2018年6月大学英语六级听力常考时文：The Language of Music
1.When can the works of composers be heard by people? Until they are...
2.What is piano tuner's job, mentioned in the passage? To ... for
pianists.
3.Without what will technique become useless? Musical knowledge and ...
A composer writes a work, but no one can hear it until it is performed.
Professional singers and players have great responsibilities, for the composer
is utterly dependent on them. A student of music needs a long and arduous
training to become a performer. Most training is concerned with technique, for
musicians have to have the muscular proficiency of an athlete or a ballet
dancer. Singers practice breathing every day, as their vocal chords would be
inadequate without controlled muscular support. String players practice moving
the fingers of the left hand up and down, while drawing the bow to and fro with
the right arm — two entirely different movements. Singers and instrumentalists
have to be able to get every note perfectly in tune. Pianists are spared this
particular anxiety, for the notes are already there, waiting for them, and it is
the piano tuner’s responsibility to tune the instrument for them. But they have
their own difficulties: the hammers that hit the strings have to be coaxed not
to sound like percussion, and each overlapping tone has to sound clear. This
problem of getting clear texture is one that confronts student conductors: they
have to learn to know every note of the music and how it should sound, and they
have to aim at controlling these sounds with fanatical but selfless authority.
Technique is of no use unless it is combined with musical knowledge and
understanding. Great artists are those who are so thoroughly at home in the
language of music that they can enjoy performing works written in any
century.
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