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.
Želio sam biti rock zvijezda. Sanjao sam o tome, i samo o tome. Da budem precizniji, htio sam biti pop zvijezda. To su bile kasne 80-e. I najviše sam od svega htio biti peti član Depeche Modea ili Duran Durana. Nisu me htjeli. Nisam čitao note, ali sam svirao klavijature i bubnjeve. Odrastao sam u malom poljoprivrednom gradiću u sjevernoj Nevadi. I bio sam siguran da će takav biti moj život.
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.
A kad sam otišao na fakultet na Sveučilištu Nevada u Las Vegasu kada mi je bilo 18 godina, bio sam zatečen kad sam otkrio da ne postoji predmet kako postati pop zvijezda, a čak ni smjer za to područje. Zborovođa je znao da pjevam pa me pozvao da dođem i pridružim se zboru. Rekao sam: „Da, volio bih to. Zvuči odlično.“ Izašao sam iz sobe i rekao, „Nema šanse.“ Zboraši su u mojoj srednjoj bili poprilični štreberi i nije bilo šanse da imam nešto s tim ljudima. Otprilike tjedan dana poslije, prijatelj mi je došao i rekao: „Slušaj, moraš doći u zbor. Na kraju semestra idemo na put u Mexico, svi troškovi plaćeni. A imamo jako puno zgodnih soprana.“ Shvatio sam da bih za Mexico i cure učinio skoro sve.
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.
Otišao sam i svoj prvi dan u zboru sjeo sam s basovima i gledao preko ramena da vidim što rade. Otvorili su note, zborovođa je označio početak i, bum, počeli su pjevati Kyrie iz Mozartova „Requiema“. Cijelog sam života gledao crno-bijelo i odjednom je sve bilo u šokantnom Technicoloru. Iskustvo koje me najviše promijenilo – u tom jednom trenutku kad sam čuo disonance i harmoniju i ljude koji pjevaju, ljude zajedno, zajedničku viziju. Prvi sam puta u životu osjetio da sam dio nečega većeg od mene samog. I ispostavilo se da je ipak bilo zgodnih soprana.
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.
Odlučio sam napisati zborsku skladbu nekoliko godina kasnije kao dar zborovođi koji je promijenio moj život. Dotad sam naučio čitati note, ili sam polako učio čitati ih. I to je djelo bilo objavljeno, onda sam napisao još jedno i to se objavilo. Onda sam počeo dirigirati i završio sam na izradi magisterija na Juilliardu. I sad se nalazim u malo vjerojatnom položaju da stojim pred svima vama kao profesionalni klasični skladatelj i dirigent.
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."
Prije nekoliko godina prijatelj mi je proslijedio link, YouTube link i rekao je, „Moraš ovo vidjeti.“ Bila je to mlada žena koja mi je poslala fan video u kojemu je pjevala sopran iz mog djela „Sleep.“
(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 ♫
(Video) Britlin Losee: Bok, gospodine Eric Whitacre. Zovem se Britlin Losee i ovo je video koji sam napravila za vas. Ovdje ja pjevam „Sleep.“ Pomalo sam nervozna, samo da znate. ♫ Ukoliko postoje zvukovi ♫ ♫ u noći ♫
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.
Eric Whitacre: Ostao sam zabezeknut. Britlin je bila tako nevina i slatka, a njen je glas bio tako čist. Svidjelo mi se gledati i iza nje. Mogao sam vidjeti malog plišanog medvjeda kako sjedi na klaviru iza nje u njezinoj sobi. Tako intiman video.
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.
I došao sam na sljedeću ideju: ako bih mogao dobiti 50 ljudi da svi naprave ovo isto, otpjevati svoje dionice – sopran, alt, tenor, bas – gdje god bili u svijetu, objaviti svoje snimke na YouTube, mogli bismo ih sve zajedno spojiti i stvoriti virtualni zbor. Na svoj sam blog napisao: „OMG OMG.“ Doslovno sam napisao „OMG,“ nadam se zadnji put u javnosti. (Smijeh) I uputio sam ovaj poziv pjevačima. Učinio sam download nota za skladbu koju sam napisao 2000. godine „Lux Aurumque“, što znači „svjetlost i zlato“ besplatnim. I gle, ljudi su počeli objavljivati svoje snimke.
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 ...
Trebam reći, prije toga sam objavio snimku sebe kako dirigiram. U potpunoj je tišini kad sam je snimao zato što sam samo slušao glazbu u svojoj glavi, zamišljajući zbor koji će jednog dana nastati. Poslije sam odsvirao glasovirsku pratnju ispod da bi pjevači imali što slušati. I onda kad su snimke počele pristizati ...
(Singing) This is Cheryl Ang from Singapore.
(Pjeva) Ovo je Cheryl Ang iz Singapura.
(Singing) This is Evangelina Etienne
(Pjeva) Ovo je Evangelina Etienne
(Singing) from Massachusetts.
(Pjeva) iz Massachusettsa.
(Singing) Stephen Hanson from Sweden.
(Pjeva) Stephen Hanson iz Švedske.
(Singing) This is Jamal Walker from Dallas, Texas.
(Pjeva) Ovo je Jamal Walker iz Dallasa u Texasu.
(Singing)
(Pjeva)
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."
Bila je čak i mala sopranska solo dionica u skladbi tako da sam održao audiciju. Dosta je soprana objavilo svoje dionice. Kasnije mi je rečeno, i mnogo mi je pjevača koji su sudjelovali u tome reklo da su ponekad morali snimiti 50 ili 60 različitih snimaka dok nisu dobili baš onu pravu koju su objavili. Evo pobjednice našeg natječaja za solista. Ovo je Melanie Myers iz Tennesseeja. (Pjeva) Volim ovaj mali smiješak što napravi na vrhu tona, kao da kaže „Nema problema, sve je u redu.“
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
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.
Iz mase je izašao ovaj mladi čovjek, Scott Haines. Rekao je „Slušaj, ovo je projekt koji tražim cijeli život. Volio bih urediti sve ovo u jedno.“ Rekao sam, „Hvala ti, Scott. Tako mi je drago što si me našao.“ Scott je skupio sve snimke. Doradio je zvuk. Pobrinuo se da je sve usklađeno. I onda je objavio ovaj video na YouTube prije otprilike godinu i pol. Ovo je „Lux Aurumque“ kojeg pjeva Virtualni zbor.
(Singing)
(Pjevanje)
I'll stop it there in the interest of time. (Applause)
Tu ću zaustaviti zbog vremena. (Pljesak)
Thank you. Thank you.
Hvala vam. Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
Thank you. So there's more. There's more. Thank you so much.
Hvala vam. Ima još. Ima još. Hvala vam puno.
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.
Reagirao sam isto kao i vi. Ganulo me do suza kad sam prvi puta ovo vidio. Nisam mogao vjerovati poetičnosti svega ovoga – sve ove duše na svojim osamljenim otocima koje si šalju elektroničke poruke u boci jedni drugima. I video je postao zarazan. Imali smo milijun gledatelja prvi mjesec i dobili smo mnogo pažnje za njega. Zbog toga je mnogo pjevača reklo, „Dobro, što je Virtualni zbor 2.0?“ Odlučio sam za Virtualni zbor 2.0 izabrati onu skladbu koju je Britlin pjevala, „Sleep“ , to je još jedno djelo koje sam skladao 2000. – na pjesmu mog dragog prijatelja Charlesa Anthonyja Silvestrija. Ponovno sam objavio dirigentsku snimku i počeli smo primati prijave. Ovog smo puta dobili zrelije članove. (Pjeva) I neke mlađe.
(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?
(Video) Sopran: ♫ Na mom jastuku ♫ ♫ Siguran u krevetu ♫ To je Georgie iz Engleske. Ima samo devet godina. Nije li to nešto najslađe što ste ikad vidjeli?
Someone did all eight videos -- a bass even singing the soprano parts. This is Beau Awtin. (Video) Beau Awtin: ♫ Safe in bed ♫
Netko je napravio svih osam snimaka – bas je čak otpjevao sopranske dionice. Ovo je Beau Awtin. (Video) Beau Awtin: ♫ Siguran u krevetu ♫
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.
I naš cilj – bio je to prilično proizvoljan cilj – bio je MTV video u kojem su svi pjevali „Lollipop“ i doveli su ljude iz cijelog svijeta da otpjevaju samo tu malu melodiju. I 900 je ljudi sudjelovalo u tome. Rekao sam pjevačima, „To nam je cilj, to je broj koji moramo prestići.“ Zatvorili smo prijave 10. siječnja i konačan broj bio je 2.051 snimak iz 58 različitih zemalja. Hvala vam. (Pljesak) S Malte, Madagaskara, Tajlanda, Vijetnama, Jordana, Egipta, Izraela, od sjevera i Aljaske do juga i Novog Zelanda.
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."
Stavili smo stranicu i na Facebook na kojem su pjevači mogli stavljati svoje izjave, kako im je bilo, njihovo iskustvo pjevanja toga. Ovdje sam izabrao njih nekoliko. „Moja sestra i ja smo prije stalno pjevali u zborovima zajedno. Sad je u zračnim snagama i stalno putuje. Predivno je ponovno pjevati zajedno.“ Sviđa mi se ideja da ona pjeva sa svojom sestrom. „Osim prekrasne glazbe, odlično je znati da sam dio međunarodne zajednice ljudi koje nikad nisam upoznao, ali koji su opet povezani.“ I moj osobni favorit, „Kad sam rekla mužu da ću biti dio ovoga rekao mi je da nemam glas za to.“ Siguran sam da vas je mnogo to čulo. I ja isto. „Toliko me boljelo i pustila sam suzu, ali je nešto unutar mene željelo to napraviti unatoč njegovim riječima. Ovo je poput ostvarenja sna, biti dio ovog zbora jer nikad nisam bila dio nijednog zbora. Kad sam stavila oznaku na Google Earth Map, morala sam otići do najbližeg grada koji je udaljen otprilike 400 milja od mjesta gdje ja živim. Kako sam u Velikoj Divljini Aljaske, satelit je moja jedina veza sa svijetom."
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.
Dvije su me stvari u ovome duboko pogodile. Prva je ta da će ljudska bića učiniti što god treba da nađu i povežu se jedni s drugima. Bez obzira na tehnologiju. Druga je ta da ljudi osjećaju pravu povezanost. To nije bio virtualan zbor. Ima ljudi koji su online i koji su prijatelji, a nisu se nikada upoznali. Znam i sebe, osjećam ovaj virtualni esprit de corps sa svima njima. Osjećam bliskost s ovim zborom. Skoro kao obitelj.
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.
Htio bih završiti s prvim predstavljanjem skladbe „Sleep“ Virtualnog Zbora 2.0. Ovo će danas biti premijera. Nismo još gotovi s videom. Možete zamisliti, s 2.000 sinkroniziranih YouTube snimaka, vrijeme prikaza je grozno. Ali imamo prve tri minute. I iznimna mi je čast pokazati vam to prvima. Prvi ste ljudi koji će to vidjeti. Ovo je „Sleep“, Virtualni Zbor.
(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 ♫
(Video) Virtualni zbor: ♫ Večer visi ♫ ♫ ispod mjeseca ♫ ♫ Srebrna nit na tamnoj dini ♫ ♫ Sa zatvorenim očima i glavom koja miruje ♫ ♫ Znam da san dolazi uskoro ♫ ♫ Na mom jastuku, ♫ ♫ siguran u krevetu, ♫ ♫ tisuće slika ispune moju glavu ♫ ♫ Ne mogu spavati ♫ ♫ moj um je razbuđen ♫ ♫ a ipak moji udovi kao da su napravljeni od olova ♫ ♫ Ako postoje zvukovi u noći ♫
Eric Whitacre: Thank you very, very much. Thank you. (Applause) Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.
Eric Whitacre: Puno vam, puno hvala. Hvala vam. (Pljesak) Puno vam hvala. Hvala vam. Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)