The philosopher Plato once said, "Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." Music has always been a big part of my life. To create and to perform music connects you to people countries and lifetimes away. It connects you to the people you're playing with, to your audience and to yourself. When I'm happy, when I'm sad, when I'm bored, when I'm stressed, I listen to and I create music.
哲學家柏拉圖曾經講過 「音樂賦予宇宙以靈魂, 心以羽翼, 想像以飛翔, 生活以一切。」 音樂總係我哋生活嘅一大部份 創作同表演音樂 聯結起不同國度同命運嘅人 聯結起你同你嘅玩伴 你嘅觀眾 同你自己 每當我開心、悲傷 無聊,或者壓力大 我都會聽同創作音樂
When I was younger, I played piano; later, I took up guitar. And as I started high school, music became a part of my identity. I was in every band, I was involved with every musical fine arts event. Music surrounded me. It made me who I was, and it gave me a place to belong.
細個時,我彈鋼琴 長大啲,我彈吉他 返高中嗰時 音樂就成為咗我命定之事 每個樂隊都有我份 每場音樂活動都有我嘅身影 音樂包圍著我 令我成為自己 畀咗我歸屬
Now, I've always had this thing with rhythms. I remember being young, I would walk down the hallways of my school and I would tap rhythms to myself on my leg with my hands, or tapping my teeth. It was a nervous habit, and I was always nervous. I think I liked the repetition of the rhythm -- it was calming.
我曾經做咩都好有節奏 我記得細個時 喺學校走廊度行時 我會摞手喺大骳度打節拍 呢個係緊張嘅習慣 而我成日都好緊張 我覺得我鍾意節奏嘅重複 佢會令我平靜
Then in high school, I started music theory, and it was the best class I've ever taken. We were learning about music -- things I didn't know, like theory and history. It was a class where we basically just listened to a song, talked about what it meant to us and analyzed it, and figured out what made it tick. Every Wednesday, we did something called "rhythmic dictation," and I was pretty good at it. Our teacher would give us an amount of measures and a time signature, and then he would speak a rhythm to us and we would have to write it down with the proper rests and notes. Like this: ta ta tuck-a tuck-a ta, ta tuck-a-tuck-a-tuck-a, tuck-a. And I loved it. The simplicity of the rhythm -- a basic two- to four- measure line -- and yet each of them almost told a story, like they had so much potential, and all you had to do was add a melody.
讀高中嗰時 我開始上樂理課 我覺得佢係我上過嘅最好嘅課 就同理論課、歷史課咁 我哋學一點我唔知係咩嘅嘢 上課我哋基本上只係聽歌 討論歌曲對我哋嘅意義 再分析 搵到呢首歌好聽嘅原因 每週三,我哋就會做「節奏聽寫」 而我就做得好好 我哋老師會畀我哋幾條樂譜線 一個節拍符號 之後佢就會講一段節奏 我哋就要用合適嘅記號記低 就好似咁: ta ta tuck-a tuck-a ta ta tuck-a-tuck-a-tuck-a, tuck-a 我好鍾意咁 節奏嘅簡單 基本嘅兩到四條樂譜線 幾乎一切都喺度講緊故仔 就好似有好多可能性咁 你再加上一段旋律就得喇
(Guitar)
(吉他聲)
Rhythms set a foundation for melodies and harmonies to play on top of. It gives structure and stability. Now, music has these parts -- rhythm, melody and harmony -- just like our lives. Where music has rhythm, we have routines and habits -- things that help us to remember what to do and to stay on track, and to just keep going. And you may not notice it, but it's always there.
節奏係旋律同音韻和諧嘅基礎 佢賦予咗結構同穩定 音樂由三部份組成—— 節奏、旋律同和諧性 就好似我哋嘅生活咁 音樂有節奏 我哋有日常生活同習慣 我哋知道要做啲咩維持正常生活 之後繼續咁生活 你可能冇注意到 但事實確實係咁
(Guitar)
(吉他聲)
And it may seem simple, it may seem dull by itself, but it gives tempo and heartbeat. And then things in your life add on to it, giving texture -- that's your friends and your family, and anything that creates a harmonic structure in your life and in your song, like harmonies, cadences and anything that makes it polyphonic. And they create beautiful chords and patterns.
等我嚟講得簡單啲 生活本身似乎好無聊 但係帶嚟咗節拍、心跳 再加埋你生活中嘅事 加啲質感 家人朋友 一切令到你生活和諧嘅嘢 而喺你嘅歌裏面 就係和聲 抑揚頓挫 一切多音調嘅因素 就創造咗優美嘅和絃同節奏
(Guitar)
(吉他聲)
And then there's you. You play on top of everything else, on top of the rhythms and the beat because you're the melody. And things may change and develop, but no matter what we do, we're still the same people. Throughout a song melodies develop, but it's still the same song. No matter what you do, the rhythms are still there: the tempo and the heartbeat ... until I left, and I went to college and everything disappeared.
你就喺度 你喺一切之上 控制韻律節奏 因為你就係旋律本身 事物可能會改變、發展 但係無論我哋做咩 我哋本身都冇變到 就好似雖然旋律發生咗改變 首歌都仲係嗰首歌 無論你做咩 節奏都伴隨著你 仲有節拍同心跳 我畢業之後 去咗大學 一切都消失咗
When I first arrived at university, I felt lost. And don't get me wrong -- sometimes I loved it and it was great, but other times, I felt like I had been left alone to fend for myself. It's like I had been taken out of my natural environment, and put somewhere new, where the rhythms and the harmonies and the form had gone away, and it was just me --
當我啱到大學嗰時 我覺得好迷茫 雖然有時我都幾鍾意大學生活嘅 但有時 我覺得自己好似被遺棄咗 只能夠自己照顧自己 就好似我從熟悉嘅環境 被流放到陌生環境 冇節奏、冇和聲 原來嘅生活不復返 剩低我自己
(Guitar)
(吉他聲)
silence and my melody. And even that began to waver, because I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't have any chords to structure myself, or a rhythm or a beat to know the tempo.
寂靜,同自己嘅旋律 但呢一切都開始動搖 因為我唔知道自己喺度做緊咩 我冇任何自己嘅和絃 或者節奏 或者感知節拍嘅拍打
(Guitar)
(吉他聲)
And then I began to hear all these other sounds.
之後我開始聽其他聲音
(Guitar)
(吉他聲)
And they were off-time and off-key. And the more I was around them, the more my melody started to sound like theirs. And slowly I began to lose myself, like I was being washed away. But then the next moment --
異常 跑調嘅音樂 而我聽得越多 我嘅旋律就越似佢哋 逐漸,我開始迷失自我 就好似我被海水沖走咗 之後下一刻
(Guitar)
(吉他聲)
I could hear it. And I could feel it. And it was me. And I was here. And it was different, but not worse off. Just changed a little.
我可以聽到 我感受得到 呢個就係我 我就喺度 我與眾不同 我冇頹廢 只不過發生咗啲改變
Music is my way of coping with the changes in my life. There's a beautiful connection between music and life. It can bind us to reality at the same time it allows us to escape it. Music is something that lives inside of you. You create it and you're created by it. Our lives are not only conducted by music, they're also composed of it.
我通過音樂嚟處理生活中嘅變化 音樂同生活之間有種美妙嘅聯繫 既可以通向現實 同時又可以逃離現實 音樂係你嘅一部份 你同音樂相輔相成 音樂唔單止只指揮我哋嘅生活 而且仲「創作」埋
So this may seem like a bit of a stretch, but hear me out: music is a fundamental part of what we are and of everything around us. Now, music is my passion, but physics also used to be an interest of mine. And the more I learned, the more I saw connections between the two -- especially regarding string theory. I know this is only one of many theories, but it spoke to me. So, one aspect of string theory, at its simplest form, is this: matter is made up of atoms, which are made up of protons and neutrons and electrons, which are made up of quark. And here's where the string part comes in. This quark is supposedly made up of little coiled strings, and it's the vibrations of these strings that make everything what it is.
咁講好似有啲誇張 但係聽我講 音樂係我哋 同我哋周圍一切嘅基本 音樂畀咗我激情 而物理曾經都係我嘅興趣 我學得越多 就發現越多佢哋之間嘅聯繫 特別係弦理論 我知道呢個只係眾多物理理論中嘅一個 但係佢話畀我知 弦理論嘅一方面,最簡單嘅方式 係呢個: 物質由原子組成 原子由質子、中子同電子組成 而佢哋又由誇克組成 「弦理論」就係咁嚟噶喇 理論認為誇克係由細連續串組成 而呢啲連續串嘅震動就形成咗一切事物
Michio Kaku once explained this in a lecture called, "The Universe in a Nutshell," where he says, "String theory is the simple idea that the four forces of the universe -- gravity, the electromagnetic force, and the two strong forces -- can be viewed as music. The music of tiny little rubber bands." In this lecture, he goes on to explain physics as the laws of harmony between these strings; chemistry, as the melodies you can play on these strings; and he states that the universe is a "symphony of strings." These strings dictate the universe; they make up everything we see and everything we know. They're musical notes, but they make us what we are and they hold us together. So you see, everything is music.
加來 道雄 曾經喺一個 叫做「果殼中嘅宇宙」 嘅講座中講過 「弦理論係最簡單嘅 宇宙嘅四種力 萬有引力、電磁力 強相互力、弱相互力 都可以睇成音樂 細細個橡筋演奏嘅音樂」 喺講座度,佢進一步解釋咗 物理就係呢啲「弦」嘅和諧法則 而化學,就好似呢啲「弦」嘅旋律 宇宙,就係「弦嘅交響樂」 呢啲「弦」支配著宇宙 組成一切我哋所見所知嘅嘢 佢哋係音符 但又創造、連接我哋 正如你所見 音樂無處不在
(Guitar)
(吉他聲)
When I look at the world, I see music all around us. When I look at myself, I see music. And my life has been defined by music. I found myself through music. Music is everywhere, and it is in everything. And it changes and it builds and it diminishes. But it's always there, supporting us, connecting us to each other and showing us the beauty of the universe.
當我望向世界 我見到音樂就喺我哋身邊 當我望向我自己 我見到音樂 而我嘅生活都被音樂定義咗 我通過音樂搵到自我 音樂 無處不在 音樂會變化 增長或減少 但佢一直喺度 支持著我哋 將我哋之間聯結起嚟 畀我哋睇宇宙嘅美麗
So if you ever feel lost, stop and listen for your song.
所以如果你覺得迷茫 就停低聽你自己嘅音樂
Thank you.
多謝
(Applause)
(掌聲)