(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 and play music by songwriter Jerome Kern. He was the man who helped invent the modern musical play. Jerome Kern is often called the father of American musical theater. Kern is remembered for the hundreds of songs he wrote for musical plays and movies. Music historians say that Kern gave artistic importance to American popular music for the first time. And, they say, he led the development of the first truly American theater music.
Jerome Kern was born into a middle-class family in New York City in eighteen eighty-five. Jerome's mother, Fanny, loved the piano. She began to teach Jerome how to play when he was very young. He became a fair piano player but not so good that anyone expected him to become a great musician. Jerome was a quiet boy and not a top student. When he completed high school, his father said he would have to work in the family's store. Mister Kern said his son could never make money writing music. But he later came to believe that Jerome might do better in music than in business after all. So he let the boy go to Europe to study music, as almost all serious young musicians did at the time.
Jerome Kern began his career as a songwriter in theaters in London and New York City. Success came quickly. By the early nineteen twenties, Kern was a successful young composer for Broadway musical comedies. In one three-year period alone, he wrote music for nineteen shows. Other people wrote the words for Kern's songs. Kern wrote only the music. And he worked with each song until he was satisfied that the music was perfect. He almost never changed his music to fit the words. One of Kern's best-loved songs is "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," sung by Dinah Washington.
Although Kern's songs are easy to remember after hearing a few times, they are not simple. His melodies -- the musical line of the song -- are always inventive, even demanding. An example of his inventiveness is the song "All the Things You Are." Several composers say they consider it the greatest song ever written. Singers continue to like Kern songs because they can be sung in many different ways. The melody remains the same. But different singers can change the feeling of the song completely.
Here are two versions of "All the Things You Are" sung in very different ways by Ella Fitzgerald and Willie Nelson. Jerome Kern once said he was trying to bring modern art to music. One critic wrote this about his music: Kern's songs are like black and white drawings. They need no color, no decoration. A Kern song is always in balance, perfect in form and pleasing in design. Here is an example, "Why Do I Love You?" played by Andre Previn and friends. All but one of Kern's songs were written for musical plays. American musical plays at that time were still usually copied from European ones. Often the stories seemed foolish and the people in them did not seem real. Songs and dances often had no connection to the story.
Kern wanted to try something completely new. He thought a musical play should be a real work of art, not just a collection of songs and dances. He thought songs should help move the action of the play along, by showing a person's feelings. Kern wanted to do a truly American musical, with real American characters and real situations. In nineteen twenty-seven, he found the story he wanted. It was the book "Show Boat" by American writer Edna Ferber. "Show Boat" takes place in the eighteen eighties on a passenger steam boat that travels along the Mississippi River. The boat is called a show boat because singers and dancers entertain the passengers. The captain of the show boat has a daughter who is a singer on the boat. She falls in love with a man who earns his money by gambling with cards. The story dealt with some unusually serious issues for a musical. It showed the hard lives of African-Americans in the South. And it showed marriage between people of different races, which was against the law at that time. Although serious in places, "Show Boat" was not a tragedy.
The public and critics loved it. "Show Boat" became the greatest work of American musical theater. Music critics said Kern's effect on musical theater was revolutionary. It was Kern's music that made the show a great success. Perhaps his most famous song was written for "Show Boat." It is called "Ol' Man River. " It is about what life was like for black people who worked along the Mississippi River. Edna Ferber later remembered her excitement when Kern first played the melody for her. She said her hair stood up, and tears came to her eyes. Listen as Paul Robeson sings the song. Edna Ferber said it was great music -- music that would live forever. Kern died in nineteen forty-five at the age of sixty. But "Show Boat" has been performed thousands of times all over the world.
重点解析
1.be born into 出身于；出生于…的家庭
We wanted our daughters to be born into laughter!
琳达和我茫然的对望。我们都想女儿能在欢笑中出生。
2.satisfied adj. 感到满意的
We are not satisfied with these results.
我们对这些结果不满意。
3.best-loved adj. 最喜欢的
She is one of American's best-loved TV stars.
她是美国人最喜爱的电视明星之一。
4.demanding adj. 苛求的；要求高的
Ricky was a very demanding child.
里基是个非常苛求的孩子。
5.copy from vt. 临摹；仿效
He copied the chart from a book.
他从书上复制了表格。
6.fall in love with 爱上
We all have fall in love with each other.
我们相互爱上了对方。
参考译文
我是史蒂夫·恩贝尔。我是芭芭拉·克莱恩。这里是VOA慢速英语栏目《美国人物志》。今天我们将讲述并播放歌曲作家杰罗姆·科恩的音乐。他是那个帮助创造现代音乐剧的人。杰罗姆·科恩常被称为美国音乐剧之父。科恩为音乐剧和电影写过数百首歌曲，也因此被人铭记。音乐历史学家称科恩是首个对美国流行乐贡做出艺术重要性贡献的人。他们还称科恩领导了首次真正意义上美国舞台音乐的发展。
1885年，杰罗姆·科恩出生于纽约一个中产阶级家庭。杰罗姆的母亲范妮热爱钢琴。在杰罗姆很小的时候，她就开始教他弹钢琴。他成为了一名钢琴家，但没有达到让每个人期待他成为一名伟大音乐家的水平。杰罗姆是个安静的男孩子，却不是一个顶尖的学生。高中毕业后，他的父亲说他需要去家族商店工作。科恩先生说他的儿子永远都不可能靠写音乐赚钱。但是之后他逐渐相信杰罗姆在音乐上的发展比做生意更好。因此他让儿子去欧洲学习音乐，那个时候几乎所有严肃青年音乐家都去欧洲学习音乐。
杰罗姆·科恩在伦敦和纽约开始了自己作为一名歌曲作家的职业生涯。成功来的很快。到上世纪20年代初期，科恩就成为了百老汇音乐喜剧的一名成功的青年作曲家。仅在三年里，他就为19部戏剧创作音乐。其他人为科恩的音乐写词，科恩只创作音乐。他操刀每一首曲子，直到他对自己的音乐百分百满意为止。他几乎从不会为了搭配歌词而改写自己的曲子，科恩最喜欢的一首歌是《Smoke Gets in Your Eyes》，由黛娜·华盛顿演唱。
虽然科恩的歌曲朗朗上口，听了几次就能记住，但是这些曲子都不简单。他的旋律—歌曲的音乐线—总是具有创造性，甚至是严苛的歌曲《All the Things You Are》就是他创造性的证明。一些作曲家称他们认为这是迄今写过的最伟大的一首歌。歌手们一直很喜欢科恩的歌曲，因为他们可以用很多不同方式演绎。歌曲旋律仍保持不变。但是不同歌手可以完全改变这首歌的情感。以下是《All the Things You Are》的两个不同版本，分别由艾拉·费兹杰拉和威利·纳尔逊演唱。
杰罗姆·科恩曾说过他尝试将现代音乐带入音乐。一位评论家这样描述他的音乐：科恩的歌曲是黑白的画作。它们不需要色彩和装饰。总的来说，科恩的音乐形式完美且构思令人愉悦。以下为安德列·普列文和朋友演绎《Why Do I Love You?》。除了一首以外，其他科恩多有的歌曲都是为音乐剧所创作的。那时的美国音乐剧仍常借鉴欧洲音乐剧。这些故事看上去都很傻，剧中人物都不真实。歌曲、舞蹈和故事之间也没什么联系。科恩想要尝试一些全新的东西。他认为一部音乐剧应该是艺术的真实作品，而不仅只是歌舞的合辑。他认为歌曲应该展现人物情感从而帮助推动音乐剧的发展。科恩想要做一部真实的美国音乐剧，展现真实的美国人性格以及真实的场景。
1977年，他找到了自己想要的故事。这本书是美国作家艾德娜·费勃的作品《演出船》。《演出船》的故事发生在十九世纪八十年代的一艘游客蒸气船上，该船只沿着密西西比河行走。这艘船被称为演出船，因为有歌手和舞者娱乐乘客。演出船的船长有一个女儿，她是这艘船上的一名歌手。她爱上了一个靠赌博挣钱的男人。这个故事讨论了一些异常严肃的问题，展现了南方非洲裔美国人艰苦的生活。还展示了不同种族人之间的婚姻，那时不同种族结婚是违法的。虽然有些地方非常严肃，但是《演出船》并不是悲剧。公众和评论家都很喜欢这部剧。《演出船》成为美国音乐剧中最伟大的作品。音乐评论家说科恩对音乐剧有着变革性的影响。正是科恩的音乐让这部剧取得巨大成功。或许他最著名的歌曲《Ol' Man River》就是为《演出船》而创作的。
这首歌展现了在密西西比河沿岸工作的黑人，他们的生活。之后艾德娜·费勃回忆起自己在听到科恩为她演奏这个旋律时的激动之情。她说她的汗毛立了起来，眼泪夺眶而出。以下是保罗·罗伯逊演唱这首歌。艾德娜·费勃说这是一首伟大的歌曲—这首歌将永存。1945年，科恩去世，享年60岁。但是《演出船》在全球已被演绎千万遍。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
