"Gloomy Sunday" (from Hungarian "Szomorú Vasárnap", IPA: ['sɒmɒɾuː 'vɐʃaɾnɐp]) is a song written by the Hungarian self-taught pianist and composer Rezső Seress in 1933. According to urban legend, it inspired hundreds of suicides. According to record publicists when the song was first marketed in America, it became known as the "Hungarian suicide song". There is NO substantiation for such claims of suicides, nor is it even documented where any such allegations appear in legitimate press coverage or other publications of the time. This urban legend appears to have been originally generated as a marketing gimmick by song pluggers, and, in more recent years the legend has been greatly furthered by internet exposure. However, Rezso Seress did jump to his death from a Budapest building in 1968.
The codifying of the urban legend appears in an article attributed to "D.P. MacDonald" and titled "Overture to Death", the text of which has been reproduced and disseminated countless times online. According to the website of Phespirit: "This article was stolen without permission from the 'JUSTIN AND ANJI' web site; it was originally published to augment their now defunct 'Gloomy Sunday Radio Show'. In the introduction they say:
This message was forwarded to us by a visitor to our web site. There is some good historical information on the song intermixed with some information of more dubious repute. The accounts begin to take on the feel of a satiric e-mail chain letter after a while, but then, sometimes truth is indeed stranger than fiction. The story does read a little bit like the script of a segment from Strange Universe! So take this with a grain of salt ..... The text was [supposedly] quoted from the Cincinatti (sic) Journal of Ceremonial Magick, vol I, no I, printed in 1976."
Numerous versions of the song have been recorded and released unaccompanied by suicides. Phil Elwood, writing in JazzWest.com, chronicles "Gloomy Sunday" in American recording history. Elwood, a long-time jazz critic, cites the following words of Michael Brooks, taken from Brooks' program notes accompanying the 10-CD set, "Lady Day" - the Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia, 1933-1944:
"‘Gloomy Sunday’ reached America in 1936 and, thanks to a brilliant publicity campaign, became known as ‘The Hungarian Suicide Song’. Supposedly after hearing it, distraught lovers were hypnotized into heading straight out of the nearest open window, in much the same fashion as investors after October, 1929; both stories are largely urban myths."
[ 本帖最后由 萧楚儿 于 2006-11-2 18:51 编辑 ] |
|小黑屋|手机版|Archiver|Nw壬天堂世界
( 京ICP备05022083号-1 京公网安备11010202001397号 )
发表于 2006-10-29 14:38:07
提升卡
变色卡
显身卡
楼主
发表于 2006-10-29 14:58:58
