英語美文鑒賞 033
On the first night of the New Year, people’s eyes are frequently drawn to Vienna. The first-rate orchestra and its wonderful performance of the world-famous waltz build an elegantglamour on this capital of music. A divine gift for music is believed to pervade the landscape, the people, the atmosphere, and even the stones of Vienna. Vienna is associated with a great musical tradition. Many of the great classical composers had lived and worked in the city. And their historical presence seems to reassure every inhabitant of Vienna that he shares in something glorious and universal. In most Viennese heads, nothing except the waltz is so firmly and so affectionately fixed as the one truly indigenous musical form. For more than a hundred years now, the waltz has set the city’s musical tone. Nobody suggests it is first-rate music, but the whole world recognizes it as Vienna’s signature tune. The waltz tempo developed in the early 19th century out of the Austrian peasant dances that were ideal for conveying simple emotions simply.
The best waltzes have moods; they put across themes of longing and love, of joy andmisery and frustration, quick-changing cloudburst of temperament corresponding to our own under-the-skin sensations. Like a poem, a Viennese waltz tells us what we know about ourselves but have not yet expressed.
Vienna thought of itself as the city of dreams that came true. Nature, too, needed celebrating. Strauss’s musical sequence Tales from the Vienna Woods and The Blue Danube aresupreme romanticism of the place, declarations of love for a capital as well as for its surroundings. Strauss usually rushed to get the notes down at the eleventh hour, scoring them at full speed――waltzes, and polkas and marches, too. He composed nearly 500 works in all. Two hundred copyists were at his command. He stayed up all night busily scratching away with a steel pen. He undertook sentimental tours abroad, to England, to America, and to Russia; he became an unmatched Viennese institution. Now, so many years have passed. The old tunes continue to have their appeal. The rock-and-roll revolution may have come, but not at the expense of the classical favourites. In this city, musical life still goes on. The chief musical institutions of those days are all kept alive and in good order.
維也納--音樂的國家
在新年之夜，人滿為患的眼睛常常被吸引到維也納來，一流的管弦樂隊和它演奏的世界名曲給這個音樂之鄉(xiāng)增添了一種幽雅的光彩。人們感到，一種神圣的音樂才華不僅滲透了維也納的景色、人民和空氣，它甚至滲透在那里的草石之間。 維也納有著偉大的音樂傳統(tǒng)，許多偉大的古典作曲家都曾在這個城市生活和工作過。他們在維也納歷史上所留下的身影似乎使每一個維也納人都堅信，自己在分享著某種光輝的、無所不在的東西。 大多數(shù)維也納人堅定而充滿感情地把圓舞曲看作一種屬于自己的音樂形式。一百多年以來，圓舞曲一直是這個城市的音樂之聲。也許沒有人說它是一流的音樂，但所有人卻艘承認，它是帶有鮮明維也納特征的樂曲。 圓舞曲的節(jié)奏來源于19世紀早期的鄉(xiāng)村舞蹈，這種舞蹈能以簡單的方式最完美地表達出簡單的感情。最好成績的圓舞曲是有情緒的。它向人們表達渴望、愛情、歡樂、痛苦和失意的主題，反映一種能喚起我們內(nèi)心瞬息萬變的、暴風雨般的性情。一曲維也納圓舞曲就像一首詩，向我們傾述我們知道但卻不能表達的東西。維也納相信自己是一個夢想成真的城市。在這里，就是自然也需要人們?yōu)橹畾g唱。斯特勞斯的組曲《維也納森林的故事》和《藍色的多瑙河》是對那一些地區(qū)最浪漫的歌頌，他們抒發(fā)了對這個城市和它周圍環(huán)境的熱愛。斯特勞斯經(jīng)常在夜里11點時匆匆寫下歌詞，又以最快的速度把它譜成曲子――有圓舞曲、波爾卡也有進行曲。他總共寫下了近500首作品。他手下有200名抄寫員供他使喚，他通宵達旦地用鋼筆在紙上涂寫著。除作曲外，斯特勞斯還對英國、美國和俄國進行了多次情感旅行，成為維也納無與倫比的人物?，F(xiàn)在，雖然許多年過去了，昔日的樂曲依然輝煌。搖滾樂革命的到來并沒有破壞人們對古典樂曲的熱愛。在這座城市，音樂生活依然在延續(xù)，昔日主要的音樂機構(gòu)仍保留完好地在發(fā)揮著作用。
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