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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
As part of Michigan Radio's Songs from Studio East series, this year we are exploring music that combines both contemporary and traditional music from around the world.
Today we met Ann Arbor1 native Tyler Duncan and Irishman John McSherry.
Despite being an ocean away, they play in a band together, called the olllam. The two have toured across the U.S. and in Europe producing a fusion2 of pop, rock and Irish music.
Duncan's musical career has included a variety of genres3, like pop, rock and electronic. He has won international awards for playing traditional Irish instruments, like the uilleann pipes, a lighter4 version of Scotland's bagpipes5, and whistles, a staple6 in Irish music.
He discovered Irish music when he was 11, when his aunt gave him a VHS copy of Riverdance. A pipe solo in the middle of the show grabbed his attention.
"As a kid I just was like, 'Woah, what is that? What is that instrument?'" he said. "And that got me really interested in the pipes."
Years later, as a 13-year-old Duncan moved to Ireland for a year with his family. His father took a sabbatical there.
He was given a tape he loved, which he later learned featured John McSherry, a rising star in the traditional Irish music scene. Then, when Duncan was in western Ireland, he had a chance to meet that musician.
He said it was a "serendipitous7" meeting at a jam session in Milltown. Someone told Duncan that McSherry was at the bar. So Duncan started to stare. When McSherry's girlfriend noticed, the two introduced themselves.
That was the origin of the friendship that lead to the olllam.
Irish music is alive and well, but according to McSherry, that wasn't always the case. When England tried to take over Ireland, the English would punish anyone dancing to or playing Irish music. Some were even hung for playing Irish instruments.
McSherry has heard stories, from as recent as the 1920s, of people being punished for speaking the Irish language in public.
"I think, in a lot of ways, the olllam is a very liberated8 type of music," Duncan said. "Like, we have been freed to kind of make any sound we want, combine cultures and do it across an ocean and do it in a way without any sort of fear of backlash or controversy9. Those safeties and those securities that allow us to be experimental weren't necessarily in place for the people we've been influenced by. It's a very fortunate place to be."
1 arbor | |
n.凉亭;树木 | |
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2 fusion | |
n.溶化;熔解;熔化状态,熔和;熔接 | |
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3 genres | |
(文学、艺术等的)类型,体裁,风格( genre的名词复数 ) | |
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4 lighter | |
n.打火机,点火器;驳船;v.用驳船运送;light的比较级 | |
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5 bagpipes | |
n.风笛;风笛( bagpipe的名词复数 ) | |
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6 staple | |
n.主要产物,常用品,主要要素,原料,订书钉,钩环;adj.主要的,重要的;vt.分类 | |
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7 serendipitous | |
adj.偶然发现的 | |
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8 liberated | |
a.无拘束的,放纵的 | |
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9 controversy | |
n.争论,辩论,争吵 | |
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