佚名/Anonymous
It's a familiar tale：An aging Beethoven, ill and deaf, conducting the orchestra and chorus in the premiere of his Ninth Symphony, conducting even after they had ceased to perform, after they had reached the end of the stunning new work, after the audience had already begun to applaud, continuing to conduct until a singer turned him around so that he could see the thunderous cheers that were resounding throughout the hall.
The image is deeply moving, so much so that more cynical historians would like to discount it；it is, they feel, too perfect to be true. Yet this once, however, the cynics are apparently wrong, for several eyewitnesses tell the same tale of that fateful performance in Vienna on May 7，1824.Their stories vary somewhat in detail. Some place the dramatic moment at the symphony's conclusion. Others maintain it occurred at the end of the scherzo. Thisdifference of opinion might merely be credited to the passage of years between the incident itself and the day long after when those observers at last spoke to a biographer. Whenever the applause occurred, the fact that it passed unheard by Beethoven makes clear that he could never have heard a note of this most magnificent composition. Think about that bitter fact, and then wonder that a man so crossed by fate could still demand a choir to sing rapturously of joy.
Beethoven had first encountered Schiller's poem“An die Freude”over thirty years before he completed the Ninth Symphony. The poem had frst appeared in print in 1785，and from that time on was quite popular in the German states. Evidence suggests that Beethoven may have set the text to music as early as 1792.Other attempts were made in 1808 and 1811，when Beethoven's notebooks include remarks to himself concerning possible settings for the familiar text. These years of toying with Schiller's ode were also years of personal and professional growth. When he frst came to know the poem, he was an optimistic young artist who had not yet composed his First Symphony, yet Beethoven's third approach to the poem, in 1812，came with the completion of the Eighth Symphony. Perhaps the professional experience he had gained in those decades led him to consider that a poem of such spiritual power required an equally powerful setting, for he soon embarked on the creation of his Ninth Symphony, the work in which Schiller's words would be given glorious fight.
Ten years would pass before this final symphony's completion, ten years in which Beethoven shed blood over every note, considering and rejecting over two-hundred different versions of the“Joy”theme alone. At the end of that time, he offered tothe public a radically new creation that was part symphony and part oratorio, a hybrid that proved puzzling to his less daring observers. The conductor Louis Spohr, who knew Beethoven, asserted privately that the piece was“tasteless”，and Verdi, who, it must be admitted knew a thing or two about how to blend music and words, lamented that the grand finale was“badly set”.Yet others have better understood Beethoven's fnal symphonic work, and have defended it eloquently. Let us give Claude Debussy the last word：“It is the most triumphant example of the molding of an idea to the preconceived form；at each leap forward there is a new delight, without either effort or appearance of repetition；the magical blossoming, so to speak, of a tree whose leaves burst forth simultaneously. Nothing is superfluous in this stupendous work. Beethoven had already written eight symphonies and the figure nine seems to have had for him an almost mystic signifcance, he determined to surpass himself. I can scarcely see how his success can be questioned.”
這是一則耳熟能詳的故事：邁入老年的貝多芬，疾病纏身，雙耳失聰，卻出色地完成了《第九交響曲》首次公演的指揮。甚至當樂隊與合唱隊停止表演，成功新作到達尾聲，觀眾已經開始熱烈鼓掌後，貝多芬依然陶醉在忘我的指揮中，直到一位歌手把他轉向觀眾，他才知道雷鳴般的歡呼聲已經響徹整個禮堂。
當時的場景令人感動不已，就連憤世嫉俗的曆史學家都產生了懷疑，他們簡直不敢相信交響曲能夠如此完美。可是這一次，那些憤世嫉俗者顯然錯了，因為幾位出席了1824年5月7日那場意義非凡的演出的觀眾複述了同樣的故事。可他們的故事有所不同。一些人認為戲劇性的時刻發生在交響曲結束時，而另外一些人則堅持認為是在諧謔曲結束時。隨著時光流逝，觀眾們不斷地向傳記作者講述，這個故事的不同說法也就隨之產生了。不管觀眾的掌聲是何時響起的，貝多芬聽不到聲音的事實證明：如此美妙的樂曲，他從未聽到一個音符。想象一下這個冷酷的事實，你不禁會讚歎命途多舛的貝多芬居然能夠指揮合唱團演唱如此歡快美妙的樂曲。
貝多芬第一次看到席勒的詩《歡樂頌》是在30年前，當時他尚未創作《第九交響曲》。《歡樂頌》於1785年首次出版，並在德國大受歡迎。有證據顯示：早在1792年，貝多芬就開始為這首詩配樂，1808年、1811年貝多芬也有配樂的嚐試。在他的筆記本裏，記錄了關於創作配樂的種種想法。品味席勒頌詩的歲月伴隨著貝多芬個人的成長和事業的進步。剛開始接觸席勒的詩時，貝多芬還是個樂觀的青年藝術家，那時還沒完成第一交響曲。然而到1812年第三次拜讀《歡樂頌》時，貝多芬已經創作了《第八交響曲》。可能是因為經曆過多年的音樂生涯，貝多芬萌發了一個想法——這首飽含**的詩應該配上震撼心靈的樂曲。因此，為了給席勒的詩句增光添彩，貝多芬隨即開始創作《第九交響曲》。
貝多芬花了十年時間才完成最後的交響曲。在這十年裏，每一個音符他都付出了很大心血，對200多個不同版本的《歡樂頌》交響曲進行了斟酌取舍。最終，他奉獻出一個全新的作品，這支交響曲包含了宗教劇元素和交響樂元素，令所有觀眾震撼不已。熟識貝多芬的指揮家路易斯·施波爾私下認為這支曲子平淡乏味，略通配樂的沃迪則哀歎宏偉的終曲是敗筆。不過，那些能夠理解貝多芬最後交響曲的人則據理力爭。看看克洛德·德彪西的評價：“《第九交響曲》是一部將新思想賦予固有形式的成功典範，每一個音符都給人不一樣的驚喜，沒有冗餘之處，沒有矯揉造作之感，是一株葉與花共同綻放的神奇樹木，在這個宏大樂章裏沒有繁縟冗餘。貝多芬已經創作了八部交響曲，《第九交響曲》把他推向了一個新的高度，他要超越自我。我不明白人們怎麽能質疑他的成功呢？”
心靈小語
很難想象一個失去聽覺的人竟能演奏出如此完美的樂章，這簡直是人間奇跡。其實世界上每天都上演著這種奇跡，麵對人生的磨難、困境，那些不屈不撓的人毅然選擇了堅強，於是就連上帝也被他們感動了，便在他們身上創造了奇跡……
W詞匯筆記
orchestra['?:kistr?]n.管弦樂隊
例 The orchestra played a Mozart symphony.
樂隊演奏了一首莫紮特的交響曲。
chorus['k?:r?s]n.合唱；合唱隊；歌詠隊
例 Tom sang the verses and everybody joined in chorus.
湯姆唱獨唱部分，然後大家一起唱合唱部分。
cynical['sinik?l]adj.懷疑的；憤世嫉俗的
例 The boys made several cynical remarks to cover up their disappointment at being left out of the play.
小夥子們講了些冷嘲熱諷的話，以掩蓋他們被比賽拒之門外的失望。
discount['diskaunt]v.不考慮；不全信；認為……不重要
例 You must discount much of what he says.
他說的好些話，你必須打個折扣聽。
S小試身手
貝多芬依然陶醉在忘我的指揮中，直到一位歌手把他轉向觀眾，他才知道雷鳴般的歡呼聲已經響徹整個禮堂。
譯________________________________________
品味席勒頌詩的歲月伴隨著貝多芬個人的成長和事業的進步。
譯________________________________________
他要超越自我。
譯________________________________________
P短語家族
Their stories vary somewhat in detail.
in detail：詳細地
造________________________________________
……the magical blossoming, so to speak, of a tree whose leaves burst forth simultaneously.
burst forth：突然出現；爆發出；迸發出
造________________________________________