指揮家眼中偉大的美國交響樂

交響樂就是為整個管弦樂隊所作的奏鳴曲，形成于18世紀中葉的歐洲。交響樂一般分為四個樂章。第一樂章：快板，奏鳴曲式，富有戲劇性。音樂建立在兩個性格不同的主題的對比和發(fā)展上。第二樂章：慢板，一般為復三部曲式，具有抒情性。第三樂章：中、快板，復三部曲式，多為小步舞曲或諧謔曲。第四樂章：快板或急板，多用回旋曲式、回旋奏鳴曲式或變奏曲式，常表達輝煌、樂觀的情緒，也表現(xiàn)生活、風俗性的場面或人民勝利的節(jié)日氣氛。這是交響樂一些最基本的知識，下面我們來了解一下指揮家眼中偉大的美國交響樂并欣賞其中的交響樂片段。

Robert Siegel （Host）： Its not rare to hear people discuss the great American novel or the great American film， so what about the great American symphony？ Conductor JoAnn Falletta joins us from Interlochen， Michigan， to talk about this. Hi.

JoAnn Falletta： Hi.

Siegel： Well， you acknowledged several 1）contenders for the title of great American symphony. If you could just cite two interesting ones， not necessarily your number one or number two， what would they be？ Give us one first.

Falletta： Well， a piece that Ive always loved， and I think it definitely is a contender is Samuel Barbers “Symphony Number One （In One 2）Movement）.” So that already is a bit unusual. But Barber does have the 3）requisite four sections in there， and theyre all very strong and very great contrasts and very different. And its a fantastic piece of music on any terms.

（Soundbite of music）

Siegel： Is it widely played？ Is it played enough by American orchestras？

Falletta： Not at all， and I always wonder why its not because it has everything. It has 4）virtuosity. It has drama as we hear at the beginning. It has a fantastic melody， one of the greatest melodies for 5）oboe ever written. All of the kind of contrasting areas that one gets in a symphony are in there. And its 6）compressed because its in one movement. So to me， thats even more powerful because each movement is shorter and more sort of 7）boiled down to the essence of what it is. And as a result， the piece is very strong when you listen to it and when you perform it.（Soundbite of music）

Siegel： OK， “Barber Number One.” Give us another serious contender for the 8）mythical title of great American symphony.

Falletta： Well， one that doesnt bear the title of symphony， but one that I think is easily in that list is by Duke Ellington—Edward Kennedy Ellington—his“Black， Brown and 9）Beige.”（Soundbite of music， “Black， Brown and Beige”）

Falletta： Hes considering the position of the African-American in our country， from the time of slavery up until the current time—or his time in any case. Music of great power thats totally American， contrasting it to the Barber， you know， that has its roots definitely in the European tradition. The 10）orchestra may be somewhat European， but this is a truly American classic.（Soundbite of music， “Black， Brown and Beige”）

Siegel： Tell me， youre a music director of two American orchestras—one in Virginia， one in Buffalo—as well as an orchestra in Northern Ireland. When you tell symphony boards that you want to play a relatively unknown American symphonic work， do you hear， right on， lets go for it， or go sell the tickets yourself if you think you can， or why knock out the Beethoven when we know that people want to hear that？

Falletta： You know， I think Im very lucky because in the situations in which I work， I think the communities have come to trust the orchestra and trust the discoveries that theyve had in our programming. Especially in Buffalo where we have a tradition of wild new music， the community has been more open. And， in fact， I think it sells tickets. I really do because I think that sometimes we make the mistake of thinking if we do the program pieces that are the top 10， people will come in. Sometimes thats really not the solution to 11）enticing audiences into the hall.

Siegel： You know， JoAnn， I grew up in Lower Manhattan about three blocks from where Antonin Dvorak composed his ninth symphony， “From the New World.” Count him as a visitor and somebody who spent a few years and who got America and got American music into his symphony， and if you expand the definition a little bit， you could have， you know， a winner by a length.

Falletta： Thats right. And， in fact， the music people from NPR have said maybe in the end we will decide that that is the 12）quintessential American symphony， written as a gift to our country by a non-American， but certainly by a great human being who truly embraced our countrys culture and wrote as a 13）tribute to that culture.（Soundbite of music）

Falletta： Its very beautiful to think that Dvorak was thinking of the Native Americans when he was writing this and African-Americans as well， and he incorporated that into this symphony long before any American composers had thought to do that.

Siegel： And he did so on 1st Avenue and 17th Street.

Falletta： Thats right.

（Soundbite of music）

Siegel： You know， a lot of Americans who could 14）rattle off several competing novels for a great American novel， which theyd actually read in high school or at college， and who could argue about what the best American movies， would be absolutely 15）stumped to name an American—a true American symphony， which raises the question： Should we just 16）concede the match here and say， you know， this is a European art form and it was mature by the time Americans started writing music for orchestra， anyway. We do lots of other wonderful music. The great American symphony is like a—as someone once said in another context—the tallest skyscraper in Topeka， Kansas.

Falletta： Well， it really depends on how narrowly we define what a symphony is. And I think many American composers want to write symphonies and would not want to give up the idea of writing an American symphony so that I hate to think that we would just have to give up and were not in the running for that. But I do think that since the style of writing symphonies has so expanded and so varied—its so varied now in such a creative way—that if were going to think truly about great American symphonies， we have to expand what we might include in that category.

羅伯特·西格爾（主持人）：經(jīng)常聽到人們討論偉大的美國小說或偉大的美國電影，那么偉大的美國交響樂呢？來自密歇根州音特洛澄藝術學院的指揮家喬安娜·法萊塔加入我們當中討論此事。你好！

喬安娜·法萊塔：你好！

西格爾：那么，你承認有幾首曲目可以角逐“偉大的美國交響樂”的稱號。如果讓你舉兩個有趣的例子，不一定是你心目中的第一或第二，是哪兩首？先給我們說一首。

法萊塔：嗯，那是我一直喜歡的一部作品，也是我認為絕對能入圍的一首，就是塞繆爾·巴伯（美國作曲家）的《第一交響曲（單樂章）》。那已經(jīng)是很了不起的了，但巴伯寫了不可或缺的四段，各段的表現(xiàn)力都很強，對比很強烈，也沒有雷同。無論如何它也是部了不起的音樂作品。

（音樂片段）

西格爾：這個作品被廣泛演奏嗎？有沒有被美國交響樂團足夠多地演奏？

法萊塔：一點都沒有，我一直好奇為什么沒有，因為這首曲子包含了一切元素。它有精湛的藝術技巧，有我們開頭聽到的戲劇效果，還有如夢如幻的旋律，那是有史以來用雙簧管演奏的最出色的旋律之一。交響樂中的各種強烈對比都體現(xiàn)在這首曲子里，而且它是濃縮的，因為它是單樂章。所以我覺得那樣的表現(xiàn)力更強烈，因為每段更加短小、更加濃縮到它的精華所在。因此當你傾聽和演奏它的時候，這個作品的感染力就非常強。

（音樂片段）

西格爾：好的。巴伯的《第一交響

曲》，再給我們另一首入圍“偉大的美國交響樂”這個虛構稱號的作品。

法萊塔：嗯，有一首不具有交響樂的名字，但是我認為它很容易入圍該候選名單，那就是艾靈頓公爵（美國作曲家、鋼琴家和樂團領袖，最有影響力的爵士樂名人）——愛德華·肯尼迪·艾靈頓的《黑色、棕色和米色》。

（《黑色、棕色和米色》的音樂片段）

法萊塔：從奴隸時代到現(xiàn)在，至少到他的時代，艾靈頓一直在考慮非裔美國人在我們國家的地位。你知道，與巴伯相比，艾靈頓那強勁有力的音樂是完全美國式的，然而巴伯的音樂根源無疑是屬于歐洲傳統(tǒng)。管弦樂隊可算是歐洲的，但這是真正的美國經(jīng)典音樂。

（《黑色、棕色和米色》的音樂片段）西格爾：告訴我，你是兩個美國交響樂隊的音樂總監(jiān)，一個在弗吉尼亞，一個在布法羅（美國紐約州西部的城市），另外還有一個樂隊在北愛爾蘭。當你告訴交響樂董事會你想演奏一首相對不出名的美國交響樂作品，你是會立刻聽到，“我們演奏吧”，還是“如果你覺得可以，你自己去賣票吧”，還是“為什么不演奏貝多芬的樂曲，我們都知道人們愛聽？”

法萊塔：你知道，我覺得自己很幸運，因為我工作的環(huán)境，我認為組織機構相信交響樂隊，相信我們對演出編排的眼光。特別是在布法羅，我們在那里有個狂野新音樂的傳統(tǒng)，組織機構會更加開明。事實上，我認為那些音樂很賣座。確實是這樣，因為我覺得有時候我們錯誤地認為如果我們演奏排行前十的音樂，人們就會進來。有時那確實不是吸引人們進場的辦法。

西格爾：你知道，喬安娜，我在曼哈頓下城長大，安東尼·德沃夏克（捷克作曲家）就在離那里三個街區(qū)的地方譜寫了他的第九交響樂——《自新大陸》。他算是個游客，在美國待了幾年，了解了美國，并把美國音樂融入到自己的交響樂，如果你把定義拓寬一點點，你知道，一個能獲勝的作品就顯而易見了。

法萊塔：沒錯。事實上，NPR的音樂人士說過可能最終我們決定那才是美國交響樂的精髓所在：由非美國人譜寫的作為禮物贈送給我們國家的交響樂，但當然那是個偉大的人，他真正信奉我們但國家的文化，為這一文化譜寫了頌歌。（音樂片段）

法萊塔：想著德沃夏克在譜寫這首曲子的時候，他想到地道的美國人，也包括非裔美國人，他把這些糅合進交響樂里，那是美國作曲家在他以后很久才想到這樣做。那是多么美妙的事。

西格爾：他是在第一大街和第17街完成的。

法萊塔：沒錯。

（音樂片段）

西格爾：你知道，對于偉大的美國小說，很多美國人能輕而易舉地說出幾部有競爭力的小說，那是他們確實在高中或大學讀過的，他們也能爭辯出哪些是最好的美國電影。要說出一首真正的美國交響樂，他們絕對會啞口無言，就會提出這樣的問題：我們只是在這方面認輸吧，因為，你知道，畢竟這是一種歐洲藝術，美國開始寫交響樂的時候這種藝術已經(jīng)成熟。我們有其他很優(yōu)秀的音樂。就像有人在其他語境下說過的那樣，偉大的美國交響樂就像是堪薩斯州首府托皮卡最高的摩天大樓。（譯者注：托皮卡只是美國一個小城市，那里最高的摩天大樓只相當于紐約其中一幢高樓，而非最高的樓。比喻偉大的美國交響樂離歐洲的頂級交響樂還有一定的距離。）

法萊塔：呃，那真的要看我們要以多狹義的方式來定義交響樂。我認為很多美國作曲家愿意寫交響樂曲，也不愿意放棄譜寫美國交響樂曲的想法，所以我不喜歡認為我們必須得放棄，我們因此不再追逐領先地位。但是我確實認為譜寫交響樂的形式是那么寬廣，那么多樣——以現(xiàn)在的創(chuàng)意手法已經(jīng)大不同了——如果我們要真正考慮偉大的美國交響樂，我們就要拓寬那個范疇。