Me and Choir

Me and Choir¹

                      

It's a Monday morning and Monday is choir day.

And after lunch, those of us who are members of the choir will all sit in the lunchroom after lunch and Miss Falconer will come and she will drill us in 3 songs that she has been drilling us in since Feb'ore for the All-District ¹⁾Choral Concert in May. Songs that we now sing even worse than when we began.

Because she is such a beautiful lady, she is so elegant, she is like a ²⁾Duchess in this town and not like our mothers at all. She wears suits, ³⁾tailored suits, and blouses with white ⁴⁾ruffles in the front. She is like a lady from a magazine and when she looks at us, especially us ⁵⁾tenors⁴, we can't bear to look at her. We look down at our feet. And she says, "Look at me!" She says, "How do you expect to sing in time to the music if you don't look at me?"

But ⁶⁾rhythm is not our problem in the tenor³ section. We do ⁷⁾drag a little bit, but notes are our problem. And the reason that we drag is that each one of us in the tenor section is waiting to hear the person next to him sing the note.

So we can get up. Each of us trying to sing a little softer than the boy next to him. Because though we are tenors, ⁸⁾we are in the last few months of our tenor voices, and they are undependable. But she looks at us week after week every Monday, and says, "This is not that hard, tenors. Children, this is not that hard."

But it is hard! She has picked 3 songs by 3 foreign composers with one name. "Serenade" by Toste. "Aulto Papiaty" by Del Monte. And the worst of all, "April is in My Mistress' Face" by Morley.

"This is not that hard, children. Now, watch me. And 1, 2, 3-" And we sing again, worse than ever and she stops us and Mrs. Oldberg, our kind teacher, says, "Maybe they would do better on 'The Red River Valley'. " And Miss Falconer says, "You can't sing cowboy songs all your life. Music is work, like anything else; you have to work at it. Now children, this is not that hard." And she brings a recording⁵ of an English boys choir, singing "April is in My Mistress' Face". And she plays it over and over again -- their perfect little ⁹⁾flutey voices "April is in my Mistress' face, and July in her eyes have place; within her bosom⁶ lies September; but in her heart a cold December."

This elegant lady looks at us, and she says, "Tenors, I want you to sing your part so that I know you have it... one by one." I am the third from the end. Russell sings first, he has an advantage, he takes piano. He does pretty good. And then Jerry Swedeen. And then she looks at me. And I say, "I don't feel well." "Sing," she says, "stand up and sing." "I really don't feel well." And the truth is that I don't. She says, "If you're well enough to be in school, you're well enough to sing." And I think I'll never be that well, but I stand up and sing.

"April is in my mistress' face, and July in her eyes have place; within her... lies September; and in her heart a cold December." And sit down, looking at the ¹⁰⁾alto's and the ¹¹⁾soprano's sitting there ¹²⁾smirking at me, and all of them singing "nah nah nah naaah", and go home in disgrace.

 

难忘歌咏

今天是星期一，星期一是唱诗的日子。

午餐过后，我们唱诗班的成员吃过了午饭要全体坐在饭厅里，等法克纳小姐给我们排练三首歌。为了迎接五月份的全区合唱赛，她从二月份起一直在忙着给我们排练。不过我们唱得甚至不如从前。

因为她实在太美、太优雅了，在这个小镇上就像位公爵夫人，和我们的妈妈们一点也不像。她身着套装，剪裁得体的套装，外衣前还缀着白羽毛。她像是杂志女郎走下来似的，当她看着我们——尤其是当看着我们男高音——的时候，我们都不敢看她。我们垂下头盯自己的脚。而她说：“看着我！”她说：“如果不看我，怎么能跟上音乐唱歌呢？”

但对我们男高音来说，节奏根本不成问题。我们虽然唱得有点拖拉，只不过是找不准调子。我们之所以会拖拉是因为每个男高音都在等着旁边的人先唱出调子。

我们于是站起来唱歌。人人唱得比旁边人轻些。因为虽然我们是男高音，可是这把男高音的嗓音也维持不了几个月了，很不稳定。然而逢到周一，法克纳小姐就看着我们说：“这并不难唱，男高音们。孩子们，这没什么难的。”

不过这的确难极了！她挑的三首歌由三位名字差不多的外国作曲家写成：托斯第的《小夜曲》；戴蒙第的《奥托帕皮第》；最难的还要数摩利的《四月照在我情妇的脸庞上》。

“这不难唱，孩子们。好了，看着我。准备，一二三——”我们又唱起来，唱得一塌糊涂，她不得不停下。我们仁慈的老师沃贝格夫人就说：“或许他们唱《红河谷》会唱得好些。法克纳小姐说：“你们总不能一辈子瞎哼哼吧。音乐像别的东西一样需要琢磨；你们得认真对待。好了，孩子们，唱歌不难。”她拿来一张英国童声合唱唱片，上面有《四月照在我情妇的脸庞上》。她把唱片放了一遍又一遍——悠扬的童声唱着“四月照在我情妇的脸庞上，七月辉映在她的眼眸里；九月依偎在她胸中；而她的心是冰冷的十二月天。”

优雅的法克纳小姐看着我们说道：“男高音们，把你们的那部分唱给我听，我要知道你们都会唱了……一个一个地来。”我是倒数第三个。首先轮到罗素，他借着优势挑选了弹钢琴，他弹得还不错。然后轮到杰里·史威丁。接下来她看着我。我只好说：“我不舒服。”“唱啊，”她说，“站起来唱。”“我真的不舒服。”事实并非如此。她就说：“你既然能好好地来上学，也就能好好地唱歌。”我觉得我绝没有好到那份上，但我还是站起身来唱了。

“四月照在我情妇的脸庞上，七月辉映在她的眼眸里；九月依偎在她……啦啦啦……中；而她的心是冰冷的十二月天。”我唱完坐下，看到坐在另一头的女低音和女高音们一边得意洋洋地看着我笑，一边唱“呐呐呐呐呐呐”。后来我就颜面扫地地回家去了。

   

注释：

1) choral [kC5rB:l] n. 合唱队的

2) Duchess [5dQtFis] n. 女公爵，公爵夫人

3) tailored [5teilEd] a. 剪裁讲究的

4) ruffle² [5rQfl] n. （鸟等）颈上的一圈毛，摺边

5) tenor [5tenE] n. 男高音

6) rhythm [5riTEm] n. 节奏，韵律

7) drag [drA^] v. 拖拉

8) 这句话的意思是男孩们正处于变声期。

9) flutey [5flU:ti] a. 柔软清澈的声音

10) alto [5AltEu] n. 女低音

11) soprano [sE5prB:nEu] n. 女高音

12) smirk⁷ [smE:k] v. 傻笑，假笑，得意地笑

1 choir   

n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱

参考例句：

• The choir sang the words out with great vigor.合唱团以极大的热情唱出了歌词。
• The church choir is singing tonight.今晚教堂歌唱队要唱诗。

2 ruffle   

v.弄皱，弄乱；激怒，扰乱；n.褶裥饰边

参考例句：

• Don't ruffle my hair.I've just combed it.别把我的头发弄乱了。我刚刚梳好了的。
• You shouldn't ruffle so easily.你不该那么容易发脾气。

3 tenor   

n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意

参考例句：

• The tenor of his speech was that war would come.他讲话的大意是战争将要发生。
• The four parts in singing are soprano,alto,tenor and bass.唱歌的四个声部是女高音、女低音、男高音和男低音。

4 tenors   

n.男高音( tenor的名词复数 )；大意；男高音歌唱家；（文件的）抄本

参考例句：

• Three celebrated tenors sang at the president's inauguration. 3位著名的男高音歌手在总统就职仪式上演唱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• His one -- a-kind packaging thrilled an opera world ever-hungry for tenors. 他一对一类包装激动世界的歌剧以往任何时候都渴望的男高音。 来自互联网

5 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

6 bosom   

n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的

参考例句：

• She drew a little book from her bosom.她从怀里取出一本小册子。
• A dark jealousy stirred in his bosom.他内心生出一阵恶毒的嫉妒。

7 smirk   

n.得意地笑；v.傻笑；假笑着说

参考例句：

• He made no attempt to conceal his smirk.他毫不掩饰自鸣得意的笑容。
• She had a selfsatisfied smirk on her face.她脸上带着自鸣得意的微笑。