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Narrator:Listen to part of a lecture in a music history class.
独白:听下面一段音乐史课堂的讲解。
So, uh, if you are a musician in the United States in the early twentieth century, where could you work?
嗯，如果你是美国二十世纪早期的音乐人，你会在哪里工作呢？
Same as now, I suppose. In an orchestra, mainly.
我想和现在一样吧。主要在管弦乐队里工作。
Ok. And where would the orchestra be playing?
好的，那么管弦乐队又在哪里演奏呢？
Uh, in a concert hall or a dance hall?
呃，在音乐会或者舞厅？
That's right. And smaller groups of musicians were needed in theaters as accompaniment to visual entertainment, like cabarets and variety shows.
是的。还有一些视觉娱乐项目，如卡巴雷歌舞及各种各样的表演等也会需要一群音乐人在剧场里伴奏。
But the largest employer for musicians back then was the film industry, especially during the silent-film era.
但是那时候最需要音乐人的产业却是电影业，尤其是在无声电影时代。
Really? You mean being a piano player or something?
真的吗？你的意思是钢琴家之类的？
I thought movie theaters would have used recorded music.
我以为电影剧场里会用些录制好的音乐。
Well, no. Not during the silent-film era.
不是的。在无声电影时代不是这样的。
We are talking a period of maybe thirty years where working in movie theaters was the best job for musicians.
那三十年，音乐人最好的工作就是在电影剧场里面工作，
It was very well-paid.
他们薪水很高。
The rapid growth of the film industry meant movie theaters were popping up everywhere.
电影业的迅速发展使电影剧场到处涌现。
So suddenly there was this huge demand for musicians.
所以突然间对音乐人的需求非常大。
In fact, over 20,000 jobs for musicians were gone, disappeared at the end of the silent-film era, 20,000. Ok.
事实上，在无声电影时代结束的时期，有两万多的音乐人失业。
So from the beginning, music was a big part of film,
好了，那我们从头来说。音乐是电影中非常重要的一部分，
even at the first…
即使是在在最初…
Excuse me, professor.
打扰一下教授。
I think I read somewhere that they used music to drown out the sound of the film projectors?
我想我在哪里读到过，他们是用音乐的声音来淹没电影放映机的声音是吗？
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.
问题是人们总在这样说，好像这是放音乐唯一的原因一样。
Well, think about it. Even if that were the case, noisy projectors were separated from the main house pretty quickly,
但是你们想想，即便如此，不久之后有噪音的放映机就与放映厅分割开来了，
yet music continued to accompany film.
但还是有音乐继续来为电影伴奏。
So, as I was saying, even the very first public projection of a film had piano accompaniment.
所以正如我说的，即使是第一个公映的电影也有钢琴的伴奏。
So music was pretty much always there.
音乐一直都在。
What's strange to me though, is that at first film music didn't necessarily correspond to what was on the screen.
而让我感到奇怪的是，起初的电影配乐是不需要和荧幕上的内容相关的。
You know, eh, a fast number for a chase,
你们知道，嗯，追逐场景用快节奏的音乐，
deep bass notes for danger, something light and humorous for comedy.
危险的场景用低沉的贝斯，喜剧用轻快幽默的音乐。
And that's instantly recognizable now, even expected.
现在大家很快就能识别出来，甚至人们期待这样的背景音乐。
But in the very early days of film, any music was played.
但是在电影早期，任何音乐都演奏过。
A theater owner would just buy a pile of sheet music and musicians will play it,
剧院的院长就是随便买来一堆活页乐谱，音乐人们演奏就可以了，
no matter what it was.
而不管内容是什么。
Pretty quickly though, thankfully, everybody realized the music should suit the film.
幸好不久之后，大家意识到音乐应该和电影的内容相符合。
So eventually, film makers tried to get more control over the musical accompaniment of their films.
所以最终，电影制片人开始尝试控制音乐人的伴奏，
And specify what type of music to use and how fast or slow to play it.
专门规定该使用什么样的音乐，用快节拍还是慢节拍来进行演奏。
Are you saying there was no music written specifically for a particular movie?
你的意思是说没有专门为电影写的音乐吗？
Yeah. Original scores weren't common then.
没有，原创音乐在那时还并不普遍。
Rarely a filmmaker might send along an original score composed especially for a film,
很少有电影制片人会专门为一部电影进行原版音乐创作，
but usually a compilation of music that already existed would be used.
通常是使用已经存在了的音乐。
Yeah, that was a good time for a lot of musicians.
是啊，那时候对于音乐人来讲真是个黄金时期。
But that all changed with the introduction of sound on film technology.
但是在有声电影技术出现以后，一切都改变了。
Actually, even before that, organs could mimic a number of instruments and also do some sound effects.
事实上，甚至在那之前，风琴可以模仿许多乐器，还可以做一些音效。
So they were starting to replace live orchestras in some movie theaters,
所以在一些电影剧场就开始雇佣一个人来演奏风琴，
and it only takes one person to play an organ.
从而取代了乐团。
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，还是需要有人继续为音乐录制来演奏啊，就是电影配乐唱片。
Yeah. But think of all the movie theaters there were, most employing about six to eight musicians,
是的，但是想想那时所有电影剧院多数都雇佣六到八个音乐人，
some even had full orchestras.
有的甚至是整个管弦乐队。
But in the early 1930s, most theater owners installed new sound systems.
而在 20 世纪 30 年代初，多数的剧院拥有者们都安装了新的有声系统。
So suddenly a lot of musicians were looking for work.
所以突然间，音乐人们都开始找工作了。
Once recording technology took off,
录制技术取消以后，
studio jobs working exclusively for one film company,
播音室专门为一个电影公司工作，
eh, studio jobs did become available.
呃，播音室的工作就炙手可热起来。
But the thing is, each major movie company pretty much had only one orchestra for all their productions,
但问题是，每个大的电影公司基本都只有一个乐团来负责所有的电影生产，
a set number of regular musicians.
就是一群固定的音乐人。
So if you could get it, studio musician was a good job.
所以你就会发现，播音室音乐人的工作是很好的。
If you were cut out for it, musicians had to be able to read music very well,
如果不能做这项工作的话，那么音乐人就要具备很好的读懂音乐的能力，
since the producers were very conscious of how much money they were spending.
因为制片人们知道他们的钱要花的恰到好处。
They didn't want to waste any time.
他们可不想浪费时间。
So a musician was expected to play complicated pieces of music pretty much without any preparation.
所以音乐人要在毫无准备的情况下来演奏许多复杂的音乐。
If one couldn't do it, there were plenty of others waiting to try.
如果你不能做到的话，还有很多人乐意去尝试。
So there was a lot of pressure to do well.
因此想做好的话需要很大的压力。
