美国国家公共电台 NPR The Scary Sound Machine That Is 'Trying To Set People A Little Bit Off-Kilter'

The Scary Sound Machine That Is 'Trying To Set People A Little Bit Off-Kilter'

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Creaking doors, clanking chains. With Halloween just around the corner, we're now going to a guy who specializes in making scary sounds.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING¹)

MARK KORVEN: (Playing apprehension² engine).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Mark Korven plays a custom-made instrument he calls the apprehension engine. We're listening to a performance earlier this month - Friday the 13, of course, at a cemetery³ in Brooklyn. Korven is a Canadian composer for film and television soundtracks. He's helped spook up everything from "The Twilight⁴ Zone" and sci-fi cult⁵ film "Cube" to the recent horror blockbuster "The Witch."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE WITCH")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As unidentified character) (Screaming).

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As unidentified character) It's not safe. Not again.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Mark Korven brought his apprehension engine into the studios of the CBC in Toronto to show us how he makes music for nightmares.

Hi, Mark.

KORVEN: Hi, how are you doing?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Good. So what was it like when you played the apprehension engine in front of a live audience? What was the reaction?

KORVEN: People were kind of confused and a little bit in awe⁶. I remember we had people flocking into the chapel⁷, which is where I was playing - in the chapel in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. And I remember this woman walking past the apprehension engine, and I did this...

(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)

KORVEN: ...And she jumped about a foot in the air.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: (Laughter).

KORVEN: I just love to get a rise out of people on occasion.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So this is an instrument that you sort of designed and created with the help of a friend. But can you give us an audio tour of the instrument in front of you? Play us some sounds.

(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So that sounds really eerie⁸. What are you doing?

KORVEN: So that's a collection of metal rulers, and I have four of them in front of me. If I was just to pluck them, it'd sound a little bit like marimba.

(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)

KORVEN: But when you bow them, it's kind of cool.

(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)

KORVEN: What I bow them with is called a nyckelharpa bow. And a nyckelharpa is a medieval pushbutton violin that I used when I was recording the score for "The Witch." I needed a very small violin bow. So that's what I'm using for this. And I also have something that's a spring reverb from a guitar amplifier. You can hit it, which I love.

(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)

KORVEN: And then we have a hurdy-gurdy, which makes this sort of sound.

(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's kind of like a wheel, right?

KORVEN: Yeah, it's like a wheel. This is my squeaky wheel sound.

(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)

KORVEN: And then next up, we have a - basically, we have a single string, and I use an Ebow, which is something that guitar players use, which sustains the string.

(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)

KORVEN: And then on top of that, we have a single rod, which, if you let the rod go...

(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)

KORVEN: ...It goes wack, wack, wack (ph). And I can bow it, as well, and get this sound.

(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)

KORVEN: We also have this...

(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)

KORVEN: ...Which is basically a collection of junk in there, and then a switch.

(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)

KORVEN: And then something I use for a tick-tock sound...

(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)

KORVEN: ...Which is nice rhythmically⁹.

I've thought a lot about what makes for freaky sounds. And, I think, it goes back to that primordial¹⁰ fear of being hunted. And something that is hunted might scream, like - so you might, you know, that sound like I'm doing.

(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah.

KORVEN: You know, real screeches¹¹ and cries. And I think that unearths¹² that primordial fear of being, like, attacked by an animal that's bigger than you are.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah, in the dark woods at night.

KORVEN: Yes. That's right.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: On Halloween.

(LAUGHTER)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Sorry, I'm being taken away by this already. How did you get into scary sounds?

KORVEN: Well, it wasn't much of a leap for me at all. I actually come from a jazz background, and I've always been attracted to strange, unusual harmonies. So it wasn't that much of a leap to get into music that was a little bit more dissonant¹³. And I love creative and harmonic freedom to do whatever I want. And horror is one way of doing that. You can be really weird¹⁴ and strange. And 9 times out of 10, it's going to work quite well with the images that you're working with.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Do you change the sounds for different projects? I mean, I suppose something like "The Witch," might be different than "The Twilight Zone."

KORVEN: Oh, absolutely. "The Witch" was a very unusual score in that Robert Eggers, the director - he didn't want anything that was electronic at all. He didn't want even reverb. He wanted it to be very flat, very dry, very real. It did inspire this machine. I didn't actually use it on "The Witch," but I became enamored with that sound of, you know, that real tactile¹⁵ sense of touching¹⁶ a real acoustic¹⁷ instrument and being able to...

(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)

KORVEN: ...You know, scratch it with your fingers where it just felt like someone touching it.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So, Mark, I've got to ask you this - are you going to use this to sort of, like, freak out your trick or treaters in your neighborhood?

KORVEN: You know, I got to say that is the plan...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: (Laughter)

KORVEN: ...As long as we don't get rained on because I have a couple of kids (laughter). And my two kids are rather bored by all this because, you know, they - oh, daddy's up to his usual stuff. But I think it has the potential of freaking out the neighborhood children. And that really appeals to me.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: (Laughter) Mark Korven is a composer for film and television and is a virtuoso¹⁸ on the instrument he calls the apprehension engine. You can check it out in his neighborhood, apparently¹⁹. Thanks, and Happy Halloween.

KORVEN: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You can see a video of the apprehension engine in action on our website npr.org.

1 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。

2 apprehension   

n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑

参考例句：

• There were still areas of doubt and her apprehension grew.有些地方仍然存疑，于是她越来越担心。
• She is a girl of weak apprehension.她是一个理解力很差的女孩。

3 cemetery   

n.坟墓，墓地，坟场

参考例句：

• He was buried in the cemetery.他被葬在公墓。
• His remains were interred in the cemetery.他的遗体葬在墓地。

4 twilight   

n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期

参考例句：

• Twilight merged into darkness.夕阳的光辉融于黑暗中。
• Twilight was sweet with the smell of lilac and freshly turned earth.薄暮充满紫丁香和新翻耕的泥土的香味。

5 cult   

n.异教，邪教；时尚，狂热的崇拜

参考例句：

• Her books aren't bestsellers,but they have a certain cult following.她的书算不上畅销书，但有一定的崇拜者。
• The cult of sun worship is probably the most primitive one.太阳崇拜仪式或许是最为原始的一种。

6 awe   

n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧

参考例句：

• The sight filled us with awe.这景色使我们大为惊叹。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

7 chapel   

n.小教堂，殡仪馆

参考例句：

• The nimble hero,skipped into a chapel that stood near.敏捷的英雄跳进近旁的一座小教堂里。
• She was on the peak that Sunday afternoon when she played in chapel.那个星期天的下午，她在小教堂的演出，可以说是登峰造极。

8 eerie   

adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的

参考例句：

• It's eerie to walk through a dark wood at night.夜晚在漆黑的森林中行走很是恐怖。
• I walked down the eerie dark path.我走在那条漆黑恐怖的小路上。

9 rhythmically   

adv.有节奏地

参考例句：

• A pigeon strutted along the roof, cooing rhythmically. 一只鸽子沿着屋顶大摇大摆地走，有节奏地咕咕叫。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Exposures of rhythmically banded protore are common in the workings. 在工作面中常见有韵律条带“原矿石”。 来自辞典例句

10 primordial   

adj.原始的；最初的

参考例句：

• It is the primordial force that propels us forward.它是推动我们前进的原始动力。
• The Neanderthal Man is one of our primordial ancestors.的尼安德特人是我们的原始祖先之一.

11 screeches   

n.尖锐的声音( screech的名词复数 )v.发出尖叫声( screech的第三人称单数 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫

参考例句：

• The boy's screeches brought his mother. 男孩的尖叫声招来了他母亲。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The woman's screeches brought the police. 这个妇女的尖叫声招来了警察。 来自辞典例句

12 unearths   

发掘或挖出某物( unearth的第三人称单数 )； 搜寻到某事物，发现并披露

参考例句：

13 dissonant   

adj.不和谐的；不悦耳的

参考例句：

• His voice is drowned by the dissonant scream of a siren outside.她的声音被外面杂乱刺耳的警报声吞没了。
• They chose to include all of these dissonant voices together.他们把那些不和谐的声音也放在了里面

14 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

15 tactile   

adj.触觉的，有触觉的，能触知的

参考例句：

• Norris is an expert in the tactile and the tangible.诺里斯创作最精到之处便是，他描绘的人物使人看得见摸得着。
• Tactile communication uses touch rather than sight or hearing.触觉交流，是用触摸感觉，而不是用看或听来感觉。

16 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

17 acoustic   

adj.听觉的，声音的；(乐器)原声的

参考例句：

• The hall has a fine acoustic.这个大厅的传音效果很好。
• Animals use a whole rang of acoustic, visual,and chemical signals in their systems of communication.动物利用各种各样的听觉、视觉和化学信号来进行交流。

18 virtuoso   

n.精于某种艺术或乐器的专家，行家里手

参考例句：

• He was gaining a reputation as a remarkable virtuoso.作为一位技艺非凡的大师，他声誉日隆。
• His father was a virtuoso horn player who belonged to the court orchestra.他的父亲是宫廷乐队中一个技巧精湛的圆号演奏家。

19 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。