153　Musical Interlude 音乐插曲

The symphony orchestra was performing Beethoven's Ninth. In the piece, there's a long passage, about 20 minutes, during which the bass violinists have nothing to do. Rather than sit around that whole time looking stupid, some bassists decided to sneak offstage and go to the tavern next door for a quick one. After slamming several beers in quick succession, one of them looked at his watch and said, “Hey! We need to get back!” “No need to panic,” said a fellow bassist. “I thought we might need some extra time, so I tied the last few pages of the conductor's score together with string. It'll take him a few minutes to get it untangled.” A few moments later they staggered back to the concert hall and took their places in the orchestra. About this time, a member of the audience noticed the conductor seemed a bit edgy and said as much to her companion. “Well, of course,” said her companion. “Don't you see? It's the bottom of the Ninth, the score is tied, and the bassists are loaded.”

交响乐团正在演奏贝多芬第九交响乐。在演奏中有一大段，大约20分钟，低音提琴手无事可做。有几个低音提琴手决定，与其傻傻地坐在那里，不如溜下舞台，到隔壁小酒馆快快地喝上几杯。连续灌了几瓶啤酒之后，一位低音提琴手说：“嘿，该回去了！”另一位伙伴却说：“不要着忙。我知道我们或许会需要一些额外的时间，所以我把指挥的乐谱最后几页用弦缝在一起了。他得花好几分钟时间才能把它拆开。”过了一会儿，他们几个蹒跚地回到音乐厅，走到乐团里自己的位置。正在这时，有一位听众注意到指挥似乎有一点急躁，就告诉她的同伴。她的同伴说：“咳，当然喽！你没看见吗？这是第九交响乐的结尾，乐谱被缝在一起了，而低音提琴手们的肚子都装满了。”