美国国家公共电台 NPR--Writer Neil Gaiman debuts his first music album with an Australian string quartet

Writer Neil Gaiman debuts² his first music album with an Australian string quartet

Transcript³

From The Sandman and Lucifer to Good Omens⁴, Neil Gaiman has written novels and comics that have been adapted into plays, TV series and films. Now, he's setting his sights on music.

For his debut¹ studio album Signs of Life, the British author joins Australia's FourPlay String Quartet in an eclectic blend of classical and indie rock tunes⁵ with poetry and prose.

"I loved them. I loved the imagination. I loved the wit," Gaiman tells NPR's Morning Edition, recalling his first collaboration⁶ with the quartet in a 2010 Sydney Opera House reading of his novella The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains.

Their new collaboration released Friday is a meeting of unconventional minds between Gaiman — whose writing is often so idiosyncratic it's impossible to pin down — and FourPlay, an indie rock band of sorts that happens to be playing the traditional string quartet instruments of two violins, a viola and a cello⁷. The musicians got their start performing covers by artists as varied⁸ as Radiohead, Metallica and Leonard Cohen.

For a tour that brought them to Carnegie Hall, Gaiman and FourPlay crafted an original song about Joan of Arc, where the historical figure was figuratively brought back from the dead to cause all kinds of problems.

"I'm hoping she ignored my English accent in her work/ Because it's really hard to hang around with saints," Gaiman lyricizes in The Problem with Saints.

With that song under their belts, "there was kind of no stopping us," Gaiman says. "Somewhere in there, we decided⁹ to just start creating and make more music. And we've been doing that ever since."

Tracking time and space

The album's first track, Clock, features what sounds like a ticking timepiece and Gaiman reading Shakespeare's Sonnet¹⁰ 12. The poetry laments¹¹ the frailty¹² of beauty, beginning with "When I do count the clock that tells the time/ And see the brave day sunk in hideous¹³ night."

FourPlay originally improvised¹⁴ wordless vocals¹⁵ with music set to a metronome at 60 beats per minute to emulate¹⁶ the passage of time, over which the musicians played repeated, or ostinato, cross-rhythms and a slow-moving bassline.

The words in "Clock," a single from Neil Gaiman's debut album with Australia's FourPlay String Quartet, are taken from Shakespeare's Sonnet 12.

Neil Gaiman and FourPlay String Quartet YouTube

Originally, Gaiman and FourPlay explored crafting works around a celestial¹⁷ zodiac theme, but with traditional astrological signs replaced by new objects and words to represent aspects of life. One of those "signs" was a M?bius strip.

As a child, Gaiman learned to create this nonorientable band from his grandfather. And the song M?bius Strip features Gaiman providing instructions for creating a listener's own version.

"That M?bius strip idea just took me back to the point where now I'm a grandfather and I have grandkids. And that's the kind of thing that I love being able to do with them," Gaiman says. "It felt like a perfect metaphor¹⁸ for the shape of a life [where] you are always traveling this M?bius strip."

In tracks like Song of the Song, it was Gaiman who had to adjust his own reading rhythms to match the music.

"It would be something that normally I would find terrifying. The risk of wandering into William Shatnerian pronouncement of lyrics¹⁹ or whatever — you just sort of don't want to go there," Gaiman said, referring to recordings²⁰ made in the 1960s and 70s by the actor best known for playing Captain Kirk in the Star Trek²¹ franchise²².

Expanding his range to 'mad things'

"The joy of getting to do this stuff with FourPlay is we got to do everything. So we got to do stuff like that where what I'm saying has to absolutely line up with what they're playing," Gaiman says. "And then there are mad things like Bloody²³ Sunrise, where I wrote a very silly song about a lonely, heartbroken vampire²⁴."

A major outlier on the debut album, Bloody Sunrise was released as an early single days before Halloween. Actress Talia Benatar plays a vampiress in an accompanying music video and FourPlay's violinist Lara Goodridge joins Gaiman on vocals.

Another single, In Transit²⁵, is a tribute to the English astronomer²⁶ Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, who proved Einstein's theory of relativity by observing stars during a solar eclipse. The song is divided into two parts, evolving from strains that portray²⁷ a more reserved public figure and exploding into a reflection of a multilayered and unrestrained private life.

Music-filled omens

Gaiman says he's just getting started with music. For the upcoming second season of the TV adaptation of a 1990 novel Good Omens, written with Terry Pratchett, Gaiman describes an "absolutely fascinating" process of working various songs and music into new episodes.

"Music is so incredibly powerful," he adds when considering possible musical treatments for his novels. "I'd love to take something, whether it be Coraline or The Ocean at the End of the Lane or something completely new, and create something that you can experience that's musical."

Gaiman also says he hopes to write a play from scratch, rather than adapt one of his existing works for the stage, although regardless of format²⁸ — "whether it would be novels or comic books or film and television or plays or shadow puppets" — Gaiman says his job remains²⁹ the same.

"I'm a storyteller and I'm still not bored of it, not sick of it, and not ready to go off and get a real job yet."

1 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

2 debuts   

演员首次演出( debut的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He never really debuts the idea of taking money from his parents any longer. 他从此就再也没有认真起过向父母要钱的念头。
• This young soprano debuts next month at the metropolitan opera. 这位年轻的女高音歌唱家下个月将在纽约大都会歌剧院举行首演。

3 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

4 omens   

n.前兆，预兆( omen的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The omens for the game are still not propitious. 这场比赛仍不被看好。 来自辞典例句
• Such omens betide no good. 这种征兆预示情况不妙。 来自辞典例句

5 tunes   

n.曲调，曲子( tune的名词复数 )v.调音( tune的第三人称单数 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调

参考例句：

• a potpourri of tunes 乐曲集锦
• When things get a bit too much, she simply tunes out temporarily. 碰到事情太棘手时，她干脆暂时撒手不管。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

7 cello   

n.大提琴

参考例句：

• The cello is a member of the violin family.大提琴是提琴家族的一员。
• She plays a melodious cello.她拉着一手悦耳的大提琴。

8 varied   

adj.多样的，多变化的

参考例句：

• The forms of art are many and varied.艺术的形式是多种多样的。
• The hotel has a varied programme of nightly entertainment.宾馆有各种晚间娱乐活动。

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

10 sonnet   

n.十四行诗

参考例句：

• The composer set a sonnet to music.作曲家为一首十四行诗谱了曲。
• He wrote a sonnet to his beloved.他写了一首十四行诗，献给他心爱的人。

11 laments   

n.悲恸，哀歌，挽歌( lament的名词复数 )v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• In the poem he laments the destruction of the countryside. 在那首诗里他对乡村遭到的破坏流露出悲哀。
• In this book he laments the slight interest shown in his writings. 在该书中他慨叹人们对他的著作兴趣微弱。 来自辞典例句

12 frailty   

n.脆弱；意志薄弱

参考例句：

• Despite increasing physical frailty,he continued to write stories.尽管身体越来越虛弱，他仍然继续写小说。
• He paused and suddenly all the frailty and fatigue showed.他顿住了，虚弱与疲惫一下子显露出来。

13 hideous   

adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的

参考例句：

• The whole experience had been like some hideous nightmare.整个经历就像一场可怕的噩梦。
• They're not like dogs,they're hideous brutes.它们不像狗，是丑陋的畜牲。

14 improvised   

a.即席而作的,即兴的

参考例句：

• He improvised a song about the football team's victory. 他即席创作了一首足球队胜利之歌。
• We improvised a tent out of two blankets and some long poles. 我们用两条毛毯和几根长竿搭成一个临时帐蓬。

15 vocals   

（乐曲中的）歌唱部份，声乐部份( vocal的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Also look out for soaring vocals on The Right Man. 另外，也可留意一下《意中人》中的那高亢的唱腔。
• Lazy bass line, lazier drums, lush violins, great piano and incomparable vocals. 懒惰的低音线，较懒惰的鼓，饮小提琴，棒的钢琴和无比的声音。

16 emulate   

v.努力赶上或超越，与…竞争；效仿

参考例句：

• You must work hard to emulate your sister.你必须努力工作，赶上你姐姐。
• You must look at the film and try to emulate his behavior.你们必须观看这部电影，并尽力模仿他的动作。

17 celestial   

adj.天体的；天上的

参考例句：

• The rosy light yet beamed like a celestial dawn.玫瑰色的红光依然象天上的朝霞一样绚丽。
• Gravity governs the motions of celestial bodies.万有引力控制着天体的运动。

18 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

19 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。

20 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

21 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

22 franchise   

n.特许，特权，专营权，特许权

参考例句：

• Catering in the schools is run on a franchise basis.学校餐饮服务以特许权经营。
• The United States granted the franchise to women in 1920.美国于1920年给妇女以参政权。

23 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

24 vampire   

n.吸血鬼

参考例句：

• It wasn't a wife waiting there for him but a blood sucking vampire!家里的不是个老婆，而是个吸人血的妖精！
• Children were afraid to go to sleep at night because of the many legends of vampire.由于听过许多有关吸血鬼的传说，孩子们晚上不敢去睡觉。

25 transit   

n.经过，运输；vt.穿越，旋转；vi.越过

参考例句：

• His luggage was lost in transit.他的行李在运送中丢失。
• The canal can transit a total of 50 ships daily.这条运河每天能通过50条船。

26 astronomer   

n.天文学家

参考例句：

• A new star attracted the notice of the astronomer.新发现的一颗星引起了那位天文学家的注意。
• He is reputed to have been a good astronomer.他以一个优秀的天文学者闻名于世。

27 portray   

v.描写，描述；画(人物、景象等)

参考例句：

• It is difficult to portray feelings in words.感情很难用言语来描写。
• Can you portray the best and worst aspects of this job?您能描述一下这份工作最好与最坏的方面吗？

28 format   

n.设计，版式；[计算机]格式，DOS命令:格式化(磁盘)，用于空盘或使用过的磁盘建立新空盘来存储数据；v.使格式化，设计，安排

参考例句：

• Please format this floppy disc.请将这张软盘格式化。
• The format of the figure is very tasteful.该图表的格式很雅致。

29 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。