TEXT TWELVE
Imagine how much sleep future musicologists will lose over Philip Glass. Throughout his career he has changed his scores to suit the circumstances, trimming them for recordings, for example, because he believes that nonvisual performances benefit from (relative) concision. The notion of an immutable, sacrosanct urtext -- the very thing musicologists sift historical evidence hoping to establish -- is entirely alien to him.
Still, you would think that if Mr. Glass held anything sacred, it would be the structure and format of ''Einstein on the Beach.'' At that opera's premiere in 1976, and in its 1984 and 1992 revivals, ''Einstein'' played for five hours with no intermission. Free of narrative but rich in associations and imagery -- Einstein as a madly ecstatic violinist but also as the father of nuclear power -- the work unfolded inexorably, its repeated musical phrases creating rhythmic wheels within wheels. The libretto, mostly numbers, solfege syllables and quirky, stream-of-consciousness spoken texts, works its own hypnotic spell. Listeners were free to come and go as they pleased, but some of the work's power came from its relentlessness, to say nothing of the quirkiness of Robert Wilson's staging.
The version that Mr. Glass and his ensemble presented at Carnegie Hall on Thursday evening swept away the elements that made the work a happening and transformed it into a concert piece: three hours long, with an intermission and with formal seating rules in force. The breadth of the work was presented, if not its full sweep. The two-hour trim was accomplished by deleting sections from all but a few scenes. Some trims were noticeable: Lucinda Childs's tale of the multicolored bathing cap was intact, as were the quotations from Carole King's ''I Feel the Earth Move,'' but Mr. Bojangles was evicted from this version.
Musically, the score survived the trims and might even have benefited from them: The brisker movement from one section to the next highlighted the degree of inventiveness that drives this piece and pointed up passages of real beauty. In ''Knee Play 3,'' for example, the unaccompanied chorus sings streams of numbers, yet the music has the grandeur of a sacred setting much of the time and, at others, the energy of a symphonic presto. And Tim Fain, the violinist, gave the solo passages in the second, fourth and fifth ''Knee Plays'' and in the climactic, swirling ''Spaceship Interior'' scene an electrifying, virtuosic workout.
Some of the work's magic is in the way its elements pull in opposite directions. The repetition of short phrases, on one hand, can be soporific; yet the wheezing keyboard and woodwind textures and the bursts of choral counting, with sibilants creating their own rhythmic patterns, are invigorating. And because the performance is heavily amplified, timbres seem to melt together: Is that repeating fragment a voice, a violin or the top notes of the organ figure?
1. Future musicologists will lose much sleep over Philip Glass because_____.
[A] Philip Glass' works are consistently changing based on the different context and various external conditions.
[B] Philip Glass's music is characterized by its unintelligibility.
[C] Philip Glass is ignorant of establishing an immutable, sacrosanct urtext.
[D] Philip Glass's works are totally alien to modern and even future audience.
2. To make the opera become a concert, Mr. Glass trimmed _____.
[A] the tale of the multicolored bathing cap
[B] the quotations form Carole King
[C] Mr. Bojangles' scene
[D] Lucinda Childe's adventure
3. Which one of the following is NOT true of the new version of "Einstein on the Beach" ?
[A] The former structure and format was kept constantly for the majority part.
[B] The version was changed into a concert with a more formal procedure and a more fixed setting.
[C] The version was a success partly because of the advantages brought by the trims.
[D] The version was tighter than its ancestor.
4． The contrary elements which added charm to the new version were_____.
[A] the soporific repetition of phrases and invigorating music
[B] the streams numbers and symphonic energy
[C] the classical violin solo passage and electrifying workout
[D] its innovative nature and authenticity
5．The passage is mainly
[A] a comparison of two versions of "Einstein on the Beach"
[B] an introduction of a new art form
[C] a study on the influence of trims on musical works
[D] an analysis of Mr. Glass' works
文章剖析：
这篇文章主要介绍了音乐家菲利普·格拉斯的作品。文章第一段提到格拉斯作品多变的风格；第二段讲述其作品"爱因斯坦在海滩"的特点；第三段讲述卡内基大厅演出的"爱因斯坦在海滩"版本的删节；第四段第五段讲述新版本音乐特色。
词汇注释：
immutable adj. 不变的, 永恒的
sacrosanct adj. 极神圣的
urtext n. 原始文本(如乐谱等)
sift v. 选拔，精选
libretto n. 歌词
solege n.视唱练习
quirky adj 诡诈的，离奇的
hypnotic adj. 催眠的
brisker adj. 轻快的，活泼的
virtuosic adj. 艺术的
presto n. 急板乐段或乐章
timbre n. 音色，音质
soporific adj. 催眠的
wheeze v. 喘息
inexorably adv. 无情地, 冷酷地
