Jennifer Lin: Improvising on piano, aged 14

譯者: Marie Wu 審譯者: Zhu Jie

(Music)

(Music ends)

(Applause)

(掌聲)

Thank you!

謝謝，

(Applause continues)

非常感謝！

Thank you very much.

Like the speaker before me -- I am a TED virgin, I guess.

我和前一個講者一樣，是TED的新人，

I'm also the first time here, and ...

我第一次來到TED，不知道該講些什麼。

(Laughter)

I don't know what to say!

(Applause)

(掌聲)

我很高興安德生先生邀請我來，

I'm really happy that Mr. Anderson invited me.

I'm really grateful that I get a chance to play for everyone.

也很高興有這個機會為各位演奏。

And the song that I just played was by Josef Hofmann.

我剛才彈的曲子是由霍夫曼所作，

It's called "Kaleidoscope."

曲名為「萬花筒(Kaleidoscope)」。

And Hofmann is a Polish pianist and composer of the late 19th century,

霍夫曼是十九世紀末的波蘭鋼琴家兼作曲家，

一般公認他是有史以來最偉大的鋼琴家之一。

and he's widely considered one of the greatest pianists of all time.

I have another piece that I'd like to play for you.

我想為各位演奏另一首曲子，

It's called "Abegg Variations," by Robert Schumann,

是由舒曼這位十九世紀德國作曲家

a German 19th-century composer.

所作的「阿貝格變奏曲(Abegg Variations)」。

The name "Abegg" is actually A-B-E-G-G,

阿貝格的英文拼法是A-B-E-G-G，

and that's the main theme in the melody.

也就是這首曲子的主要旋律，

(Plays the notes A, B, E, G and G)

That comes from the last name of one of Schumann's female friends.

同時也是舒曼某位女性朋友的姓氏。

(Laughter)

(笑聲)

But he wrote that for his wife.

但舒曼的這首曲子是獻給他太太的。

(Laughter)

(笑聲)

So actually, if you listen carefully,

所以，如果你仔細聽，

there are supposed to be five variations on this Abegg theme.

裡面應該會有五個變奏的旋律。

It's written around 1834,

這首曲子是在1834年左右寫的，即使年代有點久遠，

so even though it's old, I hope you'll like it.

還是希望各位喜歡。

(Music)

(Music ends)

(Applause)

(掌聲)

現在是我最不喜歡的部分，

Now comes the part that I hate.

因為安德生先生告訴我

Well, because Mr. Anderson told me

that this session is called "Sync and Flow,"

這個單元是「和諧與流暢」，我就想：

I was wondering, "What do I know that these geniuses don't?"

「我知道的事情裡，有什麼是這些天才不知道的事？」

(Laughter)

所以，我決定來談談作曲，

So, I'll talk about musical composition,

even though I don't know where to start.

即使我不知道要從何談起。

How do I compose?

我怎麼作曲的？

I think Yamaha does a really good job of teaching us how to compose.

Yamaha針對作曲這方面的教學，做得很不錯。

What I do first is, I make a lot of little musical ideas

我一開始會先想一些小小的曲調片段，

you can just improvise here at the piano --

先在鋼琴上試彈一下，

and I choose one of those to become my main theme, my main melody,

然後選定其中一個做為主旋律，

就像你剛才聽到的阿貝格一樣。

like the Abegg that you just heard.

And once I choose my main theme, I have to decide:

一旦選定了主旋律之後，我就必須決定

Out of all the styles in music, what kind of style do I want?

要使用什麼樣音樂曲風來表現？

And this year, I composed a Romantic style.

今年，我選定的是浪漫曲風。

So for inspiration, I listened to Liszt and Tchaikovsky

為了增加靈感，我通常會聽李斯特、柴可夫斯基等

and all the great Romantic composers.

浪漫曲風作曲家的作品。

Next, I make the structure of the entire piece with my teachers.

接下來，我會和老師一起描繪出整個作品的架構，

They help me plan out the whole piece.

他們會協助我規劃整個作品，

And then the hard part is filling it in with musical ideas,

最難的部分是要填入各個曲調片段，

because then you have to think.

因為這個時候就需要思考了。

(Laughter)

And then, when the piece takes somewhat of a solified form --

最後，當雛型慢慢塑造出來後，

solidified, excuse me -- solidified form,

對，是雛型，

you're supposed to actually polish the piece, polish the details,

接下來就進入琢磨的工作，也就是細部修改，

and then polish the overall performance of the composition.

把整首曲子仔細地琢磨一遍。

And another thing that I enjoy doing is drawing.

我的另一個嗜好是畫圖，

Drawing, because I like to draw, you know, Japanese anime art.

我喜歡畫的是日本的動漫畫，

I think that's a craze among teens right now.

也是目前青少年瘋狂喜愛的漫畫。

後來我發現，

And once I realized it,

there's a parallel between creating music and creating art,

創作音樂和創作畫作有許多相似之處，

because for your motive, or your little initial idea for your drawing,

因為這二者都需要決定創作的動機和原始構想，

而你也必須決定你畫中的角色，可以是一個你認識的人，

it's your character -- you want to decide who you want to draw,

or if you want to draw an original character.

也可以是一個你創造出來的人。

And then you want to decide: How are you going to draw the character?

接下來你得決定怎麼表現這個角色？

Like, am I going to use one page? Am I going to draw it on the computer?

像是要用一頁來畫這個角色嗎？

要用電腦繪圖軟體來畫嗎？

還是要像漫畫書一樣，用二頁的跨頁手法，

Am I going to use a two-page spread like a comic book?

For a more grandiose effect, I guess.

來表現出更雄偉的效果？

And then you have to do the initial sketch of the character,

然後，你就得把該角色的雛型畫出來，

which is like your structure of a piece,

就像是樂曲的架構一樣，

and then you add pen and pencil, and whatever details that you need --

最後再用筆或鉛筆描繪一下，增加細節的描寫，

that's polishing the drawing.

這就是畫作的琢磨工作。

And another thing that both of these have in common is your state of mind,

這二者間還有一個共通點，

就是創作者的心態，因為我不是--

because I know I'm one of those teenagers that are really easily distracted.

我還是個青少年，所以很容易分心，

So if I'm trying to do homework and I don't feel like it,

如果我不想做功課，

如果我沒什麼興趣做功課，

I'll try to draw or, you know, waste my time.

我就會畫圖來打發時間。

And then what happens is, sometimes I absolutely can't draw

有時我會發現，我根本畫不出來，

or I can't compose at all,

或我根本無法作曲，

and then it's like there's too much on your mind.

就好像腦子裡塞了太多東西一樣，

無法專心在自己想要做的事情上。

You can't focus on what you're supposed to do.

And sometimes, if you manage to use your time wisely and work on it,

有時候，當我想要好好利用時間來創作，

you'll get something out of it, but it doesn't come naturally.

就會有好的作品產出，但那可不是憑空得來的。

What happens is, if something magical happens,

如果有奇蹟的話，

if something natural happens to you,

某些靈感就會自動跳出來，

you're able to produce all this beautiful stuff instantly,

我就可以立刻創造出美好的作品，

我覺得那就是流暢的感覺，

and then that's what I consider "flow,"

because that's when everything clicks and you're able to do anything.

每一個東西都到位了，可以順利創造出作品。

You feel like you're on top of your game and you can do anything you want.

你會覺得自己掌握了一切，

你可以隨心所欲做任何事。

I'm not going to play my own composition today because,

今天我不想彈我的創作樂曲，

although I did finish it, it's way too long.

雖然我已經完成了，但還差得遠了。

但我今天想嚐試即興創作，

Instead, I'd like to try something called "improvisation."

I have here seven note cards,

我這裡有七張音符卡片，

one with each note of the musical alphabet.

每一張卡片上都有每個音符的英文字母，

And I'd like someone to come up here and choose five --

我想請一位來賓上來選出五張卡。

anyone to come up here and choose five --

有沒有要上來選五張卡？

and then I can make it into some sort of melody,

我會以選出來的五張卡編寫出旋律，即興彈奏。

and I'll improvise it.

Wow. A volunteer, yay!

哇，有人自願耶！

(Laughter)

(掌聲)

(Applause)

Jennifer Lin: Nice to meet you.

很高興認識你。

Goldie Hawn: Thank you. Choose five?

歌蒂韓：謝謝，選五張嗎？

JL: Yes, five cards. Any five cards.

珍妮佛．林：對，五張卡，隨便五張。

GH: OK, one. JL: OK.

歌蒂韓：好，一，二，三...

GH: Two. JL: Yes.

GH: Three.

噢，D和F，我太常用這二個字母了。

GH: Oh, D and F -- too familiar.

(Laughter)

(笑聲)

JL: One more. GH: OK. "E" for "effort."

珍妮佛．林：再一張。

歌蒂韓：好，就選努力的E吧！(Effort:努力)

JL: Would you mind reading them out in the order that you chose them?

珍妮佛．林：請你把這幾個英文字母唸出來。

GH: OK -- C, G, B, A and E.

歌蒂韓：好，C-G-B-A-E。

JL: Thank you very much!

珍妮佛．林：非常謝謝你。

GH: You're welcome. And what about these?

歌蒂韓：不客氣，那這些怎麼辦？

JL: I won't use them. Thank you!

珍妮佛．林：這些就用不到了，謝謝！

(掌聲)

(Applause)

好，她選了C-G-B-A-E，

Now, she chose C, G, B, A, E.

I'm going to try to put that in some sort of order.

我要來把這些稍微排列組合一下，

(Plays notes)

OK, that's nice.

好，這樣很棒！

接下來，我要用一點時間來思考，

So, I'm going to have a moment to think,

and I'll try to make something out of it.

用這幾個音符來創作一首即興演奏曲。

(Plays the five notes)

(Music)

(Music ends)

(Applause)

(掌聲)

接下來，就是安可曲，我要演奏

The next song, or the encore that I'm going to play

is called "Bumble Boogie," by Jack Fina.

傑克．菲那所作的「瘋狂爵士(Bumble Boogie)」。

(Applause)

(掌聲)

(Music)

(Music ends)

(Applause)

(掌聲)