VOA标准英语2013--全世界最大风琴—洛伍德花园风琴

 

Competition Pushes the Limits of Longwood Gardens Organ 全世界最大风琴—洛伍德花园风琴

A century ago, American industrialist¹ and philanthropist Pierre du Pont put his fortune to work planting an elaborate garden in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Not only were there landscaped grounds and large fountains, du Pont built over one-and-a-half hectares of grand, glass-enclosed greenhouses, or conservatories². Oh yes, and a massive organ with more than 10,000 pipes.

A greenhouse might seem an odd place to put a grand pipe organ. But the conservatories at Longwood Gardens are no ordinary greenhouses. Paul Redman, Director of Longwood Gardens, explains what du Pont had in mind when he had the organ built.

“His palace, that he created, was our palace of flowers and the conservatories," he said. "And that was really where he entertained his family members and friends. And so why not have a ballroom³, where he could have very large dinner parties for his friends and family? And why not have an organ as well?”

Built in 1930, that organ was recently restored at a cost of over $8 million. To celebrate the organ’s restoration, Longwood Gardens this year mounted an organ competition. Ten semi-finalists between the ages of 18 and 30 were chosen from around the world. They competed for a first prize of $40,000.

The pipe organ isn’t exactly an obvious instrument for a young musician to adopt. Many of the organists competing at Longwood Gardens first heard organ music in church and were fascinated by the instrument’s power and complexity⁴. As a boy, Benjamin Sheen sang in the choir⁵ at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. He might never have played the organ if his voice hadn’t given out.

“When I was 11 I couldn’t sing because I got laryngitis and had to take about six months off singing." he said. "And one of my primary duties was to page-turn for the organist for every service. I was exposed to this wonderful instrument at St. Paul’s Cathedral and one day I thought that I’d like to give it a go.”

With multiple keyboards, foot pedals, and hundreds of switches controlling which pipes will sound, the organ is a notoriously difficult instrument to master. The organist has to do so many things all at once that it could be described as playing three pianos while tap-dancing and flying a jet airplane. And yet, for the young musician who wants to play the pipe organ, finding an instrument to practice on can be difficult.

Competition finalist Adam Pajan was born in Pennsylvania. He solved the problem of getting practice time when the church he attended built a new sanctuary⁶ -- and put in a new organ.

“I scraped together $600 of the money I had saved from mowing⁷ lawns and bought the old organ," he said. "My parents graciously gave up the dining room and it moved into the house.”

With an instrument to practice on, one of the greatest challenges for a young organist is to master the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. At the Longwood Gardens organ competition, every contestant⁸ was required to play at least one work by the Baroque-era composer -- and for good reason, says Pajan.

“Bach is always the litmus test because it is the main staple⁹ of our repertoire,” he said.

But truth be told, the Longwood Organ isn’t really at its best with Bach. Finalist Baptiste-Florian Marle-Ouvrard is originally from Paris. He explained that the instrument has so many more sounds available than a church organ that it is best-suited for playing music transcribed¹⁰ from orchestral works.

“The organ is excellent to have the sound of orchestra,” he said.

The instrument at Longwood Gardens was built to be an orchestra in itself. Competition judge Peter Richard Conte is the Principal Organist of The Longwood Organ, and he lists some of the rare sounds the instrument can conjure¹¹.

“Amazing array of orchestral voices including a vast string section, and things like French horn and clarinets and orchestral oboes and English horns in great multitudes of stops you don’t find in regular church organs,” he said.

For another of the judges, Sophie-Veronique Cauchefer-Choplin the biggest surprise was the organ’s rhythm section, with snare¹² drums and bass¹³ drums, bells and other percussion¹⁴ instruments.

“It’s a complicated organ, with a lot of sounds…with the cymbal¹⁵, the - bddddrrrrr - batterie [drums]," she said. "It’s unique for me because never you see that in France.”

During the finals, Adam Pajan put that rhythm section to use in his performance of a Brazilian samba long favored by theater organists, “Tico Tico.”

The most creative use of the Longwood Organ’s rare features was made by finalist Thomas Gaynor, performing Rossini’s “William Tell Overture¹⁶.” Before the famous gallop¹⁷ at the end of the song comes a delicate pastoral section with flutes¹⁸ flittering about. As if the flutes weren’t birdlike enough, Gaynor managed to find the lever that made the organ twitter and chirp¹⁹.

“It’s quite a funny stop," he said. "All they do is put three pipes upside-down in a bucket of water and it makes this tweeting sound that sounds like a bird. It’s quite magic.”

“We’ve heard pretty much everything. The one thing we haven’t heard yet is, there’s a gong, a Chinese gong upstairs that’s controlled by a kick-lever for your foot,” said Conte, who praised the contestants²⁰ for digging deep into the possibilities of the Longwood Organ.

“Their determination to, literally²¹, pull out all the stops…They’re really using every last creative ounce of energy to make their performances really pop,” he said.

?After three days of flying fingers and tricky²² footwork, the top prize went to the one-time choirboy with the sore throat, Benjamin Sheen. He finished his winning performance with his own transcription of a work for orchestra by Johannes Brahms, the “Tragic Overture.”

1 industrialist   

n.工业家，实业家

参考例句：

• The industrialist's son was kidnapped.这名实业家的儿子被绑架了。
• Mr.Smith was a wealthy industrialist,but he was not satisfied with life.史密斯先生是位富有的企业家，可他对生活感到不满意。

2 conservatories   

n.（培植植物的）温室，暖房( conservatory的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Conservatories have grown in popularity over the past 10 years. 过去10年，温室越来越受到欢迎。 来自互联网
• FEBRI ELEMENT offers Offers to Railing systems, Aluminium elements and Conservatories. 是一家现代化、得信赖的产品供应商，该供应商从事栏杆，护栏系统，梯式支座装置、式支座装置，钢梯的制造和销售。 来自互联网

3 ballroom   

n.舞厅

参考例句：

• The boss of the ballroom excused them the fee.舞厅老板给他们免费。
• I go ballroom dancing twice a week.我一个星期跳两次交际舞。

4 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。

5 choir   

n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱

参考例句：

• The choir sang the words out with great vigor.合唱团以极大的热情唱出了歌词。
• The church choir is singing tonight.今晚教堂歌唱队要唱诗。

6 sanctuary   

n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区

参考例句：

• There was a sanctuary of political refugees behind the hospital.医院后面有一个政治难民的避难所。
• Most countries refuse to give sanctuary to people who hijack aeroplanes.大多数国家拒绝对劫机者提供庇护。

7 mowing   

n.割草，一次收割量，牧草地v.刈，割( mow的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The lawn needs mowing. 这草坪的草该割了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• "Do you use it for mowing?" “你是用它割草么？” 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

8 contestant   

n.竞争者，参加竞赛者

参考例句：

• The company will furnish each contestant with a free ticket.公司将为每个参赛者免费提供一张票。
• The personal appearance and interview of the contestant is another count.参加比赛者的个人仪表和谈话也是一项。

9 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

参考例句：

• Tea is the staple crop here.本地产品以茶叶为大宗。
• Potatoes are the staple of their diet.土豆是他们的主要食品。

10 transcribed   

（用不同的录音手段）转录( transcribe的过去式和过去分词 )； 改编（乐曲）（以适应他种乐器或声部）； 抄写； 用音标标出（声音）

参考例句：

• He transcribed two paragraphs from the book into his notebook. 他把书中的两段抄在笔记本上。
• Every telephone conversation will be recorded and transcribed. 所有电话交谈都将被录音并作全文转写。

11 conjure   

v.恳求，祈求；变魔术，变戏法

参考例句：

• I conjure you not to betray me.我恳求你不要背弃我。
• I can't simply conjure up the money out of thin air.我是不能像变魔术似的把钱变来。

12 snare   

n.陷阱，诱惑，圈套；（去除息肉或者肿瘤的）勒除器；响弦，小军鼓；vt.以陷阱捕获，诱惑

参考例句：

• I used to snare small birds such as sparrows.我曾常用罗网捕捉麻雀等小鸟。
• Most of the people realized that their scheme was simply a snare and a delusion.大多数人都认识到他们的诡计不过是一个骗人的圈套。

13 bass   

n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴

参考例句：

• He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
• The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。

14 percussion   

n.打击乐器；冲突，撞击；震动，音响

参考例句：

• In an orchestra,people who play percussion instruments sit at the back.在管弦乐队中，演奏打击乐器的人会坐在后面。
• Percussion of the abdomen is often omitted.腹部叩诊常被省略。

15 cymbal   

n.铙钹

参考例句：

• The piece ends with a cymbal crash.这支曲子以铙钹的撞击声结束。
• Cymbal is a pair of round brass plates.铙钹是一对黄铜圆盘。

16 overture   

n.前奏曲、序曲，提议，提案，初步交涉

参考例句：

• The opera was preceded by a short overture.这部歌剧开始前有一段简短的序曲。
• His overture led to nothing.他的提议没有得到什么结果。

17 gallop   

v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展

参考例句：

• They are coming at a gallop towards us.他们正朝着我们飞跑过来。
• The horse slowed to a walk after its long gallop.那匹马跑了一大阵后慢下来缓步而行。

18 flutes   

长笛( flute的名词复数 )； 细长香槟杯（形似长笛）

参考例句：

• The melody is then taken up by the flutes. 接着由长笛奏主旋律。
• These flutes have 6open holes and a lovely bright sound. 笛子有6个吹气孔，奏出的声音响亮清脆。

19 chirp   

v.(尤指鸟)唧唧喳喳的叫

参考例句：

• The birds chirp merrily at the top of tree.鸟儿在枝头欢快地啾啾鸣唱。
• The sparrows chirp outside the window every morning.麻雀每天清晨在窗外嘁嘁喳喳地叫。

20 contestants   

n.竞争者，参赛者( contestant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The competition attracted over 500 contestants representing 8 different countries. 这次比赛吸引了代表8个不同国家的500多名参赛者。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency. 两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。 来自《简明英汉词典》

21 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

22 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。