哦，你可能唱？
2014-05-19 10:32阅读：
Douglas Wolk | Contributor |
2014.05.15
2012年，何塞•费利西亚诺在全国棒球联盟冠军赛上演唱国歌。
尽管在每场棒球比赛以及其他很多公众活动开始之前都要演唱《星条旗之歌》（The Star-Spangled
Banner），但这首歌出名地难唱。不过，这首歌有史以来让那些能够驾驭它的表演者在诠释美国最知名的代表歌曲时给人留下了难忘的、独一无二的记忆。
当《星条旗之歌》于1931年被定为国歌时，《纽约先驱论坛报》（New York Herald
Tribune）说它的“歌词没人能记住，曲调没人能唱出来”，这条评论广为人知。《星条旗之歌》的曲调改编自18世纪的一首饮酒歌，歌词选自弗朗西斯·斯科特·基（Francis
Scott
Key）在200年前写的一首诗（描绘1812年战争中的一场战役）。这首歌的最高音和最低音之间的音域为一个半八度，要想唱准每个音极其困难。
2004年的一项调查发现，美国人中只有39%的人能唱准歌曲的第三句。
富兰克林·布鲁诺（Franklin Bruno）是一位歌曲创作者，他论述歌曲创作史的著作《曲调的内在蕴含》（The Inside of
the Tune）即将出版发行。书中说，这首歌预见了美国的音乐前景，通过每节的第三个对句（“A
nd the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air
…”）的节奏和韵律规律来使其他诗行的战争色彩变得柔和，以此改变歌曲的主调。
布鲁诺说：“我们的国歌恰到好处地没有完全地严格采用英国民歌的形式。”
作为国歌所具有的重大象征意义还意味着，每当表演者没有中规中矩地演绎这首歌曲的时候，听众都会认为这种发挥是有用意的。1941年7月4日，在二战的背景之下，作曲家伊戈尔·斯特拉文斯基（Igor
Stravinsky）改编的国歌交响曲首演，其中有几个不同寻常的和弦。这次演出导致斯特拉文斯基与波士顿警察发生了小小的冲突，因为警察认为他违反了一项禁止“篡改”国歌的州法。
在1968年大联盟棒球世界系列赛（Major League Baseball World
Series）期间，波多黎各歌手何塞·费利西亚诺（José
Feliciano）在原声吉他的伴奏下用当代民谣流行唱法演唱了《星条旗之歌》。这引起了一片哗然。费利西亚诺后来说：“有些人要求把我驱逐出境。好像能把人驱逐出境到波多黎各似的。”（波多黎各是美国的一个领地。）费利西亚诺演唱的国歌成为了一首上榜单曲，而且他说，到他在2012年的一场棒球冠军赛上再次以自己的风格演唱这首歌曲时，听众大都将其理解为“对一个给予我机会的国家表达感激之情的歌曲”。
在1983年的全国篮球协会全明星赛（National Basketball Association All-Star
game）上，马文?盖伊（Marvin
Gaye）在一架电子鼓的伴奏下舒缓幽沉、带有福音音乐风格的演唱让这首歌听起来极具现代感。当年洛杉矶湖人队（Los Angeles
Lakers）的球星“魔术师”约翰逊（Earvin “Magic”
Johnson）说，盖伊的演唱让他感受到了“作为一个美国人的自豪感……令人心潮澎湃，泪光盈盈”。
尽管演唱《星条旗之歌》通常是要展现国家自豪感，但这首歌也被用在政治抗议活动中。2006年，用西班牙语录制的《星条旗之歌》（Nuestro
Himno）批评了美国的移民政策。
1969年，吉米•亨德里克斯（Jimi
Hendrix）在伍德斯托克（Woodstock）音乐节上演唱了这首国歌，以示对越战的抗议，此事广为人知。他的演唱辅以“轰炸”的音响效果，是最有名的以激进态度演绎国歌的版本。亨德里克斯于1969年9月在电视节目中接受迪克·卡韦特（Dick
Cavett）的采访时这样评价自己的演唱：“这并非背离传统。我认为唱得很美。”
在1991年超级碗（Super Bowl）上，惠特尼·休斯顿（Whitney
Houston）引吭高歌，将《星条旗之歌》里最高的一句“land of the free”唱得更高——当时美国正在打海湾战争（Gulf
War），她表示要将这首歌献给美国军人。几周后这首歌曲作为单曲发行，风靡一时。而10年后这首歌曲在2001年9.11袭击事件后为纽约的消防队员和警察募捐时再次发行，愈发受人欢迎。碧昂丝（Beyoncé
Knowles）最近几次演唱国歌时（包括在巴拉克·欧巴马2013年的就职典礼上）都大体沿袭了休斯顿的风格，包括超高音演唱。
说国歌难唱一点也不过分；美国人享有的自由得来不易。随着时间的推移，《星条旗之歌》已经成为一首鼓励人们表达个性以及表达团结一心的歌曲。这一点也是恰如其分的。
Oh, Say Can You Sing?
By Douglas Wolk | Contributor | 13 May
2014
José Feliciano sings the national anthem during the National
League baseball championship series in 2012.
Although “The Star-Spangled Banner” is performed before every
baseball game and at many other public events, it’s notoriously
hard to sing. But in its history, the song has allowed the
performers who
can sing it to create memorable and unique
interpretations of the United States’ most prominent musical
symbol.
When “The Star-Spangled Banner” became the national anthem in 1931,
the
New York Herald Tribune famously described it as
“words that nobody can remember to a tune nobody can sing.” Its
melody is adapted from an 18th-century drinking song, and its
lyrics from a poem that Francis Scott Key wrote 200 years ago
(describing a battle in the War of 1812). And it’s fiendishly hard
to hit all the notes — the highest is an octave and a half above
the lowest.
A 2004 poll found that only 39 percent of Americans could correctly
complete the song’s third line.
Franklin Bruno, songwriter and author of a forthcoming history of
songwriting,
The Inside of the Tune, points out that the
anthem anticipated the country’s musical future in the way the
rhythm and rhyme scheme of each verse’s third couplet (“And the
rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air …”) change the song’s
tone by softening the martial quality of the other lines.
“It’s fitting that our national anthem wouldn’t be in
quite the strict English ballad form,” Bruno said.
The national anthem’s symbolic weight also means that when it is
performed in anything but a straightforward way, listeners ascribe
meaning to the deviation. On July 4, 1941, against the backdrop of
World War II, composer Igor Stravinsky premiered an orchestral
arrangement of the anthem that incorporated a few unusual
harmonies. That performance led to a brief skirmish between
Stravinsky and Boston police, who thought he’d violated a state law
against “tampering” with the national anthem.
During the 1968 Major League Baseball World Series, Puerto Rican
singer José Feliciano performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” in the
style of a contemporary folk-pop song, accompanied by acoustic
guitar. It caused a flurry of controversy: “Some people wanted me
deported,” he later said, “as if you can be deported to Puerto
Rico.” (Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States.) But
Feliciano’s version became a minor hit single, and he said that by
the time he reprised his version at a 2012 championship baseball
game, it was generally understood by the audience as “an anthem of
gratitude to a country that had given me a chance.”
Marvin Gaye’s slow, spectral, gospel-tinged rendition performed at
the 1983 National Basketball Association All-Star game, accompanied
by a drum machine, made the song sound shockingly modern. Former
Los Angeles Lakers star Earvin “Magic” Johnson said Gaye’s
performance gave him a feeling of “pride at being an American ...
you almost cried, it was so devastating.”
While singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” is most often a statement
of national pride, it can also be a vehicle for political protest.
A 2006 Spanish-language recording of the song (as “Nuestro Himno”)
criticized American immigration policy.
Jimi Hendrix famously performed his rendition of the anthem at the
1969 Woodstock music festival as a protest against the Vietnam War.
Complete with “bombing” sound effects, it is the best-known radical
reworking of the anthem. “It’s not unorthodox,” Hendrix told
television interviewer Dick Cavett in September 1969 about his
interpretation of the anthem. “I thought it was beautiful.”
At the time of the 1991 Super Bowl, when Whitney Houston sang “The
Star-Spangled Banner” — with a flourish on the high note of “land
of the free” that propelled it even higher — America was in the
middle of the Gulf War, and she dedicated her performance to the
country’s military. It became a hit when it was released as a
single a few weeks later. It was even more successful when it was
re-released a decade later, with proceeds to benefit New York
firefighters and police after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Beyoncé Knowles’ recent performances of the anthem (at Barack
Obama’s 2013 inauguration, among other venues) have loosely
followed Houston’s template, including its extra-high note.
That the anthem is hard to sing may be apt; Americans enjoy
freedoms that have not come easily. Over time, “The Star-Spangled
Banner” has become a song that invites expressions of individuality
and of unity. There’s something fitting about that, too.
Read more:
http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/publication/2014/05/20140501298634.html#ixzz327o6ou5e
