屯堡山歌的文化内涵与审美特征

The Night Met Einstein 爱因斯坦给我上了一堂音乐课 作者：Jerome Weidman When I was a very young man, just beginning to make my way1), I was invited to dine at the home of a distinguished New York philanthropist. After dinner, our hostess led us to an enormous drawing room. Other guests were pouring in, and my eyes beheld two unnerving sights: Servants were arranging small gilt chairs in long, neat rows; and up front, leaning against the wall, were musical instruments. Apparently I was in for2) an evening of chamber music. I use the phrase “in for” because music meant nothing to me. I am almost tone deaf—only with great effort can I carry the simplest tune and serious music was to me no more than an arrangement of noises. So I did what I always did when trapped: I sat down, and when the music started, I fixed my face in what I hoped was an expression of intelligent appreciation, closed my ears from the inside, and submerged myself in my own completely irrelevant thoughts. After a while, becoming aware that the people around me were applauding, I concluded it was safe to unplug my ears. At once I heard a gentle but surprisingly penetrating voice on my right: “You are fond of Bach3)?” 那时我还是个小青年，刚刚踏入社会，应邀前往纽约市一位非常著名的慈善家家中出席晚宴。晚宴后，女主人领我们来到一间特别宽敞的会客厅。在其他宾客纷纷涌入的时候，我看到了两件令人不安的事情：一是佣人们正在将金色的小椅子整整齐齐地排成几个长排；一是在前方的墙壁上，斜倚着一件件乐器。 很显然，一场室内音乐会即将开始，看来今晚我注定要遭罪了。 我使用“遭罪”一词，因为音乐对我来说如同对牛弹琴。我几乎听不出任何曲调——费尽九牛二虎之力我才能哼出最简单的调子，而严肃音乐对我来说只不过是聒噪之音。所以我就使出了每当深陷音乐困局时的拿手好戏：我坐了下来，音乐声起时，脸上就摆出一副我期望中的充满智慧、痴迷沉醉的表情，但内心却将耳朵封闭，沉浸在与音乐完全无关的自我的思绪中。 I knew as much about Bach as I know about nuclearfission4). But I did know one of the most famous faces in the world, with the renowned shock5) of untidy white hair and the ever-present pipe between the teeth. I was sitting next to Albert Einstein. “Well,” I said uncomfortably and hesitated. I had been asked a casual question. All I had to do was be equally casual in my reply. But I could see from the look in my neighbor’s extraordinary eyes that their owner was not merely going through the perfunctory6) duties of elementary politeness. Regardless of what value I placed on my part in the verbal exchange, to this man his part in it mattered very much.  Above all, I could feel that this was a man to whom you did not tell a lie, however small. “I don’t know anything about Bach,” I said awkwardly. “I’ve never heard any of his music.” A look of perplexed astonishment washed across Einstein’s mobile face. “You have never heard Bach?” He made it sound as though I had said I’d never taken a bath. “It isn’t that I don’t want to like Bach,” I replied hastily.  “It’s just that I’m tone deaf, or almost tone deaf, and I’ve never really heard anybody’s music.” A look of concern came into the old man’s face. “Please,” he said abruptly. “You will come with me?” He stood up and took my arm. I stood up. As he led me across that crowded room, I kept my embarrassed glance fixed on the carpet. A rising murmur of puzzled speculation followed us out into the hall. Einstein paid no attention to it. Resolutely, he led me upstairs. He obviously knew the house well. On the floor above, he opened the door into a book-lined study, drew me in, and shut the door. “Now,” he said with a small, troubled smile. “You will tell me, please, how long you have felt this way about music?” “All my life,” I said, feeling awful. “I wish you would go back downstairs and listen, Dr. Einstein. The fact that I don’t enjoy it doesn’t matter.” Einstein shook his head and scowled7), as though I had introduced an irrelevance. “Tell me, please,” he said. “Is there any kind of music that you do like?” 过了一阵，感觉到周围的人们在鼓掌，我便认定可以敞开耳朵了。就在这时，我听到一个温和但却具有惊人穿透力的声音在我右边响起：“你喜欢巴赫吗？” 我对巴赫的了解并不比我对核裂变的了解多。但我却认识这世上最著名的一张面孔：那一团举世闻名的乱蓬蓬的白发，还有那支从不离嘴的烟斗。原来，我正坐在阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦旁边。 “呃……”我有点尴尬，不知该怎样回答才好。他问的是一个很随意的问，我只要做出一个同样随意的回答即可。但我从他那双异乎寻常的眼睛里看得出来，这双眼睛的主人并不只是出于基本的礼貌随口问问而已。在这一语言交流中，我自己扮演的角色有何价值倒无关紧要，重要的是对爱因斯坦来说，他扮演的是什么角色。尤为重要的是，我感到对于这么一个人，你是不能撒谎的，不管这个谎言有多么不值一提。 “我对巴赫其实一无所知，”我有点尴尬地说，“我从未听过他写的任何一首乐曲。” 一种震惊但又困惑不解的表情漫过爱因斯坦那张表情丰富的脸。 “你从来没有听过巴赫的音乐？” 他那语气好像听到我说我从未洗过澡一样。 “ 并不是我不想喜欢巴赫，”我赶忙回答道，“只是因为我是个乐盲，或者说几乎是个乐盲。我从来没有真正地听过任何人的音乐。” 老人的脸上露出关切的神情，他突然说道：“请跟我来好吗？” 他站起身来，拉住我的胳膊。我也站了起来。他拉着我穿过拥挤的房间，我神情尴尬，眼睛一直盯着地毯。人群中响起了一阵半是困惑半是猜疑的嗡嗡声，一直尾随着我们进入大厅。爱因斯坦对此毫不理睬。 他果断地带着我上了楼梯。很显然，他对这栋房子很熟悉。到了楼上，他打开一扇门，走入一间摆满籍的房间，把我拉进去，关上了门。 “Well,” I answered, “I like songs that have words, and the kind of music where I can follow the tune.” He smiled and nodded, obviously pleased. “You can give me an example, perhaps?” “Well,” I ventured, “almost anything by Bing Crosby8).” He nodded again, briskly. “Good!” He went to a corner of the room , opened a phonograph9), and started pulling out records. I watched him uneasily. At last, he beamed. “Ah!” he said. He put the record on, and in a moment, the study was filled with the relaxed, lilting strains10) of Bing Crosby’s When the Blue of the Night Meets the Gold of the Day. Einstein beamed at me and kept time with the stem of his pipe. After three or four phrases, he stopped the phonograph. “Now,” he said. “Will you tell me, please, what you have just heard?” The simplest answer seemed to be to sing the lines. I did just that, trying desperately to stay in tune and keep my voice from cracking11). The expression on Einstein’s face was like the sunrise. “You see!” he cried with delight when I finished. “You do have an ear!” I mumbled12) something about this being one of my favorite songs, something I had heard hundreds of times so that it didn’t really prove anything. “Nonsense!” said Einstein. “It proves everything! Do you remember your first arithmetic13) lesson in school? Suppose, at your very first contact with numbers, your teacher had ordered you to work out a problem in, say, long division or fractions14).  Could you have done so?” “No, of course not.” “Precisely!” Einstein made a triumphant wave with his pipe stem. “It would have been impossible, and you would have reacted in panic. You would have closed your mind to long division and fractions. As a result, because of that one small mistake by your teacher, it is possible your whole life you would be denied the beauty of long division and fractions.” The pipe stem went up and out in another wave. “But on your first day, no teacher would be so foolish. He would start you with elementary things—then, when you had acquired skill with the simplest problems, he would lead you up to long division and to fractions. “现在，”他淡淡地笑了下，有点困惑地问，“请告诉我，你对音乐的这种感觉有多长时间了？” “一直都是这样，”我苦恼地回答道，“爱因斯坦博士，请您下楼去听音乐吧。我不喜欢听也没关系的。” 爱因斯坦摇了摇头，皱了一下眉，好像我刚才说的是句不相干的话。 “请告诉我，”他说，“有没有什么音乐是你喜欢的呢？” “呃，我喜欢有歌词的歌曲，”我回答说，“还有我能跟得上曲调的音乐。” 他笑了，点了点头，显然非常高兴。“那么，你可以举个例子吗？” “呃，”我鼓足勇气答道，“几乎所有平·克劳斯贝的作品我都喜欢。” 他又轻快地点了点头：“很好！” 他走到房间的一个角落，打开一台留声机，开始翻找唱片。我局促不安地望着他。终于，他脸上露出了笑容。“找到了！”他说。 他放入唱片，书房里随即飘荡起舒缓、轻快的旋律，那是平·克劳斯贝的《蓝莹莹的夜遇见金灿灿的天》。爱因斯坦笑眯眯地看着我，一边用烟斗柄打着拍子。播放了三四个短乐句之后，他将留声机停了下来。 “现在，请告诉我，你听到了什么？”他问。 最简单的回答也许就是把歌曲唱出来。于是我唱了起来，拼命让自己不跑调，让声音不那么粗哑。爱因斯坦脸上的表情就像初升的太阳般明朗。 “你瞧！”听我唱完，他惊喜地喊了起来，“你还是有乐感的！” 我嘀咕着说这是我最喜欢的一首歌，都听过几百遍了，所以不能说明任何问题。 “胡说！”爱因斯坦说，“它很能说明问题！你还记得你上学时的第一堂算术课吗？假如在你第一次接触数字时，老师就要你解一道长除法题或者分数题，你能解出来吗？” “不能，当然不能。” “你说得很对！”爱因斯坦挥舞了一下手中的烟斗，一副胜利的样子，“你是不可能解出来的，那样只会让你感到惊恐。你会从此排斥长除法和分数。结果呢，由于你的老师所犯的一个小小错误，你可能一辈子都无法领略到长除法和分数的妙处了。” 他又一次挥舞了一下烟斗。 “So it is with music.” Einstein picked up the Bing Crosby record. “This simple, charming little song is like simple addition or subtraction. You have mastered it. Now we go on to something more complicated.” He found another record and set it going. The golden voice of John McCormack15) singing The Trumpeter filled the room. After a few lines, Einstein stopped the record. “So!” he said. “You will sing that back to me, please?” I did—with a good deal of self-consciousness16) but with, for me, a surprising degree of accuracy. Einstein stared at me with a look on his face that I had seen only once before in my life: on the face of my father as he listened to me deliver the valedictory17) address at myhigh school graduation ceremony. “Excellent!” Einstein remarked when I finished. “Wonderful! Now this!” “This” turned out to be Caruso18) in what was to me a completely unrecognizable fragment from Cavalleria  Rusticana, a one-act opera. Nevertheless, I managed to reproduce an approximation of the sounds the famous tenor had made. Einstein beamed his approval. Caruso was followed by at least a dozen others. I could not shake my feeling of awe over the way this great man, into whose company I had been thrown by chance, was completely preoccupied by what we were doing, as though I were his sole concern. We came at last to recordings of music without words, which I was instructed to reproduce by humming. When I reached for a high note, Einstein’s mouth opened, and his head went back as if to help me attain what seemed unattainable. Evidently I came close enough, for he suddenly turned off the phonograph. “Now, young man,” he said, putting his arm through mine. “We are ready for Bach!” As we returned to our seats in the drawing room, the players were tuning up for a new selection. Einstein smiled and gave me a reassuring pat on the knee. “Just allow yourself to listen,” he whispered. “That is all.” It wasn’t really all, of course. Without the effort the had just poured out for a total stranger I would never have heard, as I did that night for the first time in my life, Bach’s Sheep May Safely Graze. I have heard it many times since. I don’t think I shall ever tire of it. Because I never listen to it alone. I am sitting beside a small, round man with a shock of untidy white hair, a dead pipe clamped between his teeth, and eyes that contain in their extraordinary warmth all the wonder of the world. When the concert was finished, I added my genuine applause to that of the others. Suddenly our hostess confronted us. “I’m so sorry, Dr. Einstein,” she said with an icy glare at me, “that you missed so much of the performance.” Einstein and I came hastily to our feet19). “I am sorry too,” he said. “My young friend here and I, however, were engaged in the greatest activity of which man is capable.” She looked puzzled. “Really?” she said. “And what is that?” Einstein smiled and put his arm across my shoulders. And he uttered ten words that—for at least one person who is in his endless debt—are his epitaph20): “Opening up yet another fragment of the frontier ofbeauty.” “不过，在你上学的第一天，没有哪个老师会那么愚蠢。他会先教你最基本的东西。然后，当你掌握了技巧，能够算出最简单的题目时，他才会带着你更进一步，学习长除法和分数的解题技巧。” “音乐也是如此，”爱因斯坦拿起了平·克劳斯贝的唱片，“这首简单而动听的歌曲就像是简单的加减法。既然你已经掌握了这个，我们就再来听点更为复杂的。” 他找到另一张唱片，放在留声机里。约翰·麦科马克那金色的嗓音立刻充满了整个房间——    他唱的是《小号手》。播放了几句之后，爱因斯坦把唱片停了下来。 “好了！”他说，“这个你能唱几句给我听吗？” 我唱了——虽然很难为情，但就我的水平来说，却是出人意料地准确。 爱因斯坦盯着我，他脸上的那种表情我这辈子只在一个场合见到过：那是父亲在我中学毕业典礼上听我作告别演讲时脸上出现的表情。 “太棒了！”爱因斯坦听我唱完赞叹道，“好极了！下面再听听这个！” “这个”是独幕剧《乡间骑士》中卡鲁索演唱的一个片段，这个片段在我听来完全无法辨认。不过，对于这位著名男高音发出的声音，我还是尽力模仿了个大概。爱因斯坦以满脸的笑容表达了他的肯定。听完卡鲁索的音乐之后，我们又听了至少十几位其他歌手的音乐。虽说我是由于偶然的原因才和他在一起的，但他做事的那种专心致志的样子就好像我是他唯一需要关注的对象，每念及此，我对这位伟大的人物都不禁肃然起敬。 最后，我们开始听没有歌词的音乐，他要我用哼唱的方式来模仿。在哼唱到一个高音时，爱因斯坦张开了嘴巴，头向后倾，似乎要帮我达到那看似无法达到的高度。显然，我模仿得还很接近，因为他突然关掉了留声机。 “现在，年轻人，”他挽住我的胳膊说，“我们可以去听巴赫了！” 当我们回到会客厅在座位上坐下时，演奏者们正在为新选的乐曲进行调音。爱因斯坦微笑着在我膝盖上拍了一下，为我鼓劲。 “你只管让自己去倾听，”他小声说，“就这么简单。”当然不可能就那么简单。如果没有他为我——一个完全的陌生人——付出的一切，我永远都不可能听到巴赫的《羊儿可以安详地吃草》，可那一晚我有生以来第一次听到了。从那以后，我又听到过许多次。这是我百听不厌的一支曲子，因为我从来都不是一个人在听。在我身边，总是坐着一位身材矮小、体态发胖的男人，他有着一头乱蓬蓬的白发，嘴上叼着一支没有点燃的烟斗，一双令人倍感温暖的眼睛里蕴含着世上所有的奇迹。 音乐会结束时，我发自内心地和别人一起鼓起掌来。 突然，女主人出现在我们面前。“很抱歉，爱因斯坦博士，”她一边冷冰冰地怒视着我一边说，“你错过了大部分的演出。” 爱因斯坦和我赶忙站了起来。“我也很抱歉，”他说，“但是我和我这位年轻的朋友刚才在做一件人类所能做到的最伟大的事情。” 她看起来很困惑。“是吗？”她问道，“是什么事呢？” 爱因斯坦微笑着搂住我的肩膀，说了一句可以作为他墓志铭的话——至少在我这个对他永远感激不尽、无以回报的人看来可以作为墓志铭： “在美的疆域里开辟了又一块疆土。”