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cover of episode Rhiannon Giddens, Americana’s Queen, on Cultivating the Black Roots of Country Music

Rhiannon Giddens, Americana’s Queen, on Cultivating the Black Roots of Country Music

2024/4/2
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Rhiannon Giddens: 长期以来，人们误解了班卓琴的历史，认为它是白人音乐的代表。实际上，黑人弦乐乐队在美式音乐的多种流派中扮演着重要角色，其起源可以追溯到奴隶制时期。由于缺乏早期黑人班卓琴演奏的录音资料，对这段音乐历史的研究只能依靠有限的文献资料和推测。早期班卓琴通常是无品格的，由肠线制成，与黑人在种植园等地自制的葫芦乐器有着密切联系。她对民俗音乐和班卓琴的发现，以及她追求有意义且独特的音乐创作的愿望，改变了她原本的职业规划。遵循内心的指引，选择自己真正想做的音乐，才能找到自己的方向。音乐的分类不应限制音乐的表达和影响力，不同类型的音乐可以融合和互补。音乐的多样性正是其力量的体现，不同文化背景的音乐可以融合，因为它们都表达了人类共通的情感。她面临的挑战之一是将自己的音乐推广到黑人社区，因为主流黑人文化领域的“守门人”对她的音乐类型并不感兴趣。她与侄子（一位说唱歌手兼班卓琴演奏者）的合作，展现了不同音乐类型融合的可能性，并获得了年轻一代的积极回应。在纽约州的辛辛监狱的演出让她深刻感受到了黑人社区对她的音乐的独特回应。 David Remnick: 引导访谈，提出问题，并对Giddens的观点进行回应和补充。 Francesco Turrisi: 作为音乐合作者，参与音乐演奏和讨论。

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By the standards of any musician, Rhiannon Giddens has taken a twisting and complex path. She was trained as an operatic soprano at the prestigious Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and then fell almost by chance into the study of American folk music and took up the banjo. With like-minded musicians, she founded the influential Carolina Chocolate Drops, which focussed on reviving the repertoire of Black Southern string bands). Giddens plays on Beyoncé’s new country album, which boldly asserts the Black presence in country music. But her view of Black music is unbounded by genre: “There’s been Black people singing opera and writing classical music forever.” Giddens shared a Pulitzer Prize for the opera “Omar” in 2023, and as a solo artist, she has moved through the Black diaspora and beyond it. David Remnick talked with Giddens when her album “There Is No Other,” recorded in Dublin, had just come out, and she performed in the studio with her collaborator, Francesco Turrisi. 

This segment originally aired May 3, 2019.