美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Two Wings: The Music Of Black America In Migration' Celebrates Journey Millions Took

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Now the story of an evening of music that celebrates the Great Migration¹, when millions of African Americans left the South between 1916 and 1970. The concert - "Two Wings: The Music Of Black America In Migration." It includes chamber² music, the spoken word, blues³ and jazz. "Two Wings" has its last performance tonight at the Symphony Center in Chicago. Here's NPR's Walter Ray Watson.

WALTER RAY WATSON, BYLINE⁴: For singer Alicia Hall Moran and pianist Jason Moran, creating "Two Wings" was a deeply personal process. They live in Harlem with their 11-year-old twin sons. Jason Moran says they're surrounded by art and culture born of the Great Migration.

JASON MORAN: Looking up across the street at the hospital and see Charles Alston, you know, sculpture coming out of the wall. I mean, Aaron Douglas paintings are in the YMCA on 135th Street.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOW YA GONNA KEEP 'EM DOWN ON THE FARM?")

ALICIA HALL MORAN: (Singing) How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm after they've seen Paris?

WATSON: Alicia Hall Moran sings the pop tune⁵, "How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm?" In this context, it's asking about a better life for African American soldiers returning from World War I. She says creating this concert has been a journey for her.

HALL MORAN: I could not tell you the gratitude⁶ I've learned to experience because of doing this research for the people who stayed and the people who left and also the people who made the journeys back in between.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOW YA GONNA KEEP 'EM DOWN ON THE FARM?")

HALL MORAN: (Singing) After they've seen Paris?

WATSON: The concert mixes moods, sometimes sustaining a feeling of peril⁷. Opera tenor⁸ Lawrence Brownlee sings this spiritual.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THERE'S A MAN GOING 'ROUND TAKING NAMES")

LAWRENCE BROWNLEE: (Singing) There's a man going 'round taking names. He has taken my brother's name and has left my heart in pain.

WATSON: "Two Wings" premiered at Carnegie Hall, then went to Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. - where the music in this story comes from - then to Hamburg, Germany, and now Chicago. During the concert, performers and speakers follow one another and sometimes overlap⁹.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CAROLINA SHOUT")

WATSON: Jazz, of course, was a big part of the Great Migration. And here, Jason Moran plays stride piano, made popular in the 1920s.

(SOUNDBITE OF JASON MORAN PERFORMANCE OF "CAROLINA SHOUT")

MORAN: James P. Johnson kind of made a piece of music called the "Carolina Shout" in a way to also acknowledge people who left the Carolinas to come up North. And all of these musicians - and especially pianists in Harlem - would have to learn this song so that they could battle each other on it.

(SOUNDBITE OF JASON MORAN PERFORMANCE OF "CAROLINA SHOUT")

WATSON: The Morans, as artists and people of color, think deeply about how the past is preserved and kept vital through culture.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FEELING GOOD")

HALL MORAN: (Singing) It's a new day. It's a new life for me. It's a new dawn. It's a new day. It's a new life for me. It's a new dawn. It's a new day. It's a new...

WATSON: In part, this is how Alicia Hall Moran does it with a Nina Simone tune.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FEELING GOOD")

HALL MORAN: (Singing) And I'm feeling good.

WATSON: Keeping the Great Migration alive and breathing through song. Walter Ray Watson, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FEELING GOOD")

HALL MORAN: (Singing) My birds, my sky, my stars, my sun.

1 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

2 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

3 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 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。

6 gratitude   

adj.感激，感谢

参考例句：

• I have expressed the depth of my gratitude to him.我向他表示了深切的谢意。
• She could not help her tears of gratitude rolling down her face.她感激的泪珠禁不住沿着面颊流了下来。

7 peril   

n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物

参考例句：

• The refugees were in peril of death from hunger.难民有饿死的危险。
• The embankment is in great peril.河堤岌岌可危。

8 tenor   

n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意

参考例句：

• The tenor of his speech was that war would come.他讲话的大意是战争将要发生。
• The four parts in singing are soprano,alto,tenor and bass.唱歌的四个声部是女高音、女低音、男高音和男低音。

9 overlap   

v.重叠，与…交叠；n.重叠

参考例句：

• The overlap between the jacket and the trousers is not good.夹克和裤子重叠的部分不好看。
• Tiles overlap each other.屋瓦相互叠盖。