PBS高端访谈:古典音乐带给我们的好处（在线收听）

JUDY WOODRUFF: Over the years, researchers have explored classical music's impact on memory, creativity, productivity and even blood pressure. It's almost as if the music genre is suspected of having superpowers. And that's got industry producers trying to figure out how to market classical music to the American public. Tonight, musician and critic Jennifer Gersten shares her Humble Opinion on why this new sell is selling the music short.

朱迪·伍德拉夫：过去这些年里，科学家研究了古典音乐对记忆力、创造力、生产力乃至血压的影响。就好像古典音乐本身就有超能力一样。正因如此，很多制作人都在努力探索将古典音乐推广给美国大众的方法。今晚，音乐家兼音乐评论家詹尼弗·格斯滕就将与我们分享她的《我之拙见》，讨论一下古典音乐这个新秀为何能备受欢迎。

JENNIFER GERSTEN, Writer and Musician: Take some time to relax. Rise above it all. Calm and refreshing. These taglines could be advertisements for a Caribbean cruise, or at the very least an ambitious boxed wine. They're actually examples of how radio stations and streaming services across the country sell classical music. Classical, this advertising suggests, isn't really for listening. It's for chilling out, tuning out, zoning out. Thus, an over-500-year-old art form is being reduced to a spa day soundtrack. This marketing sort of makes sense. Classical music is perceived as inaccessible, elitist, incomprehensible to anyone who isn't wearing a monocle. Perhaps the logic goes that framing the genre as lyrical Ambien might usher people into expensive auditoriums, even if just for a nap. But this rhetoric is failing the music it's supposed to support. Like any other musical genre, classical offers innumerable sounds and triggers as many emotions. Some of it indeed might calm you. Other types seem primed to get you skipping down the block. If we think of classical music solely as relaxing, we deny its ability to move us, shake us, twist us in knots. We feed the idea that this music is somehow more elevated than pop or rap, and that its practitioners are more enlightened. This reinforces the implication that classical music is for the rich white people filling opulent concert halls, which is increasingly not the case. I'm a music student with many years of classical training, and I also write about music. I love some things I play and hear. Some things, I'm just OK with. A few things, I despise. For best results, we should learn to think about this music for ourselves, instead of outsourcing our opinions to strangers. We can do this by listening deeply and intentionally.

詹尼弗·格斯滕，作家、音乐家：现在，请大家先稍事放松，心无杂念并保持平静清醒的头脑。这些话似乎已经成了加勒比巡航舰的标志性宣传语，或者至少也可以称为有野心的箱装酒。实际上，这些话已经成了全国各地广播电台和流媒体对古典音乐的推荐语。正如广告语所表达的意思——古典不只是用来听的。古典还可以让人心平气和，让人脱离世俗，让人暂时摆脱纷扰。因此，这种传承了500多年的音乐形式已经沦落到做spa时播放的音乐。那么，这种推广方式也就说得通了。很多人认为古典音乐高不可攀，是精英人士才听的音乐，认为它是不带单片眼镜，就无法听懂的音乐。或许，这种想法是认为古典音乐是安眠药，让人愿意花高价买票去演播厅，就算去了也是睡觉也没关系。但这种说辞不符合古典音乐的实情，看似支持，实则是在泼古典音乐的冷水。与其他音乐题材类似，古典音乐也有数不胜数的额音调，也可以激发人的多种情思。某些古典音乐确实可以让人沉下心来；还有一些古典音乐可以助人奋发。如果仅把古典音乐视为放松的工具，那么我们就无视了古典音乐改变我们、撼动我们、帮我们解开心结的能力。是我们自己助长了这样一种观念：古典音乐比流行音乐和饶舌音乐更可称得上为阳春白雪，而以古典音乐为了的人更容易获得启发。这样的观点暗合一种意味：古典音乐是为有钱的白人准备的，为音乐厅准备的，但这并不是实情。我是音乐专业的学生，我受过多年的古典音乐培训，我也作过这方面的曲。我有喜欢听和演奏的音乐，一些让我感到惬意的音乐。但我也有自己所不喜欢的音乐。最好的情况是：我们应该从自己的角度出发去感受古典音乐，而不是让陌生人为我们做主。而这样做的方法很简单：仔细听，专注地听。

JUDY WOODRUFF: And it was worth it just hearing her play.

朱迪·伍德拉夫：听您演奏就已经值了。