美国国家公共电台 NPR The Scary Sound Machine That Is 'Trying To Set People A Little Bit Off-Kilter'
时间：2018-12-17 作者：英语课 分类：2017年NPR美国国家公共电台10月
The Scary Sound Machine That Is 'Trying To Set People A Little Bit Off-Kilter'
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:
Creaking doors, clanking chains. With Halloween just around the corner, we're now going to a guy who specializes in making scary sounds.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING 1)
MARK KORVEN: (Playing apprehension 2 engine).
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Mark Korven plays a custom-made instrument he calls the apprehension engine. We're listening to a performance earlier this month - Friday the 13, of course, at a cemetery 3 in Brooklyn. Korven is a Canadian composer for film and television soundtracks. He's helped spook up everything from "The Twilight 4 Zone" and sci-fi cult 5 film "Cube" to the recent horror blockbuster "The Witch."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE WITCH")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As unidentified character) (Screaming).
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As unidentified character) It's not safe. Not again.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Mark Korven brought his apprehension engine into the studios of the CBC in Toronto to show us how he makes music for nightmares.
Hi, Mark.
KORVEN: Hi, how are you doing?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Good. So what was it like when you played the apprehension engine in front of a live audience? What was the reaction?
KORVEN: People were kind of confused and a little bit in awe 6. I remember we had people flocking into the chapel 7, which is where I was playing - in the chapel in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. And I remember this woman walking past the apprehension engine, and I did this...
(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)
KORVEN: ...And she jumped about a foot in the air.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: (Laughter).
KORVEN: I just love to get a rise out of people on occasion.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: So this is an instrument that you sort of designed and created with the help of a friend. But can you give us an audio tour of the instrument in front of you? Play us some sounds.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)
GARCIA-NAVARRO: So that sounds really eerie 8. What are you doing?
KORVEN: So that's a collection of metal rulers, and I have four of them in front of me. If I was just to pluck them, it'd sound a little bit like marimba.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)
KORVEN: But when you bow them, it's kind of cool.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)
KORVEN: What I bow them with is called a nyckelharpa bow. And a nyckelharpa is a medieval pushbutton violin that I used when I was recording the score for "The Witch." I needed a very small violin bow. So that's what I'm using for this. And I also have something that's a spring reverb from a guitar amplifier. You can hit it, which I love.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)
KORVEN: And then we have a hurdy-gurdy, which makes this sort of sound.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)
GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's kind of like a wheel, right?
KORVEN: Yeah, it's like a wheel. This is my squeaky wheel sound.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)
KORVEN: And then next up, we have a - basically, we have a single string, and I use an Ebow, which is something that guitar players use, which sustains the string.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)
KORVEN: And then on top of that, we have a single rod, which, if you let the rod go...
(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)
KORVEN: ...It goes wack, wack, wack (ph). And I can bow it, as well, and get this sound.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)
KORVEN: We also have this...
(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)
KORVEN: ...Which is basically a collection of junk in there, and then a switch.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)
KORVEN: And then something I use for a tick-tock sound...
(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)
KORVEN: ...Which is nice rhythmically 9.
I've thought a lot about what makes for freaky sounds. And, I think, it goes back to that primordial 10 fear of being hunted. And something that is hunted might scream, like - so you might, you know, that sound like I'm doing.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah.
KORVEN: You know, real screeches 11 and cries. And I think that unearths 12 that primordial fear of being, like, attacked by an animal that's bigger than you are.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah, in the dark woods at night.
KORVEN: Yes. That's right.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: On Halloween.
(LAUGHTER)
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Sorry, I'm being taken away by this already. How did you get into scary sounds?
KORVEN: Well, it wasn't much of a leap for me at all. I actually come from a jazz background, and I've always been attracted to strange, unusual harmonies. So it wasn't that much of a leap to get into music that was a little bit more dissonant 13. And I love creative and harmonic freedom to do whatever I want. And horror is one way of doing that. You can be really weird 14 and strange. And 9 times out of 10, it's going to work quite well with the images that you're working with.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Do you change the sounds for different projects? I mean, I suppose something like "The Witch," might be different than "The Twilight Zone."
KORVEN: Oh, absolutely. "The Witch" was a very unusual score in that Robert Eggers, the director - he didn't want anything that was electronic at all. He didn't want even reverb. He wanted it to be very flat, very dry, very real. It did inspire this machine. I didn't actually use it on "The Witch," but I became enamored with that sound of, you know, that real tactile 15 sense of touching 16 a real acoustic 17 instrument and being able to...
(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)
KORVEN: ...You know, scratch it with your fingers where it just felt like someone touching it.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: So, Mark, I've got to ask you this - are you going to use this to sort of, like, freak out your trick or treaters in your neighborhood?
KORVEN: You know, I got to say that is the plan...
GARCIA-NAVARRO: (Laughter)
KORVEN: ...As long as we don't get rained on because I have a couple of kids (laughter). And my two kids are rather bored by all this because, you know, they - oh, daddy's up to his usual stuff. But I think it has the potential of freaking out the neighborhood children. And that really appeals to me.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: (Laughter) Mark Korven is a composer for film and television and is a virtuoso 18 on the instrument he calls the apprehension engine. You can check it out in his neighborhood, apparently 19. Thanks, and Happy Halloween.
KORVEN: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPREHENSION ENGINE SOUND)
GARCIA-NAVARRO: You can see a video of the apprehension engine in action on our website npr.org.
- How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
- I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。
- There were still areas of doubt and her apprehension grew.有些地方仍然存疑，于是她越来越担心。
- She is a girl of weak apprehension.她是一个理解力很差的女孩。
- He was buried in the cemetery.他被葬在公墓。
- His remains were interred in the cemetery.他的遗体葬在墓地。
- Twilight merged into darkness.夕阳的光辉融于黑暗中。
- Twilight was sweet with the smell of lilac and freshly turned earth.薄暮充满紫丁香和新翻耕的泥土的香味。
- Her books aren't bestsellers,but they have a certain cult following.她的书算不上畅销书，但有一定的崇拜者。
- The cult of sun worship is probably the most primitive one.太阳崇拜仪式或许是最为原始的一种。
- The sight filled us with awe.这景色使我们大为惊叹。
- The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。
- The nimble hero,skipped into a chapel that stood near.敏捷的英雄跳进近旁的一座小教堂里。
- She was on the peak that Sunday afternoon when she played in chapel.那个星期天的下午，她在小教堂的演出，可以说是登峰造极。
- It's eerie to walk through a dark wood at night.夜晚在漆黑的森林中行走很是恐怖。
- I walked down the eerie dark path.我走在那条漆黑恐怖的小路上。
- A pigeon strutted along the roof, cooing rhythmically. 一只鸽子沿着屋顶大摇大摆地走，有节奏地咕咕叫。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Exposures of rhythmically banded protore are common in the workings. 在工作面中常见有韵律条带“原矿石”。 来自辞典例句
- It is the primordial force that propels us forward.它是推动我们前进的原始动力。
- The Neanderthal Man is one of our primordial ancestors.的尼安德特人是我们的原始祖先之一.
- The boy's screeches brought his mother. 男孩的尖叫声招来了他母亲。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The woman's screeches brought the police. 这个妇女的尖叫声招来了警察。 来自辞典例句
- His voice is drowned by the dissonant scream of a siren outside.她的声音被外面杂乱刺耳的警报声吞没了。
- They chose to include all of these dissonant voices together.他们把那些不和谐的声音也放在了里面
- From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
- His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。
- Norris is an expert in the tactile and the tangible.诺里斯创作最精到之处便是，他描绘的人物使人看得见摸得着。
- Tactile communication uses touch rather than sight or hearing.触觉交流，是用触摸感觉，而不是用看或听来感觉。
- The hall has a fine acoustic.这个大厅的传音效果很好。
- Animals use a whole rang of acoustic, visual,and chemical signals in their systems of communication.动物利用各种各样的听觉、视觉和化学信号来进行交流。
- He was gaining a reputation as a remarkable virtuoso.作为一位技艺非凡的大师，他声誉日隆。
- His father was a virtuoso horn player who belonged to the court orchestra.他的父亲是宫廷乐队中一个技巧精湛的圆号演奏家。
- An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
- He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。