美国国家公共电台 NPR Lou Harrison, The 'Maverick' Composer With Asia In His Ears

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

YouTube and streaming services help world music reach more of the world than ever, like B.J. Leiderman, who writes our theme music. But NPR's Tom Huizenga thinks we also need to salute¹ the composer Lou Harrison, who was born a hundred years ago.

TOM HUIZENGA, BYLINE²: Lou Harrison was born in Portland, Ore., and the Asian decor his mother chose for their home was his first window into the East. Later, when the family moved to San Francisco, Harrison the teenager spent his nights at the opera - not Puccini or Verdi, the Chinese opera. Eventually, you could hear Asia bubbling up in his music.

(SOUNDBITE OF LOU HARRISON'S "THIRD SYMPHONY")

BRETT CAMPBELL: Lou Harrison is considered the godfather of world music.

HUIZENGA: That's Brett Campbell. He's the co-author of a new biography called "Lou Harrison: American Maverick³" (ph). The composer died in 2003, but Campbell says his influence is keenly felt today.

CAMPBELL: I think we should care about Lou Harrison and his music because we're living in Lou Harrison's world now. Because for us, globalism and you turn on the radio or your stream on Spotify or Apple Music, and you're going to be hearing influences and music from all over the world.

HUIZENGA: The part of the world that Harrison especially loved was Java, home to the large percussion⁴ orchestras called gamelans. Harrison almost single-handedly brought gamelan music to America. He built his own and later mixed Western instruments with the Indonesian originals.

(SOUNDBITE OF LOU HARRISON'S "THRENODY⁵ FOR CARLOS CHAVEZ")

HUIZENGA: Although he never earned a college degree, Harrison was thoroughly⁶ grounded in the Western classics. He came to regard Bach and Beethoven as just more world music, as he explained to NPR in 1999.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

LOU HARRISON: We're all human beings. We have the same ears, and we have the same feelings. There's no they there anymore (laughter), we're all we.

HUIZENGA: We may be alike, but Lou Harrison was one in a million to conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.

MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS: He so courageously⁷ always was himself.

HUIZENGA: The composer's motto was cherish, conserve⁸, consider, create. He was a published poet, a painter, a calligrapher⁹ and openly gay back in the 1930s. In 1995, Tilson Thomas opened his first concert as music director of the San Francisco Symphony with a piece by Lou Harrison.

(SOUNDBITE OF SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE OF LOU HARRISON'S "A PARADE FOR MTT")

HUIZENGA: It's called "A Parade For MTT," and inside it, the conductor says, is a little bit of everything.

THOMAS: It's somewhere between a kind of Irish Sousa march as played by a gamelan ensemble¹⁰ perhaps.

(SOUNDBITE OF SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE OF LOU HARRISON'S "A PARADE FOR MTT")

HUIZENGA: Harrison, however, didn't always write such joyful¹¹ music.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

HUIZENGA: As atonality¹² emerged as the progressive force in music in the 1940s, Harrison fell under its spell and studied with Arnold Schoenberg. He moved to New York. The big city bewildered him, but he found success when, in 1946 at Carnegie Hall, he conducted the world premiere of the "Third Symphony" (ph) by Charles Ives, a work that had languished¹³ for 40 years.

(SOUNDBITE OF LOU HARRISON PERFORMANCE OF CHARLES IVES' "SYMPHONY NO. 3")

HUIZENGA: Although this performance earned a Pulitzer for Ives, New York triggered a nervous breakdown¹⁴ for Lou Harrison. He hightailed it back to California, where he could focus on his fusion¹⁵ of East and West.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

HARRISON: My fourth symphony contains some actual Javanese procedures with Western orchestra. The compositional procedures used by Javanese musicians actually work if you write them for a Western orchestra. They sound beautiful.

(SOUNDBITE OF LOU HARRISON'S "PRELUDE¹⁶ FOR GRANDPIANO")

CAMPBELL: Lou always said enjoy hybrid¹⁷ music because that's all there is.

HUIZENGA: Biographer Brett Campbell.

CAMPBELL: He knew that all music comes from other musics and combinations. There's no such thing as a pure music.

HUIZENGA: But if there was one pure throughline in Harrison's music, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas says it's melody.

THOMAS: There's one tune¹⁸ that's in the end of his "Suite¹⁹ For Violin And American Gamelan" which has really stuck with me. And when I'm on a hike and there's still one big ridge²⁰ that I have to get up, I just think of this tune and hum it, and somehow I find the energy to make it up that last hill. (Vocalizing).

(SOUNDBITE OF LOU HARRISON'S "SUITE FOR VIOLIN AND AMERICAN GAMELAN")

HUIZENGA: There are Lou Harrison centennial celebrations across the country this month. The composer may be gone, but the spirit of his wide open ears remains²¹ stronger than ever. Tom Huizenga, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF LOU HARRISON'S "SUITE FOR VIOLIN AND AMERICAN GAMELAN")

1 salute   

vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮

参考例句：

• Merchant ships salute each other by dipping the flag.商船互相点旗致敬。
• The Japanese women salute the people with formal bows in welcome.这些日本妇女以正式的鞠躬向人们施礼以示欢迎。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 maverick   

adj.特立独行的；不遵守传统的；n.持异议者，自行其是者

参考例句：

• He's a maverick.He has his own way of thinking about things.他是个特异独行的人。对事情有自己的看法。
• You're a maverick and you'll try anything.你是个爱自行其是的人，样样事情都要尝试一下。

4 percussion   

n.打击乐器；冲突，撞击；震动，音响

参考例句：

• In an orchestra,people who play percussion instruments sit at the back.在管弦乐队中，演奏打击乐器的人会坐在后面。
• Percussion of the abdomen is often omitted.腹部叩诊常被省略。

5 threnody   

n.挽歌，哀歌

参考例句：

• They sang a threnody for the dead person.他们为那个死去的人唱了哀歌。
• In the opera's final scene,the leading lady sings a threnody to mourn the murdered king.在最后一幕歌剧，领唱唱了一首哀歌来悼念被谋杀的国王。

6 thoroughly   

adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地

参考例句：

• The soil must be thoroughly turned over before planting.一定要先把土地深翻一遍再下种。
• The soldiers have been thoroughly instructed in the care of their weapons.士兵们都系统地接受过保护武器的训练。

7 courageously   

ad.勇敢地，无畏地

参考例句：

• Under the correct leadership of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, the army and civilians in flooded areas fought the floods courageously, reducing the losses to the minimum. 在中共中央、国务院的正确领导下，灾区广大军民奋勇抗洪，把灾害的损失减少到了最低限度。
• He fought death courageously though his life was draining away. 他虽然生命垂危，但仍然勇敢地与死亡作斗争。

8 conserve   

vt.保存，保护，节约，节省，守恒，不灭

参考例句：

• He writes on both sides of the sheet to conserve paper.他在纸张的两面都写字以节省用纸。
• Conserve your energy,you'll need it!保存你的精力，你会用得着的！

9 calligrapher   

n.书法家

参考例句：

• People would ask, then, how come a young calligrapher should choose to marry a cold-drink peddler? 以后人家会说——年轻的书法家，怎么找一个卖冷饮的？ 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译
• Wang Xizhi was a great calligrapher in ancient Chiina. 王羲之是中国古代一位伟大的书法家。

10 ensemble   

n.合奏(唱)组；全套服装；整体，总效果

参考例句：

• We should consider the buildings as an ensemble.我们应把那些建筑物视作一个整体。
• It is ensemble music for up to about ten players,with one player to a part.它是最多十人演奏的合奏音乐，每人担任一部分。

11 joyful   

adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的

参考例句：

• She was joyful of her good result of the scientific experiments.她为自己的科学实验取得好成果而高兴。
• They were singing and dancing to celebrate this joyful occasion.他们唱着、跳着庆祝这令人欢乐的时刻。

12 atonality   

n.无调性

参考例句：

13 languished   

长期受苦( languish的过去式和过去分词 )； 受折磨； 变得（越来越）衰弱； 因渴望而变得憔悴或闷闷不乐

参考例句：

• Our project languished during the holidays. 我们的计划在假期间推动得松懈了。
• He languished after his dog died. 他狗死之后，人憔悴了。

14 breakdown   

n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌

参考例句：

• She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
• The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障，但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。

15 fusion   

n.溶化；熔解；熔化状态，熔和；熔接

参考例句：

• Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc. 黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。
• This alloy is formed by the fusion of two types of metal.这种合金是用两种金属熔合而成的。

16 prelude   

n.序言，前兆，序曲

参考例句：

• The prelude to the musical composition is very long.这首乐曲的序曲很长。
• The German invasion of Poland was a prelude to World War II.德国入侵波兰是第二次世界大战的序幕。

17 hybrid   

n.(动，植）杂种，混合物

参考例句：

• That is a hybrid perpetual rose.那是一株杂交的四季开花的蔷薇。
• The hybrid was tall,handsome,and intelligent.那混血儿高大、英俊、又聪明。

18 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

19 suite   

n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员

参考例句：

• She has a suite of rooms in the hotel.她在那家旅馆有一套房间。
• That is a nice suite of furniture.那套家具很不错。

20 ridge   

n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭

参考例句：

• We clambered up the hillside to the ridge above.我们沿着山坡费力地爬上了山脊。
• The infantry were advancing to attack the ridge.步兵部队正在向前挺进攻打山脊。

21 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。