VOA标准英语2011--US Composer Puts 9/11 Tragedy to Music

US Composer Puts 9/11 Tragedy to Music

Over the past five decades, American composer Steve Reich created and honed a recognizable style that has made him one of today's top American composers. In the process he has helped propel so-called minimalist music into the mainstream¹. Reich turns 75 in October and recently composed a work that commemorates² the September 11 attacks.
Steve Reich began his career experimenting with electronic manipulation of tape in the 1960s. Over the past five decades, he has created and honed one of the most recognizable styles in contemporary classical music.
His latest work "WTC 9/11", named for The World Trade Center and September 11, debuted³ just weeks before Osama bin⁴ Laden⁵ was killed by U.S. forces near Islamabad. It is scored for double string quartet and tape, and was performed last week by the Kronos Quartet at New York's Carnegie Hall.
Reich lived four blocks away from Ground Zero but was hours away from home on September 11, 2001.
"My son, my granddaughter and my daughter-in-law were in our place, four blocks away. My son called about eight-thirty in the morning and said, 'I think they've bombed the Trade Center again.' So we all turned on our TV just in time to see the second plane hit and, I said to my son, 'Don't hang up!' and the phone actually stayed miraculously⁶ open for about six hours."
Kronos Quartet had asked Reich to write a piece using recorded voices. At first, Reich was not focused on September 11.
"Finally, after several months, I realized, 'Hey, 9/11, that's what I need to be doing, and I will simply use the public domain⁷ materials from NORAD, the North American air controllers who were the first to notice that [flight] American one was off course and was going south when it should be going west to L.A."
The piece begins with the familiar, yet jarring, sound of a phone off its hook.
"If you don't hang up soon enough, this very loud, insistent⁸ beep takes over," he says. "So I thought this is a perfect way to begin this piece. It's an alarm. It's like a wake-up call and that's exactly what 9/11 was."
The tape portion in the first movement consists of voices of the air traffic controllers that Reich manipulated. The second movement brings us to the present. For that, Reich recorded recollections of September 11 by his friends and neighbors.
"Our next-door neighbors' little girl, who is now 17, said and that's how the second movement begins, 'I was sitting in class, four blocks north of Ground Zero.' David Lang, a composer and very close friend, said, 'I was taking my kids to school,' and the plane went over his head and right into the building."
For the final movement, Reich was inspired by a Jewish ritual for the dead.
"There is a law in Judaism that from the time of death to the time of burial, you don't leave a body unattended," he says. "You don't leave it alone. You're obliged to sit near the body and recite Psalms¹⁰ or passages from the Bible, which is quite a beautiful thing to do."
In the days following the attack on the World Trade Center, women from synagogues near Ground Zero performed that ritual.
For "WTC 9/11," Reich asked cellist¹¹ Maya Beiser to chant a verse from the 121st psalm⁹.
In manipulating the recordings¹³, Reich used what he calls stop motion. He came up with the idea in the 70s, but had to wait for technology to catch up.
"Slow motion is a very old cinematic trick or cinematic function of the camera and I always thought, 'Gee¹⁴, wouldn't it be great if you could just slow down a recording¹² without turning into Darth Vader,' because in the days of tape recorders, if you slowed something down you lowered its pitch and if you sped it up you raised its pitch. With the advent¹⁵ of computers, gradually the ability to slow or to speed up any musical or non-musical sound without changing its pitch became increasingly possible, and with better and better quality."
Although Reich's music is widely referred to as minimalist, he rejects that term.
"I think it's a useful term for journalists. I think it's a useful term for music historians. But for musicians, I think it's terrible."
Reich turns 75 on October 3, just weeks after the September 11 anniversary. Birthday commemorations include the Kronos Quartet's European tour this month, a concert series in Paris and an all-Reich performance by the London Symphony Orchestra.

1 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

2 commemorates   

n.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的名词复数 )v.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• A tombstone is erected in memory of whoever it commemorates. 墓碑是为纪念它所纪念的人而建的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A tablet commemorates his patriotic activities. 碑文铭记他的爱国行动。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

3 debuted   

初次表演，初次登台（debut的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• In late 2003 a full-size SUV, the Pathfinder Armada, debuted. 2003年末，全尺寸SUV的探路者无敌舰队，推出。
• The album debuted at number two and quickly went platinum. 专辑一亮相就荣登排行榜第二名，很快就取得了白金销量。

4 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

5 laden   

adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的

参考例句：

• He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

6 miraculously   

ad.奇迹般地

参考例句：

• He had been miraculously saved from almost certain death. 他奇迹般地从死亡线上获救。
• A schoolboy miraculously survived a 25 000-volt electric shock. 一名男学生在遭受2.5 万伏的电击后奇迹般地活了下来。

7 domain   

n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围

参考例句：

• This information should be in the public domain.这一消息应该为公众所知。
• This question comes into the domain of philosophy.这一问题属于哲学范畴。

8 insistent   

adj.迫切的，坚持的

参考例句：

• There was an insistent knock on my door.我听到一阵急促的敲门声。
• He is most insistent on this point.他在这点上很坚持。

9 psalm   

n.赞美诗，圣诗

参考例句：

• The clergyman began droning the psalm.牧师开始以单调而低沈的语调吟诵赞美诗。
• The minister droned out the psalm.牧师喃喃地念赞美诗。

10 psalms   

n.赞美诗( psalm的名词复数 )；圣诗；圣歌；(中的)

参考例句：

• the Book of Psalms 《〈圣经〉诗篇》
• A verse from Psalms knifed into Pug's mind: "put not your trust in princes." 《诗篇》里有一句话闪过帕格的脑海：“不要相信王侯。” 来自辞典例句

11 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

12 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

13 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

14 gee   

n.马；int.向右！前进！，惊讶时所发声音；v.向右转

参考例句：

• Their success last week will gee the team up.上星期的胜利将激励这支队伍继续前进。
• Gee,We're going to make a lot of money.哇！我们会赚好多钱啦！

15 advent   

n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临

参考例句：

• Swallows come by groups at the advent of spring. 春天来临时燕子成群飞来。
• The advent of the Euro will redefine Europe.欧元的出现将重新定义欧洲。