英语听力：Beethoven 贝多芬 - 03

 Beethoven's mother died of consumption. The inscription¹ says that she was such a good, kind mother to me and indeed my best friend.

 

“His father became more and more alcholic till it finally became the case that, Beethoven had to ask for his father's salary to be given to him directly, so that he could take care of his brothers. When Beethoven's father died, the Elector quipped that it is too bad there'll be a decline in the tax revenues for liquor.”

 

The Elector of Bonn, Maximilian Franz, was a patron of the young Ludwig. And the Electoral Palace was the center of musical life, today it's the town university.

 

When Beethoven was twelve, his teacher Neefe predicted he would surely become a second Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, were he to continue as he has begun.

 

In 1790, the emperor Joseph II died, and Beethoven was asked to write a memorial celebration. The composer was only 19.

 

"We tend to think perhaps of Beethoven as a later developer, say, than Mozart. But he did do some remarkble work very early on. I think perhaps all the outstanding work that he wrote in Bonn, was the Cantata² on the death of Joseph II, which he wrote in 1790. Now this is a very very powerful work indeed for a boy of 19 to have written."

 

"The use of very pregnant dramatic motifs³, right at the beginning, impinges instantly on the mind and, there is a general intensity⁴ about the writing, which is very distinctively⁵ Beethovenian. And one of the things that make(s) it outstanding is of course the physical scale."

 

And he composed this for the electoral orchestra, of which he was a member to play, and they just would not play it. It was too difficult. And the wind section, in particular, looked to the score and said, this is impossible and it was actually never performed.

 

"What is essential in Beethoven's music is the dynamics⁶. When it is loud. When it is soft. Previous composers would have a soft section they would build up to a loud section. Not Beethoven. Loud one moment. Soft the next. Very loud. Very soft. And those dynamics are again pure Beethoven."

 

These were revolutionary times. In August 1792, Louis XVI was arrested and would soon go to the guillotine in Paris. In October, the Elector fled Bonn, because of French troops in the Rhine area. Beethoven left a week later to travel to Vienna to study with Joseph Haydn. He would never return to Bonn.

 

1 inscription   

n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文

参考例句：

• The inscription has worn away and can no longer be read.铭文已磨损，无法辨认了。
• He chiselled an inscription on the marble.他在大理石上刻碑文。

2 cantata   

n.清唱剧，大合唱

参考例句：

• The music of the song has been rearranged for the cantata.这支歌改编已成大合唱。
• The choral society sang the new cantata composed by its leader.该合唱队演唱了他们领队编写的大合唱。

3 motifs   

n. （文艺作品等的）主题( motif的名词复数 )；中心思想；基本模式；基本图案

参考例句：

• I try to develop beyond the old motifs. 我力求对传统的花纹图案做到推陈出新。 来自辞典例句
• American Dream is one of the most important motifs of American literature. “美国梦”是美国文学最重要的母题之一。 来自互联网

4 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。

5 distinctively   

adv.特殊地，区别地

参考例句：

• "Public risks" is a recent term for distinctively high-tech hazards. “公共风险”是个特殊的高技术危害个人的一个最新术语。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• His language was natural, unaffected, distinctively vivid, humorous and strongly charming. 语言既朴实无华，又鲜明生动，幽默而富有艺术魅力。

6 dynamics   

n.力学，动力学，动力，原动力；动态

参考例句：

• In order to succeed,you must master complicated knowledge of dynamics.要取得胜利，你必须掌握很复杂的动力学知识。
• Dynamics is a discipline that cannot be mastered without extensive practice.动力学是一门不做大量习题就不能掌握的学科。