(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
I'm Steve Ember. And I'm Barbara Klein with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the life and work of one of America's greatest music writers: Scott Joplin, the King of Ragtime.
That song is called "Maple Leaf Rag." Scott Joplin wrote it more than one hundred years ago. The song changed Joplin's life. It was very popular. The composer earned a good living from the sales of the sheet music. He also became famous.
But, even today, much about Scott Joplin remains a mystery. There is conflicting information about the most basic facts, like when and where he was born. Official population documents suggest Scott Joplin was born in eighteen sixty-seven and eighteen sixty-eight. He was born in Texas, probably near the border with Arkansas. The Joplins moved to Texarkana, Texas sometime after eighteen seventy-five and Scott grew up there.
Scott was the second of seven children born to Giles and Florence Joplin. His father was a freed slave who worked on the railroad. His mother cleaned people's homes.
The whole Joplin family was musical. Scott's father played the violin. His mother played the banjo. And all the Joplins enjoyed singing together at home.
Scott learned to play several musical instruments. But Florence Joplin wanted her son to learn how to play the piano. When Scott was about seven years old he began taking piano lessons with a music teacher at his school. The Joplins were poor, so Scott's mother paid for the weekly lessons with food. Florence Joplin also got permission for her son to use a piano in one of the houses she cleaned in Texarkana.
Florence and Giles Joplin separated before Scott became a teenager. Some experts think Scott blamed himself for the break-up. Many experts also think Scott Joplin's opera "Treemonisha" included incidents of his life with his mother after Giles Joplin left. For example, For example, the character "Treemonisha" receives school lessons from a white woman in exchange for house cleaning services by Treemonisha's mother. Here is some music from the opera. Carmen Balthrop is Treemonisha.
Scott Joplin's early piano lessons did not include ragtime. That kind of music was played in dance and drinking places and was not considered acceptable. Scott first studied classical music with several teachers. They included a German immigrant named Julius Weiss who probably had the strongest influence on the boy.
Scott left Texas when he was a teenager. He worked as a piano player and gave lessons in the guitar and mandolin. In his twenties he settled in Sedalia, Missouri. He formed a group called the Texas Medley Quartet. The group sometimes traveled great distances to perform. Scott Joplin began his music-writing career in Sedalia. He attended college classes to learn to become a composer.
Joplin also got a permanent job in Sedalia playing the piano in a new nightclub. Sedalia's most important citizens visited the Maple Leaf Club. The job permitted Joplin time to write and play his own work.
Something even more important happened to Joplin in Sedalia. He met John Stark, the owner of a local music store. In eighty ninety-nine, Stark published the song "Maple Leaf Rag." It was not Joplin's first published music. But it was the he was most proud of.
Stark offered to pay Joplin a percentage of each sale of "Maple Leaf Rag" sheet music. This was an extremely unusual business agreement for a white publisher and black composer at that time. Usually, white publishers paid only a small amount of money for full ownership of music written by African-Americans. The agreement was very good for both Scott Joplin and John Stark.
Ragtime music is dance music. It combines a solid, often lively, beat with a looser, complex melody. Most experts agree that the traditional music and dance of American slaves played a big part in the development of ragtime.
Here is a perfect example. Scott Joplin and John Stark published "A Breeze From Alabama" in nineteen-oh-two. It is music for a dance called the two-step.
John Stark decided that Scott Joplin was going to become too popular to stay in the small town of Sedalia. He decided to move his music business to the big city of Saint Louis, Missouri. Joplin moved to Saint Louis with a woman named Belle Hayden. Later they were married. But Joplin was not as successful in love as he was in music. He and Belle separated in nineteen-oh-two.
Two years later Joplin married again. But his wife, Freddie Alexander, died just three months later. The Scott Joplin Organization in Sedalia, Missouri says Joplin wrote this rag, "The Chrysanthemum," for his second wife.
After his wife's death, in nineteen-oh-five, Joplin wrote a concert waltz called "Bethena." The piece has a sad sound to it, quite unlike Joplin's earlier work. You might recognize it as the theme music for the Special English program Words and Their Stories.
Joplin lived in many places in the years that followed. He also worked on his opera, "Treemonisha." He had hoped his longtime business partner John Stark would publish it, but he refused. Stark did not think a ragtime opera would sell.
After nineteen-oh-seven Joplin lived mostly in New York City. He and his new wife Lottie tried for many years to get "Treemonisha" produced. But its opening night did not come until more than fifty years after Joplin's death.
By about nineteen fifteen, Scott Joplin began suffering badly from syphilis. The disease robbed him of his ability to play piano. It also destroyed his ability to write music. He died in New York City in nineteen-seventeen.
Scott Joplin left the world sixty musical works. These include many piano rags that are still played today.
重点解析
1.get permission 获得许可
The bank must first contact the customer to get permission to pass their information along to the other lender.
银行必须首先联系客户，以便得到他们的允许将其信息传递到其他贷款方。
2.be proud of自豪
What are you most proud of about the book, and what have people seemed to like most about it?
关于这本书您感到最自豪的是什么？ 以及那些内容读者可能最喜欢？
3.move to移居
Their family is rooted here. They will never move to another city.
他们的家庭在这里扎了根，他们永远不会迁移到另一个城市去。
4.settle in 定居
In 1960 they settled in London, where he ran a dry-cleaning business, drew cartoons for a syndicate and edited a small newspaper.
1960年他们定居于伦敦，在这儿，他开了一家干洗店，并为一家报业联盟画漫画，还主编一份小报。
5.At that time那时
At that time the government was unwilling to resist the foreign invasion.
那时政府对外国的入侵不愿进行抵抗。
6.offer to主动提出
Does she often offer to help people when they are in need of help?
当人们需要帮助的时候，她是否经常主动提供帮助？
参考译文
我是史蒂夫·恩伯，我是芭芭拉·克莱恩，这里是VOA慢速英语栏目《美国人物志》。今天我们讲述美国最伟大的作曲家之一、拉格泰姆音乐之王斯科特·乔普林的故事。
这首歌曲名为《枫叶拉格》。斯科特·乔普林于100多年前创作了这首歌曲，这首歌曲改变了乔普林的一生。这首歌非常出名，乔普林靠着乐谱的销售过上了很好的生活，他也因此歌变得有名。
但是直至今日，关于斯科特·乔普林的很多事情依然是一个谜。有关他最基本的情况，比如他出生的时间和地点，都存在着相互矛盾的信息。官方人口资料显示，斯科特·乔普林生于1867年和1868年。他出生在德克萨斯州，可能靠近阿肯色州的边境。1875年后的某个时候，乔普林一家搬到了德克萨斯州的德克萨卡纳，斯科特在那里长大。
斯科特是吉尔斯和弗洛伦斯·乔普林七个孩子中的老二。他的父亲是一个释放的奴隶，在铁路上工作。他的妈妈以保洁为生。
乔普林全家都爱好音乐。斯科特的父亲会拉小提琴。他母亲会弹班卓琴。乔普林一家都喜欢在家里一起唱歌。
斯科特学了几种乐器。但是弗洛伦斯·乔普林希望她的儿子学习弹钢琴。斯科特大约七岁的时候，就开始和学校的一位音乐老师一起上钢琴课。乔普林家庭贫困，所以乔普林的母亲用食物支付每周的课程费用。弗洛伦斯·乔普林在德克萨卡纳打扫的一所房子的主人也允许她的儿子在那里使用钢琴。
弗洛伦斯和贾尔斯·乔普林在斯科特十几岁之前就分居了。一些专家认为斯科特将父母的分手归咎于自己。许多专家还认为，斯科特·乔普林的歌剧《特里莫尼莎》讲述了贾尔斯·乔普林离开后他与母亲的生活。例如，“特里莫尼莎”这个角色从一个白人女性那里学音乐的费用是由她母亲打扫这个白人女性的房子来支付的。让我们听一下这段歌剧里的一段音乐。卡门·巴思洛普扮演的是特里莫尼莎这个角色。
斯科特·乔普林早期学习的钢琴课不包括拉格泰姆。这种音乐是在跳舞和喝酒的地方播放的，它被认为是不可接受的。史考特最初和几位老师学习古典音乐。其中包括一个名叫朱利叶斯·韦斯的德国移民，他对这个男孩的影响可能最大。
斯科特在十几岁时离开了德克萨斯州。他的职业是一名钢琴演奏家，教授吉他和曼陀林课程。二十多岁时，他在密苏里州的锡代利亚定居。他组建了一个名为“德克萨斯混合四重奏”的乐队。他们的乐队有时会长途跋涉去演出。斯科特·乔普林在锡代利亚开始了他的音乐创作生涯。他上大学是为了成为一名作曲家。
乔普林还在锡代利亚一家新开的夜总会找到了一份长期的钢琴工作。锡代利亚最重要的市民们参观了枫叶俱乐部。这份工作让乔普林有时间创作和演奏自己的作品。
在锡代利亚，乔普林经历了一件更重要的事情。他遇到了当地一家音乐商店的老板约翰·斯塔克。1899年，斯塔克发行了歌曲《枫叶拉格》。这并不是乔普林第一次发表音乐作品。但这是他最自豪的。
斯塔克给了乔普林一定比例的“枫叶拉格”的乐谱销售收入。对于当时的白人出版商和黑人作曲家来说，这是一份极其不同寻常的商业协议。通常情况下，白人出版商只花很少的钱就能获得非洲裔美国人创作的音乐的全部所有权。这个协议对斯科特·乔普林和约翰·斯塔克都非常有利。
拉格泰姆音乐是舞蹈音乐。它将坚实，通常是轻快的节拍与松散、复杂的旋律相结合。大多数专家认为，美国奴隶的传统音乐和舞蹈在拉格泰姆音乐的发展中扮演了重要角色。
这里有一个完美的例子。斯科特·乔普林和约翰·斯塔克在1902年发行了《阿拉巴马的微风》。这是一种配合两步舞的音乐。
约翰·斯塔克认为斯科特·乔普林会变得太受欢迎，而不会再呆在锡代利亚这个小地方了。所以他决定将自己的音乐事业转移到了大城市密苏里州的圣路易斯。乔普林和一个叫贝尔·海登的女人搬到了圣路易斯。后来他们结婚了。但是乔普林在爱情方面并不像在音乐方面那样成功。他和贝尔在1902年分手。
两年后乔普林又结婚了。但他的妻子弗雷迪·亚历山大三个月后就去世了。密苏里州锡代利亚的斯科特·乔普林组织说，乔普林为他的第二任妻子写了这篇题为《菊花》的文章。
1905年，乔普林的妻子去世后，他写了一首音乐会华尔兹，名为《贝瑟娜》。这首曲子有些悲伤，和乔普林之前的作品很不一样。你可能知道它是特别英语节目《词汇与故事》的主题曲。
在随后的几年里，乔普林住在许多地方。他还创作了歌剧《特雷蒙尼莎》。乔普林曾希望自己的长期合作伙伴约翰·史塔克会发表她，但是史塔克拒绝了，他觉得拉格泰姆歌剧不会畅销。
1907年以后，乔普林主要生活在纽约市，多年来，他和他的新婚妻子珞蒂一直在努力制作《特雷蒙妮莎》。但它的开幕之夜直到乔普林去世50多年后才到来。
大约在1915年，斯科特·乔普林开始遭受梅毒的折磨。疾病使他丧失了弹钢琴的能力，也摧毁了他创作音乐的能力。他于1917年在纽约去世。
斯科特·乔普林为世界留下了60部音乐作品。其中包括很多今天依然播放的拉格泰姆钢琴曲。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
