TOEFL阅读背景知识精选篇

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新托福阅读背景知识：Early jazz

Early jazz.

Fully developed jazz music probably originated in New Orleans at the beginning of the 1900's. New Orleans style jazz emerged from the city's own musical traditions of band music for black funeral processions and street parades. Today, this type of jazz is sometimes called classic jazz, traditional jazz, or Dixieland jazz. New Orleans was the musical home of the first notable players and composers of jazz, including contests Buddy Bolden and King Oliver, cornets and trumpeter Louis Armstrong, saxophonist and clarinetist Sidney Bechtel, and pianist Jelly Roll Morton.

Jazz soon spread from New Orleans to other parts of the country. Fate Marble led a New Orleans band that played on riverboats traveling up and down the Mississippi River. King Oliver migrated to Chicago, and Jelly Roll Morton performed throughout the United States. Five white musicians formed a band in New Orleans, played in Chicago, and traveled to New York City, calling them the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (the spelling was soon changed to "Jazz"). This group made the earliest jazz phonograph recordings in 1917. Mamie Smith recorded "Crazy Blues" in 1920, and recordings of ragtime, blues, and jazz of various kinds soon popularized the music to a large and eager public.

The 1920's

The 1920's have been called the golden age of jazz or the jazz age. Commercial radio stations, which first appeared in the 1920's, featured live performances by the growing number of jazz musicians. New Orleans; Memphis; St. Louis; Kansas City, Missouri; Chicago; Detroit; and New York City were all important centers of jazz.

A group of Midwest youths, many from Chicago's Austin High School, developed a type of improvisation and arrangement that became known as "Chicago style" jazz. These musicians included trumpeters Jimmy McFarland and Muggy Spinier; cornets Box Beiderbecke; clarinetists Frank Tastemaker, Pee Wee Russell, Mezzo, and Benny Goodman; saxophonists Frankie Rombauer and Bud Freeman; drummers Dave Tough, George Wetting, and Gene Krupp; and guitarist Eddie Condon. They played harmonically inventive music, and the technical ability of some of the players, especially Goodman, was at a higher level than that of many earlier performers.

In New York City, James P. Johnson popularized a new musical style from ragtime called stride piano. In stride piano, the left hand plays alternating single notes and chords that move up and down the scale while the right hand plays solo melodies, accompanying rhythms, and interesting choral passages. Johnson strongly influenced other jazz pianists, notably Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Fats Waller, and Teddy Wilson.

Fletcher Henderson was the first major figure in big band jazz. In 1923, he became the first leader to organize a jazz band into sections of brass, reed, and rhythm instruments. His arranger, Don Redman, was the first to master the technique of scoring music for big bands. Various Henderson bands of the 1920's and 1930's included such great jazz instrumentalists as Louis Armstrong and saxophonists Benny Carter and Coleman Hawkins.

Armstrong made some of his most famous recordings with his own Hot Five and Hot Seven combos from 1925 to 1928. These recordings rank among the masterpieces of jazz, along with his duo recordings of the same period with pianist Earl "Fatah" Hines. Armstrong also became the first well-known male jazz singer, and popularized scat singing-that is, wordless syllables sung in an instrumental manner.

During the late 1920's and early 1930's, jazz advanced from relatively simple music played by performers who often could not read music to a more complex and sophisticated form. Among the musicians who brought about this change were saxophonists Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins, and Johnny Hodges; the team of violinist Joe Venetia and guitarist Eddie Lang; and pianist Art Tatum. Many people consider Tatum the most inspired and technically gifted improviser in jazz history.

The swing era flourished from the mid-1930's to the mid-1940. In 1932, Duke Ellington recorded his composition "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Isn’t Got That Swing." "Swing" was soon adopted as the name of the newest style of jazz. Swing emphasizes four beats to the bar. Big bands dominated the swing era, especially those of Count Basie, Benny Goodman, and Duke Ellington.

Benny Goodman became known as the "King of Swing." Starting in 1934, Goodman's bands and combos brought swing to nationwide audiences through ballroom performances, recordings, and radio broadcasts. Goodman was the first white bandleader to feature black and white musicians playing together in public performances. In 1936, he introduced two great black soloists-pianist Teddy Wilson and vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. Until then, racial segregation had held back the progress of jazz and of black musicians in particular. In 1938, Goodman and his band, and several guest musicians, performed a famous concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Their performance was one of the first by jazz musicians in a concert hall setting.

Other major bands of the swing era included those led by Benny Carter, Bob Crosby, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Earl Hines, Andy Kirk, Jimmie Lunsford, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Chick Webb, and, toward the end of the period, Stan Kenton. The bands in Kansas City, Missouri, especially the Count Basie band, had a distinctive swing style. These bands relied on the 12-bar blues form and riff backgrounds, which consisted of repeated simple melodies. They depended less heavily on written arrangements, allowing more leeway for rhythmic drive and for extended solo improvisations.

新托福阅读背景知识：Boogie-woogie

Boogie-woogie

Boogie-woogie was another jazz form that became popular during the 1930's. Chiefly a piano style, it used eight beats to the bar instead of four. Boogie-woogie featured the traditional blues pattern for most themes. The music had an intense quality that created excitement through the repetition of a single phrase. Albert Ammos, Pete Johnson, Meade Lox Lewis, and Pinetop Smith were among its most important artists.

Jazz vocalists came into prominence during the swing era, many singing with big bands. Many fine jazz singers emphasized popular songs. These singers included Mildred Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Nat "King" Cole, Carmen McRae, and Sarah Vaughan. Blues singing at its best can be heard in recordings by Jimmy Rushing, Jack Teagarden, Joe Turner, and Dinah Washington. In addition to singing, Nat "King" Cole was a superb jazz pianist and Jack Teagarden was a great jazz trombonist. See also Special Reports: Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of Song.

新托福阅读背景知识：爵士乐的根源

The roots of jazz

The folk songs and plantation dance music of black Americans contributed much to early jazz. These forms of music occurred throughout the Southern United States during the late 1800's.

Ragtime, a musical style that influenced early jazz, emerged from the St. Louis, Mo., area in the late 1890's. It quickly became the most popular music style in the United States. Ragtime was an energetic and syncopated variety of music, primarily for the piano, that emphasized formal composition.

The blues is a form of music that has always been an important part of jazz. The blues was especially widespread in the American South. Its mournful scale and simple repeated harmonies helped shape the character of jazz. Jazz instrumentalists have long exploited the blues as a vehicle for improvisation.

新托福阅读背景知识：吉他的历史

吉他的history

根据格罗夫(Grove)音乐辞典记载，古典吉他为鲁特琴族(Lute family)中具有琴格的拨弦乐器。关于吉他起源及其形成之研究，可说是众说纷纭﹔这些理论包括了：

1.从古希腊齐特琴(Kithara)及吉他之语源学说(Etymology)中研究得来。

2.部分学者推论认为吉他是从美索不达米亚(Mesopotamia)， 及安娜多利亚(Anatolia)发现的长颈鲁特琴(Lute)所演变而来。

3. 另一部分学者研究发现吉他是由阿拉伯传入欧洲，因为在埃及发现平扁琴背之哥普鲁特琴(Coptic Lute)，或可认为是吉他的前身。由于以上大部分均为推论，且早期音乐文献多半失散，以至于在缺乏直接证据的状况下，目前对于吉他真正的起源尚未形成定论，只能从非古典吉他及其他音乐历史文献中寻找可靠而相关的蛛丝马迹。

在中世纪文学中出现和吉他有关的乐器名称，法国称之为Interne，英国则是gesturer。法国诺曼底公爵(Duke of Normandy)所拥有乐师名单中，有赫特马(Jean Haut mar)弹奏Gutierrez Latina及拉贝(Richard Labe)弹奏Gutierrez Porsche等古吉他琴族乐器之记载。马肃(Guillaume de Mac haut)亦列出Moriches et Gutierrez为鲁特琴族之一。由于当时古吉他琴族中的拉丁吉他Guitars Latina，吉他Gutierrez及摩尔吉他uiterreMoresche等音量不能和鲁特琴相抗衡，因此在欧洲大陆吉他无法广为流传，直到文艺复兴时期西班牙出现了比维拉琴(Visual)及四弦吉他(Four-Course Guitar)之后，吉他的地位才开始奠定了雏形。

一般称古典吉他为西班牙吉他，因为从16世纪以后，比维拉琴及四弦吉他首先在伊比利半岛上萌芽发展，随后才发展成巴罗克时期五弦吉他，六弦吉他，最后六弦吉他亦在西班牙境内孕育出吉他第一黄金时期，到了现代古典吉他大师塞戈维亚(Andres Segovia)手中，更进一步将古典吉他艺朮推广到欧洲之外的亚洲及美洲，形成古典吉他史上的第二黄金期。在古典吉他的演变时期中，虽然也正是音乐史上巴罗克、古典、浪漫时期，器乐己成为主流﹔然而当时吉他却因为无法和交响乐团整体音量匹敌，加上其本身之特殊风格，与乐团乐器之配置有所隔阂，因此成为一独奏乐器。

至于六弦吉他的出现，虽然大部分学者均相信是在法国以及义大利所开始，但却没有任何当代文献证明是由谁最早开始制作。反而有一位德国的小提琴与吉他制琴家雅寇﹒奥古斯特。奥图(Jacob Augustus Otto)自称是他在接受了德勒司登的乐团指挥纽曼先生(Herr Neumann)的一张六弦吉他订单之后，特别为他所设计制造的。这似乎表示六弦吉他是在德国首先出现的，但是有件事绝对不能忽略，这位制琴师奥图早年均在义大利学习制琴，很有可能当时他就已经在学习过程中见过这种吉他的雏形了。至于西班牙采用六弦吉他的起源，虽然没有书面的记载，但一般相信大约在1820年左右，因为著名的西班牙吉他作曲家兼演奏家阿瓜多(Dionysius Agued)为六弦吉他所写的教本于1825年在马德里出版，足以证明在此之前，六弦吉他已经有部分人开始使用，所以才会需要这样的教本。 在18世纪末至19世纪初，六弦吉他的发展也逐渐产生一些较为常见的特征，例如由于琴身上下较宽部分又加宽了些，使得曲线更为明显﹔琴桥固定琴弦的方式是将弦缠在本制插梢上，再插入琴桥上预先挖好的六个小孔中加以固定，取代了这之前直接缠绕在琴桥上的设计﹔到了19世纪早期，在琴桥又加上了狭长的骨片或象牙片，作为下弦枕。此外，指板也继续延伸到音孔旁。虽然无法查证何时开始采用这种设计，但可以将其归功于一位德籍制琴家乔治﹒史道弗(George Stauffer)，值得注意的是，他也是后来移民至美国纽约，并成为美国制琴工业先驱的著名制琴师马汀(Christian Friedrich Martin)的老师。马汀后来在美国研究发展出本土的钢弦吉他，也就是现在流行音乐界所广为使用的民谣吉他鼻祖，有别于当时在欧洲仍采用的羊肠弦吉他。

19世纪早期，吉他形状渐渐改变发展成接近现代吉他的外观：金属弦纽取代木制纽头﹔挖空的音孔取代玫瑰纹饰的音孔﹔琴桥提高了﹔扁平的背板变成标准形式﹔第十二琴格对准琴颈和音箱联结处，此外，华丽的装饰也几乎完全消失了。在这名家辈出的时代，必须提到这位被称为近代吉他制作之父的著名人物，西班牙制琴师安东尼奥﹒托雷斯(Antonio de Torres Jordon, 1817～1892)。他所设计出的吉他新形式，可说是凌驾于在这之前所有形态的吉他。他将弦长定为65公分，琴身内部构造以响孔为起点，在音箱内部配置有七根扇形力木，并将原本较为窄小的琴身扩大，这种设计大大地提高吉他的音响效果，引起各著名制琴师的仿效，成为现代古典吉他的制作典范。