Jeg ville gerne være en rock-stjerne Det var min store drøm, og også det eneste jeg drømte om. Faktisk var det pop-stjerne jeg gerne ville være. Det her var i slut 80'erne. Og mest af alt ville jeg gerne være det femte medlem af Depeche Mode eller Duran Duran De ville ikke have mig. Jeg kunne ikke læse noder, men jeg kunne spille på synthesizer og tromme maskiner. Og jeg voksede op i en lille landsby i det nordlige Nevada. Og jeg var sikker på at det var sådan mit liv ville være.
I wanted to be a rock star. I dreamed of it, and that's all I dreamed of. To be more accurate, I wanted to be a pop star. This was in the late '80s. And mostly I wanted to be the fifth member of Depeche Mode or Duran Duran. They wouldn't have me. I didn't read music, but I played synthesizers and drum machines. And I grew up in this little farming town in northern Nevada. And I was certain that's what my life would be.
Og da jeg tog på college ved Nevada's universitet i Las Vegas da jeg var 18 var jeg chokeret over at opdage at der ikke var en opskrift på at blive popstjerne eller en uddannelse i den retning. Og kor-dirigenten dér vidste at jeg sang og tilbød mig at komme og blive en del af koret. Og jeg sagde: "Ja, det vil jeg meget gerne. Det lyder fedt." Og så forlod jeg rummet og sagde: "Aldrig i livet." Dem der gik til kor var ret nørdede og jeg skulle under ingen omstændigheder have noget at gøre med dem. Og en uge senere sagde en ven til mig: "Hør her, du bliver nødt til at blive en del af koret." I slutningen af semesteret tager vi en tur til Mexico med alt betalt og sopran sektionen er fuld af lækre piger. Og så tænkte jeg at for Mexico og lækre damers skyld kunne jeg gøre stortset hvad som helst.
And when I went to college at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas when I was 18, I was stunned to find that there was not a Pop Star 101, or even a degree program for that interest. And the choir conductor there knew that I sang and invited me to come and join the choir. And I said, "Yes, I would love to do that. It sounds great." And I left the room and said, "No way." The choir people in my high school were pretty geeky, and there was no way I was going to have anything to do with those people. And about a week later, a friend of mine came to me and said, "Listen, you've got to join choir. At the end of the semester, we're taking a trip to Mexico, all expenses paid. And the soprano section is just full of hot girls." And so I figured for Mexico and babes, I could do just about anything.
Og jeg tog til min første dag i koret og satte mig ned ved basserne og prøvede sådan at lure på hvad det var at de lavede. De åbnede deres partiturer og dirigenten gav forslaget og slam, så gik de i gang med Kyrien fra Mozarts rekviem. I hele mit liv havde jeg set ting i sort/hvid og nu var det pludselig i farver. Det var den mest forvandlende oplevelse jeg nogensinde havde haft, i det korte øjeblik at høre dissonans og harmoni og syngende mennesker, mennesker der var sammen om en fælles vision. Og jeg følte for første gang i mit liv at jeg var en del af noget større end mig selv, og der var en masse søde piger i sopran sektionen, viste det sig.
And I went to my first day in choir, and I sat down with the basses and sort of looked over my shoulder to see what they were doing. They opened their scores, the conductor gave the downbeat, and boom, they launched into the Kyrie from the "Requiem" by Mozart. In my entire life I had seen in black and white, and suddenly everything was in shocking Technicolor. The most transformative experience I've ever had -- in that single moment, hearing dissonance and harmony and people singing, people together, the shared vision. And I felt for the first time in my life that I was part of something bigger than myself. And there were a lot of cute girls in the soprano section, as it turns out.
Jeg besluttede mig for at skrive et stykke for kor et par år senere som en gave til den dirigent som havde forandret mit liv. På det tidspunkt havde jeg lært at læse musik, eller var i hvert fald begyndt. Og stykket blev udgivet og så skrev jeg et andet stykke, og det blev udgivet. Og så startede jeg med at dirigere og endte med at tage min kandidat ved Juilliard. Og nu finder jeg mig selv i den usandsynlige situation at jeg står foran jer som en professionel, klassisk komponist og dirigent.
I decided to write a piece for choir a couple of years later as a gift to this conductor who had changed my life. I had learned to read music by then, or slowly learning to read music. And that piece was published, and then I wrote another piece, and that got published. And then I started conducting, and I ended up doing my master's degree at the Juilliard School. And I find myself now in the unlikely position of standing in front of all of you as a professional classical composer and conductor.
For et par år siden sendte en ven mig en mail et link, et YouTube link og sagde: "Du bliver nødt til at se det her." Og det var den her unge kvinde som havde lagt en fan video til mig op hvor hun sang sopran stemmen fra mit stykke "Sleep (Søvn)."
Well a couple of years ago, a friend of mine emailed me a link, a YouTube link, and said, "You have got to see this." And it was this young woman who had posted a fan video to me, singing the soprano line to a piece of mine called "Sleep."
(Video) Britlin Losee: Hej hr. Eric Whitacre. Mit navn er Britlin Losee og det her er en video som jeg gerne vil lave til dig. Her er jeg så hvor jeg synger: "Sleep." Jeg er lidt nervøs, bare så du ved det. ♫ Hvis der er lyde ♫ ♫ i natten ♫
(Video) Britlin Losee: Hi Mr. Eric Whitacre. My name is Britlin Losee, and this is a video that I'd like to make for you. Here's me singing "Sleep." I'm a little nervous, just to let you know. ♫ If there are noises ♫ ♫ in the night ♫
Eric Whitacre: Jeg var lamslået. Britlin var så uskyldig og så sød og hendes stemme var så ren. Og jeg elskede at jeg i baggrunden kunne se en lille bamsebjørn sidde på et klaver i hendes værelse. Det var en så intim video
Eric Whitacre: I was thunderstruck. Britlin was so innocent and so sweet, and her voice was so pure. And I even loved seeing behind her; I could see the little teddy bear sitting on the piano behind her in her room. Such an intimate video.
og jeg fik den her idé: "Hvis jeg kunne få 50 mennesker til at gøre det samme, synge deres stemmer - sopran, alt, tenor, bas - hvorend i verden de var og så lægge det op på youtube, så kunne vi klippe det sammen og lave et virtuelt kor. Så jeg skrev på min blog "OMG OMG." Jeg skrev faktisk, "OMG," forhåbentlig var det sidste gang jeg skrev det offentligt. (Latter) Og jeg efterlyste sangere og jeg gjorde det gratis at downloade musikken til et stykke jeg havde skrevet i år 2000 som hed "Lux Aurumque", hvilket betyder "lys og guld." Og ganske vist, så begyndte folk at uploade deres videoer.
And I had this idea: if I could get 50 people to all do this same thing, sing their parts -- soprano, alto, tenor and bass -- wherever they were in the world, post their videos to YouTube, we could cut it all together and create a virtual choir. So I wrote on my blog, "OMG OMG." I actually wrote, "OMG," hopefully for the last time in public ever. (Laughter) And I sent out this call to singers. And I made free the download of the music to a piece that I had written in the year 2000 called "Lux Aurumque," which means "light and gold." And lo and behold, people started uploading their videos.
Det skal siges, at før det, gjorde jeg det at jeg lagde en video op hvor jeg dirigerede stykket. Og der var totalt stille da jeg filmede det, fordi jeg kun hørte musikken i mit hovede, og forestillede mig det kor som en dag ville eksistere. Bagefter spillede jeg et klaver spor så sangerne havde noget at lytte efter. Og så, da videoerne begyndte at strømme ind ...
Now I should say, before that, what I did is I posted a conductor track of myself conducting. And it's in complete silence when I filmed it, because I was only hearing the music in my head, imagining the choir that would one day come to be. Afterwards, I played a piano track underneath so that the singers would have something to listen to. And then as the videos started to come in ...
(Sang) Det her er Cheryl Ang fra Singapore.
(Singing) This is Cheryl Ang from Singapore.
(Sang) Det her Evangelina Etienne.
(Singing) This is Evangelina Etienne
(Sang) fra Massachusetts.
(Singing) from Massachusetts.
(Sang) Stephen Hanson fra Sverige.
(Singing) Stephen Hanson from Sweden.
(Sang) Det her er Jamal Walker fra Dallas, Texas.
(Singing) This is Jamal Walker from Dallas, Texas.
(Sang)
(Singing)
Der var endda en lille sopran solo i stykket så jeg havde auditions og en del sopraner uploadede deres videoer. Jeg fik senere fortalt, og også af en masse sangere som var involveret i det, at de nogengange optog 50 eller 60 gange indtil det var lige som de ville have det -- de uploadede det. Her er vores vinder af sopran soloen. Det her er Melody Myers fra Tennessee. (Sang) Jeg elsker det lille smil hun laver på den høje tone sådan: "Det er da ikke noget problem, det går fint."
There was even a little soprano solo in the piece, and so I had auditions. And a number of sopranos uploaded their parts. I was told later, and also by lots of singers who were involved in this, that they sometimes recorded 50 or 60 different takes until they got just the right take -- they uploaded it. Here's our winner of the soprano solo. This is Melody Myers from Tennessee. (Singing) I love the little smile she does right over the top of the note -- like, "No problem, everything's fine."
(Latter)
(Laughter)
Og ud fra mængden kom en ung mand, Scott Haines. Og han sagde: "Hør her, det her er det projekt jeg har ledt efter hele mit liv. Jeg vil gerne være ham der klipper det hele sammen." Jeg sagde: "Tak scott. Jeg er meget glad for at du fandt mig." Og Scott kombinerede alle videoerne. Han fiksede lyden. Han sørgede for at alt passede sammen. Og så lagde vi det ud på Youtube for omkring halvandet år siden. Det her er "Lux Aurumque" sunget af det Virtuelle Kor.
And from the crowd emerged this young man, Scott Haines. And he said, "Listen, this is the project I've been looking for my whole life. I'd like to be the person to edit this all together." I said, "Thank you, Scott. I'm so glad that you found me." And Scott aggregated all of the videos. He scrubbed the audio. He made sure that everything lined up. And then we posted this video to YouTube about a year and a half ago. This is "Lux Aurumque" sung by the Virtual Choir.
(Sang)
(Singing)
Jeg stopper det hér på grund af tiden. (Applaus)
I'll stop it there in the interest of time. (Applause)
Tak, tak.
Thank you. Thank you.
(Applaus)
(Applause)
Tak. Men der er mere, der er mere. Mange tak.
Thank you. So there's more. There's more. Thank you so much.
Jeg havde den samme reaktion som jer jeg blev faktisk rørt til tårer første gang jeg så det. Jeg kunne ikke fatte poesien bag det hele - de her sjæle på hver deres lille ø som sender elektroniske beskeder i små flasker til hinanden. Videoen blev meget populær. Den blev set en million gange i den første måned og der var stor interesse for den. Og på grund af det, var der en masse sangere der begyndte at sige: " Okay, hvad skal vi til det Virtuelle Kor 2.0?" Så jeg besluttede mig for, at jeg til det Virtuelle Kor 2.0 ville vælge det samme stykke som Britlin sang. "Sleep", hvilket er et andet værk som jeg skrev i år 2000 - digtet af min kære ven Charles Anthony Silvestri. Og igen lagde jeg en dirigent video op og vi begyndte at tage imod indsendinger. Den her gang fik vi nogle mere modne medlemmer (Sang) Og nogle yngre medlemmer
And I had the same reaction you did. I actually was moved to tears when I first saw it. I just couldn't believe the poetry of all of it -- these souls all on their own desert island, sending electronic messages in bottles to each other. And the video went viral. We had a million hits in the first month and got a lot of attention for it. And because of that, then a lot of singers started saying, "All right, what's Virtual Choir 2.0?" And so I decided for Virtual Choir 2.0 that I would choose the same piece that Britlin was singing, "Sleep," which is another work that I wrote in the year 2000 -- poetry by my dear friend Charles Anthony Silvestri. And again, I posted a conductor video, and we started accepting submissions. This time we got some more mature members. (Singing) And some younger members.
(Video) Sopran: ♫ På min pude ♫ ♫ Sikker i min seng ♫ EW: Det er Georgie fra England, hun er kun ni. Er det ikke det sødeste du nogensinde har set?
(Video) Soprano: ♫ Upon my pillow ♫ ♫ Safe in bed ♫ EW: That's Georgie from England. She's only nine. Isn't that the sweetest thing you've ever seen?
En lavede alle otte videoer - en bas som endda sang sopran stemmerne. Det her er Beau Awtin. (Video) Beau Awtin: ♫ Sikker i min seng ♫
Someone did all eight videos -- a bass even singing the soprano parts. This is Beau Awtin. (Video) Beau Awtin: ♫ Safe in bed ♫
EW: Og vores mål - det var en slags udefinerbart mål - der var en MTV video hvor de alle sammen sang "Lollipop" og de fik folk fra hele verden til at synge den her lille melodi. Og der var 900 mennesker involveret i det. Så jeg fortalte sangerne, "Det her er vores mål. Det er det nummer vi skal slå." Og vi lukkede for indsendinger d. 10 Januar. og vores endelig antal var 2,051 videoer fra 58 forskellige lande. Tak. (Applaus) Fra Malta, Madagascar, Thailand, Vietnam, Jordan, Egypten, Israel, så langt nord som Alaska og så langt syd som New Zealand.
EW: And our goal -- it was sort of an arbitrary goal -- there was an MTV video where they all sang "Lollipop" and they got people from all over the world to just sing that little melody. And there were 900 people involved in that. So I told the singers, "That's our goal. That's the number for us to beat." And we just closed submissions January 10th, and our final tally was 2,051 videos from 58 different countries. Thank you. (Applause) From Malta, Madagascar, Thailand, Vietnam, Jordan, Egypt, Israel, as far north as Alaska and as far south as New Zealand.
Og vi lavede en side på facebook hvor sangerne kunne fortælle om deres oplevelse, hvordan det var for dem, deres oplevelse ved at synge med. Og jeg har valgt nogle få her. "Min søster og jeg plejede at synge sammen i kor altid. Nu er hun i luftvåbnet og rejser hele tiden. Det er så dejligt at synge sammen igen!" Jeg elsker det at hun synger sammen med hendes søster. "Udover smuk musik, er det fantastisk at vide at jeg er en del af et verdensomspændende fællesskab af mennesker jeg aldrig har mødt men som alligevel er forbundet med hinanden." Og min personale favorit, "Da jeg fortalte min husbond at jeg ville være en del af det her, fortalte han mig at jeg ikke havde stemmen til det." Ja, det er jeg sikker på mange af jer også har hørt. Det har jeg også selv. "Det gjorde så ondt, og jeg fældede nogle tårer, men noget inden i mig ville gøre det her til trods for hans udtalelse. Det er en opfyldelse af en drøm at være en del af det her kor, da jeg aldrig har været en del af et. Da jeg skulle sætte en markør på Google Earth kortet måtte jeg vælge den nærmeste by, som er 650 km fra hvor jeg bor. Da jeg bor i bushen i Alaska er sattelit min forbindelse til verden."
And we also put a page on Facebook for the singers to upload their testimonials, what it was like for them, their experience singing it. And I've just chosen a few of them here. "My sister and I used to sing in choirs together constantly. Now she's an airman in the air force constantly traveling. It's so wonderful to sing together again!" I love the idea that she's singing with her sister. "Aside from the beautiful music, it's great just to know I'm part of a worldwide community of people I never met before, but who are connected anyway." And my personal favorite, "When I told my husband that I was going to be a part of this, he told me that I did not have the voice for it." Yeah, I'm sure a lot of you have heard that too. Me too. "It hurt so much, and I shed some tears, but something inside of me wanted to do this despite his words. It is a dream come true to be part of this choir, as I've never been part of one. When I placed a marker on the Google Earth Map, I had to go with the nearest city, which is about 400 miles away from where I live. As I am in the Great Alaskan Bush, satellite is my connection to the world."
To ting omkring det her slog mig dybt. Det første er at mennesker vil gå til uanede længder om nødvendigt for at finde og få forbindelse til andre. Teknologien er ligegyldig. Det andet er at folk synes at opleve en reel forbindelse. Det var ikke et virtuelt kor. Der er folk online nu som er venner; de har aldrig mødtes. Men jeg kender også mig selv, jeg føler en virtuel esprit de corps, om man vil, med dem alle sammen. Jeg føler en nærhed til det her kor - næsten lige som en familie.
So two things struck me deeply about this. The first is that human beings will go to any lengths necessary to find and connect with each other. It doesn't matter the technology. And the second is that people seem to be experiencing an actual connection. It wasn't a virtual choir. There are people now online that are friends; they've never met. But, I know myself too, I feel this virtual esprit de corps, if you will, with all of them. I feel a closeness to this choir -- almost like a family.
Det jeg gerne vil afslutte med i dag er et første kig på "Sleep" af det Virtuelle Kor 2.0. Det her er en premiere. Vi er ikke færdige med videoen endnu. Du kan prøve at forestille dig, med 2000 synkroniserede YouTube videoer tager det vanvittigt langt tid at flette dem sammen. Men vi har de første tre minutter. Og det er en kæmpe ære for mig at kunne vise den til jer først. I er de første der kommer til at se det. Det her er "Sleep," det Virtuelle Kor.
What I'd like to close with then today is the first look at "Sleep" by Virtual Choir 2.0. This will be a premiere today. We're not finished with the video yet. You can imagine, with 2,000 synchronized YouTube videos, the render time is just atrocious. But we do have the first three minutes. And it's a tremendous honor for me to be able to show it to you here first. You're the very first people to see this. This is "Sleep," the Virtual Choir.
(Video) Virtuelt Kor: ♫ Aftenen hænger ♫ ♫ under månen ♫ ♫ En sølvtråd på en mørk sandbanke ♫ ♫ Med lukkede øjne og hvilende hovede ♫ ♫ Ved jeg at søvnen er på vej ♫ ♫ På min pude ♫ sikker i min seng ♫ ♫ tusind billeder fylder mine tanker ♫ ♫ Jeg kan ikke sove ♫ ♫ mine tanker flyver ♫ ♫ og alligevel synes mine lemmer tunge ♫ ♫ Hvis der er lyde i natten ♫
(Video) Virtual Choir: ♫ The evening hangs ♫ ♫ beneath the moon ♫ ♫ A silver thread on darkened dune ♫ ♫ With closing eyes and resting head ♫ ♫ I know that sleep is coming soon ♫ ♫ Upon my pillow, ♫ ♫ safe in bed, ♫ ♫ a thousand pictures fill my head ♫ ♫ I cannot sleep ♫ ♫ my mind's aflight ♫ ♫ and yet my limbs seem made of lead ♫ ♫ If there are noises in the night ♫
Eric Whitacre: Mange, mange tak. Mange tak. (Applaus) Mange tak. Tak. Tak.
Eric Whitacre: Thank you very, very much. Thank you. (Applause) Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.
(Applaus)
(Applause)