美国国家公共电台 NPR The String Quartet As Chosen Family In 'The Ensemble'

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Aja Gabel's new novel has cues for music for each section of the book, so let's queue up Dvorak's "American" in F Major. It's a love story, isn't it?

(SOUNDBITE OF PERFORMANCE OF DVORAK'S "STRING QUARTET NO. 12 IN F MAJOR")

SIMON: As is her novel, "The Ensemble¹." Four musicians who make beautiful music together as the Van Ness String Quartet meet and compete. Beginning in the early 1990s, the novel follows them through tests, triumphs, temptations, contests, conquests, families and defeats and every permutation of love, beginning with their love for their art.

"The Ensemble" is the debut² novel by Aja Gabel, who's written and taught fiction and won awards and fellowships, including the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. She joins us from our studios at NPR West. Thanks so much for being with us.

AJA GABEL: Hello. Nice to talk to you.

SIMON: Press material says you're a former cellist³. Is there any such thing as former?

GABEL: (Laughter) That's a great question. I suppose I'm former in that I played very intensely and competitively when I was younger, and I don't do that anymore. And I stopped doing that after college. I wasn't as good as I'd - I could hear in my head. And sort of in that way, I relate to, you know, one of the characters in my book, who sort of loves it more than he maybe has a natural ability to play it.

SIMON: Is that when you became a writer?

GABEL: You know, I'd always written, too. Writing and playing were two of the only things that I really did very intensely when I was younger. And so I focused - about when I started to write this novel was when I really cut back on playing. There was sort of only room for one at that time.

SIMON: I did not quite realize until I read this novel that people who play music for a living are in a constant state of competition.

GABEL: Yes. I think that's a huge part of it. It defines who gets to rise to the top very early on. I was competing from when I was 12 years old - 10 years old, and I think that must do something to you if you continue to do that your whole life. And I really wanted to look at that in these relationships in the characters in this book.

SIMON: Another thing I didn't quite realize until I read "The Ensemble" - professional musicians are always icing this and taping that. And it's physically⁴ as grueling as playing a professional sport. I guess it is a professional sport, in a sense.

GABEL: Absolutely. It is such a physical activity, and I really wanted to write about the way that you, especially if you're playing with someone else, come to know their body, their movements and the way that playing also wears on your own body.

SIMON: Is it the condition of playing music for a living that you want to become successful as an ensemble, yet the more successful you are, the more there is to tug⁵ on you to become a soloist⁶?

GABEL: That tension is something I was very interested in because it is such a choice to play in an ensemble. It isn't as glamorous⁷ as being a soloist in a lot of ways. That is a - that's a curious choice, you know, to choose to do that. I think you have to love what you're creating as a whole more than you love the sound of your own instrument, and those people are endlessly interesting to me.

SIMON: Your novel follows four people in the Van Ness Ensemble - four talents, changes narrative⁸ views between the four of them over, I guess, almost 20 years. Did you plot that out on music paper? How did you - what did you do?

GABEL: Oh, my gosh. It was a real challenge in the beginning because I wanted to be so formal with it. I did want to write it in sonata⁹ form. And I wanted to write it in the way you might hear a quartet. But because stories don't work the way music does, you can't hear everything at once. I had to divide it up this way. I knew I wanted to keep it in four sections to allude¹⁰ to that quartet structure, but it's a balance between trying to hear all of the voices together, even though you can't hear them together on the page.

SIMON: Aja Gabel - her debut novel, "The Ensemble." Thanks so much for being with us.

GABEL: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE HEATH QUARTET PERFORMANCE OF "ANDANTE CANTABILE FROM STRING QUARTET NO. 1 IN D MAJOR")

1 ensemble   

n.合奏(唱)组；全套服装；整体，总效果

参考例句：

• We should consider the buildings as an ensemble.我们应把那些建筑物视作一个整体。
• It is ensemble music for up to about ten players,with one player to a part.它是最多十人演奏的合奏音乐，每人担任一部分。

2 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

3 cellist   

n.大提琴手

参考例句：

• The cellist's bowing was very sensitive . 那位大提琴手的弓法十分细腻。 来自辞典例句
• World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma founded The Silk Road Project in 1998. 世界闻名的大提琴家马友友于1998年创建了丝路工程。 来自互联网

4 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

5 tug   

v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船

参考例句：

• We need to tug the car round to the front.我们需要把那辆车拉到前面。
• The tug is towing three barges.那只拖船正拖着三只驳船。

6 soloist   

n.独奏者，独唱者

参考例句：

• The soloist brought the house down with encore for his impressive voice.这位独唱家以他那感人的歌声博得全场喝彩。
• The soloist had never performed in London before.那位独唱者过去从未在伦敦演出过。

7 glamorous   

adj.富有魅力的；美丽动人的；令人向往的

参考例句：

• The south coast is less glamorous but full of clean and attractive hotels.南海岸魅力稍逊，但却有很多干净漂亮的宾馆。
• It is hard work and not a glamorous job as portrayed by the media.这是份苦差，并非像媒体描绘的那般令人向往。

8 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

9 sonata   

n.奏鸣曲

参考例句：

• He played a piano sonata of his own composition.他弹奏了一首自作的钢琴奏鸣曲。
• The young boy played the violin sonata masterfully.那个小男孩的小提琴奏鸣曲拉得很熟练。

10 allude   

v.提及，暗指

参考例句：

• Many passages in Scripture allude to this concept.圣经中有许多经文间接地提到这样的概念。
• She also alluded to her rival's past marital troubles.她还影射了对手过去的婚姻问题。