经济学人110:听起来很美 Sounds wonderful

 　　Books and Arts; Book Review;The science of music;Sounds wonderful;

　　文艺；书评；音乐的科学；听起来很美；

　　The Music Instinct: How Music Works and Why We Can't Do Without It. By Philip Ball.

　　音乐本能：音乐的作用机理及人们欲罢不能的缘由。Philip Ball著。

　　Music is a mystery. It is unique to the human race: no other species produces elaborate sound for no particular reason. It has been, and remains¹, part of every known civilisation² on Earth. Lengths of bone fashioned into flutes³ were in use 40,000 years ago. And it engages people's attention more comprehensively than almost anything else: scans show that when people listen to music, virtually every area of their brain becomes more active.

　　音乐真是神秘。它对人类具有独一无二的意义：没有其他事物可以无端发出如此精美的声音。它曾是且仍然是地球上任何一个已知文明的一部分。人类40000年前就开始使用骨头制成的笛子。而且，音乐较任何其他事物更能让大家全神贯注：观察发现，当人们聆听音乐的时候，大脑的几乎每一个部分都会变得更具活力。

　　Yet it serves no obvious adaptive purpose. Charles Darwin, in “The Descent of Man”, noted⁴ that “neither the enjoyment⁵ nor the capacity of producing musical notes are faculties⁶ of the least direct use to man in reference to his ordinary habits of life.” Unwilling⁷ to believe that music was altogether useless, Darwin concluded that it may have made man's ancestors more successful at mating. Yet if that were so, you might expect one gender⁸ to be musically more gifted than the other, and there is no evidence of that. So what is the point of music?

　　但音乐无法满足适应性需要。查尔斯·达尔文在“人类的遗传”中说道“既非谱曲的乐趣也非此种能力在人们的日常生活习惯方面没有丝毫的直接用处。”由于不相信音乐一无是处，达尔文推断它或许可以使人类祖先的交配成功率更高。然而，如果事实如此，可以预料某一种性别会较另一种在音乐方面更具天赋，而并无显著的证据证实这一点。于是音乐的意义何在呢？

　　Steven Pinker, a cognitive⁹ psychologist best known for his book “The Language Instinct”, has called music “auditory cheesecake, an exquisite¹⁰ confection crafted to tickle¹¹ the sensitive spots of at least six of our mental faculties.” If it vanished from our species, he said, “the rest of our lifestyle would be virtually unchanged.” Others have argued that, on the contrary, music, along with art and literature, is part of what makes people human; its absence would have a brutalising effect. Philip Ball, a British science writer and an avid¹² music enthusiast¹³, comes down somewhere in the middle. He says that music is ingrained in our auditory, cognitive and motor functions. We have a music instinct as much as a language instinct, and could not rid ourselves of it if we tried.

　　认知心理学家Steven Pinker因作品“语言的本能”而出名，他将音乐称为“听觉上的奶酪蛋糕，一份精心制作的高级甜点，至少能对六种心理官能的敏感点有所刺激。”他说，如果人类突然失去音乐，“我们的生活方式将几乎一成不变。”有人争论认为，与此相反，音乐及艺术和文学是人之所以为人的一部分；没有音乐恐怕会使人更具兽性。英国科学作家及音乐的狂热爱好者Philip Ball在其中有所领悟。他认为音乐根植于人们的听觉、知觉和运动技能之中。人类的音乐禀赋同语言不相上下，摆脱音乐可谓欲罢而不能。

　　Music can mean different things in different cultures. But although it is culturally specific, some of its building blocks are universal: melody, harmony, rhythm, the timbre¹⁴ produced by a variety of instruments and the distinctive¹⁵ style added by particular composers. Almost all musical systems are based on scales spanning an octave—the note that sounds the same as the one you started off with, but at a higher or lower pitch. Pythagoras, a Greek philosopher who lived around 500BC, is said to have discovered that notes that sound harmonious¹⁶ together have simple ratios between their frequencies: for example, one that is an octave higher than another has double the frequency. The Pythagorean “diatonic” scale, still the basis of most Western music, is made up from seven notes. But it is far from the only one. Javanese gamelan uses two scales with different numbers of notes; North Indian music has 32 different scales. Arnold Schoenberg devised a 12-tone scheme of atonal¹⁷ music about a century ago.

　　音乐的意义因不同文化而异。但是，即使音乐带有文化特殊性，其某些构建模块却具有普适性：节奏、和谐、韵律、不同乐器产生的音色和特别作曲家增添的迥异乐风。几乎所有的音乐体系都是基于所跨越的八度音阶范围——这一音符的发音同开始时的完全一样，只是音高或高或低。据说，公元前500年左右，希腊哲学家毕达哥拉斯已经发现了发音和谐的音符在频率之间成简单比例：例如，高一个八度的音符具有两倍的频率。毕氏“全音阶”范围仍然是多数西方音乐的基石，它由七个音符组成。但是，这远不是仅有的一个。爪哇的加麦兰乐器使用两个音阶范围，每个音阶具有不同的音符数；北美印第安音乐具有32个不同音阶范围。一个世纪以前，Arnold Schoenberg已经设计出一种无调音乐，由12音色组合而成。

　　Mr Ball goes through each component¹⁸ of music in turn to explain how and why it works, using plentiful¹⁹ examples drawn²⁰ from a refreshingly²¹ wide range of different kinds of music, from Bach to the Beatles, and from nursery rhymes to jazz. If you can read music, you will find yourself humming aloud to see what he means. If you can't, you might occasionally get lost among the technicalities. But before things get too rarefied, Mr Ball's facility for conveying complex facts in simple language comes to the rescue.

　　Ball先生曾通过依次检查音乐的每个成分来解释其运作机理，他从大量不同种类的音乐中抽取实例，从巴赫到披头士，从童谣到爵士乐。如果你能领悟音乐，你会发现自己通过大声哼唱来理解其中的含义。如果不能领悟，或许你会偶尔迷失在专业术语中。但是在事情变得简化之前，Ball先生以简单语言表达复杂实事的作用可以来救救场。

　　His basic message is encouraging and uplifting: people know much more about music than they think. They start picking up the rules from the day they are born, perhaps even before, by hearing it all around them. Very young children can tell if a tune²² or harmony is not quite right. One of the joys of listening to music is a general familiarity with the way it is put together: to know roughly what to expect, then to see in what particular ways your expectations will be met or exceeded. Most adults can differentiate²³ between kinds of music even if they have had no training.

　　他的基本信息就是鼓励和激昂：大家对音乐的了解远超所想。通过倾听环绕周身的音乐，人们对音乐规则的无师自通与生俱来，或许更早。特别年幼的儿童也能感觉出一个曲调或和声是否正确。聆听音乐的一大乐趣就是对音乐组合方式的总体领悟：大概了解所期望的内容，而后知道你所期望的东西以什么具体方式得到满足或超越。多数成年人即使不经特殊训练也能区分不同类型的音乐。

　　Music is completely sui generis. It should not tell a non-musical story; the listener will decode²⁴ it for himself. Many, perhaps most, people have experienced a sudden rush of emotion on hearing a particular piece of music; a thrill or chill, a sense of excitement or exhilaration, a feeling of being swept away by it. They may even be moved to tears, without being able to tell why. Musical analysts²⁵ have tried hard to find out how this happens, but with little success. Perhaps some mysteries are best preserved.

　　音乐完全自成一格。它不应该讲述一个无音乐的故事；听者会自我解构。许多人，或许是大多数人，曾经历过一听到某首特别的乐曲而突然迸发情感；一个震颤或寒颤，一份激动感或者兴奋感，被其一扫而空的感觉。人们甚至不知道究竟就被感动落泪。音乐分析家曾努力寻找发生这些现象的原因，但鲜有成功。或许，某些神秘隐藏其中。

1 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

2 civilisation   

n.文明，文化，开化，教化

参考例句：

• Energy and ideas are the twin bases of our civilisation.能源和思想是我们文明的两大基石。
• This opera is one of the cultural totems of Western civilisation.这部歌剧是西方文明的文化标志物之一。

3 flutes   

长笛( flute的名词复数 )； 细长香槟杯（形似长笛）

参考例句：

• The melody is then taken up by the flutes. 接着由长笛奏主旋律。
• These flutes have 6open holes and a lovely bright sound. 笛子有6个吹气孔，奏出的声音响亮清脆。

4 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

5 enjoyment   

n.乐趣；享有；享用

参考例句：

• Your company adds to the enjoyment of our visit. 有您的陪同，我们这次访问更加愉快了。
• After each joke the old man cackled his enjoyment.每逢讲完一个笑话，这老人就呵呵笑着表示他的高兴。

6 faculties   

n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院

参考例句：

• Although he's ninety, his mental faculties remain unimpaired. 他虽年届九旬，但头脑仍然清晰。
• All your faculties have come into play in your work. 在你的工作中，你的全部才能已起到了作用。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 unwilling   

adj.不情愿的

参考例句：

• The natives were unwilling to be bent by colonial power.土著居民不愿受殖民势力的摆布。
• His tightfisted employer was unwilling to give him a raise.他那吝啬的雇主不肯给他加薪。

8 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

9 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

10 exquisite   

adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的

参考例句：

• I was admiring the exquisite workmanship in the mosaic.我当时正在欣赏镶嵌画的精致做工。
• I still remember the exquisite pleasure I experienced in Bali.我依然记得在巴厘岛所经历的那种剧烈的快感。

11 tickle   

v.搔痒，胳肢；使高兴；发痒；n.搔痒，发痒

参考例句：

• Wilson was feeling restless. There was a tickle in his throat.威尔逊只觉得心神不定。嗓子眼里有些发痒。
• I am tickle pink at the news.听到这消息我高兴得要命。

12 avid   

adj.热心的；贪婪的；渴望的；劲头十足的

参考例句：

• He is rich,but he is still avid of more money.他很富有,但他还想贪图更多的钱。
• She was avid for praise from her coach.那女孩渴望得到教练的称赞。

13 enthusiast   

n.热心人，热衷者

参考例句：

• He is an enthusiast about politics.他是个热衷于政治的人。
• He was an enthusiast and loved to evoke enthusiasm in others.他是一个激情昂扬的人，也热中于唤起他人心中的激情。

14 timbre   

n.音色，音质

参考例句：

• His voice had a deep timbre.他嗓音低沉。
• The timbre of the violin is far richer than that of the mouth organ.小提琴的音色远比口琴丰富。

15 distinctive   

adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
• This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。

16 harmonious   

adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的

参考例句：

• Their harmonious relationship resulted in part from their similar goals.他们关系融洽的部分原因是他们有着相似的目标。
• The room was painted in harmonious colors.房间油漆得色彩调和。

17 atonal   

adj.无调的

参考例句：

• The majority always turn an unfavorable attitude towards atonal composition.大多数人对无调性作品的态度往往是不能接受的。
• People did not accept atonal music at that time.那时，人们还不接受无调性音乐。

18 component   

n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的

参考例句：

• Each component is carefully checked before assembly.每个零件在装配前都经过仔细检查。
• Blade and handle are the component parts of a knife.刀身和刀柄是一把刀的组成部分。

19 plentiful   

adj.富裕的，丰富的

参考例句：

• Their family has a plentiful harvest this year.他们家今年又丰收了。
• Rainfall is plentiful in the area.这个地区雨量充足。

20 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

21 refreshingly   

adv.清爽地，有精神地

参考例句：

• Hers is less workmanlike than the other books and refreshingly unideological. 她的书不像其它书那般精巧，并且不涉及意识形态也让人耳目一新。 来自互联网
• Skin is left refreshingly clean with no pore-clogging residue. 皮肤留下清爽干净，没有孔隙堵塞残留。 来自互联网

22 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

23 differentiate   

vi.(between)区分；vt.区别；使不同

参考例句：

• You can differentiate between the houses by the shape of their chimneys.你可以凭借烟囱形状的不同来区分这两幢房子。
• He never learned to differentiate between good and evil.他从未学会分辨善恶。

24 decode   

vt.译（码），解（码）

参考例句：

• All he had to do was decode it and pass it over.他需要做的就是将它破译然后转给他人。
• The secret documents were intercepted and decoded.机密文件遭截获并被破译。

25 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。