評論
打印
Narrator:Listen to part of a lecture in a music history class.
獨白:聽下面一段音樂史課堂的講解。
So, uh, if you are a musician in the United States in the early twentieth century, where could you work?
嗯，如果你是美國二十世紀早期的音樂人，你會在哪里工作呢？
Same as now, I suppose. In an orchestra, mainly.
我想和現在一樣吧。主要在管弦樂隊里工作。
Ok. And where would the orchestra be playing?
好的，那么管弦樂隊又在哪里演奏呢？
Uh, in a concert hall or a dance hall?
呃，在音樂會或者舞廳？
That's right. And smaller groups of musicians were needed in theaters as accompaniment to visual entertainment, like cabarets and variety shows.
是的。還有一些視覺娛樂項目，如卡巴雷歌舞及各種各樣的表演等也會需要一群音樂人在劇場里伴奏。
But the largest employer for musicians back then was the film industry, especially during the silent-film era.
但是那時候最需要音樂人的產業卻是電影業，尤其是在無聲電影時代。
Really? You mean being a piano player or something?
真的嗎？你的意思是鋼琴家之類的？
I thought movie theaters would have used recorded music.
我以為電影劇場里會用些錄制好的音樂。
Well, no. Not during the silent-film era.
不是的。在無聲電影時代不是這樣的。
We are talking a period of maybe thirty years where working in movie theaters was the best job for musicians.
那三十年，音樂人最好的工作就是在電影劇場里面工作，
It was very well-paid.
他們薪水很高。
The rapid growth of the film industry meant movie theaters were popping up everywhere.
電影業的迅速發展使電影劇場到處涌現。
So suddenly there was this huge demand for musicians.
所以突然間對音樂人的需求非常大。
In fact, over 20,000 jobs for musicians were gone, disappeared at the end of the silent-film era, 20,000. Ok.
事實上，在無聲電影時代結束的時期，有兩萬多的音樂人失業。
So from the beginning, music was a big part of film,
好了，那我們從頭來說。音樂是電影中非常重要的一部分，
even at the first…
即使是在在最初…
Excuse me, professor.
打擾一下教授。
I think I read somewhere that they used music to drown out the sound of the film projectors?
我想我在哪里讀到過，他們是用音樂的聲音來淹沒電影放映機的聲音是嗎？
Yeah. That's good story, isn't it?
是的。很有意思吧。
Too bad it keeps getting printed as if it were the only reason music was used.
問題是人們總在這樣說，好像這是放音樂唯一的原因一樣。
Well, think about it. Even if that were the case, noisy projectors were separated from the main house pretty quickly,
但是你們想想，即便如此，不久之后有噪音的放映機就與放映廳分割開來了，
yet music continued to accompany film.
但還是有音樂繼續來為電影伴奏。
So, as I was saying, even the very first public projection of a film had piano accompaniment.
所以正如我說的，即使是第一個公映的電影也有鋼琴的伴奏。
So music was pretty much always there.
音樂一直都在。
What's strange to me though, is that at first film music didn't necessarily correspond to what was on the screen.
而讓我感到奇怪的是，起初的電影配樂是不需要和熒幕上的內容相關的。
You know, eh, a fast number for a chase,
你們知道，嗯，追逐場景用快節奏的音樂，
deep bass notes for danger, something light and humorous for comedy.
危險的場景用低沉的貝斯，喜劇用輕快幽默的音樂。
And that's instantly recognizable now, even expected.
現在大家很快就能識別出來，甚至人們期待這樣的背景音樂。
But in the very early days of film, any music was played.
但是在電影早期，任何音樂都演奏過。
A theater owner would just buy a pile of sheet music and musicians will play it,
劇院的院長就是隨便買來一堆活頁樂譜，音樂人們演奏就可以了，
no matter what it was.
而不管內容是什么。
Pretty quickly though, thankfully, everybody realized the music should suit the film.
幸好不久之后，大家意識到音樂應該和電影的內容相符合。
So eventually, film makers tried to get more control over the musical accompaniment of their films.
所以最終，電影制片人開始嘗試控制音樂人的伴奏，
And specify what type of music to use and how fast or slow to play it.
專門規定該使用什么樣的音樂，用快節拍還是慢節拍來進行演奏。
Are you saying there was no music written specifically for a particular movie?
你的意思是說沒有專門為電影寫的音樂嗎？
Yeah. Original scores weren't common then.
沒有，原創音樂在那時還并不普遍。
Rarely a filmmaker might send along an original score composed especially for a film,
很少有電影制片人會專門為一部電影進行原版音樂創作，
but usually a compilation of music that already existed would be used.
通常是使用已經存在了的音樂。
Yeah, that was a good time for a lot of musicians.
是啊，那時候對于音樂人來講真是個黃金時期。
But that all changed with the introduction of sound on film technology.
但是在有聲電影技術出現以后，一切都改變了。
Actually, even before that, organs could mimic a number of instruments and also do some sound effects.
事實上，甚至在那之前，風琴可以模仿許多樂器，還可以做一些音效。
So they were starting to replace live orchestras in some movie theaters,
所以在一些電影劇場就開始雇傭一個人來演奏風琴，
and it only takes one person to play an organ.
從而取代了樂團。
Ok. But even after that someone still had to play the music for the sound recordings, the soundtracks.
好的。但是即便在那之后，還是需要有人繼續為音樂錄制來演奏啊，就是電影配樂唱片。
Yeah. But think of all the movie theaters there were, most employing about six to eight musicians,
是的，但是想想那時所有電影劇院多數都雇傭六到八個音樂人，
some even had full orchestras.
有的甚至是整個管弦樂隊。
But in the early 1930s, most theater owners installed new sound systems.
而在 20 世紀 30 年代初，多數的劇院擁有者們都安裝了新的有聲系統。
So suddenly a lot of musicians were looking for work.
所以突然間，音樂人們都開始找工作了。
Once recording technology took off,
錄制技術取消以后，
studio jobs working exclusively for one film company,
播音室專門為一個電影公司工作，
eh, studio jobs did become available.
呃，播音室的工作就炙手可熱起來。
But the thing is, each major movie company pretty much had only one orchestra for all their productions,
但問題是，每個大的電影公司基本都只有一個樂團來負責所有的電影生產，
a set number of regular musicians.
就是一群固定的音樂人。
So if you could get it, studio musician was a good job.
所以你就會發現，播音室音樂人的工作是很好的。
If you were cut out for it, musicians had to be able to read music very well,
如果不能做這項工作的話，那么音樂人就要具備很好的讀懂音樂的能力，
since the producers were very conscious of how much money they were spending.
因為制片人們知道他們的錢要花的恰到好處。
They didn't want to waste any time.
他們可不想浪費時間。
So a musician was expected to play complicated pieces of music pretty much without any preparation.
所以音樂人要在毫無準備的情況下來演奏許多復雜的音樂。
If one couldn't do it, there were plenty of others waiting to try.
如果你不能做到的話，還有很多人樂意去嘗試。
So there was a lot of pressure to do well.
因此想做好的話需要很大的壓力。
