In 1991 I had maybe the most profound and transformative experience of my life. I was in the third year of my seven-year undergraduate degree. I took a couple victory laps in there. And I was on a college choir tour up in Northern California, and we had stopped for the day after all day on the bus, and we were relaxing next to this beautiful idyllic lake in the mountains. And there were crickets and birds and frogs making noise, and as we sat there, over the mountains coming in from the north were these Steven Spielbergian clouds rolling toward us, and as the clouds got about halfway over the valley, so help me God, every single animal in that place stopped making noise at the same time. (Whoosh) This electric hush, as if they could sense what was about to happen. And then the clouds came over us, and then, boom! This massive thunderclap, and sheets of rain. It was just extraordinary, and when I came back home I found a poem by the Mexican poet Octavio Paz, and decided to set it to music, a piece for choir called "Cloudburst," which is the piece that we'll perform for you in just a moment.
在 1991 年,我經歷了 也許是一生中最深層 且改變最大之經驗, 當時我正在大學七年學程中的第三年, 在那裡我嘗過幾場勝利, 我當時在北加州參加了一個 大學合唱團的巡迴表演, 整天都待在巴士上, 有一天我們停下來, 我們在休息, 就在如詩如畫的湖光山色旁。 身旁充滿蟋蟀聲、鳥鳴、青蛙叫聲, 當我們一坐下,從北面的群山那邊, 突然飄來一群史蒂芬史匹柏 電影裡才會出現的烏雲, 向我們翻滾而來。 當烏雲蓋住一半的村莊時, 天啊,所有在場的動物, 同時都不再發聲,正是鴉雀無聲。 「咻~~」疾電般的寧靜, 牠們似乎能感到有事情要發生了。 雲層向我們飄過來,然後, 「爆! 」超級大霹靂,瞬間下起傾盆大雨。 簡直不可思議,然後當我回到家時, 我找到了墨西哥詩人 奧克塔維奧•帕斯 (Octavio Paz) 的一首詩, 決定將它譜上音樂, 這首合唱曲就叫做 「暴雨」, 也就是即將為你們表演的曲目。
Now fast forward to just three years ago. (Music) And we released to YouTube this, the Virtual Choir Project, 185 singers from 12 different countries. You can see my little video there conducting these people, alone in their dorm rooms or in their living rooms at home. Two years ago, on this very stage, we premiered Virtual Choir 2, 2,052 singers from 58 different countries, this time performing a piece that I had written called "Sleep." And then just last spring we released Virtual Choir 3, "Water Night," another piece that I had written, this time nearly 4,000 singers from 73 different countries. (Music)
現在,我們回到三年前。 (音樂) 我們在YouTube上發表了這個, 「虛擬合唱團計畫」 來自 12 個國家的 185 位歌手。 你可以看到這小小影片, 我正在指揮這些人, 他們單獨地在宿舍, 或在家的客廳裡。 兩年前,在這非常舞台,我們首演了 「虛擬合唱 2」。 來自 58 個國家的 2052 位歌手, 那次表演了我的創作「沉睡」, 而去年春天我們剛剛發表了「虛擬合唱 3」, 也是我創作的另一個作品「水之夜」, 這次約有 4000 位歌手,他們來自 73 個國家, (音樂)
And when I was speaking to Chris about the future of Virtual Choir and where we might be able to take this, he challenged me to push the technology as far as we possibly could. Could we do this all in real time? Could we have people singing together in real time?
當我和克力斯討論 「虛擬合唱團」的未來, 而我們將可到達什麼境界的時候, 他提出我們要把科技盡可能運用到極致。 我們可以做到即時嗎? 我們可以使歌手即時地一起唱歌嗎?
And with the help of Skype, that is what we are going to attempt today. Now, we'll perform "Cloudburst" for you. The first half will be performed by the live singers here on stage. I'm joined by singers from Cal State Long Beach, Cal State Fullerton and Riverside Community College, some of the best amateur choirs in the country, and — (Applause) -- and in the second half of the piece, the virtual choir will join us, 30 different singers from 30 different countries.
而運用了Skype, 這就是我們今天要做的事。 現在為你們演唱「暴雨」, 上半場將由台上的歌手現場演唱, 歌手們來自加州大學長灘分校、 加州大學富爾頓分校、河濱社區學院, 他們是全國最優秀的業餘合唱團之一, (掌聲) 在下半首作品中, 虛擬合唱團會加入我們,有 30 位歌手 他們來自 30 個國家。
Now, we've pushed the technology as far as it can go, but there's still less than a second of latency, but in musical terms, that's a lifetime. We deal in milliseconds. So what I've done is, I've adapted "Cloudburst" so that it embraces the latency and the performers sing into the latency instead of trying to be exactly together.
現在,我們已將科技運用到極致, 但是仍有不到一秒鐘的延遲, 以音樂術語來說,這是一輩子那麼長, 我們通常處理毫秒。 所以我可以做到的是,把「暴雨」改編, 那麼我們便運用了延遲, 表演者的歌聲有所延遲, 而不是把聲音湊在一起。
So with deep humility, and for your approval, we present "Cloudburst."
我們用最謙卑的心情,請你們見證 - 我們的演出「暴雨」。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
(Piano)
(鋼琴)
[The rain ...] [Eyes of shadow-water] [eyes of well-water] [eyes of dream-water.] [Blue suns, green whirlwinds,] [birdbeaks of light pecking open] [pomegranate stars.] [But tell me, burnt earth, is there no water?] [Only blood, only dust,] [only naked footsteps on the thorns?] [The rain awakens...] [We must sleep with open eyes,] [we must dream with our hands,] [we must dream the dreams of a river seeking its course,] [of the sun dreaming its worlds.] [We must dream aloud,] [we must sing till the song puts forth roots,] [trunk, branches, birds, stars.] [We must find the lost word,] [and remember what the blood,] [the tides, the earth, and the body say,] [and return to the point of departure...]
[雨...] [水影之眼] [井水之眼] [夢水之眼] [藍色的太陽、綠色的旋風] [鳥喙輕啄] [石榴星] [但是請告訴我,焦土中有沒有水?] [只有血,只有塵] [只有赤腳踏在荊棘?] [這雨喚醒....] [我們必須睜眼入睡] [我們必須用雙手創造夢想] [我們必須夢想河流溯源之夢] [夢想太陽的世界] [我們必須盡情夢想] [我們必須一直唱到根長出了] [樹幹、樹枝、小鳥、星星] [我們必須找到失落的世界] [記住那血] [浪潮、土地和身體說的話] [回到出發的地點...]
(Music)
(音樂)
(Applause)
(掌聲)
["Cloudburst" Octavio Paz][translation by Lysander Kemp, adapted by Eric Whitacre]
["暴雨"奧克塔維奧·帕斯] [萊桑德‧肯普 翻譯,艾瑞克.惠特克 改編]
Eric Whitacre: Beth. Annabelle, where are you? Jacob. (Applause) Thank you.
艾瑞克.惠特克:貝絲,安娜貝爾。你們在哪兒? 雅各。 (掌聲) 謝謝