本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛"For forty hours the snow tumbled over New England, settling up to six fee deep on every city, forest, and frozen river. At the blizzard's height, on Tuesday, Febrary 7, 1978, President Carter declared coastal Massachuestts a federal disaster area. After a second record night of snow, the governor ordered all citizes not engaged in relief work to stay home. Insterstate 93 ran white as a glacier, its ramps curving into the moraine of downtown Boston.

Just when the world seemed about to suffocate, the last flakes fell. But then the snow turned to ice, and the weight of precipitation became unbearable. Power grids snapped, hospitals switched to emergency supplies, stored and resturants stayed dark. Biographical researchers trapped in digs near Havard University found themselves with nothing to eat and nowwhere to buy food. Another night of almost total silence came on. It was difficult not to think of entombment.

Thursday morning brought sunshine and a sense of life returning. Icicles sliced the light. The first shovelers got to work in front of dorm doorways. Students on skis poled across Havard Yard. Pedestraians struggled to follow, plunging waist-deep at every step. There was still little noise: only the dry squeak of snow underfoot, and an occasional shout. Then some invisible person threw open a second-floor window, mounted a pair of speakers on the sill, and blasted the finale of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony into the crisp air.

Nothing was ever so loud, so bright as the C-major fanfare, surging over a blare of trombones with all the force of Old Faithful. It was Carlos Kleiber's DG recording with the Vienna Philharnonic---new then, legendary now. Skiers, shovelers, and plungers stood TRANSFIXED. After three great leaps (the last requiring an extra beat to discharge all its sound), the chords subsided, only to gather strength for higher and higher ascents, to the crest of the scale and beyond, until, geyser-like, they broke into exultant syncopations.

So far, noboy had heard a melody, or any harmonies that could not be blown through a mouth organ. And when a tune finally came, played at maximum volume by three horns, it was close to banal. So why, after the music ended ten minutes later, with forty-eight thunderclaps of C major, were some of the listerners CRYING? "

引自Edmund Morris 写的 "贝多芬"一书的引言. 文中提到的那段音乐是贝多芬第五交响曲第四乐章从C小调转入C大调的那一节.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net