Meklit Hadero: The unexpected beauty of everyday sounds | TED

翻译人员: Winnie Zhang 校对人员: Zhiting Chen

As a singer-songwriter,

作为一名创作型歌手，

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

人们经常问我的灵感来源是什么， 或者我更喜欢称作，

my sonic lineages.

我的音乐血统。

And I could easily tell you

我会很快地回答你，

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

那些伴随我长大的爵士和嘻哈风格，

by the Ethiopian heritage of my ancestors,

那些埃塞俄比亚祖先流传下来的民歌，

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

以及我童年时电台播放的80年代流行乐 深深地影响并塑造了我。

But beyond genre, there is another question:

但是除了音乐题材， 还有另外一个问题：

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

我们每天听到的各种声音 是如何影响我们创作的音乐的？

I believe that everyday soundscape

我相信那些再平常不过的声音

can be the most unexpected inspiration for songwriting,

是音乐创作最不可思议的灵感源泉之一，

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

那么为了进一步探讨这个观点，

I'm going to talk today about three things:

我今天要讲三件事：

nature, language and silence --

自然，语言和寂静---

or rather, the impossibility of true silence.

或者更确切的讲， 是一种不可能的真正寂静。

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

然后我希望通过这次演讲， 让大家感受到这个世界，

already alive with musical expression,

一个因各种音乐形式而生机勃勃的世界，

with each of us serving as active participants,

一个每个人都积极参与其中的世界，

whether we know it or not.

无论我们有没有意识到。

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

我要先从自然讲起， 但在这之前，

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

让我们先听一段歌剧歌手的热身练习，

Here it is.

开始了。

(Singing)

（无伴奏演唱）

(Singing ends)

（演唱结束）

It's beautiful, isn't it?

是不是很美妙？

Gotcha!

大家上当了吧！

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

这其实不是一个歌剧歌手 热身的练习片断。

That is the sound of a bird

那是一种鸟的叫声

slowed down to a pace

被放慢到一定的节奏，

that the human ear mistakenly recognizes as its own.

让我们的耳朵都错听成人类的声音。

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

这是由Peter Szöke发行的 1987匈牙利专辑中的一个选段

"The Unknown Music of Birds,"

“未知的鸟类音乐“，

where he records many birds and slows down their pitches

他录制了很多鸟的声音 并放慢它们的音高

to reveal what's underneath.

来展现鸟类声音的本质。

Let's listen to the full-speed recording.

下面我们听一下正常速度的录音。

(Bird singing)

（鸟的叫声）

Now, let's hear the two of them together

现在，让我们将两段放在一起听，

so your brain can juxtapose them.

你可以在脑中比较一下。

(Bird singing at slow then full speed)

（鸟的慢速叫声然后是正常速度）

(Singing ends)

（声音结束）

It's incredible.

这多么不可思议。

Perhaps the techniques of opera singing were inspired by birdsong.

也许，歌剧唱法的技巧 就是受到鸟叫的启发。

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

作为人类的我们本能地 将鸟视作我们的声乐老师。

In Ethiopia, birds are considered an integral part

在埃塞俄比亚，鸟类被认为是

of the origin of music itself.

音乐本源的一个组成部分。

The story goes like this:

故事是这样的：

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

1500年以前，一个年轻人出生在 阿克苏姆帝国，

a major trading center of the ancient world.

一个古代的世界贸易中心。

His name was Yared.

他叫雅尔德。

When Yared was seven years old his father died,

雅尔德的父亲在他七岁时去世了，

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

然后他的母亲将他送去舅舅家生活，

of the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition,

舅舅是一位埃塞俄比亚东正教的牧师，

one of the oldest churches in the world.

这是世界上最古老的教派之一。

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

当时，这个教派拥有大量的奖学金和学识，

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

雅尔德于是就不断地努力学习，

and one day he was studying under a tree,

有一天他正在一棵树下学习，

when three birds came to him.

三只鸟飞到他的身边。

One by one, these birds became his teachers.

然后这三只鸟，逐个地成为了他的音乐教师。

They taught him music -- scales, in fact.

它们教给了他音乐--- 实际上是音阶。

And Yared, eventually recognized as Saint Yared,

于是雅尔德最终成为了圣人雅尔德，

used these scales to compose five volumes of chants and hymns

他用这些音阶创作了 五章圣歌和赞美诗，

for worship and celebration.

用来祭拜和庆祝。

And he used these scales to compose and to create

而且他用这些音阶创作并创造了

an indigenous musical notation system.

一个土著音乐符号体系。

And these scales evolved into what is known as kiñit,

这些音阶后来发展为kiñit，

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

一种独特的五声音阶， 有五个音符的模态系统，

and thriving and still evolving in Ethiopia today.

一直在埃塞俄比亚 活跃至今并仍在不断发展。

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

现在，我喜欢这个故事因为 在很多层面它很真实。

Saint Yared was a real, historical figure,

首先，圣人雅尔德是一位 真实存在的历史人物，

and the natural world can be our musical teacher.

其次，大自然当然可以成为我们的音乐老师。

And we have so many examples of this:

而且我们有很多例子来说明这一点：

the Pygmies of the Congo tune their instruments

刚果俾格米人根据 身边大森林中各种鸟的音高

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

来调整自己的乐器。

Musician and natural soundscape expert Bernie Krause describes

音乐家兼自然声景学专家 伯尼·克劳斯

how a healthy environment has animals and insects

描述了在一个健康的环境中，动物和昆虫

taking up low, medium and high-frequency bands,

是如何组成低、中、高不同频高的乐队的，

in exactly the same way as a symphony does.

这种表现形式简直跟交响乐一模一样。

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

然后无数的音乐作品受到了 鸟和森林声音的启发。

Yes, the natural world can be our cultural teacher.

是的，大自然的确可以 成为我们的文化老师。

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

那让我们现在来到 人类独特的语言世界。

Every language communicates with pitch to varying degrees,

每一种语言都有不同程度的音高，

whether it's Mandarin Chinese,

哪怕是中文普通话，

where a shift in melodic inflection gives the same phonetic syllable

旋律拐点的一个转变 就会赋予一个相同的音节，

an entirely different meaning,

完全不同的语义，

to a language like English,

还是说像英语这样的语言，

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

一个句子结尾的声调上扬，

(Going up in pitch) implies a question?

（声调上扬）暗示这是个问句？

(Laughter)

（观众笑声）

As an Ethiopian-American woman,

作为一个埃塞俄比亚美裔女性，

I grew up around the language of Amharic, Amhariña.

我在阿姆哈拉语的语言环境中长大。

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

这是我的母语， 我父母说的语言，

one of the main languages of Ethiopia.

这是埃塞俄比亚的主要语言之一。

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

我有几百万个理由爱上这个语言：

its depth of poetics, its double entendres,

它有诗意般的深度， 它有很多双关语，

its wax and gold, its humor,

它有宝贵的幽默气质，

its proverbs that illuminate the wisdom and follies of life.

它的谚语生动阐述了 生活中的智慧和愚昧。

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

然而还有这种旋律性， 一种语言自有的音乐性。

And I find this distilled most clearly

我发现这种特性最能够从

in what I like to call emphatic language --

强调语言中提取而来。

language that's meant to highlight or underline

强调语言的目的是突出或强调

or that springs from surprise.

或表达惊讶。

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

比如说，”indey“这个词，

Now, if there are Ethiopians in the audience,

如果现场有埃萨俄比亚的观众的话，

they're probably chuckling to themselves,

他们很可能会自己笑出声来，

because the word means something like "No!"

因为这个词的意思是”不！“

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

或者是”他怎么会？“，”不，他不会这样做的“。

It kind of depends on the situation.

具体语义还要看语境。

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

但当我还是个孩子的时候， 这是我最喜欢的一个词，

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

我觉得是因为它有一个音高。

It has a melody.

它有一种旋律在里面。

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

你几乎都可以看到这个词 从你口蹦出来的形态。

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

"Indey" -- 先是低下去，然后又上扬。

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

然后作为一个音乐家兼作曲家， 当我听到这个词时，

something like this is floating through my mind.

我脑海中就浮现出这样一段旋律。

(Music and singing "Indey")

（音乐伴奏，演讲者演唱 "Indey"）

(Music ends)

（音乐结束）

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

或者另一个例子，用来表达 ”这样可以“或”这是正确的“的词组---

"Lickih nehu ... Lickih nehu."

"Lickih nehu ... Lickih nehu."

It's an affirmation, an agreement.

表达的是确定，同意的意思。

"Lickih nehu."

"Lickih nehu."

When I hear that phrase,

当我听到这个词组时，

something like this starts rolling through my mind.

这样一段旋律就不断在脑海中重复。

(Music and singing "Lickih nehu")

（音乐伴奏，演讲者演唱 "Lickih nehu"）

(Music ends)

（音乐结束）

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

而且在这两个例子中， 我做的仅仅是利用这个旋律

and the phrasing of those words and phrases

和这些词的措辞，

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

把它们转变成音乐元素， 然后写成短小的曲子。

And I like to write bass lines,

而且我喜欢写低音，

so they both ended up kind of as bass lines.

因此以上这两首都以低音结束。

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

接下来的，是基于贾森·莫兰及其他

who work intimately with music and language,

音乐和语言研究者的研究的。

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

但这同时也是我孩童时代 就回荡在脑中的，

how musical my parents sounded

我的父母在对彼此 和对我们讲话时

when they were speaking to each other and to us.

表现出来的音乐性。

It was from them and from Amhariña that I learned

就是从这些， 从阿姆哈拉语中我学到了

that we are awash in musical expression

音乐的表现形式存在于

with every word, every sentence that we speak,

我们说的每一个词，每一句话中，

every word, every sentence that we receive.

我们听到的每一个词，每一句话中。

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

也许你就可以从我现在说的话中听到。

Finally, we go to the 1950s United States

最后，让我们来到 20世纪50年代的美国，

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

20世纪前卫作品中最具开创性的作品：

John Cage's "4:33,"

约翰·凯奇的 "4:33,"

written for any instrument or combination of instruments.

任何乐器或乐器组合都可以演奏。

The musician or musicians are invited to walk onto the stage

音乐家们被邀请到舞台上，

with a stopwatch and open the score,

带着一块秒表， 他们打开乐谱，

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

这个曲子其实已经被 现代艺术博物馆购买了---

the score, that is.

没错，就是这首曲子。

And this score has not a single note written

而且这首曲子竟然没有一个音符，

and there is not a single note played

在整个四分三十三秒的时间内，

for four minutes and 33 seconds.

乐手们没有演奏一个音符。

And, at once enraging and enrapturing,

然后，伴随着或激怒或狂喜的心情，

Cage shows us that even when there are no strings

凯奇告诉我们就算是 没有手指拨动琴弦，

being plucked by fingers or hands hammering piano keys,

没有手指敲击钢琴键，

still there is music, still there is music,

音乐仍然存在， 音乐仍然存在，

still there is music.

我们还能够听到音乐。

And what is this music?

那么音乐在哪呢？

It was that sneeze in the back.

也许就是后面观众打了一个喷嚏。

(Laughter)

（观众笑声）

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

音乐就是从观众席传来的 那些不能再平常的声音：

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

他们的咳嗦声，叹息声，翻书的沙沙声， 以及他们的低语声，打喷嚏的声音，

the room, the wood of the floors and the walls

房间里，地板的木头和墙壁

expanding and contracting, creaking and groaning

随着冷热变化 发生延伸和收缩时

with the heat and the cold,

发出的吱吱声和低吟声，

the pipes clanking and contributing.

还有水管道发出的叮当声。

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

尽管这个理论具有争议性， 而且现在仍然是，

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

凯奇的观点至少说明了 根本不存在真正寂静这一说。

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

即使在最安静的环境中， 我们仍然可以听到或感到

of our own heartbeats.

我们自己的心跳的声音。

The world is alive with musical expression.

世界充满了音乐。

We are already immersed.

我们也早已沉浸其中。

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

几个月之前，我自己有时候也

a couple of months ago

会与约翰凯奇有重叠的感觉。

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

一次我站在炉子前做小扁豆，

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

那是晚上， 到了该搅拌的时间了，

so I lifted the lid off the cooking pot,

我就把锅盖掀起来，

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

然后放到了我旁边的橱柜上，

and it started to roll back and forth

接着这个锅盖开始滚来滚去，

making this sound.

发出这样的声音。

(Sound of metal lid clanking against a counter)

（金属锅盖发出叮当声）

(Clanking ends)

（叮当声结束）

And it stopped me cold.

这个声音让我打了个冷颤。

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

我当时想， 一个炒锅盖翻滚的声音多么奇妙啊！

So when the lentils were ready and eaten,

因此，当我吃完那些小扁豆后，

I hightailed it to my backyard studio,

我赶快钻进了后院的工作室，

and I made this.

然后创作了这么一段。

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

（音乐响起，包括锅盖的声音 和演讲者的演唱）

(Music ends)

（音乐结束）

Now, John Cage wasn't instructing musicians

好，约翰凯奇并没有教音乐家们

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

去模仿各种背景声音 并将这些音乐元素转化为音乐。

He was saying that on its own,

他的意思是说，

the environment is musically generative,

环境本身就是生产音乐的，

that it is generous, that it is fertile,

是丰富多产的，

that we are already immersed.

而且我们已经沉浸其中了。

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

音乐家，音乐研究者，外科医生 兼人类听觉专家查尔斯林波

is a professor at Johns Hopkins University

是约翰霍普金斯大学的一名教授，

and he studies music and the brain.

他研究的是音乐与大脑。

And he has a theory

他有一个理论：

that it is possible -- it is possible --

有这么一种可能，

that the human auditory system actually evolved to hear music,

人类的听觉系统其实是 为听到音乐而进化发展的，

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

因为如果只是为了听到语言的话， 听觉系统就没必要如此复杂。

And if that's true,

而且如果这是正确的，

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

就意味着我们生来就是听音乐的好手，

that we can find it anywhere,

我们可以在任何地方找到音乐，

that there is no such thing as a musical desert,

根本不存在一个 所谓音乐沙漠的地带，

that we are permanently hanging out at the oasis,

我们一直就处于一片音乐绿洲，

and that is marvelous.

这一切都是不可思议的。

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

我们可以把音乐加到音轨中， 但它却已经在播放了。

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

这并不意味着我们不用学习研究音乐，

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

研究音乐，追寻你的音乐血统， 并享受这种探索的过程。

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

但是有一种音乐血统， 我们都属于它。

So the next time you are seeking percussion inspiration,

所以下次当你寻找打击乐的灵感时，

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

就去看看你的轮胎， 听听轮胎压过高速公路上

of the freeway,

那些凸槽时发出的声音，

or the top-right burner of your stove

或者去看看炉子右上角的火眼，

and that strange way that it clicks

听听它在准备点燃时

as it is preparing to light.

发出的奇怪的喀哒声。

When seeking melodic inspiration,

当你寻找旋律灵感时，

look no further than dawn and dusk avian orchestras

就去听听清晨或傍晚 的鸟类唱歌，

or to the natural lilt of emphatic language.

或去听听强调语言的 自然轻快的语调。

We are the audience and we are the composers

我们是音乐的听众， 同时也是创作者，

and we take from these pieces

我们从身边的这些平常细节中

we are given.

获得音乐灵感。

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

我们不断地索取，创作，

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

我们知道一遇到自然， 语言或背景声音时，

there is no end to the inspiration --

就有无限的灵感。

if we are listening.

当然，如果我们在用心倾听的话。

Thank you.

谢谢大家！

(Applause)

（观众鼓掌）