153 Musical Interlude 音樂插曲
The symphony orchestra was performing Beethoven's Ninth. In the piece, there's a long passage, about 20 minutes, during which the bass violinists have nothing to do. Rather than sit around that whole time looking stupid, some bassists decided to sneak offstage and go to the tavern next door for a quick one. After slamming several beers in quick succession, one of them looked at his watch and said, “Hey! We need to get back!” “No need to panic,” said a fellow bassist. “I thought we might need some extra time, so I tied the last few pages of the conductor's score together with string. It'll take him a few minutes to get it untangled.” A few moments later they staggered back to the concert hall and took their places in the orchestra. About this time, a member of the audience noticed the conductor seemed a bit edgy and said as much to her companion. “Well, of course,” said her companion. “Don't you see? It's the bottom of the Ninth, the score is tied, and the bassists are loaded.”
交響樂團正在演奏貝多芬第九交響樂。在演奏中有一大段,大約20分鐘,低音提琴手無事可做。有幾個低音提琴手決定,與其傻傻地坐在那里,不如溜下舞臺,到隔壁小酒館快快地喝上幾杯。連續(xù)灌了幾瓶啤酒之后,一位低音提琴手說:“嘿,該回去了!”另一位伙伴卻說:“不要著忙。我知道我們或許會需要一些額外的時間,所以我把指揮的樂譜最后幾頁用弦縫在一起了。他得花好幾分鐘時間才能把它拆開。”過了一會兒,他們幾個蹣跚地回到音樂廳,走到樂團里自己的位置。正在這時,有一位聽眾注意到指揮似乎有一點急躁,就告訴她的同伴。她的同伴說:“咳,當(dāng)然嘍!你沒看見嗎?這是第九交響樂的結(jié)尾,樂譜被縫在一起了,而低音提琴手們的肚子都裝滿了。”