His training was more than adequate: chorister at Worcester Cathedral, organ scholar at St John's, Cambridge, later a fearless conductor, with the Philharmonic and the Britten Sinfonia, of new works for orchestra. But the choir's reputation awed him. The carol service in particular, always beginning with "Once in royal" from an unaccompanied treble, always sung by men and boys in keeping with the founding charter of 1441—was in a sense a piece of public property. He could not radically reform it, any more than he could alter the glorious fan vault of King's chapel to achieve what he had to work hardest for, greater clarity of texture.
斯蒂芬·克劳伯里所受的训练是绰绰有余的:伍斯特大教堂唱诗队指挥,剑桥圣约翰学院管风琴学者,后来作为一个无畏的指挥,和爱乐乐团和布里顿交响乐团一起为管弦乐队创作的新作品。但唱诗班的声誉使他肃然起敬。尤其是颂歌,总是从一首无伴奏的高音开始唱“王城往事”。在某种意义上说,男人和孩子们按照1441年的建国宪章所唱的歌是公共财产。斯蒂芬·克劳伯里不能从根本上改变它,就像他不能为了实现他努力追求的,更清晰的结构 而改变国王礼拜堂那辉煌的扇形拱顶。
He had various ideas, though, to nourish new growth in it. He applied them equally to the week-by-week chapel services and to other jobs he held, such as chief conductor of the bbc Singers. Those changes began with teaching. His own music lessons as a chorister had been hit and miss: theory at desks set up in the cathedral nave, huddling round an ancient stove, and harmony and counterpoint in the deputy organist's house over ten-shillings' worth of cake.
尽管他有各种想法来使它获得新的生长。斯蒂芬·克劳伯里同样将这些原则运用到每周的教堂礼拜和其他工作中,比如运用到BBC歌手的首席指挥工作中。这些改变始于教学。他作为唱诗队指挥讲述的课程也时好时坏:在教堂中殿里摆着的课桌上讨论理论,围坐在古老的火炉旁,在副风琴手家里,在价值十先令的蛋糕前作和声和对位。
But four years spent teaching O- and A-level music at Northampton Grammar gave him insights into dealing with boys—how to keep them up to the mark, affirm that they were good, without giving them any idea that they had arrived—that proved invaluable. Though teaching was not in his contract at King's, he instructed the first-year students in harmony and counterpoint to lay down the basics. He saw to it, too, that each chorister had singing lessons. Meanwhile, to be equally strict or even stricter with himself, he went on learning to play the organ better.
但在北安普顿文法学校教授初高中音乐的4年时间,让斯蒂芬·克劳伯里对如何与男孩打交道有了深刻的认识——如何让他们达标,说他们很好,却不让他们知道他们已经足够好了——这被证明是无价的。虽然斯蒂芬·克劳伯里在国王学院的合同里没有教学内容,但他指导一年级的学生们在和声和对位中打下基础。斯蒂芬·克劳伯里还确保每个唱诗班都要上歌唱课。与此同时,斯蒂芬·克劳伯里对自己也同样严格,甚至更严格,继续学习更好地演奏管风琴。
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