美語(yǔ)咖啡屋Bluegrass Music
Y: 各位聽眾好，我是楊晨，歡迎您到美語(yǔ)咖啡屋。
J: And I'm Jody. Welcome to American cafe, where you can meet everyday Americans at work and at play. So, come on in and grab a good seat by the window and join us for American Cafe.
Y: 說到這兒啊，我們今天要帶您認(rèn)識(shí)兩位美國(guó)人。他們有一個(gè)共同的愛好。
J: That's right. One's a musician and one's a dancer. And they have something in common - they both love bluegrass music!
(Enter "Orange Blossom Special")
J: Yang Chen, did you hear how fast they are playing? It is simply incredible!
Y: Wow, 你說的沒錯(cuò)。雖然我看不見他們的手，可是我已經(jīng)覺得眼花繚亂了。
J: Yang Chen, let's first introduce Bob Carlin, a musician we met at a cultural festival and let him describe this very American type of music; bluegrass.
Y: 好吧。我們首先來認(rèn)識(shí)一下Bob Carlin。他是一位音樂學(xué)者，讓他給您介紹一下什么是Bluegrass Music， 蘭草音樂。
實(shí)錄1 Bob Carlin: Bluegrass is a form of music in its strictest definition. It's a band of fiddle, or violin, mandolin, five-string banjo, which is an American invention from an African instrument, and, uh, the guitar and string base. And that's the classic bluegrass band.
Y: Jody，Bob Carlin剛才提到了演奏bluegrass的幾種基本樂器。我們解釋一下這幾種樂器好嗎？
J: That's a great idea. First he mentions the fiddle, or violin.
Y: 其實(shí) fiddle就是小提琴，在演奏鄉(xiāng)村音樂或蘭草音樂的時(shí)候就稱為fiddle。我給它起了個(gè)名字，叫“鄉(xiāng)村小提琴”，好不好聽??？
J: Very clever. Then there's the mandolin.
Y: 曼陀林琴。
J: Next is the five-string banjo. It is the most important instrument in bluegrass music. What you hear in the background, in fact, is an example of banjo music.
(Enter banjo music)
Y: Banjo就五弦琴或者叫班究琴。您現(xiàn)在聽到的就是班究琴。Banjo在蘭草音樂里是最重要的一種樂器。
J: Then there's the guitar.
Y: 我想大家都很熟悉吉他。
J: Finally, Yang Chen, there's the string bass.
Y: 最后還有低音琴。解了演奏 Bluegrass 的基本樂器，下面我們聽聽 Bob Carlin為我們介紹 Bluegrass 的起源和風(fēng)格。
實(shí)錄2 Bob Carlin: What separates this from other music groups is that they play in a style that was pioneered by Bill Monroe back in the 1940s. And, um, it's a music that takes its cue or its roots from earlier forms of American string band music, country music and incorporates, uh, some ideas out of jazz, like soloing.
Y: Bob Carlin 剛才談到的 Bill Monroe 就是蘭草音樂之父。還有啊，他提到幾個(gè)詞，我們來解釋一下，"jazz" 就是爵士樂。"Soloing" 我想就是某種樂器穿插在樂曲中間的獨(dú)奏，對(duì)吧？
J: That's a perfect definition of soloing.
Y: 謝謝你的夸獎(jiǎng)，Jody。你來自西維吉尼亞，可以說你是聽著bluegrass 長(zhǎng)大的，那么對(duì)你來說，bluegrass有什么特別意義呢？
J: You're right. I grew up in West Virginia listening to bluegrass music so it really is in my blood. When bluegrass music is playing, it's very hard to keep my feet still.
Y: 好，那么我們下面就為大家介紹我們今天要認(rèn)識(shí)的第二個(gè)美國(guó)人。她叫Lynn Masterson。我們聽聽她為什么喜歡bluegrass。
實(shí)錄3 Lynn Masterson: Well, it always has a strong beat. For a dancer, a strong beat is very important. Um, it's cheery. It's happy music. It's very, uh, familiar and comfortable music. It's sort of part of who we are.
Y: 我覺得她剛才Masterson女士的這番話很有代表性。 Bluegrass的確很有感染力。她所說的strong beat，也就是節(jié)奏感很強(qiáng)，適合跳舞。Jody，bluegrass這個(gè)題目要講的內(nèi)容實(shí)在是太多了。
J: That's true.
Y: 可惜我們沒有足夠的時(shí)間。 不過有一點(diǎn)我覺得非提一下不可，那就是bluegrass對(duì)大家熟悉的搖滾樂歌王，也就是貓王Elvis Presley的影響。
J: I knew you were going to bring up Elvis Presley.
Y: 好，下面我們還是聽聽音樂學(xué)者 Bob Carlin 是怎么說的吧。
實(shí)錄4 Bob Carlin: Of course, Elvis is influenced by bluegrass. You know, Elvis did Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky," and Bill Monroe just did it one speed through.
(Enter Bill Monroe singing "Blue Moon of Kentucky")
實(shí)錄5 Bob Carlin: Elvis, he did it as a waltz like Monroe and then he sped it up.
(Enter Elvis Presley singing "Blue Moon of Kentucky")
J: Now that we heard both versions, Yang Chen, which one do you like better?
Y: 當(dāng)然是Elvis Presley了。
J: I knew you were going to say that.
Y: 因?yàn)樗难莩俣缺容^快，而且有搖滾樂的味道。
J: Okay, okay we know how much you like rock-n-roll and Elvis Presley. But you know, I think Bill Monroe's version better. But, I guess we're going to have to talk about that over coffee because that's all the time we have for today on American Cafe.
Y: 好，我們今天就聊到這兒。聽眾朋友們，我們下次見
