萨义德经典著作丨《音乐的极境》书评

「今日荐书」很多貌似精通音乐的人看到自己想成为音乐家的野心灰飞烟灭，因为他们发现仅凭拥有乐感或者对音乐的热爱是不够的，你真正需要的是能够把看到或听到的音乐通过双手或喉咙的肌肉表现出来的天分。所有的大音乐家都有这样的天分，包括灵巧的手指、完美的记忆和音准，这些都是一个人生而有之或者先天缺失的。——萨义德

 

Music at the Limits

《音乐的极境》

By Edward W. Said

Music at the Limits is the first book to bring together three decades of Edward W. Said's essays and articles on music. Addressing the work of a variety of composers, musicians, and performers, Said carefully draws out music's social, political, and cultural contexts and, as a classically trained pianist, provides rich and often surprising assessments of classical music and opera.

《音乐的极境》是首部将爱德华·萨义德30年来所著的音乐文献汇集起来的书。本书在谈及各位作曲家、音乐家和表演者的作品时，萨义德详尽地描绘了音乐的社会、政治和文化背景。同时，萨义德作为一名受过专业古典音乐教育的钢琴家，他对古典音乐和歌剧提供了许多丰富而惊人的见解。

Music at the Limits offers both a fresh perspective on canonical pieces and a celebration of neglected works by contemporary composers. Said faults the Metropolitan Opera in New York for being too conservative and laments the way in which opera superstars like Pavarotti have 'reduced opera performance to a minimum of intelligence and a maximum……

本书为研究当代作曲家的经典作品以及被忽视的作品提供了一个新视角。萨义德认为纽约大都会歌剧院过于保守，并对帕瓦罗蒂等歌剧巨星的演唱方式感到惋惜，认为他们“降低了歌剧表演智力限度…”

Said wrote his incisive critiques as both an insider and an authority. He saw music as a reflection of his ideas on literature and history and paid close attention to its composition and creative possibilities. Eloquent and surprising, Music at the Limits preserves an important dimension of Said's brilliant intellectual work and cements his reputation as one of the most influential and groundbreaking scholars of the twentieth century.

萨义德凭借其犀利客观的文风奠定了他在评论界内部的权威地位。他把音乐看作是对文学和历史思想的反映，并密切关注音乐的构成和创造的可能性。这部充满雄辩和惊喜奠定著作在纪录了萨义德辉煌的理论成果，巩固了他作为20世纪最具影响力和开创性的学者之一的声誉。