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.
古希腊哲学家柏拉图曾说过, “音乐使宇宙有了魂魄, 心灵有了翅膀, 想像得以飞翔, 一切事物有了生命。” 音乐一直是我生命中 很重要的一部分。 创作和表演音乐 将你与不同国家和 年龄的人连在一起: 它将你与同你一起表演的人, 你的观众, 以及你自己连在一起。 当我快乐、悲伤时, 当我无聊、紧张时, 我都会聆听和创作音乐。
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.
年少的时候,我弹钢琴; 后来,我拿起了吉它。 从高中开始, 音乐就成了我身份的一部分。 我加入了每一个乐队, 参加了每一次的音乐艺术活动。 音乐对我来说无处不在。 它塑造了过去的我, 让我有了归属感。
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.
我一直对节奏很感兴趣。 我记得年轻的时候, 我会沿着学校的走廊溜达, 用手在自己腿上打拍子, 或者轻叩牙齿。 这是一个紧张时的习惯动作, 而我总是感到紧张。 我想我喜欢上了那种重复的节奏—— 它使人平静。
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.
然后在高中, 我开始上乐理课, 这是我有史以来上过的最棒的课。 我们学习音乐相关的知识—— 一些之前我不知道的东西, 比如音乐理论和历史。 在课堂上我们通常是先听一首歌曲, 再去讨论它对我们意味着什么, 然后进行分析, 弄明白它的原理。 每周三,我们都会进行一次“节奏听写”, 而我对此非常在行。 老师会给我们一些小节 和一个拍号, 然后他会给我们念一段节奏, 我们要用正确的 休止符和音符把它写下来。 就像这样: 嗒 嗒 哒咔 哒咔 嗒 嗒 哒咔哒咔哒咔 哒咔。 我爱死它了。 节奏很简明—— 基础的二到四小节线—— 然而它们各自几乎又是 在讲述各自的故事, 好像它们都有很多的潜能, 你所需要做的只不过是添加一段旋律。
(Guitar)
(吉它)
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.
节奏在顶层为旋律和和声构建了基础。 它提供了结构和稳定性。 音乐包含这几个部分—— 节奏、旋律以及和声—— 就像我们的人生。 音乐中有节奏, 我们有规范和习惯—— 它们提醒我们要做什么, 要呆在正确的轨道上, 还要不断前进。 也许你并没到注意到它, 但是它一直都在。
(Guitar)
(吉它)
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.
它可能听起来很简单, 本身很单调无趣, 但是它能带来节拍和心跳。 然后你把生命中的其它东西加入进去, 就产生了纹理—— 那是你的朋友和家人, 是任何在你的生命中,在你的歌曲中 创造出一个和谐结构的东西, 比如和声, 韵律 以及任何使之成为复调的东西。 它们会创造出美丽的和弦和模式。
(Guitar)
(吉它)
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.
然后是你。 你在万物之上演奏, 在节奏和拍子之上, 因为你就是旋律。 而事物会改变和发展, 但是不管我们做什么, 我们还是原来的我们。 旋律在歌曲中发展变化, 但它还是原来的歌。 不管你做了什么, 节奏仍然在那里: 节拍和心跳都还在... 直到我离开, 去上大学, 所有的东西也就消失了。
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 --
当我刚到大学时, 有种恍然若失的感觉。 别误解我的意思—— 有时候我很爱学校,那里很棒, 但是在其它时侯, 我感觉我被抛弃了, 只能自生自灭。 好像我被从原本舒适的环境中赶了出来, 放到了一个新的地方, 在这里,节奏,和声 还有形式,都已经远去了, 只留下了我——
(Guitar)
(吉它)
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.
只有寂静,和我的旋律。 甚至连这些都开始动摇, 因为我不知道我在做什么。 我没有了可以构建自我的和弦, 节拍, 或者帮我找到节奏的心跳。
(Guitar)
(吉它)
And then I began to hear all these other sounds.
然后我开始听到所有其它的声音。
(Guitar)
(吉它)
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 --
但它们都不合时宜, 也并不和谐。 我跟它们待得越久, 我的旋律就越像它们。 慢慢的,我开始失去自我, 好像自己正在被冲蚀殆尽。 但是在下一刻——
(Guitar)
(吉它)
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.
我又能听到它了。 又能感受到它了。 那就是我。 我在这里, 虽然旋律有些变化, 但没有变得更糟, 只改变了一点点。
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.
音乐是我克服生命中变故的方式。 音乐和生命之间有一种美妙的连接, 它能够将我们与现实紧密相连, 同时又允许我们从现实中逃离。 音乐就扎根在你心中。 你创造它,同时也在被它创造。 音乐不仅是我们人生中的指挥家, 也是我们人生的作曲家。
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.
这听起来可能有点夸张, 但是请听我说完: 音乐是我们自身以及周边一切事物的 基本组成部分。 音乐是我的爱好, 但是物理曾经也是我的兴趣之一。 我学到得越多, 就越能看到它们两者之间的联系—— 特别是在弦理论方面。 我知道这只是众多理论中的一个, 但它却直击我的心扉。 弦理论的一方面,简单来说就是: 物质是由原子构成的, 原子又由质子、中子和电子构成, 而这些又是由夸克构成。 接下来就到了弦的部分。 据推测,夸克是由 很小很小的线状的弦构成, 弦的不同振动和运动 构成了宇宙万物。
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.
加来道雄曾经在一场名为 “果壳中的宇宙”的讲座中对此做过解释, 他说, “弦理论是一个很简单的概念, 宇宙中的四种基本作用力—— 引力、电磁力以及 强、弱相互作用力—— 可以看成是音乐。 一首微型橡皮筋之歌。” 在这场讲座中,他继续解释道, 物理就像是这些弦之间的和声法则; 化学则是你可以在这些弦中演奏的旋律; 他说宇宙就是一首“弦的交响曲”。 这些弦决定了宇宙; 它们构成了所有我们 看到和知道的事物。 它们是音符, 但是却构成了我们, 并把我们联系在一起。 所以看吧, 所有东西都是音乐。
(Guitar)
(吉它)
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.
当我看着这个世界的时候, 我看见到处都是音乐。 当我看着自己时, 我看见了音乐。 我的生命已经被音乐所定义。 我通过音乐找到了自我。 音乐无处不在, 它存在于所有事物中。 它改变、它增强, 也会减弱。 但是它会一直在, 一直支持着我们, 将我们相互联系在一起, 并向我们展示这宇宙的美妙。
So if you ever feel lost, stop and listen for your song.
所以,如果你曾感到迷茫, 请停下来倾听你心中的歌曲。
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(掌声)