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Preface
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This story of the Mellstock Quire and its old established west-gallery musicians, with some supplementary1 descriptions of similar officials in Two on a Tower, A Few Crusted Characters, and other places, is intended to be a fairly true picture, at first hand, of the personages, ways, and customs which were common among such orchestral bodies in the villages of fifty or sixty years ago.
One is inclined to regret the displacement2 of these ecclesiastical bandsmen by an isolated3 organist (often at first a barrel-organist) or harmonium player; and despite certain advantages in point of control and accomplishment4 which were, no doubt, secured by installing the single artist, the change has tended to stultify5 the professed6 aims of the clergy7, its direct result being to curtail8 and extinguish the interest of parishioners in church doings. Under the old plan, from half a dozen to ten full-grown players, in addition to the numerous more or less grown-up singers, were officially occupied with the Sunday routine, and concerned in trying their best to make it an artistic9 outcome of the combined musical taste of the congregation. With a musical executive limited, as it mostly is limited now, to the parson’s wife or daughter and the school-children, or to the school-teacher and the children, an important union of interests has disappeared.
The zest10 of these bygone instrumentalists must have been keen and staying to take them, as it did, on foot every Sunday after a toilsome week, through all weathers, to the church, which often lay at a distance from their homes. They usually received so little in payment for their performances that their efforts were really a labour of love. In the parish I had in my mind when writing the present tale, the
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1 supplementary | |
adj.补充的,附加的 | |
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2 displacement | |
n.移置,取代,位移,排水量 | |
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3 isolated | |
adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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4 accomplishment | |
n.完成,成就,(pl.)造诣,技能 | |
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5 stultify | |
v.愚弄;使呆滞 | |
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6 professed | |
公开声称的,伪称的,已立誓信教的 | |
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7 clergy | |
n.[总称]牧师,神职人员 | |
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8 curtail | |
vt.截短,缩短;削减 | |
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9 artistic | |
adj.艺术(家)的,美术(家)的;善于艺术创作的 | |
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10 zest | |
n.乐趣;滋味,风味;兴趣 | |
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11 gratuities | |
n.报酬( gratuity的名词复数 );小账;小费;养老金 | |
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12 annually | |
adv.一年一次,每年 | |
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13 strings | |
n.弦 | |
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14 inscribe | |
v.刻;雕;题写;牢记 | |
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15 jigs | |
n.快步舞(曲)极快地( jig的名词复数 );夹具v.(使)上下急动( jig的第三人称单数 ) | |
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16 ballads | |
民歌,民谣,特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 ); 讴 | |
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17 secular | |
n.牧师,凡人;adj.世俗的,现世的,不朽的 | |
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18 wares | |
n. 货物, 商品 | |
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19 consternation | |
n.大为吃惊,惊骇 | |
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20 anthem | |
n.圣歌,赞美诗,颂歌 | |
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21 twine | |
v.搓,织,编饰;(使)缠绕 | |
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22 tunes | |
n.曲调,曲子( tune的名词复数 )v.调音( tune的第三人称单数 );调整;(给收音机、电视等)调谐;使协调 | |
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23 tempting | |
a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
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24 choir | |
n.唱诗班,唱诗班的席位,合唱团,舞蹈团;v.合唱 | |
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