RAVEL :COLORFUL EXPRESSIONS THROUGH MUSIC

（单词翻译）

    Maurice Ravel was born in 1875 in a little village in southern France near the Spanish border. His father was Swiss and his mother was Basque. Ravel's devotion to his mother bordered on the 1)obsessive¹, but it is from her that he developed his passion for Spanish music.

Jean Yves Thibaudet（pianist）: Spanish composers have said that Ravel and 2)Debussy have written better Spanish music than Spanish composers. And this is true. I mean, it's funny that those guys were able to write music from a country that they had never even visited.

William Littler(critic): Ravel loved Spain. For some reason, some of the best Spanish music has been written by French composers. Chabriet certainly wrote some of it. And Ravel wrote quite a lot. And we needn't say anything more than Bolero.

Alexina Louie(composer): I believe Ravel was afraid that Bolero was going to be the piece that he was going to be remembered for. It's an unusual piece. It's an unusual piece for today. Because it's one 3)melodic² line that just keeps repeating and there's really no development in it. What he changes is the 4)orchestral color by adding different instruments each time the melody comes back.

William Littler(critic): Don't think that it doesn't need a 5)conductor -- it has to be properly controlled, the 6)climax³ can't come too early. The various sections of the orchestra have to be kept in the right balance. It's 7)subtly done despite the fact that the 8)overt⁴ impression is an obvious one. And I think that there isn't a better 20th century showpiece for 9)spotlighting the individual 10)solo instruments of the orchestra, too. Small wonder orchestras like to play it -- they can 11)show themselves off.

     His new work was 12)premiered at the Paris opera in 1928, and was an immediate⁷ success with audiences. There was something incredibly colorful about the music.

Richard Westerfield(conductor): Ravel and Debussy as well, wrote at a time when classical music was going through so many changes and 13)tonality had all but exhausted⁸ itself 14)seemingly. And without Ravel and the music of the 15)impressionists, it's very hard to imagine where music would be today. Because all we would have then, as far taking tonality and moving it into something new and 16)evolving it, would be the 17)neo-classicists, Stravinsky, etc. To have that impressionist's school gave music so much of an expanded vocabulary of where tonality could go.

William Littler(critic): Color in music is a difficult concept because it's a 18)visual concept. What it means is, if you play one note with one instrument, and play the same note with the different instrument, you got a different color as we call it. There are details that we could talk about in terms of the 19)harmonic series and so on, but essentially⁹, that's what we're getting at. And he had a 20)sensitivity to the individual tone qualities of the instrument that was really extraordinarily¹⁰ 21)refined.

Jean Yves Thibaudet（pianist）: One time in Paris for the, you know, 153rd time, maybe whatever was being played in there was yet again, and Ravel was invited so he went there. He was sitting in his 22)lounge. And in those days, there was another composer called Camil Chavial who was never very famous now, but in those days he was famous. So Ravel had invited him to be his guest at the concert. And the concert starts and Chavial doesn't show up and The Bolero starts, five minutes and ten minutes and twelve minutes, and Chavial is not there, and Ravel is really insulted. He says, you know, he could've been on time, really, that's really bad. And then about 30 seconds before the end of the piece, the door of his lounge opens and here comes Chavial. He sits down and the piece is finished and everybody's clapping, and Ravel is acknowledging it, and finally turns around and says, he said, “Really Chavial, you're really very impolite. You could've been here at the beginning of the piece, what happened to you?” Chavial looked at him and he said, “24)Merde! I only came for the 23)modulation¹¹.”

拉威尔：乐符间流淌的色彩

   莫里斯·拉威尔于1875年出生在法国南部靠近西班牙国境的一个小村庄里。他的父亲是瑞士人，母亲是巴斯克人。拉威尔对他母亲十分敬爱，他正是受她的熏陶而培养出了对西班牙音乐的酷爱。

吉恩·伊维斯·泰宝德特（钢琴家）：西班牙作曲家们说过，拉威尔和德彪西创作的西班牙音乐比西班牙人作的还要好。这是真的。我的意思是，那些人竟能创作出从来没去过的国家的音乐，真有意思。

威廉·利特尔（评论家）：拉威尔热爱西班牙。部分是出于一些优秀的西班牙音乐是法国作曲家写的。当然夏布里叶也有些好作品。而拉威尔写了很多首，其中数《波列罗》舞曲最为出色。

阿莉斯娜·路易（作曲家）：我认为拉威尔当时很担心《波列罗》会成为人们今后纪念他的乐曲。那是一首很不平常的乐曲。即使在今天它也不同寻常。它不断重复同一段优美的旋律，实际上并没有去发展这段旋律。他只是在每次重复旋律的时候通过增加不同乐器的演奏来改变管弦乐的音色。

威廉·利特尔（评论家）：别以为这首曲子不需要乐队指挥，它需要恰当的控制，高潮不能出现得太早。管弦乐队里的不同乐器之间必须保持恰倒好处的平衡。尽管旋律单调是显而易见的事实，但编写得相当精巧。我想二十世纪再没有比这首更能展示管弦乐队每种独奏乐器特点的乐曲了。怪不得管弦乐队都喜爱演奏它，他们可以凭这首曲子来展现自己的才华。

   他的新作1928年在巴黎剧院首次公演就立即大受欢迎。这音乐中洋溢着令人难以置信的丰富色彩。

理查德·韦斯特菲尔德（指挥家）：拉威尔和德彪西在同一时代作曲，当时古典音乐正在经历众多变化，表面上调性古典音乐已经耗尽。如果没有拉威尔和印象派的音乐，难以想像今天的音乐会是什么样子。因为那样一来我们就只有一些转移并发展调性的新古典主义音乐家了，比如斯特拉文斯基。印象主义流派给调性音乐开创了一个无限宽广的空间。

威廉·利特尔（评论家）：音乐色彩是一个很难理解的概念，因为它是一个视觉上的概念。它所表达的意思是，如果你先用一种乐器来演奏一个音符，然后再用不同的乐器来演奏同一个音符，那么你就会得到我们所说的不同的色彩。我们可以就乐器的配合等做更详细的谈论，但在本质上，说的正是色彩。另外，他对每件乐器的音质非常敏感，把握的精确度无与伦比。

吉恩·伊维斯·泰宝德特（钢琴家）：有一回，《波列罗》舞曲要在巴黎做第153次公演的时候，拉威尔又一次被邀请到场，他坐在包厢里。在那时候有另一个名叫卡米尔· 查维尔的作曲家，现在人们不怎么知道他，但当时他很有名。拉威尔邀请他为音乐会的嘉宾。音乐会开始了，但查维尔没有露面，《波列罗》舞曲演奏了五分钟，十分钟，到十二分钟后，查维尔还是没有出现，拉威尔来感到这简直是个侮辱。他说查维尔应该准时到，真是非常、非常的不像话。乐曲结束前三十秒钟，查维尔打开包厢的门走了进来。他刚坐下，《波列罗》舞曲就结束了，人人都在鼓掌。最后，拉威尔答谢后转过身来说：”查维尔，真的，你真的太不礼貌了。你本应在这首曲开始演奏之前入席，你怎么了？”查维尔看着他回答道："该死！我是随着节奏而来的。"

1） obsessive a. 着迷的

2） Debussy 德彪西，法国作曲家

3） melodic a. 旋律优美的

4） orchestral a. 管弦乐队的

5） conductor n. 乐队指挥

6） climax n. 高潮，顶点

7） subtly adv. 精细地，巧妙地

8） overt a. 明显的，公然的

9） spotlight⁵ v. 使显著，使突出

10） solo a. 单独的

11） show off 炫耀，显示优点

12） premier⁶ v. 首次公演的

13） tonality n. 音调，色调

14） seemingly adv. 表面上地

15） impressionist n. 印象派主义者

16） evolve v. 进化，展开

17） neo- 借自希腊语的学术用语，意为”新的”、”新近的”

18） visual a. 视觉的

19） harmonic a. 融合的，和谐的

20） sensitivity n. 敏感，灵敏性

21） refined a. 精制的，优雅的

22） lounge n. 休闲室

23） modulation n. （声调的）抑扬变化

24） merde [法语] 诅咒词