地方去做梦，因为音乐而做梦，做有关音乐的梦，却从没真正欣赏过音乐。5. Yes, the sound appeal of music is a potent and primitive force, but you must not allow it to usurp a disproportionate share of your interest. The sensuous plane is an important one in music, a very important one, but it does not constitute the whole story.的确，音乐的声音魅力是一种强大而原始的力量，但是千万不要让它不合比例地侵占你的兴趣。感观层面是音乐中重要的一层非常重要但并不是音乐的全部。6. There is no need to digress further on the sensuous plane. Its appeal to every normal human being is self evident. There is, however, such a thing as becoming more sensitive to the different kinds of sound stuff as used by various composers. For all composers do not use that sound stuff in the same way. Dont get the idea that the value of music is commensurate with its sensuous appeal or that the loveliest sounding music is made by the greatest composer. If that were so, Ravel would be a greater creator than Beethoven. The point is that the sound element varies with each composer, that his usage of sound forms an integral part of his style and must be taken into account when listening. The reader can see, therefore, that a more conscious approach is valuable even on this primary plane of music listening.没必要在感官层次上再扯远了。声音的魅力对每一个正常人来说都是不言而喻的。然而，不同的发音材料被不同的作曲家所使用时就变得更加有感染力，所有的作曲者不可能按同一种方式组织材料。不要以为音乐的价值就与他的感官感染力相称，不要以为最美丽动听的音乐是由伟大的作曲家创造的。如果你认为以上观点可能的话，那么拉维尔是比贝多芬还要伟大的创作者。重点是，声音要素因作曲者不同而不同，他对声音形式的使用方式组成他风格的不可分割的一部分。在听音乐时，所有这些都必须考虑在内。因此，读者可以看到，即使在听音乐的这个最基础的层面上，也值得采取更有意识地聆听方式。7. The second plane on which music exists is what I have called the expressive one. Here, immediately, we tread on controversial ground. Composers have a way of shying away from any discussion of musics expressive side. Did not Stravinsky himself proclaim that his music was an object, a thing, with a life of its own, and with no other meaning than its own purely musical existence? This intransigent attitude of Stravinskys may be due to the fact that so many people have tried to read different meanings into so many pieces. Heaven knows it is difficult enough to say precisely what it is that a piece of music means, to say it definitely, to say it finally so that everyone is satisfied with your explanation. But that should not lead one to the other extreme of denying to music the right to be expressive.音乐存在的第二层面就是我所谓的表义层面。谈到这里，我们立即会碰到引起争议的问题。作曲家们总是设法避开任何有关音乐表义层面的讨论。Stravinsky他自己不也声称他的音乐是一个“物体”，意见本身具有生命的“东西”，除了作为音乐本身存在再没有其他意义了吗？Stravinsky的这种不妥协的态度大约源于这样一种现实吧：有如此多的人试图对如此多的作品加以不同的解读。天知道要想用自己的解释精确地、明确地、最终地说清一个作品的意义并让所有人满意是多么困难的事！但是我们并不能因此走向另一个极端，不能去剥夺音乐“表义”的权利。8. My own belief is that all music has an expressive power, some more and some less, but that all music has a certain meaning behind the notes and that that meaning behind the notes constitutes, after all, what the piece is saying, what the piece is about. This whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, Is there a meaning to music? My answer to that would be, Yes. And Can you state in so many words what the meaning is? My answer to that would be, No. Therein lies the difficulty.我认为所有的音乐都有表义能力，有些强，有些弱。但是所有的音乐在每个音符和音符组成背后都有一定的意义，毕竟，这一支曲子说了些什么？这一支曲子关于什么？整个问题可以通过问答来陈述。“音乐里有意义吗？”我的回答是“有”。“你能够用足够多的额词语把它陈述出来吗？”我的回答是“不能”。这就是问题所在。9. Simple-minded souls will never be satisfied with the answer to the second of these questions. They always want music to have a meaning, and the more concrete it is, the better they like it. The more the music reminds them of a train, a storm, a funeral, or any other familiar conception the more expressive it appears to be to them. This popular idea of musics meaningstimulated and abetted by the usual run of musical commentator should be discouraged wherever and whenever it is met. One timid lady once confessed to me that she suspected something seriously lacking in her appreciation of music because of her inability to connect it with anything definite. That is getting the whole thing backward, of course.头脑简单的人们对于第二个回答很不满意，他们总想着音乐有一定意义，而且越具体越好。这些音乐越是能令他们想象出火车、暴风雨、葬礼等或其他相类似概念，对他们来说越富有表现力。这种对音乐意义的比较流行的看法通常是由普通的音乐评论家们的激发和唆使的应该随时随地被制止。一位羞怯的女士曾经向我坦白，怀疑她自己缺乏音乐欣赏能力，因为她不能把音乐和某种明确的东西联系起来。这然是。并不会翻译() 10. Still, the question remains. How close should the intelligent music lover wish to come to pinning a definite meaning to any particular work? No closer than a general concept, I should say. Music expresses, at different moments, serenity or exuberance, regret or triumph, fury or delight. It expresses each of these moods, and many others, in a numberless variety of subtle shadings and differences. It may even express a state of meaning for which there exists no adequate word in any language. In that case, musicians often like to say that it has only a purely musical meaning. They sometimes go father and say that all music has only a purely musical meaning. What they really mean is that no appropriate word can be found to express the musics meaning and that, even if it could, they do not feel the need of finding it.但是，问题依然存在：那些明智的音乐爱好者在要求任何一首作品都具有明确的含义方面要走多远呢？应该说，充其量不过是一个笼统的概念。音乐在不同时刻表达不同的内容，或平静或激昂，或悔恨或成功，或愤怒或高兴。它都能表达出每一种不同的情绪。音乐中包含有数不清的细微差别，它所表达的思想状态，任何语言中都没有足够的词能够描述。在这种情况下，音乐家喜欢说音乐只有纯音乐的含义。他们有时候还更进一步，说一切音乐只有一个纯粹的音乐意义。他们的意思是：没有一个合适的词语能够表达音乐的意义，即使有，也没有必要去寻找它。11. But whatever the professional musician may hold, most musical novices still search for specific words with which to pin down their musical reactions. That is why they always find Tchaikovsky easier to understand than Beethoven. In the first place, it is easier to pin a meaning-word on a Tchaikovsky piece than on a Beethoven one. Much easier. Moreover, with the Russian composer, every time you come back to a piece of his, it almost always says the same thing to you, whereas with Beethoven it is often quite difficult to put your finger right on what he is saying. And any musician will tell you that this is why Beethoven is the greater composer. Because music which always says the same thing to you will necessarily soon become dull music, but music whose meaning is slightly different with each hearing has a greater chance of remaining alive.但是，无论专业的音乐家持有什么观点，多数音乐新手仍然寻找具体的词语来表达他们的音乐反应。这就是为什么他们觉得柴可夫斯基比贝多芬更好“理解”。首先，对柴可夫斯基的作品比对贝多芬的作品更容易找到一个表达意义的词。其次，对于这位俄国作曲家，每次你回过头来再听他的作品，其意义都几乎是不变的，然而对于贝多芬，想要确切地说出其作品的意义却很困难。任何一个音乐家都会告诉你这就是为什么贝多芬更伟大。因为意义一成不变的音乐很快就会变成枯燥无味的音乐，而每次听都会有些微差别的音乐却能保持长久的生命力。12. Listen, if you can, to the forty-eight fugue themes of Bachs Well Tempered Clavichord (a piece of music composed by Bach with 48 preludes and fugues which represented the first wholehearted use of the equally tempered scalethroughout all keys). Listen to each theme, one after another. You will soon realize that each thememirrors a different world of feeling. You will also soon realize that the more beautiful a theme seems to you, the harder it is to find any word that will describe it to your complete satisfaction. Yes, you will certainly know whether it is a gay theme or a sad one. You will be able, in other words, in your own mind, to draw a frame of emotional feeling around your theme. Now study the sad one a little closer. Try to pin down the exact quality of its sadness. Is it pessimistically sad? Is it fatefully sad or smilingly sad?可能的话，不妨听一听巴赫协律钢琴曲中的48个赋格主题。一个接一个地听每一个主题（主旋律），你会意识到每一个主题（主旋律）反映了一个完全不同的情感世界。你也会很快意识到，你越觉得某个主题（主旋律）美妙，你越难以找地满意地词语去描述它。是的，你当然知道它的主题是悲伤的还是欢快的。换句话说，你能够在你的脑海里勾勒出一个围绕主题（主旋律）的情感框架。现在让我们更仔细研究一下悲伤的主题（主旋律），努力弄清楚悲伤的精确性质：它是悲观主义地悲伤？还是时运不济地悲伤？亦或是强颜欢笑地悲伤？13. Let us suppose that you are fortunate and can describe to your own satisfaction in so many words the exact meaning of your chosen theme. There is still no guarantee that anyone else will be satisfied. Nor need they be. The important thing is that each one feels for himself the specific expressive quality of a theme or, similarly, an entire piece of music. And if it is a great work of art, dont expect it to mean exactly the same thing to you each time you return to it.假设你足够幸运，能够找到让自己满意的词语来描述你选定的主题（主旋律），你仍然不能保证其他人会满意。而且他们也没必要满意。重要的是，每个人都能感受到一个主题（主旋律）或一整部音乐的独特表现力。而且，如果这是一部伟大的艺术的话，就不要指望着你每次回味它，它都只能传达同一种意义。14. Themes or pieces need not express only one emotion, of course. Take such a theme as the first main one of the Ninth Symphony, for example. It is clearly made up of different elements. It does not say only one thing. Yet anyone hearing it immediately gets a feeling of strength, a feeling of power. It isnt a power that comes simply because the theme is played loudly. It is a power inherent in the theme itself. The extraordinary strength and vigor of the theme results in the listeners receiving an impression that a forceful statement has been made. But one should never try to boil it down to the fateful hammer of life, etc. That is where the trouble begins. The musician, in his exasperation, says it means nothing but the notes themselves, whereas the nonprofessional is only too anxious to hang on to any explanation that gives him the illusion of getting closer to the musics meaning.当然，主题（主旋律）或作品没必要只表达一种情感。拿第九交响乐为例，除了正主题（主旋律）之外，很明显，它由不同的主题部分构成。它也不仅阐明一个事情，虽然任何一个人乍一听到它都会有一种强劲有力的感受。这不仅仅是因为主题（主旋律）演奏的时候声音大而有力量，这是主题（主旋律）本身内在的力量。这主题非凡的力量和活力，给听众的印象好像是发生了一项强有力的声明。但是决不要试图把它概括成“生命致命的锤击”云云。这就是麻烦的来源。音乐家愤怒地说他的作品除了音符本身外没有意义，而外行人却迫不及待地想要找出一种任何可以使自己更接近乐曲含义的解释。15. Now, perhaps, the reader will know better what I mean when I say that music does have an expressive meaning but that we cannot say in so many words what that meaning is.现在，或许读者能够更好地理解，为什么我说音乐能够表义，但是我们却没有足够的词语把它的意义表达出来。16. The third plane on which music exists is the sheerly musical plane. Besides the pleasurable sound of music and the expressive feeling that it gives off, music does exist in terms of the notes themselves and of their manipulation. Most listeners are not sufficiently conscious of this third plane. It will be largely the business of this study to make them more aware of music on this plane.音乐存在的第三个层面就是它的纯音乐层面。除了令人愉悦的乐声和它表达的意义之外，音乐还因音符本身以及对音符的处理而存在。 大多数听众对这个层面缺乏足够的认识。本书的目的，就是使他们在这个水平上进一步认识音乐。17. Professional musicians, on the other hand, are, if anything, too conscious of the mere notes themselves. They often fall into the error of becoming so engrossed with their arpeggios and staccatos that they forget the deeper aspects of the music they are performing. But from the laymans standpoint, it is not so much a matter of getting over bad habits on the sheerly musical plane as of increasing ones awareness of what is going on, in so far as the notes are concerned.另一方面，专业的音乐工作者要说有什么区别的话就太注重音符本身了。他们经常犯这样的错误，过度纠结琶音和断音，而忽视他们所演奏的作品的更深的层次。但是从外行的角度看，提高自己对正在演奏的音符的理解比克服纯音乐层面的坏习惯更重要。18. When the man in the street listens to the notes themselves with any degree of concentration, he is most likely to make some mention of the melody. Either he hears a pretty melody or he does not, and he generally lets it go at that. Rhythm is likely to gain his attention next, particularly if it seems exciting. But harmony and tone color are generally taken for granted, if they are thought of consciously at all. As for musics having a definite form of some kind, that idea seems never to have occurred to him.在大街上的任何一个人以任何一种专心程度听“音符本身”时，他最有可能提到的是旋律。无论是悦耳的旋律还是难听的旋律，通常他都不会再去想它了。接下来他注意到的很可能是节奏，特别是当节奏显得特别令人激动时。但是和声与音色通常被认为是理所当然的事情（如果它们有可能被有意识地注意到的话）。至于音乐有某种明确的形式，他似乎从没有想过这一点。19. It is very important for all of us to become more alive to music on its sheerly musical plane. After all, an actual musical material is being used. The intelligent listener must be prepared to increase his awareness of the musical material and what happens to it. He must hear the melodies, the rhythms, the harmonies, the tone colors in a more conscious fashion. But above all he must, in order to follow the line of the composers thought, know something of the principles of musical form. Listening to all of these elements is listening on the sheerly musical plane.对我们大家来说，更加充分地认识到纯音乐层面非常重要。毕竟，乐曲使用的是实实在在的音乐素材。聪明的听者必须做好准备，随时去提高对音乐素材以及这些素材如何使用的认识。他必须更有意识地倾听旋律、节奏、和声以及音色。但是他首先得遵循作曲家的思路，知道曲式方面的知识。倾听这一切音乐要素就是在纯音乐层面上欣赏音乐。20. Let me repeat that I have split up mechanically the three separate planes on which we listen merely for the sake of greater clarity. Actually, we never listen on one or the other of these planes. What we do is to correlate themlistening in all three ways at the same time. It takes no mental effort, for we do it instinctively.让我再重申一遍，我把我们听音乐的三个层面机械地分开仅仅是为了更清楚起见。事实上，我们从不在这三个层面的某一个层次上听。我们所做的是将它们联系起来同时在三个层面上听。这并不需要付出多少脑力，因为我们本能地这样做。21. Perhaps an analogy with what happens to us when we visit the theater will make this instinctive correlation clearer. In the theater, you are aware of the actors and actresses, costumes and sets, sounds and movement. All these give one the sense that the theater is a pleasant place to be in. They constitute the sensuous plane in our theatrical reactions.也许，和我们去剧院做一个类比，会使这种本能的联系更清楚。在剧院里，你意识到男女演员、服装、场景、声音和动作所有这些让人感到剧院是个令人愉悦的地方。它们组成了我们戏剧反应的感官层面。22. The expressive plane in the theater would be derived from the feeling that you get from what is happening on the stage. You are moved to pity, excitement, or gaiety. It is this general feeling, generated aside from the particular words being spoken, a certain emotional something which exists on the stage, that is analogous to the expressive quality in music.戏剧的表义层面来源于你看舞台表演时获得的感受。它激起你的怜悯、激动或愉悦。这种台词之外的，舞台上的，某种令人激动地东西所产生的总的情感，与音乐的表义性质是相类似的。23. The plot and plot development is equivalent to our sheerly musical plane. The playwright creates and develops a character in just the same way that a composer creates and develops a theme. According to the degree of your awareness of the way in which the artist in either field handles his material you will become a more intelligent listener.剧情以及剧情发展和纯粹的音乐层面相类似。剧作家创作和发展戏剧人物的手法和作曲家创作和发展音乐主题（主旋律）的手法完全相同。你能否成为一个聪明的听众，取决于你对作曲家处理材料的手段的了解程度。24. It is easy enough to see that the theatergoer never is conscious of any of these elements separately. He is aware of them all at the same time. The same is true of music listening. We simultaneously and without thinking listen on all three planes.显然，看剧的人从不是孤立地注意到其中一个层面。他们同时意识到所有的层面。听音乐的道理也是一样的。我们同时不自觉地在这三个层面上听音乐。25. In a sense, the ideal listener is both inside and outside the music at the same moment,