VOA慢速英语2014 AS IT IS 2014-05-05 Saving Black Gospel Music 拯救黑人福音音乐

 

AS IT IS 2014-05-05 Saving Black Gospel Music 拯救黑人福音音乐

Hello, and welcome to As It Is from VOA Learning English!

I’m Christopher Cruise in Washington.

Today on the program we will report on efforts to save 20th century recordings¹ of black gospel music.

“We have 8,000-plus individual sides digitized and catalogued -- and more coming in every day.”

Efforts to save 20th century gospel music, today on As It Is.

Restoring Black Gospel Music

America’s Smithsonian Institution has announced plans to add some rare music recordings to a new museum in Washington, DC. For the past few years, the recordings have been stored at Baylor University in Texas. The collection is known as the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project.

Bob Darden is now a college professor in Waco, Texas. But in 1960, he was a small child whose father had just brought home the family’s first long-playing phonograph records. Two of the record albums did not interest the boy, but the other one was different.

“The third was Mahalia Jackson’s Christmas album. And my parents say (that at) about age six or so that I played Mahalia’s album over and over.”

Bob Darden’s interest in that kind of music never went away. When he grew up, he became gospel music editor for Billboard² Magazine.

As years passed, he found it harder and harder to find the music he loved. In 2005, Bob Darden wrote a letter to the New York Times newspaper. He expressed concern that gospel music was disappearing. He says a man named Charles Royce read the letter.

“And called that day and said, ‘tell me what we need to do and I’ll help fund it.’”

Charles Royce’s gift was used to create the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project at Baylor, where Bob Darden taught. The music collection has grown.

“We have 8,000-plus individual sides digitized and catalogued --and more coming in every day.”

That is 8,000 mostly 45-rpm gospel records. The vinyl discs date from the 1940s to the 1970s.

 

In 2011, the wife of former President George W. Bush learned of the collection. Laura Bush has a home in Waco. She serves on the cultural council of the Smithsonian Institution’s new Museum of African-American History and Culture. Dwandalyn Reece is the museum’s curator of music and performing arts.“They let us know of this wonderful project that was going on in Texas, and then a team of people came up to show us the project and what they’ve accomplished³, and we were all very impressed.”

The 45-rpm gospel records were especially important. They often had a “hit” -- or popular song -- on one side. Bob Darden describes the other side.

“It’s usually where the artist does their own personal song.”

He says many of the “second side” recordings were civil rights songs that few people knew about. He says that makes the records important historical objects.

Historian Dwandalyn Reece says this was a surprise.

“On one level you think people are just talking about religion, and the other side they have a message embedded⁴ in that as well. The whole idea of being, of have, like a civil rights movement message in a gospel record was, it just totally blew my mind.”

Bob Darden says African-American gospel music was the basis for most American music in the 20th century.

“Every rock-and-roll African American artist, every rap, every soul artist came out of the church, and sang these songs.”

Now, parts of this collection are on the way to Washington. Dwandalyn Reece says it is an important gift to the United States and the world. She says the Museum of African-American History and Culture will make the music available for more people.

“Gives a forum⁵ for more people to hear this music and have access to it. I see this as an untold⁶ story that hasn’t gotten its due yet.”

The new museum is set to open in 2015.

We would like to know what you want to hear about on a future show.

1 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

2 billboard   

n.布告板，揭示栏，广告牌

参考例句：

• He ploughed his energies into his father's billboard business.他把精力投入到父亲的广告牌业务中。
• Billboard spreads will be simpler and more eye-catching.广告牌广告会比较简单且更引人注目。

3 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

4 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

5 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

6 untold   

adj.数不清的，无数的

参考例句：

• She has done untold damage to our chances.她给我们的机遇造成了不可估量的损害。
• They suffered untold terrors in the dark and huddled together for comfort.他们遭受着黑暗中的难以言传的种种恐怖，因而只好挤在一堆互相壮胆。