英语听力：Beethoven 贝多芬 - 02

 He was baptized on the 17th of December, 1770 and was probably born the day before.

 

He came from a musical family. His father was a court tenor¹, His grandfather was a kapellmeister, the top job. But while his grandfather was a great musician, his father was a failed musician. His mother had a strange relationship towards him. She knew he was a different child, a strange child. She found it difficult to relate to him. He was withdrawn². His father knew from the start that Ludwig was a very specially³ talented child musically. And he saw him as a way of making money for the family. After all, Mozart’s father had done the same with him as a child, he had taken the young Wolfgang abroad to London and so on and earned money through the child and Ludwig's father said, I can do the same. I can really make money out of this child. And to do that, he kept him practicing. According to the children that Ludwig grew up in the same house said, the father would beat him across the hands, if he didn’t practice. He would keep him there until dawn.

 

The one thing that Ludwig wanted to do was improvise⁴, whether he was on the piano or the violin which he was learning as well. He would improvise. He wouldn’t read what was written on the paper. And his father would say, stop all this bashing around, stick to the notes that are there, (be）cause he couldn’t understand that improvisation⁵ was in any way important or special.

 

Beethoven appeared to be neglected, isolated⁶ and this may have had a great artistic⁷ importance because Beethoven’s interested in the problems of human communication and separation. I think the first evidence that Beethoven was going to be a great musician surfaced in his ability under his teacher Christian⁸ Neefe to learn by memory and play, in a very impressive fashion, all of the prelude⁹ and fugues of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, and this was a cornerstone of Beethoven’s musical development.

 

Mozart, of course, he adored. And when a new Mozart opera would come out in Vienna, the score would soon reach Bonn, and the young Ludwig would devour¹⁰ it.

 

In 1787, Ludwig was 16 and a half years of age, he finally achieved his childhood ambition—go to Vienna and meet Mozart. He played a piece of Mozart, he specially prepared. And Mozart said, no, no, any one can play that. Play something else. So Beethoven did what he did best. He asked Mozart to give him a theme anything and he improvised¹¹ on it. Mozart said, watch out for him. One day, he will give the world something to talk about. And it was a tragedy for Ludwig. Because while he was there, he received a note from his father in Bonn saying, come home immediately. Your mother is dying, you cannot stay in Vienna. And he had to leave and, of course, the time he got back to Vienna which was 5 years later, Mozart was dead.

1 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。

2 withdrawn   

vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出

参考例句：

• Our force has been withdrawn from the danger area.我们的军队已从危险地区撤出。
• All foreign troops should be withdrawn to their own countries.一切外国军队都应撤回本国去。

3 specially   

adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地

参考例句：

• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。

4 improvise   

v.即兴创作；临时准备，临时凑成

参考例句：

• If an actor forgets his words，he has to improvise.演员要是忘记台词，那就只好即兴现编。
• As we've not got the proper materials,we'll just have to improvise.我们没有弄到合适的材料，只好临时凑合了。

5 improvisation   

n.即席演奏(或演唱)；即兴创作

参考例句：

• a free-form jazz improvisation 自由创作的爵士乐即兴演出
• Most of their music was spontaneous improvisation. 他们的大部分音乐作品都是即兴创作的。

6 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

7 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

8 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

9 prelude   

n.序言，前兆，序曲

参考例句：

• The prelude to the musical composition is very long.这首乐曲的序曲很长。
• The German invasion of Poland was a prelude to World War II.德国入侵波兰是第二次世界大战的序幕。

10 devour   

v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷

参考例句：

• Larger fish devour the smaller ones.大鱼吃小鱼。
• Beauty is but a flower which wrinkle will devour.美只不过是一朵，终会被皱纹所吞噬。

11 improvised   

a.即席而作的,即兴的

参考例句：

• He improvised a song about the football team's victory. 他即席创作了一首足球队胜利之歌。
• We improvised a tent out of two blankets and some long poles. 我们用两条毛毯和几根长竿搭成一个临时帐蓬。