Meklit Hadero: The unexpected beauty of everyday sounds | TED

Translator: Drilona Gashi Reviewer: Helena Bedalli

As a singer-songwriter,

Si kengetare-tekstshkruese,

people often ask me about my influences or, as I like to call them,

njerezit shpesh me pyesin se kush me inspiron, ose si deshiroj t'i them une,

my sonic lineages.

prejardhja ime e zerit.

And I could easily tell you

Dhe shume lehte mund t'ua tregoj

that I was shaped by the jazz and hip hop that I grew up with,

qe jam rritur duke degjuar xhaz dhe hip hop,

by the Ethiopian heritage of my ancestors,

nga trashegimia e paraardheseve te mi etiopiane,

or by the 1980s pop on my childhood radio stations.

ose nga pop-i i viteve 1980 qe kam degjuar ne radio stacione qe prej femijerise.

But beyond genre, there is another question:

Por pertej zhanrit, shtrohet nje pyetje tjeter:

how do the sounds we hear every day influence the music that we make?

si tingujt qe i degjojme cdo dite kane ndikim ne muziken qe e krijojme?

I believe that everyday soundscape

Une besoj qe tingujt qe i degjojme çdo dite

can be the most unexpected inspiration for songwriting,

mund te jete inspirimi i papritur per te shkruar tekste,

and to look at this idea a little bit more closely,

le te shikojme me shume se çfare dua te them rreth kesaj,

I'm going to talk today about three things:

sot do te flas per tri gjera:

nature, language and silence --

natyren, gjuhen dhe qetesine --

or rather, the impossibility of true silence.

ose me mire t'a quajme, pamundesine e vertete te qetesise.

And through this I hope to give you a sense of a world

Dhe nepermjet kesaj shpresoj te percjell nje bote

already alive with musical expression,

ne te cilen eshte e pranishme me ane te muzikes,

with each of us serving as active participants,

me secilin nga ne qe te sherbej si pjesemarres aktiv,

whether we know it or not.

me dijenine apo pa dijenine tone.

I'm going to start today with nature, but before we do that,

Sot do te filloj se pari me natyren, po para se te filloj,

let's quickly listen to this snippet of an opera singer warming up.

le te degjojme nje pjese te nje kengetari opere duke e nxehur zerin.

Here it is.

Le t'a degjojme.

(Singing)

(Kendim pa instrument)

(Singing ends)

(Te kenduarit mbaron)

It's beautiful, isn't it?

Eshte shume e bukur, apo jo?

Gotcha!

Ju zura!

That is actually not the sound of an opera singer warming up.

Kjo ne fakt nuk eshte tingulli i nje kengetari opere duke nxehur zerin.

That is the sound of a bird

Ky eshte tingull zogu,

slowed down to a pace

Eshte nje kenge e laureshes qe leshohet ne nje ritem

that the human ear mistakenly recognizes as its own.

qe veshi i njeriut gabimisht e identifikon si ze te vetin.

It was released as part of Peter Szöke's 1987 Hungarian recording

Eshte leshuar si pjese e albumit hungarez te Peter Szöke ne vitin 1987

"The Unknown Music of Birds,"

"Muzika e padegjuar e zogjve,"

where he records many birds and slows down their pitches

kur ai incizon tone te shume zogjve dhe e ngadaleson deri te toni

to reveal what's underneath.

qe te zbuloje se cka ka perbrenda.

Let's listen to the full-speed recording.

Le te degjojme nje version te shpejt te incizimit.

(Bird singing)

(Zogu duke kenduar)

Now, let's hear the two of them together

Tash, le t'i degjojme te dyte bashke duke kenduar

so your brain can juxtapose them.

ne menyre qe truri juaj te bej dallimin.

(Bird singing at slow then full speed)

(Zogu duke kenduar shpejt dhe ngadale)

(Singing ends)

(Te kenduarit mbaron)

It's incredible.

Eshte e mrekullueshme.

Perhaps the techniques of opera singing were inspired by birdsong.

Ndoshta teknikat e te kenduarit te operes ishin te frymezuar nga tingulli i zogjeve.

As humans, we intuitively understand birds to be our musical teachers.

Intuita njerezore, na bene te kuptojme qe zogjte jane mesuesit tane muzikor.

In Ethiopia, birds are considered an integral part

Ne Etiopi, zogjet konsiderohen si nje pjese perberese

of the origin of music itself.

e vet muzikes.

The story goes like this:

Tregimi vazhdon keshtu:

1,500 years ago, a young man was born in the Empire of Aksum,

para 1,500 vjeteve, nje burre i ri kishte lindur ne Perandorine e Aksumit,

a major trading center of the ancient world.

nje qender e madhe tregtare nga koha e lashte.

His name was Yared.

Emri i tij ishte Yared.

When Yared was seven years old his father died,

Kur Yared ishte vetem shtate vjeç, i vdiç babai i tij,

and his mother sent him to go live with an uncle, who was a priest

dhe nena e tij e dergoi ate, te jetonte me xhaxhain e tij, qe ishte nje prift

of the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition,

i tradites ortodokse etiopiane,

one of the oldest churches in the world.

qe eshte nje nder kishat me te vjetera ne bote.

Now, this tradition has an enormous amount of scholarship and learning,

Tash, kjo tradite ofron shume bursa dhe studime,

and Yared had to study and study and study and study,

dhe Yared kishte vetem per te studiuar e studiuar,

and one day he was studying under a tree,

dhe nje dite ai ishte duke mesuar poshte nje peme,

when three birds came to him.

kur tri zogj iu afruan.

One by one, these birds became his teachers.

Nje nga nje, keta zogj u bene edhe mesuesit e tij.

They taught him music -- scales, in fact.

I mesuan muziken -- posaçerisht, notat.

And Yared, eventually recognized as Saint Yared,

Dhe Yared, qe me vone u be i njohur si Saint Yared,

used these scales to compose five volumes of chants and hymns

i ka perdorur keto nota qe te kompozoje pese volume te psalmeve dhe himne

for worship and celebration.

per lutje dhe festime.

And he used these scales to compose and to create

Dhe i ka perdorur keto nota qe te kompozoje dhe te krijoje

an indigenous musical notation system.

nje sistem muzikor indigjen.

And these scales evolved into what is known as kiñit,

Dhe keto nota kane evoluar ne ate qe tashme eshte e njohur si kiñit,

the unique, pentatonic, five-note, modal system that is very much alive

nje sistem modal unik, pentatonik, pese-noteshe, qe eshte teper i pranishem

and thriving and still evolving in Ethiopia today.

ne maje te suksesit dhe qe eshte ende duke evoluar ne Etiopine e sotme.

Now, I love this story because it's true at multiple levels.

Me pelqen shume ky tregim sepse eshte i veçante ne shume nivele.

Saint Yared was a real, historical figure,

Saint Yared ishte nje figure e vertete historike,

and the natural world can be our musical teacher.

dhe vete natyra mund te jete mesuesi yne i muzikes.

And we have so many examples of this:

Dhe kemi mjaft shembuj te kesaj qe po them:

the Pygmies of the Congo tune their instruments

Pigmit e Kongos, melodine e instrumenteve e kane akorduar

to the pitches of the birds in the forest around them.

me tonin e zogjve te malit perreth tyre.

Musician and natural soundscape expert Bernie Krause describes

Muzikanti dhe eksperti i tingujve Bernie Krause pershkruan

how a healthy environment has animals and insects

se si nje ambient i shendetshem ka kafshe dhe insekte

taking up low, medium and high-frequency bands,

qe perdorin bandat e frekuencave te ulta, mesme e te larta,

in exactly the same way as a symphony does.

sikur te ishte nje simfoni.

And countless works of music were inspired by bird and forest song.

Dhe shume vepra muzikore jane inspiruar nga zogjte dhe kenget e malit.

Yes, the natural world can be our cultural teacher.

Po, bota e natyres mund te sherbeje si mesuesi yne i kultures.

So let's go now to the uniquely human world of language.

Le te vazhdojme tash me menyren unike te gjuhes njerezore.

Every language communicates with pitch to varying degrees,

Çdo gjuhe perdor tonin e vet,

whether it's Mandarin Chinese,

qofte gjuha kineze mandarine,

where a shift in melodic inflection gives the same phonetic syllable

ku nje ndryshim i melodise i jep te njejtes zanore fonetike

an entirely different meaning,

nje kuptim krejtesisht ndryshe,

to a language like English,

nje gjuhe si anglishtja,

where a raised pitch at the end of a sentence ...

ku nje rritje e tonit ne fund te fjalise ...

(Going up in pitch) implies a question?

(duke e rritur tonin) nenkupton nje pyetje?

(Laughter)

(Te qeshura)

As an Ethiopian-American woman,

Si grua ameriko-etiopiane,

I grew up around the language of Amharic, Amhariña.

une jam rritur ne gjuhen e Amharik, Amhariña.

It was my first language, the language of my parents,

Ishte gjuha ime e pare, gjuha e prinderve,

one of the main languages of Ethiopia.

nje nder gjuhet kryesore te Etiopise.

And there are a million reasons to fall in love with this language:

Dhe ka nje milion arsye per tu dashuruar me kete gjuhe:

its depth of poetics, its double entendres,

thellesia e saj poetike, kuptimet e dyfishta te saj,

its wax and gold, its humor,

dylli dhe ari i saj, humori i saj,

its proverbs that illuminate the wisdom and follies of life.

fjalet e saj te urta qe ndriçojne mençurine dhe marrezite e jetes.

But there's also this melodicism, a musicality built right in.

Por kjo gjuhe ka edhe melodine, nje muzikalitet te brendshem.

And I find this distilled most clearly

Dhe kete e gjej te distiluar me se shumti

in what I like to call emphatic language --

ne ate se cfare deshiroj t'i them une si gjuhe e theksuar --

language that's meant to highlight or underline

gjuhe qe eshte krijuar te te theksoje ose te nenvizoje

or that springs from surprise.

ose qe lind nga befasia.

Take, for example, the word: "indey."

Te marrim nje shemull, fjala: "indey."

Now, if there are Ethiopians in the audience,

Tash, nese eshte ndonje etiopian ne publik,

they're probably chuckling to themselves,

ata ndoshta jane edhe duke nenqeshur me veten e tyre,

because the word means something like "No!"

sepse kuptimi i fjales eshte dicka si "Jo!"

or "How could he?" or "No, he didn't."

ose "Si ka mundur ai?" ose "Jo, ai nuk e beri."

It kind of depends on the situation.

Varet nga situata.

But when I was a kid, this was my very favorite word,

Kjo ishte fjala ime e preferuar si femije,

and I think it's because it has a pitch.

dhe mendoj sepse e gjitha varet rreth tonit.

It has a melody.

Ka melodi.

You can almost see the shape as it springs from someone's mouth.

Pothuajse mund t'a shohesh formen e kesaj fjale kur e shqipton.

"Indey" -- it dips, and then raises again.

"Indey" -- ulet, dhe ngritet perseri.

And as a musician and composer, when I hear that word,

Dhe si nje muzikante dhe kompozitore, kur e degjoj kete fjale,

something like this is floating through my mind.

dicka si kjo qarkullon rreth mendjes sime.

(Music and singing "Indey")

(Muzika dhe kendimi i "Indey")

(Music ends)

(Muzika mbaron)

Or take, for example, the phrase for "It is right" or "It is correct" --

Ose si shembull, fraza per "Eshte ne rregull" ose "Eshte e sakte" --

"Lickih nehu ... Lickih nehu."

"Lickih nehu ... Lickih nehu."

It's an affirmation, an agreement.

Eshte nje pohim, dhe nje pranim.

"Lickih nehu."

"Lickih nehu."

When I hear that phrase,

Kur e degjoj kete fraze,

something like this starts rolling through my mind.

dicka si kjo perseritet ne mendjen time.

(Music and singing "Lickih nehu")

(Muzika dhe kendimi i "Lickih nehu")

(Music ends)

(Muzika mbaron)

And in both of those cases, what I did was I took the melody

Dhe ne te dyjat raste, ajo çfare kam bere eshte se kam marre melodine

and the phrasing of those words and phrases

dhe menyren e te folurit e ketyre fjaleve dhe frazave

and I turned them into musical parts to use in these short compositions.

dhe i kam shnderruar ne pjese muzikore ne keto kompozime te shkurta.

And I like to write bass lines,

Dhe me pelqen te shkruaj rreshta basi,

so they both ended up kind of as bass lines.

ne menyre qe te dyja te perfundojne si rreshta basi.

Now, this is based on the work of Jason Moran and others

Tash, kjo eshte bazuar ne punen e Jason Moran dhe te tjereve

who work intimately with music and language,

qe kane punuar gjate tere kohes me muzike dhe gjuhe,

but it's also something I've had in my head since I was a kid,

por eshte gjithashtu dicka qe kam pasur ne mendje qe prej femijerise,

how musical my parents sounded

sa melodik prinderit e mi kane tingelluar

when they were speaking to each other and to us.

kur kane folur me njeri-tjetrin dhe me neve.

It was from them and from Amhariña that I learned

Ishte prej atyre dhe prej Amhariña qe me mesuan

that we are awash in musical expression

qe jemi zhytur ne shprehje muzikore

with every word, every sentence that we speak,

ne çdo fjale, ne çdo fjali qe flasim,

every word, every sentence that we receive.

çdo fjale, çdo fjali qe e marrim.

Perhaps you can hear it in the words I'm speaking even now.

Ndoshta mund t'a degjoni ne fjalet qe jam duke folur tash.

Finally, we go to the 1950s United States

Ne fund, vazhdojme me Shtetet e Bashkuara ne vitet 1950

and the most seminal work of 20th century avant-garde composition:

dhe veprat themelore dhe kryesuese te te kompozimeve te shekullit XX:

John Cage's "4:33,"

John Cage "4:33,"

written for any instrument or combination of instruments.

e kompozuar per çdo instrument ose kombinim te instrumenteve.

The musician or musicians are invited to walk onto the stage

Muzikanti ose muzikantet jane te ftuar te ecin ne skene

with a stopwatch and open the score,

me nje kohemates dhe te hapin pjesen,

which was actually purchased by the Museum of Modern Art --

qe eshte blere nga Muzeu i Artit Modern --

the score, that is.

pjesa.

And this score has not a single note written

Dhe kjo pjese nuk ka as edhe nje note te shkruar

and there is not a single note played

dhe nuk eshte as edhe nje note e luajtur

for four minutes and 33 seconds.

per kater minuta e tridhjete e tre sekonda.

And, at once enraging and enrapturing,

Dhe, ne nje moment te ngazellyer e te terbuar,

Cage shows us that even when there are no strings

Cage na tregon se edhe nese nuk ka tela

being plucked by fingers or hands hammering piano keys,

te cilat jane keputur nga gishtat ose duar qe jane duke goditur çelesat e pianos,

still there is music, still there is music,

ende ka muzike, ende ka muzike,

still there is music.

ende ka muzike.

And what is this music?

Dhe çfare eshte kjo muzike?

It was that sneeze in the back.

Ishte ajo teshtitje prapa.

(Laughter)

(Te qeshura)

It is the everyday soundscape that arises from the audience themselves:

Jane tingujt e perditshem qe lindin nga vet publiku:

their coughs, their sighs, their rustles, their whispers, their sneezes,

te kolliturat e tyre, psheretimat, shushurimat, peshperitjet, teshtitjet,

the room, the wood of the floors and the walls

dhoma, druri i dyshemeve dhe i mureve

expanding and contracting, creaking and groaning

zgjerimet dhe kontraktimet, kercimet dhe ofshamat

with the heat and the cold,

me te nxehtin dhe me te ftohtin,

the pipes clanking and contributing.

me vringellimet e tubave duke kontribuar.

And controversial though it was, and even controversial though it remains,

Edhe pse ka qene i debatueshem, dhe si i tille mbetet gjithmone,

Cage's point is that there is no such thing as true silence.

pikepamja e Cage eshte qe nuk ka qetesi absolute.

Even in the most silent environments, we still hear and feel the sound

Edhe ne vendet me te qeta, ne ende degjojme dhe ndjejme tingullin

of our own heartbeats.

e rrahjeve te zemrave tona.

The world is alive with musical expression.

Bota eshte gjalle fale ketyre shprehjeve muzikore.

We are already immersed.

Dhe ne tashme jemi te zhytyr ne te.

Now, I had my own moment of, let's say, remixing John Cage

Une kam pasur nje moment, le te themi, te remix John Cage

a couple of months ago

disa muaj me pare

when I was standing in front of the stove cooking lentils.

kur po gatuaja thjerrza mbi sobe.

And it was late one night and it was time to stir,

Dhe ishte naten vone dhe ishte koha t'i perzieja,

so I lifted the lid off the cooking pot,

keshtu qe hoqa kapakun e tenxheres,

and I placed it onto the kitchen counter next to me,

dhe e vendosa mbi banakun e kuzhines afer meje,

and it started to roll back and forth

dhe filloi te rrotullisej para mbrapa

making this sound.

duke e bere kete tingull.

(Sound of metal lid clanking against a counter)

(Tingull i kapakut metalik duke u kerkellitur perkundrejt banakut)

(Clanking ends)

(Te kerkelliturit mbaron)

And it stopped me cold.

Dhe u shtanga.

I thought, "What a weird, cool swing that cooking pan lid has."

Mendova, "Çfare ritmi te çuditshem, paska kapaku i tenxheres."

So when the lentils were ready and eaten,

Kur thjerrzat ishin gati per tu ngrene,

I hightailed it to my backyard studio,

e kapa shpejt dhe e lash ne studion time ne kopsht,

and I made this.

dhe e krijova kete.

(Music, including the sound of the lid, and singing)

(Muzika, duke perfshire edhe tingullin e kapakut, dhe kendimi)

(Music ends)

(Muzika perfundon)

Now, John Cage wasn't instructing musicians

John Cage nuk i udhezonte muzikantet

to mine the soundscape for sonic textures to turn into music.

te germojne ne tinguj qe te shnderrojne teksturat zanore ne muzike.

He was saying that on its own,

Ai ishte duke percjelle qe,

the environment is musically generative,

vet ambienti eshte prodhues muzikor,

that it is generous, that it is fertile,

qe eshte zemergjere, pjellor,

that we are already immersed.

qe tashme jemi zhytur.

Musician, music researcher, surgeon and human hearing expert Charles Limb

Muzikant, hulumtues i muzikes, kirurg dhe ekspert i degjimit Charles Limb

is a professor at Johns Hopkins University

eshte nje profesor ne Universitetin e Johns Hopkins

and he studies music and the brain.

dhe studion muziken dhe trurin.

And he has a theory

Dhe ka nje teori

that it is possible -- it is possible --

qe eshte e mundshme -- eshte e mundshme --

that the human auditory system actually evolved to hear music,

qe sistemi degjimor tek njerezit faktikisht ka evoluar te degjoj muzike,

because it is so much more complex than it needs to be for language alone.

sepse eshte shume me e komplikuar se sa ka nevoje te jete nje gjuhe ne vete.

And if that's true,

Dhe nese kjo eshte e vertete,

it means that we're hard-wired for music,

nenkupton qe ne jemi te lidhur ngushte me muziken,

that we can find it anywhere,

qe mund t'a gjejme kudo,

that there is no such thing as a musical desert,

se nuk ekziston diçka si shkretetire muzikore,

that we are permanently hanging out at the oasis,

qe ne pergjithmone jemi duke qendruar mbi oaze,

and that is marvelous.

dhe qe eshte e mrekullueshme.

We can add to the soundtrack, but it's already playing.

Ne mund t'i shtojme diçka, por tashme eshte duke luajtur.

And it doesn't mean don't study music.

Dhe nuk po them qe te mos studioni muziken.

Study music, trace your sonic lineages and enjoy that exploration.

Studioni muziken, ndiqni shtegun e tingujve tuaj e kenaquni duke eksploruar.

But there is a kind of sonic lineage to which we all belong.

Por eshte nje prejardhje e zerit te cilet ne te gjithe i perkasim.

So the next time you are seeking percussion inspiration,

Atehere heren tjeter kur jeni duke kerkuar per inspirim,

look no further than your tires, as they roll over the unusual grooves

mos shikoni me tej se gomat e juaja, derisa bejne rrotullisjen e pazakonte

of the freeway,

ne autostrade,

or the top-right burner of your stove

ose shikoni pllaken e sobes suaj

and that strange way that it clicks

dhe menyren e çuditshme se si kercet

as it is preparing to light.

derisa behet gati te ndizet.

When seeking melodic inspiration,

Kur jeni duke kerkuar inspirim muzikor,

look no further than dawn and dusk avian orchestras

mos shikoni me larg se agimi dhe muzgu i orkestres se cicerimave

or to the natural lilt of emphatic language.

ose kadencen natyrale te gjuhes se shprehur.

We are the audience and we are the composers

Ne jemi publiku ne jemi vet kompozitoret

and we take from these pieces

dhe marrim prej ketyre pjeseve

we are given.

qe na jane dhene.

We make, we make, we make, we make,

Ne krijojme, krijojme, krijojme, krijojme,

knowing that when it comes to nature or language or soundscape,

duke ditur se kur vjen fjala te natyra ose gjuha ose tingulli,

there is no end to the inspiration --

kemi inspirim te pafund --

if we are listening.

nese jemi duke degjuar me kujdes.

Thank you.

Faleminderit.

(Applause)

(Duartrokitje)