Remember when Mufasa died?
还记得木法沙死的时候吗?
Or when Luke Skywalker’s aunt and uncle were killed?
还有卢克·天行者的叔叔婶婶被杀的时候?
Or even when George Bailey decided he couldn’t bear to live anymore?
还有乔治·贝利觉得他已经活不下去了的时候?
These are some of the most grim, tragic moments in film history,
这些都是电影史上最残酷、最悲惨的时刻,
but they have something else in common.
但除此之外,他们还有一个共同点。
Once you start paying attention, these four notes are everywhere.
一旦注意观察,你就会发现这四个音符无处不在。
And we’ve been associating them with death for almost 800 years.
我们将它们同死亡联系在一起的时间已经有近800年了。
What you’re hearing in those movies is called the “dies irae,”
大家在上述那些电影里听到的那四个音符其实叫“dies irae”,
a Gregorian chant created by Catholic monks around the 13th century.
是天主教僧侣在13世纪左右创作出来的一种格利高里圣歌。
It was used for one specific mass: funerals.
是一个特定的弥撒——葬礼时专用的赞美诗。
"Dies irae" translates from Latin to “Day of Wrath.”
“dies irae”从拉丁语翻译过来就是"震怒之日"。
That’s the day Catholics believe God will judge the living and the dead and decide whether they go to heaven or hell for eternity.
因为,天主教徒认为,那一天就是上帝审判生者与逝者,决定是让他们升入天堂还是投诸永狱的日子。
"It really is the sort of fire and brimstone passage that's talking about the day of reckoning
“这首赞美诗其实就是讲述末日审判炼狱之苦的文段,
where in essence the decision is being made whether you’re going to heaven or you’re going to hell."
大致就是说,主来决定你是去天堂还是去地狱的一个过程。”
That’s Alex Ludwig, a musicologist and professor from the Berklee College of Music who keeps a big list of dies irae references in movies.
这位是音乐学家、伯克利音乐学院教授亚历克斯·路德维希,他整理了一个所有用过“震怒之日”这首赞美诗的影片名单。
"The musical material and the text combine together to create this sort of ominous, sort of sense of dread."
“那首音乐和电影的语境结合在一起就创造出了那种不祥之感,恐惧之感。
Over the next few hundred years, the Church’s influence spread considerably,
在接下来的几百年里,教会的影响力扩散地非常厉害,
and the Day of Wrath started popping up in works of art outside the church,
“震怒之日”这首诗也开始出现在了教会之外,受葬礼音乐影响的艺术作品,
like Mozart’s 1791 symphony “Requiem,” influenced by the music of funerals.
比如莫扎特1791年创作的交响乐《安魂曲》里。
In 1830, French composer Louis-Hector Berlioz took the dies irae’s cultural capital to a new level.
1830年,法国作曲家路易斯·赫克托·柏辽兹将“震怒之日”的文化资产提升到了一个新的高度。
In his “Symphonie fantastique,” he lifted the melody but left out the words.
他在他的《幻想交响曲》中提高了这首赞美诗的音调,但省略了歌词。
Berlioz’s story isn’t set in a church or funeral— it’s about an obsessive love,
柏辽兹在《幻想交响曲》中讲述的并不是以教堂或葬礼为背景的一个故事,而是关于疯狂的爱的故事,
in which the main character dreams that the lover he murdered has come back as a witch to torment him.
故事的主角梦见被他谋杀的情人变成女巫回来折磨他。
"The movement is called 'The Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath'.
“这一乐章名为‘女巫安息日夜宴之梦’。
And so it's set at midnight in a graveyard and there are all these creepy spooky pieces of music, including the dies irae.
所以,故事的背景是午夜的墓地,还包含了很多恐怖的音乐,“震怒之日”就在其中之列。
What better piece of spooky music to play?
毕竟这首曲子里已经有那种内涵了,
Because this is a piece of music that already had these connotations behind it."
还有比它更好的选择吗?”
Other great composers added versions of the dies irae to their works too,
其他伟大的作曲家也在他们的作品中加入了这首曲子的各种版本,
like Hungarian composer Franz Liszt’s Totentanz, or Dance of the Dead,
比如,匈牙利作曲家弗朗兹·李斯特受这幅描绘痛苦和死亡的中世纪绘画的启发
inspired by this medieval painting depicting suffering and death,
而创作出的《死亡之舞》,
or Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem.
再比如威尔第的《安魂曲》。
"And then we have the early silent films.
“还有早期的无声电影。
Where the dies irae is then extracted even further
那些电影对“震怒之日”做了进一步的萃取,
and used as a sort of sample or sort of reference to dark, ominous actions taking place on screen."
将其作为发生在大荧幕上的黑暗,不祥的行动的样本或参考。”
Silent films were often accompanied by full orchestras, playing songs that helped propel soundless stories along.
无声电影通常有完整的管弦乐队伴奏,乐队负责表演有助于推进电影故事的乐曲。
Like 1927’s Metropolis, a silent German sci-fi about a dystopia full of robots and destruction
比如1927年德国那部讲述一个充满机器人和破坏的反乌托邦无声科幻电影,
— which uses the dies irae in a particularly dramatic moment.
就在一个格外戏剧性的时刻用到了“震怒之日”这一乐曲。
As films started incorporating sound, the dies irae kept being used as a shorthand for something grim.
随着电影开始融入声音,“震怒之日”这首乐曲就成了“残酷”的代名词。
Like in It’s a Wonderful Life and Star Wars: A New Hope.
《美好人生》和《星球大战:新希望》两部影片就是证据。
But perhaps its most iconic use is in The Shining.
尽管如此,这首乐曲最具标志性的应用或许还是要数《闪灵》。
"Everyone knows The Shining is a horror film and it's like, that's the perfect signifier for the dies irae."
“大家都知道《闪灵》是一部恐怖片,它恰好也成了“震怒之日”的完美象征。
The dies irae has come a long way from 13th-century funerals to scary movies.
从13世纪的葬礼到恐怖电影,可以说,“震怒之日”走过了漫长的道路。
That’s because there’s something about those four notes that makes us feel uncomfortable.
这是因为里面的四个音符会让我们感觉不舒服。
"Let's talk about the music.
“我们还是来谈谈音乐吧。
The chant is in what's called Dorian mode — and we don’t have to dig into all the sort of ancient modes like that—
这首乐曲采用的是所谓的“多利亚调式”——我们并不需要深入去挖掘这一古老的调式——
but today if you would play those first four notes you would say that that's in a minor mode.
但是,今天,如果你要演奏这前四个音符,你会说它是一个小调式。
Minor music has always had this connotation of sadness, of darkness."
小调音乐总是带有悲伤或黑暗的含义。”
If you look at the actual notes, you’ll see that F and E are half steps apart, right next to each other.
看看实际的音阶,你会发现F和E是彼此紧挨着的,它们之间只相差了半个音。
"Our ears are trained not to like those sounds together."
“我们的耳朵习惯性地不喜欢听到它们一起出现。”
Plus, the notes descend, getting deeper as the phrase progresses.
其次,随着乐句的展开,乐句的音调越来越低。
"Musical lines that descend are sad whereas music that ascends, that rises, is much happier."
“音调往下走的音乐是悲伤的音乐,而往上走的就是欢快的音乐。”
Combine these three things together and you’ve got an inherently spooky song —even without all the fire and brimstone.
把这三点结合到一起,就得到了一首令人毛骨悚然的歌——即使没有讲述炼狱之苦的歌词陪衬。
If you talk to a music professor like Alex, they’ll tell you the dies irae is everywhere.
如果你和亚历克斯这样的音乐教授聊一聊,他们一定会说,“震怒之日”这首乐曲的应用无处不在。
And it is — but maybe not in places untrained ears will catch.
事实的确如此——那些没有经过(音乐)熏陶的耳朵可能还是听不出来。
The phrase has become so culturally ingrained that even a modified version— like the theme to The Exorcist—
它已经深深地扎根在了我们的文化里,以致于就连修改过的版本——比如《驱魔人》的主题曲——
or a shortened version, like the Nightmare Before Christmas can suggest the same scary feeling.
还有删减过的版本,比如《圣诞前的噩梦》都能传达出恐怖的感觉。
"It's just that it it fascinates me that this piece of music still gets used.
“只是,看到现在大家还在用这首曲子,
I'm still hearing them. I'm still adding films to my list."
我还在不断地听到这首曲子。也还在继续往我的列表里添加其他用到了这首曲子的影片,就让我觉得很神奇。”