英语标准美文100篇 047（在线收听）

Vienna--the Land of Music

On the first night of the New Year, people’s eyes are frequently drawn to Vienna. The first-rate orchestra and its wonderful performance of the world-famous waltz build an elegant glamour on this capital of music. A divine gift for music is believed to pervade the landscape, the people, the atmosphere, and even the stones of Vienna. Vienna is associated with a great musical tradition. Many of the great classical composers had lived and worked in the city. And their historical presence seems to reassure every inhabitant of Vienna that he shares in something glorious and universal. In most Viennese heads, nothing except the waltz is so firmly and so affectionately fixed as the one truly indigenous musical form. For more than a hundred years now, the waltz has set the city’s musical tone. Nobody suggests it is first-rate music, but the whole world recognizes it as Vienna’s signature tune. The waltz tempo developed in the early 19th century out of the Austrian peasant dances that were ideal for conveying simple emotions simply.

The best waltzes have moods; they put across themes of longing and love, of joy and misery and frustration, quick-changing cloudburst of temperament corresponding to our own under-the-skin sensations. Like a poem, a Viennese waltz tells us what we know about ourselves but have not yet expressed.

Vienna thought of itself as the city of dreams that came true. Nature, too, needed celebrating. Strauss’s musical sequence Tales from the Vienna Woods and The Blue Danube are supreme romanticism of the place, declarations of love for a capital as well as for its surroundings. Strauss usually rushed to get the notes down at the eleventh hour, scoring them at full speed――waltzes, and polkas and marches, too. He composed nearly 500 works in all. Two hundred copyists were at his command. He stayed up all night busily scratching away with a steel pen. He undertook sentimental tours abroad, to England, to America, and to Russia; he became an unmatched Viennese institution. Now, so many years have passed. The old tunes continue to have their appeal. The rock-and-roll revolution may have come, but not at the expense of the classical favourites. In this city, musical life still goes on. The chief musical institutions of those days are all kept alive and in good order.
维也纳--音乐的国家

在新年之夜，人满为患的眼睛常常被吸引到维也纳来，一流的管弦乐队和它演奏的世界名曲给这个音乐之乡增添了一种幽雅的光彩。人们感到，一种神圣的音乐才华不仅渗透了维也纳的景色、人民和空气，它甚至渗透在那里的草石之间。 维也纳有着伟大的音乐传统，许多伟大的古典作曲家都曾在这个城市生活和工作过。他们在维也纳历史上所留下的身影似乎使每一个维也纳人都坚信，自己在分享着某种光辉的、无所不在的东西。 大多数维也纳人坚定而充满感情地把圆舞曲看作一种属于自己的音乐形式。一百多年以来，圆舞曲一直是这个城市的音乐之声。也许没有人说它是一流的音乐，但所有人却艘承认，它是带有鲜明维也纳特征的乐曲。 圆舞曲的节奏来源于19世纪早期的乡村舞蹈，这种舞蹈能以简单的方式最完美地表达出简单的感情。最好成绩的圆舞曲是有情绪的。它向人们表达渴望、爱情、欢乐、痛苦和失意的主题，反映一种能唤起我们内心瞬息万变的、暴风雨般的性情。一曲维也纳圆舞曲就像一首诗，向我们倾述我们知道但却不能表达的东西。维也纳相信自己是一个梦想成真的城市。在这里，就是自然也需要人们为之欢唱。斯特劳斯的组曲《维也纳森林的故事》和《蓝色的多瑙河》是对那一些地区最浪漫的歌颂，他们抒发了对这个城市和它周围环境的热爱。斯特劳斯经常在夜里11点时匆匆写下歌词，又以最快的速度把它谱成曲子――有圆舞曲、波尔卡也有进行曲。他总共写下了近500首作品。他手下有200名抄写员供他使唤，他通宵达旦地用钢笔在纸上涂写着。除作曲外，斯特劳斯还对英国、美国和俄国进行了多次情感旅行，成为维也纳无与伦比的人物。现在，虽然许多年过去了，昔日的乐曲依然辉煌。摇滚乐革命的到来并没有破坏人们对古典乐曲的热爱。在这座城市，音乐生活依然在延续，昔日主要的音乐机构仍保留完好地在发挥着作用。