节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-12-26
难易度:High
关键字:blend, harmony, marvel, gospel, aboriginal, a cappella, R & B
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
And your English will improve today.
We are going to learn about a really cool group of musicians, a group of
singers, actually.
And their name is O-Kai.
Now we have lots to learn over the next couple of days, but we just wanted to
give you a little introduction to this group of musicians.
Carolyn, do you know anything about these musicians?
Well, O-Kai is a group of five musicians, three of which are actually siblings.
And they sing together in a beautiful musical style without any instruments.
That's right. They don't have any instruments.
They sing a cappella style.
But they do have one member who knows how to beatbox quite well.
Their music is really cool.
They blend the aboriginal style or the aboriginal spirit of Taiwan with jazz.
And we're going to learn a lot about them in our lesson, so let's get started.
(Music).
O-Kai.
This group captures Taiwan's native spirit in an unexpected way.
When I hear Taiwanese aboriginal music, I imagine the kind, dark face of an old
man singing memories.
Yet, when O-Kai sings the Atayal song "Lahuy ta riax soni" ("We gather
together"), it produces a very different effect.
Looking closely.
O-Kai's first album is in part a government-funded attempt to preserve
aboriginal music, particularly lesser-known songs.
But where you might expect traditional performances of folk songs, you get
O-Kai's original blend of styles.
We have a lot to talk about in our lesson today about this great musical group
O-Kai.
And we read: This group captures Taiwan's native spirit in an unexpected way,
which I think is very true because they have a very unique musical style.
All right, so it captures their native spirit or Taiwan's native spirit.
Now you're going to see this word "spirit" used throughout the lesson over the
next couple of days.
And it can mean different things, but it's kind of the feeling you get about
something.
And so there is a unique Taiwanese spirit that is captured in this music.
It's a unique feeling.
It is a very unique feeling.
And we continue to read here in the lesson:
When I hear Taiwanese aboriginal music, I imagine the kind, dark face of an old
man singing memories.
So this is what our author writes that he imagines when he hears aboriginal
music.
But I like that phrase a lot: when I hear something, I imagine something else.
OK, so you can use this phrase in different ways.
When I hear the word baseball, I imagine a crowded baseball stadium with lots of
fans and lots of excitement.
How else could you use that phrase, Carolyn?
Well, when I hear Christmas songs, I imagine spending time with family and
eating a delicious Christmas dinner.
All right, so there are different ways to use that phrase.
Now here our author is talking about hearing Taiwanese aboriginal music.
Now there are several different aboriginal tribes all around Taiwan.
And we continue reading here:
Yet, when O-Kai sings the Atayal song "Lahuy ta riax soni" ("We gather
together"), it produces a very different effect.
So Atayal music, well, Atayal is one of the tribes here in Taiwan.
It is.
And their music, they have their own unique style.
But when O-Kai sings some of these songs, it is very different from what you
might be used to hearing.
And so we move on to the next section here in the lesson: Looking closely.
We're going to learn a little bit more about O-Kai.
We read:
O-Kai's first album is in part a government-funded attempt to preserve
aboriginal music, particularly lesser-known songs.
And I think this is a really great project to be a part of. Don't you, Gabe?
I do, too. OK.
So this is not just something that a group of singers wanted to produce.
Actually, this was in part a government effort.
OK, so the government took part in this project.
OK. And they wanted to preserve aboriginal music.
That means to save it from being completely destroyed or lost. OK.
They wanted to do this particularly the lesser-known songs, the songs that are
not as famous or popular.
Well, you can talk about other things that are lesser known.
Actually, many musicians and bands, they... they create so many songs.
Some of them are very popular, but of course they also have their lesser-known
songs.
Yes, they do.
And well, O-Kai is trying to make these lesser-known songs more popular.
And we continue reading: But where you might expect traditional performances of
folk songs, you get O-Kai's original blend of styles.
So this is a very unique way to be singing these traditional songs that you
might have heard people singing as a folk song.
But that is not the way O-Kai performs them.
That's right.
You expect one thing, but you get something else, a very unique blend of styles.
And we need to take a look at that word from the Word Bank: blend.
A blend of something is a mixture or combination of two or more things.
So here we're talking about a blend of musical styles.
There are many bands that blend musical styles.
Actually, one of my favorite bands is from Japan.
And they blend the Japanese language and the English language with reggae and
hip hop musical styles.
What? No way!
That... sounds like it would be really cool.
OK. So you can blend musical styles.
I enjoy uh, blending music... or I enjoy music groups that blend different
styles, like jazz and funk or pop and rock.
There are different musical styles that you can blend, and it could have a
completely different effect.
Well, it's important to have a good blend when you are making music.
Especially when you're singing together with other people, right, Carolyn?
How important is blend?
Well, it is important to blend your voices together so that it sounds pleasant
to the people listening.
You want to make sure that everything blends smoothly.
It is combined very easily and nicely.
And so as you can see, this word can also be a verb.
You have a blend of styles or you can blend your voices together with others to
create very nice music.
Well, we have lots more to learn about O-Kai.
And of course, we always have more to learn with Michelle in the Language Lab.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).