2017-01-01

【Aiden in English】

        You know, Longwood Gardens kind of feel like a tradition now. It has been, what, three straight years of seeing the park in the holiday seasons? Correct me if I’m wrong, but this place is beginning to grow on me a bit.

        Most of you may ask why Longwood Gardens haven’t gotten duller through the years. Instead of answering, may I ask you a question? Why does Christmas never get old? Really, if you think about it, it’s the same experience over and over again, so why the hype?

        Going to Longwood Gardens on New Year Day is like having Christmas, it never seems to grow old. And even when seeing the same trees does become boring, the gardeners behind the scenes always appear to offer something new. For example, this year offered a new session of the Open Air Theatre Fountain Shows, which is played at certain times to cheerful Christmas music. When mom asked for directions, the worker simply told us a path and to listen to the holiday spirit. The fountain show was a new experience for me since it isn’t usual to see non-frozen water around the Christmas season in PA.

        Other than the lively lights at night, Longwood Gardens had a pretty normal day. The other standout was a holiday sing-along, which involved an enormous organ with 10,000 pipes, plus a good few amount of people. Waltzing around, my family just so happened to catch the 4 o’clock show, and it really was a treat. Granted, I was not the festive, jolly song type, but I did enjoy great musical moments. All I could say was that during the sing-along, there was only one person with any good musical talent being broadcasted, and that was the organ player who, I may add, was phenomenal. Everyone was astonished by pianists whose hands moved so fast or fingers covered the ground so big. What they don’t understand, and what I’ve just recently seen, is how much harder the organ is. No one really thinks about it much due to its lack of public use, size, and cost-wise, so the instrument, outside of churches with money, is not very often seen.

        The organ player, I admit, is probably one of the best musicians I will see for a long, long time. Obviously, I really don’t know a thing about playing the organ, but I know it is four times as complex as a piano ( four keyboards), and uses foot pedals, and has the 5th set of keys played by the feet, and consists of bells, horn sounds, and a separate set of buttons that controls the octave, in which some notes are so low that the sound waves can’t be detected by ear, just the pulses of sound. The organists, while in the midst of the songs, would turn on and off the hundreds of buttons, levers, and switches at apparently random times. There is something I never will get to learn, and it better stays that way for now, since the organ is the one I’ll probably never play. For once in my life, sticking with piano sounds good.

【紅霞譯文】

        如你所知，現在杜邦花園象徵着一個傳統習俗，不失為逢年過節的好去處，但至於一連三年光顧此地嗎？若有說錯的地方歡迎指正，這個地方正不知不覺地伴我成長。

        大多數讀者也許要問幾年來多次參觀杜邦花園難道一點不覺得膩歪，在給出答案之前讓我先來提個問題好嗎？為什麼聖誕節從不過時？說真的，如若細想一下，我這只不過反覆體驗曾經體驗的經歷而已，有啥驚奇嗎？

        元旦當天置身杜邦花園感覺像過聖誕一般，非但沒有過時的感覺，相反即使看到同樣的花草樹木也不會心生倦意，畢竟幕後園藝師們總是千方百計營造新穎別致的氛圍，就拿今年推出的“露天劇場噴泉表演”來說，每次噴水都能聽到歡快優揚的聖誕音樂。記得媽媽問路時，工作人員隨手一指，讓我們順着小路去感受節日氣氛，而我頭一回在杜邦花園觀賞噴泉表演，殊不知賓州聖誕節前後要想見到不結冰的水實屬稀罕事兒。

        除了晚間彩燈齊放，杜邦花園白天活動一切照舊。節日歌曲大家唱是遊園活動另一個突出項目，用來伴奏的巨型管風琴由一萬根音管組成，而且室內個別歌喉身手不凡。緊隨滾滾人潮，我家老少恰好駐足四點鐘群唱現場，夸它為一種精神享受實不為過，誠然我算不上熱衷起鬨的頑主，但激昂開懷的音樂旋律讓我心潮澎湃。縱觀整個歌唱過程，我敢說管風琴手比所有音樂才子錄製的演奏還要出色，在此補充一句，其琴技已經達到爐火純青的程度。觀眾往往對雙手彈奏飛快指間跨度超常的鋼琴家驚嘆不已，可他們有所不知、而我直到最近方才初見端倪的是管風琴非常難彈，無人真正明白難度有多大，畢竟管風琴極不流行，況且體積又大花費忒高，除了資金雄厚的教堂以外，其它地方鮮少使用這種樂器。

        我承認，這位管風琴手恐怕將是未來很長一段時間內本人有幸見識的最佳音樂家之一。我對如何彈奏管風琴一竅不通，因它擁有四組鍵盤，所以感覺比鋼琴複雜四倍之多，況且還要操作腳踏板，第五組鍵盤完全依靠雙腳演奏，另有鈴鐺、喇叭以及單獨一套控制八度的音栓，其中有的音調很低，耳朵根本無法辨別聲波變化，僅能聽出聲音脈衝而已。管風琴手在彈奏中隨時調節數百個音栓、軌杆機和五花八門的開關，我沒本事搗鼓這種樂器，自以為時下這種狀況挺好，看來管風琴跟我無緣，不過這輩子我若能堅持彈奏鋼琴已然不錯了。

Today in History(歷史上的今天):

2013: New Year's Day on Mozambique Channel(莫桑比克海峽慶元旦)

2011: 拾金不昧(Lost Money Found)

2010: 澳洲仙企鵝遊行(Fairy Penguin Parade, Australia)

Crosslinks(相關博文):

New Hope a Refuge for Artists, PA(賓州新希望鎮—藝人之家)

Manayunk the Young Neighborhood, PA(費城馬納楊克—年輕人寓所)

Pittsburgh, PA(賓州匹茲堡)

A Day in Philadelphia(記費城一天)

Jim Thorpe, PA(賓州吉姆索普鎮)

USA(出遊美國)