Pete Seeger, a Folk Revivalist Who Used His Voice to Bring Out a Nation’s

皮特·西格，抗议的歌声从未停

Pete Seeger sang until his voice wore out, and then he kept on singing, decade upon decade. Mr. Seeger, who died on Monday at 94, sang for children, folk-music devotees, union members, civil-rights marchers, antiwar protesters, environmentalists and everyone else drawn to a repertoire that extended from ancient ballads to brand-new songs about every cause that moved him. But it wasn’t his own voice he wanted to hear. He wanted everyone to sing along.

直到声音嘶哑，皮特·西格(Pete Seeger)还在继续歌唱，几十年来从未停息。西格先生于周一(1月27日)逝世，享年94岁，生前他为孩子们、民歌爱好者、工会成员、民权运动中的游行者、反战抗议者、环保主义者们高歌。他的曲目中既有古老的民歌，也有崭新的歌曲，取材自一切感动他的东西，他为任何喜爱他歌曲的人而歌，但他不愿只听到自己一个人的声音，他希望所有人都能够跟他一起唱。

Although Mr. Seeger summed up Vietnam-era frustration when he wrote “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” and created a lasting antiwar parable with “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?,” he wasn’t simply a protest singer or propagandist. Like his father, the musicologist Charles Seeger, and his colleague the ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, Pete Seeger was devoted to songs that had been passed on through generations of people singing and playing together. He was determined — in an era when recording was rarer and broadcasting limited — to get those songs heard and sung anew, lest they disappear.

西格在《深陷泥潭》(Waist Deep in the Big Muddy)中概述了越战时期的沮丧之感，并创作了《花儿都到哪儿去了?》(Where Have All the Flowers Gone?)这首长盛不衰的反战寓言，但他并不仅仅是一个抗议歌手或宣传者。他的父亲查尔斯·西格(Charles Seeger)是一位音乐学者，他的伙伴艾伦·洛马克斯(Alan Lomax)则是一位人种音乐学家，皮特·西格和他们一样，热爱那些由人们在一起歌唱和演奏，并且代代相传的歌曲。在那个录音尚不发达，广播十分有限的年代，他下定决心，要让这些歌曲重新被歌唱和倾听，不让它们湮灭。

That put him at the center of the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s, in all its idealism, earnestness and contradictions. Collectors found songs that had archetypal resonance, sung in unpretty voices and played with regional quirks, and transcribed them to be learned from sheet music. The folk revival prized authenticity — the work song recorded in prison, the fiddle tune recorded on a back porch — and then diluted it as the making of amateur collegiate strum-alongs. Mr. Seeger and his fellow folk revivalists freely adapted old songs to new occasions, using durable old tunes to carry topical thoughts, speaking of a “folk tradition” of communal authorship and inevitable change. They would warp a song to preserve it. (In succeeding years, copyright problems could and did ensue.)

因此，他在20世纪50到60年代位于民谣复兴运动的中心，这场运动充满理想主义与热忱，也充满种种矛盾。民谣收集者们收集具备原型共鸣、以不加修饰的声音歌唱，带有地域特色的歌曲，把它们记录下来，以便人们可以通过乐谱学习这些歌曲。民谣复兴运动注重真实性，他们搜集那些在监狱录制的歌曲，在家中后门廊录制的小提琴曲调，之后用大学生式的业余弦乐伴奏进行修葺。西格和其他民谣复兴运动者们大量改编老歌，以适应新环境，用那些经久不衰的老调承载新的时事主题，把“民谣传统”阐释为集体创作和不可避免的改编。他们会通过改编一首歌的方式来保存它(在其后的年代里，版权问题确实接踵而至)。

It was an era of purists generating the impure, and, sloppy or saccharine as it could be, it turned out well. Folk-revival ditties pointed their more dedicated listeners — particularly musicians — back to original versions, extending the reach of regional styles. The hootenanny movement spurred people to play music instead of passively consume it, and the noncommercial, do-it-yourself spirit — though not the sound of banjos and acoustic guitars — would resound in punk-rock, which had its own kind of protest songs.

那是个纯粹主义者的时代，虽然从中亦产生出种种不纯粹的、多愁善感与过分甜腻的东西，但结果却是好的。民谣复兴的小曲令更加忠诚的听众们(特别是音乐家们)回归这些歌最初的本源，拓展地域风格的边界。民谣合唱会活动鼓励人们自己演奏音乐，而不仅仅是被动地消费它，而这种非商业化、自己动手的精神——虽然不再局限于班卓琴与木吉他——亦在后世的朋克音乐中回响，诞生出朋克时代自己的抗议歌曲。

Even more important, the folk revival, with Mr. Seeger as one of its prime movers, introduced American pop to a different America: the one outside Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood, where a volunteer gospel choir could sing with more gumption than a studio chorus, and where a decades-old song about hard times could speak directly to the present. The folk revival reminded the pop world that songs could be about something more than romance — a notion that the revival’s greatest student and transformer, Bob Dylan, would run with. Mr. Seeger also learned and performed songs from abroad; there were folks there, too.

更重要的是，以西格为先驱之一的民谣复兴运动把美国流行文化引入了另一个美国，一个与“锡锅巷”(Tin Pan Alley)和好莱坞完全不同的世界，在这里，由志愿者组成的福音合唱团可能比录音室里的合唱团更有勇气，歌唱艰难时世的老歌虽然历经几十年的历史，却依然可以针砭时弊。民谣复兴运动提醒流行世界，歌曲可以不仅仅局限于歌唱浪漫爱情——这个概念后来由民谣复兴运动最伟大的学生与改革者鲍勃·迪伦发扬光大。西格亦学习和演唱外国歌曲，因为那里也有民谣的歌声。

Mr. Seeger’s discography runs to dozens of albums: topical songs, Mother Goose rhymes, banjo instruction, African songs, lullabies, blues, Civil War songs, Spanish Civil War songs and far more. His canon was selective but not exclusive; he wanted all those songs to get more chances. His cultural mission was democratic.

西格一生录制了数十张唱片：时事歌曲、童谣、班卓琴演奏、非洲歌曲、摇篮曲、布鲁斯、南北战争时期的歌曲、西班牙内战歌曲等等。他的准则是：精挑细选但绝不排外;他希望所有这些歌曲都能得到更多机会。他的文化使命是民主主义的。

His mission was political too, of course. In 2012, Mr. Seeger told an interviewer on WNYC how he would like to be remembered: “He made up songs to try and persuade people to do something,” not just say something. As the 1940s began, he recorded songs reflecting the Communist party line; accusations of Communist Party affiliations got him questioned by the House Un-American Activities Committee and blacklisted during the McCarthy era. More felicitously, Mr. Seeger recast traditional songs to rally unions, civil-rights groups, Vietnam War protesters and environmentalists. Mr. Seeger was a longtime mentor for topical songwriters. The best of his own songs, like the biblical “Turn! Turn! Turn!” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” reach for cycles and archetypes, not ephemeral complaints.

当然，他的使命也带有政治色彩。2012年，WNYC电台在采访西格时问他，希望以怎样的方式被世人铭记，西格答道：“他写了一些歌，希望能劝说人们去做些什么，”——而不仅仅是去说些什么。在20世纪40年代初，他曾经录过一些歌曲，反映共产党的路线;他被指控与共产党有关，因此在麦卡锡时期受到“非美委员会”(House Un-American Activities Committee)质询，上了黑名单。更准确地说，西格重塑了传统歌曲，以此团结工会、民权运动小组、反越战抗议者与环保主义者们。他是时事歌曲创作者们的长期导师。而他最出色的歌曲包括引用圣经的《转!转!转!》(Turn! Turn! Turn!)和《花儿都到哪儿去了?》，它们都触及生命的循环与原型，而不仅仅是转瞬即逝的控诉。

Pop tastes quickly turned away from the folk revival; the Beatles were more fun. In the 21st century, folky protest and topical songs have generally been shunted to the far sidelines. Although Bruce Springsteen has taken songs from Mr. Seeger’s repertory to arenas, social consciousness is now disseminated more widely through metal and hip-hop. Yet the plink of acoustic instruments is still a token of sincerity. The banjo has resurfaced in groups like Mumford & Sons, while fascination with the folk-revival era animates the Coen brothers film “Inside Llewyn Davis.”

流行品位很快就抛弃了民谣复兴运动，“披头士”(Beatles)更加有趣。到了21世纪，民谣抗议与时事歌曲大体上成为遥远的分支。尽管布鲁斯·斯普林斯汀(Bruce Springsteen)曾经在大型体育场翻唱过西格的曲目，然而如今社会意识更多是通过金属乐与嘻哈乐广泛传播。不过，原声乐器的弹拨在如今依然是真诚的象征。班卓琴重新在“芒福德与儿子”(Mumford & Sons)之类乐队中浮出水面，而科恩兄弟(Coen brothers)的新片，《醉乡民谣》(Inside Llewyn Davis)亦展示了民谣复兴运动时期的魅力。

Yet Mr. Seeger wasn’t aiming for pop celebrity anyway. He had all the audiences he needed: at Carnegie Hall or at Barack Obama’s inauguration or at a local coffeehouse, in a high-school classroom or at a union meeting. He had the kindly demeanor of a favorite uncle and the encouraging tone of a secular preacher as he picked his banjo and taught another chorus to yet another audience, beaming as the singalong grew louder and more confident, turning one more group of folks into a community.

但西格并不想成为流行文化名人。他已拥有了自己想要的听众：在卡耐基大厅、在贝拉克·奥巴马的就职仪式，抑或是在当地的咖啡屋、中学教室或工会集会。他那亲切的举止如同一位受人喜爱的叔叔，鼓舞人心的歌喉又像一位世俗的布道者。他拿起班卓琴，教一位又一位听众唱起一段又一段合唱。听到人群的声音愈来愈响亮，愈来愈自信，从一群人传到另一群人，直至响彻整个社区，他的脸上不禁露出喜悦的笑容。