J: Hello, I'm Jody!
Y: 大家好, 我是楊晨!
J: And welcome to American Cafe.
Y: 歡迎您到美語咖啡屋.
Enter pipe band music
Y: Jody, 今天的這個音樂, 我怎么覺得怎么熟悉啊 ?
J: Today I thought we would introduce Margaret Peng, the Chinese-American woman we met who does something quite uncommon. She's a drummer in a Scottish pipe band. Yang Chen, how cool is that!?
Y: 你說得沒錯,我對她的印象特別的深. 這個女孩兒叫Margaret Peng, 是一位華裔,是華盛頓蘇格蘭風(fēng)笛樂隊的隊員之一。在這種樂隊里華人并不多見。那么,作為一個華裔,她是怎么迷上這種音樂的呢?我們來看看她是怎么說的:
實錄1: Margaret Peng: I'm a tenor drummer in the pipe band and I started playing in high school. Eh... I had a friend who was in the bagpipe band in high school. That what she played. She said: "Come on join it with me, join it." So I did it and I didn't think I'd keep doing it but I am (laughs).
J: How many years now?
MP: I've been in this band I've been in for 12, 12 years. Right.
Y: Margaret剛才說她是在高中就加入了樂隊一直到現(xiàn)在她練了十二年了,很長時間。
J: 12 years! Wow.
Y: 真的很不簡單。 她加入樂隊的原因其實很簡單。 她當(dāng)時她有一個朋友在樂隊里吹bagpipe 的, 就問她, 你參加不參加? 她說好啊,就是那么簡單.
J: That's simple. She was in high school and a friend told her to come join the band.
Y: 沒錯,沒錯。她在樂隊里是鼓手。
J: Yang Chen, I was so impressed when we saw Margaret Peng twirling her mallets in the air! It's like she was dancing! Really beautiful. She explained to me that the mallets are actually the sticks you use to bang the drum.
Y: 對,“mallet”就是敲鼓用的鼓槌,或者小音槌。當(dāng)時如果你能看到Margaret Peng揮舞小音槌的姿勢,你會覺得她非常優(yōu)美,簡直就象跳舞一樣。
J: The music of the Scottish pipe band is so bizarre, isn't it?
Y: Bizarre?
J: You know, 奇怪。
Y: 我想在這里可能說它奇特更合適吧。
J: Oh, 不是奇怪的意思?
Y: "Bizarre"當(dāng)然有奇怪的意思,不過這里說奇特更合適一些,因為這個音樂還是很好聽的。
J: I don't think anything sounds quite like the music of Scotland. And especially the bagpipes. While the drums are familiar, Yang Chen, to many cultures, I don't think the bagpipes are.
實錄2: Margaret Peng: It takes a lot of time. It's very difficult. There's a bag that you inflate with a blowpipe in your mouth. And you inflate the bag and every time you blow then you squeeze after you finish blowing. And you have to keep the pressure constant to keep that drone sounds. And then you have to play and then you have to walk. So there's a lot of things going on at the same time.
Y: 說起來這種樂器的名字里面有個“笛”,風(fēng)笛。其實它比中國笛子或長笛相比要大得多,看上去也很重。
J: They have to carry all their instruments as they are marching.
Y: Margaret剛才提到吹奏風(fēng)笛有一種“drone sound”。我想要讓聽眾更好地了解這種聲音,還是讓他們聽一段音樂。
J: Of course that's the best way. Let's play a droning bagpipe.
Enter bagpipe music.
J: I mean, picture this, Yang Chen. A group of musicians, men and women, dressed in the same very formal Scottish costume with kilt, you know a skirt, and carrying their instruments as they parade around.
Y: 大家可以想象一下,一群人帶著自豪感,昂首闊步地前進。我還記得Margaret當(dāng)時給我的印象很深,她很威風(fēng),對不起?
J: Exactly.
Y: 蘇格蘭男子身上穿的這種花格裙是蘇格蘭特有的一種服飾。這種裙子的正確說法是 "kilt," 而不是 "skirt."
J: You're right Yang Chen, the word is "kilt." K-I-L-T. I think Margaret gave a good explanation of the origin of Scottish pipe band music.
實錄3: Margaret Peng: And bagpipes are the traditional Scottish instruments used in time of war to help signal whether they were going to retreat or whether they were going to attack.
Y: 原來在古代的蘇格蘭,人們用吹奏bagpipe來向軍隊發(fā)出信號,告訴他們應(yīng)該進攻還是撤退。 最后我們來欣賞一段傳統(tǒng)的蘇格蘭音樂。Jody,你知道嗎,這段音樂是我的一個朋友演奏的。
J: Oh, that's wonderful. And actually that's the end of our show today. So, thank you for stopping in to American Cafe.
Y: 再見!
J: See ya!