As a singer-songwriter, people often ask me about my influences or, as I like to call them, my sonic lineages. And I could easily tell you that I was shaped by the jazz and hip hop that I grew up with, by the Ethiopian heritage of my ancestors, or by the 1980s pop on my childhood radio stations. But beyond genre, there is another question: how do the sounds we hear every day influence the music that we make? I believe that everyday soundscape can be the most unexpected inspiration for songwriting, and to look at this idea a little bit more closely, I'm going to talk today about three things: nature, language and silence -- or rather, the impossibility of true silence. And through this I hope to give you a sense of a world already alive with musical expression, with each of us serving as active participants, whether we know it or not.
我身為歌手兼作曲家, 大家常問我的靈感來源, 但我喜歡這麼說, 我的「聲音族譜」是什麼。 我可以很爽快地回答, 成長的時候我受 爵士及嘻哈音樂風格影響, 以及來自我祖先 衣索比亞的傳統音樂, 或是我童年時期廣播 常播放的 80 年代流行音樂。 但是除了音樂流派之外, 還有另一個問題: 我們日常聽到的聲音 如何影響我們所創作的音樂? 我相信此些日常音景 可成為不可思議之創作靈感, 進一步探討這一想法, 今天我的演講將圍繞三大主體: 自然、語言、無聲── 更清楚一點, 真正無聲的不可能性。 從而我希望你更了解 這因多種音樂的情感表現 而豐富的世界, 我們每個人都是積極的參與者, 雖然我們不一定意識到這問題。
I'm going to start today with nature, but before we do that, let's quickly listen to this snippet of an opera singer warming up. Here it is.
我會從自然開始,但開始之前, 請你聽一段歌劇歌手 為演唱暖嗓的音樂。 音樂開始。
(Singing)
(唱歌)
(Singing ends)
(歌唱結束)
It's beautiful, isn't it? Gotcha! That is actually not the sound of an opera singer warming up. That is the sound of a bird slowed down to a pace that the human ear mistakenly recognizes as its own. It was released as part of Peter Szöke's 1987 Hungarian recording "The Unknown Music of Birds," where he records many birds and slows down their pitches to reveal what's underneath. Let's listen to the full-speed recording.
很好聽是嗎? 你被騙了! 這不是歌劇歌手開唱前的暖嗓。 而是一種鳥的叫聲, 被放慢到一定程度, 人耳誤聽為人的歌聲。 剛才的音樂就是一名匈牙利音樂家 於 1987 年出版專輯中一部分, 名為《未發現之鳥類音樂》, 為了突出鳥類叫聲本質, 他錄了多種鳥叫聲並放慢速度。 現在我們來聽一段正常速度的錄音。
(Bird singing)
(鳥類叫聲)
Now, let's hear the two of them together so your brain can juxtapose them.
現在連續聽這兩首, 你們可以自己比較。
(Bird singing at slow then full speed)
(放慢的鳥類叫聲,然後正常速度)
(Singing ends)
(音樂結束)
It's incredible. Perhaps the techniques of opera singing were inspired by birdsong. As humans, we intuitively understand birds to be our musical teachers.
好奇妙! 歌劇技巧大概從鳥類叫聲取得靈感。 人類本能地將鳥類視為音樂老師。
In Ethiopia, birds are considered an integral part of the origin of music itself. The story goes like this: 1,500 years ago, a young man was born in the Empire of Aksum, a major trading center of the ancient world. His name was Yared. When Yared was seven years old his father died, and his mother sent him to go live with an uncle, who was a priest of the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition, one of the oldest churches in the world. Now, this tradition has an enormous amount of scholarship and learning, and Yared had to study and study and study and study, and one day he was studying under a tree, when three birds came to him. One by one, these birds became his teachers. They taught him music -- scales, in fact. And Yared, eventually recognized as Saint Yared, used these scales to compose five volumes of chants and hymns for worship and celebration. And he used these scales to compose and to create an indigenous musical notation system. And these scales evolved into what is known as kiñit, the unique, pentatonic, five-note, modal system that is very much alive and thriving and still evolving in Ethiopia today.
在衣索比亞,鳥類被視為 音樂起源的一部分。zz 根據傳說, 1500 年前,一個小男孩 出生於阿克蘇姆王國, 當時的世界貿易中心。 他的名字為雅瑞德。 雅瑞德七歲的時候,他的父親去世, 母親將他交給舅舅撫養, 這位舅舅是衣索比亞正教的神父, 為世界古老的教會系統之一。 因為此教派傳講大量知識, 所以雅瑞德必須埋頭苦讀, 某天他在樹下學習時, 有三隻鳥飛來他旁邊。 每一隻鳥陸續成為他的教師。 牠們教他音樂,其實就是音階。 後來,雅瑞德被尊稱為聖雅瑞德, 用此音階寫成五卷聖歌和讚美聖詩, 給各種禮拜及節慶使用。 他也從這些音階譜出及發明出 一套當地使用的記譜法。 這些音階演變成 衣索比亞音階 (kiñit), 其獨特的五聲音階, 由五個音組成的調式, 現在在衣索比亞還普遍使用及發展。
Now, I love this story because it's true at multiple levels. Saint Yared was a real, historical figure, and the natural world can be our musical teacher. And we have so many examples of this: the Pygmies of the Congo tune their instruments to the pitches of the birds in the forest around them. Musician and natural soundscape expert Bernie Krause describes how a healthy environment has animals and insects taking up low, medium and high-frequency bands, in exactly the same way as a symphony does. And countless works of music were inspired by bird and forest song. Yes, the natural world can be our cultural teacher.
我很喜歡這個故事, 因為它在很多方面都可考證。 聖雅瑞德是一位真實人物, 而自然世界 也可以成為我們的教師呀! 有很多相似的例子: 剛果俾格米人(矮人族) 根據山鳥叫聲調整琴弦。 音樂家兼自然音景專家 伯尼克勞斯描述, 一個健康的環境會有各種動物及昆蟲 占據低、中及高頻率的音頻, 和人類的交響樂一樣。 數不清的曲子 以鳥類和森林作為靈感。 沒錯,自然世界 可以成為我們的文化教師。
So let's go now to the uniquely human world of language. Every language communicates with pitch to varying degrees, whether it's Mandarin Chinese, where a shift in melodic inflection gives the same phonetic syllable an entirely different meaning, to a language like English, where a raised pitch at the end of a sentence ... (Going up in pitch) implies a question?
現在我們來談獨特的人類世界語言。 每個語言通過各種音高交流, 無論是華語, 如果你將音調發錯, 會讓相同的拼音音節 產生不同的意思; 或者其它語言像英語, 在句尾語氣上揚…… (提升音高)代表問句,對嗎?
(Laughter)
(觀眾大笑)
As an Ethiopian-American woman, I grew up around the language of Amharic, Amhariña. It was my first language, the language of my parents, one of the main languages of Ethiopia. And there are a million reasons to fall in love with this language: its depth of poetics, its double entendres, its wax and gold, its humor, its proverbs that illuminate the wisdom and follies of life. But there's also this melodicism, a musicality built right in. And I find this distilled most clearly in what I like to call emphatic language -- language that's meant to highlight or underline or that springs from surprise. Take, for example, the word: "indey." Now, if there are Ethiopians in the audience, they're probably chuckling to themselves, because the word means something like "No!" or "How could he?" or "No, he didn't." It kind of depends on the situation. But when I was a kid, this was my very favorite word, and I think it's because it has a pitch. It has a melody. You can almost see the shape as it springs from someone's mouth. "Indey" -- it dips, and then raises again. And as a musician and composer, when I hear that word, something like this is floating through my mind.
身為衣索比亞美裔婦女, 我在阿姆哈拉語環境中長大。 這是我的母語,是我父母說的語言, 是衣索比亞主要語言之一。 我有一千萬個理由喜愛這個語言: 詩歌的深度,雙關的詞語, 隱藏的涵義,幽默的特性, 生活中有智慧的俗語以及反語。 但更主要的是包括在 詞語裡面的旋律感。 我發現這種旋律感在 我所稱的「強調語言」中 明顯突出—— 即明顯指出、強調意思之語言, 或者表示驚訝的狀態。 例如 indey 這個字, 如果在座有衣索比亞人, 他們一定會咯咯笑起來, 因為這個字的意思是「不行!」 或「他怎麼能這樣呢?」 或「不,他沒有。」 根據具體的情況而不同。 可是在我小時候, 這是我最喜歡的字, 我想是因為我喜歡它的音高。 它有旋律。 這個字發出來, 我們幾乎可以看到它的口型。 “Indey” — 音調先往下降後再往上升高。 身為音樂家和作曲家, 每次聽到此字, 這樣的畫面就在我的腦海裡展現。
(Music and singing "Indey")
(音樂和唱 indey)
(Music ends)
(音樂停止)
Or take, for example, the phrase for "It is right" or "It is correct" -- "Lickih nehu ... Lickih nehu." It's an affirmation, an agreement. "Lickih nehu." When I hear that phrase, something like this starts rolling through my mind.
另外一個例子, 代表「沒錯、正確」—— "Lickih nehu ... Lickih nehu." 就是確定、同意。 "Lickih nehu." 我聽到此詞的時候, 音樂泉在我的腦海裡流出。
(Music and singing "Lickih nehu")
(音樂及唱 “Lickih nehu” 聲)
(Music ends)
(音樂結束)
And in both of those cases, what I did was I took the melody and the phrasing of those words and phrases and I turned them into musical parts to use in these short compositions. And I like to write bass lines, so they both ended up kind of as bass lines.
以上兩個例子, 我都以這些字的旋律和分句, 轉成音樂的因素,從而寫成短曲。 我喜歡寫低音音樂, 所以以上的兩個短曲都是低音的。
Now, this is based on the work of Jason Moran and others who work intimately with music and language, but it's also something I've had in my head since I was a kid, how musical my parents sounded when they were speaking to each other and to us. It was from them and from Amhariña that I learned that we are awash in musical expression with every word, every sentence that we speak, every word, every sentence that we receive. Perhaps you can hear it in the words I'm speaking even now.
根據賈森莫蘭及同事的研究, 他們是音樂及語言研究專家, 也是我從小時候一直關注的, 就是我父母 彼此對談與跟我們對話時 具音樂性的腔調。 正是他們講的阿姆哈拉語 讓我推出一個觀念, 就是語言充滿了音樂風格, 在每一句我們說出的話, 在每一句我們聽到的話。 你們或許可以在我現在說出的 每一句話中領會到。
Finally, we go to the 1950s United States and the most seminal work of 20th century avant-garde composition: John Cage's "4:33," written for any instrument or combination of instruments. The musician or musicians are invited to walk onto the stage with a stopwatch and open the score, which was actually purchased by the Museum of Modern Art -- the score, that is. And this score has not a single note written and there is not a single note played for four minutes and 33 seconds. And, at once enraging and enrapturing, Cage shows us that even when there are no strings being plucked by fingers or hands hammering piano keys, still there is music, still there is music, still there is music. And what is this music? It was that sneeze in the back.
最後,我要談一首 1950 年 美國的音樂作品, 為 20 世紀前衛派 最具影響力的曲子: 約翰·凱吉之《4′33″》, 寫給任何樂器或任何組合樂器。 演奏家受邀上舞台, 帶著碼錶並把樂譜打開, 此樂譜已被當代藝術博物館 收購作展覽專用—— 只有樂譜,就這樣。 這張樂譜上沒有任何音符, 演奏家在整整 4 分 33 秒的時間 也不彈任何一個音。 (觀眾)在又生氣又著迷的狀態下, 凱吉告訴我們就算琴弦不被彈, 鋼琴弦不被敲, 音樂還是顯現, 對, 音樂還是顯現。 音樂依舊顯現。 所以這首裡面的音樂是什麼呢? 在遠處有某人打噴嚏。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
It is the everyday soundscape that arises from the audience themselves: their coughs, their sighs, their rustles, their whispers, their sneezes, the room, the wood of the floors and the walls expanding and contracting, creaking and groaning with the heat and the cold, the pipes clanking and contributing. And controversial though it was, and even controversial though it remains, Cage's point is that there is no such thing as true silence. Even in the most silent environments, we still hear and feel the sound of our own heartbeats. The world is alive with musical expression. We are already immersed.
這首音樂就是觀眾的日常音景: 咳嗽、歎氣、耳語、 打噴嚏、衣服摩擦之聲音, 屋子、木板牆、木頭地板 因熱脹冷縮發出吱嘎作響的聲音, 水管劈劈啪啪也來湊一腳。 雖然此曲充滿爭議性, 而且一直備受爭議, 凱奇的觀點就是沒有真正的無聲。 甚至在最無聲的環境中, 我們還是能聽到及感受到 我們心跳的聲音。 這個世界充滿音樂表達。 基本上我們一直沉浸在音樂裡。
Now, I had my own moment of, let's say, remixing John Cage a couple of months ago when I was standing in front of the stove cooking lentils. And it was late one night and it was time to stir, so I lifted the lid off the cooking pot, and I placed it onto the kitchen counter next to me, and it started to roll back and forth making this sound.
我自己也有可以說是重混 約翰·凱吉的經驗瞬間。 就在幾個月前, 我站在爐子前煮著扁豆的時候, 那時已經很晚, 可是到了該攪拌的時刻, 所以我打開鍋蓋, 把蓋子放在旁邊的流理台上, 蓋子就滾來滾去 發出這種聲音。
(Sound of metal lid clanking against a counter)
(金屬蓋子碰撞流理台的噹啷聲)
(Clanking ends)
(噹啷聲停止)
And it stopped me cold. I thought, "What a weird, cool swing that cooking pan lid has." So when the lentils were ready and eaten, I hightailed it to my backyard studio, and I made this.
我瞬間凍住。 我想:「蓋子搖擺聲 真是好酷好怪!」 所以在扁豆熟了,也吃完了之後, 我馬上帶著鍋子到後院的錄音房, 錄出來此曲子。
(Music, including the sound of the lid, and singing)
(音樂,包括蓋子聲音及歌聲)
(Music ends)
(音樂停止)
Now, John Cage wasn't instructing musicians to mine the soundscape for sonic textures to turn into music. He was saying that on its own, the environment is musically generative, that it is generous, that it is fertile, that we are already immersed.
約翰·凱吉沒有意思要告訴音樂家 將任何背景聲音寫成曲子。 他的意思是,我們周圍環境本身 已經常常產生聲音, 非常多量、豐沛, 我們已經被音樂圍繞著。
Musician, music researcher, surgeon and human hearing expert Charles Limb is a professor at Johns Hopkins University and he studies music and the brain. And he has a theory that it is possible -- it is possible -- that the human auditory system actually evolved to hear music, because it is so much more complex than it needs to be for language alone. And if that's true, it means that we're hard-wired for music, that we can find it anywhere, that there is no such thing as a musical desert, that we are permanently hanging out at the oasis, and that is marvelous. We can add to the soundtrack, but it's already playing.
音樂家、音樂研究家、 手術醫生及聽力專家查爾斯·理姆 是約翰霍普金斯大學教授, 他專長研究音樂及腦部。 他也定出一個理論, 指出很可能,非常有可能, 人類聽力系統是為了聽音樂而進化, 因為這比聽懂語言 這個簡單目的複雜的多。 如果這論點是正確的, 意思是我們天生就是要聽音樂的, 而且我們到處都可以找到音樂, 音樂沙漠是不可能存在的, 因為我們一直身在音樂綠洲中。 這真是絕妙。 我們可以把這些聲音加進創作中, 不過這些已經在演奏了。
And it doesn't mean don't study music. Study music, trace your sonic lineages and enjoy that exploration. But there is a kind of sonic lineage to which we all belong. So the next time you are seeking percussion inspiration, look no further than your tires, as they roll over the unusual grooves of the freeway, or the top-right burner of your stove and that strange way that it clicks as it is preparing to light. When seeking melodic inspiration, look no further than dawn and dusk avian orchestras or to the natural lilt of emphatic language. We are the audience and we are the composers and we take from these pieces we are given. We make, we make, we make, we make, knowing that when it comes to nature or language or soundscape, there is no end to the inspiration -- if we are listening.
他不是告訴我們不要學音樂。 還是要學音樂,還是要追溯 你的聲音族譜,並享受這場探險。 可是有一種聲音族譜 是我們都屬於的。 下次你在尋找打擊樂的靈感時, 就近去聽你的車輪在高速公路上 碾過稀少的凹凸處的聲音; 或者去聽你家右邊的爐頭, 在打火點燃時 發出的卡嗒聲。 要尋找旋律的靈感時, 就近去聽早晨或傍晚之鳥叫聲, 或者是強調語音之自然悠揚聲音。 我們是聽眾,也是作曲家, 我們可用現有的聲音資源。 我們創作,創作,一直創作, 因為知道大自然或語言或音景 可以帶來永恆靈感, 只要我們認真聆聽。
Thank you.
感謝大家!
(Applause)
(鼓掌聲)