Well when I was asked to do this TEDTalk, I was really chuckled,

因為我的父親就叫Ted。

because, you see, my father's name was Ted,

而我的人生，尤其是音樂方面的經歷，

and much of my life, especially my musical life,

就像是和我父親之間的對談，

is really a talk that I'm still having with him,

他雖然過世了，但還是永存在我心中。

or the part of me that he continues to be.

我父親是紐約人，從事劇場工作，

Now Ted was a New Yorker, an all-around theater guy,

也是自學成才的插畫家和音樂家。

and he was a self-taught illustrator and musician.

他一個音符都看不懂，

He didn't read a note,

而且聽力還很差，

and he was profoundly hearing impaired.

但他是我最好的老師。

Yet, he was my greatest teacher.

即使透過他那支支叫的助聽器，

Because even through the squeaks of his hearing aids,

他對音樂的理解和造詣是極其深的。

his understanding of music was profound.

而且對他而言，重要的不是音樂的形式，

And for him, it wasn't so much the way the music goes

而是音樂所能見證的和它所能讓你觸動的。

as about what it witnesses and where it can take you.

他曾將這個經驗畫下，

And he did a painting of this experience,

他叫這幅畫「在音樂的國度」。

which he called "In the Realm of Music."

我父親每天都透過即興演奏進入這個國度，

Now Ted entered this realm every day by improvising

他的風格有點錫盤街(美十九世紀末風格)，像這樣:

in a sort of Tin Pan Alley style like this.

(音樂)

(Music)

但他對於音樂挺嚴苛的。

But he was tough when it came to music.

他說：「在音樂中重要的只有兩件事:

He said, "There are only two things that matter in music:

如何及為何。

what and how.

而古典音樂的特別之處在於，

And the thing about classical music,

『如何與為何』的答案，有無限多個。」

that what and how, it's inexhaustible."

他對音樂的熱愛就是如此。

That was his passion for the music.

我的父母都很愛音樂。

Both my parents really loved it.

他們對音樂懂得不是很多，

They didn't know all that much about it,

但他們給我機會

but they gave me the opportunity to discover it

和他們一起發掘音樂之美。

together with them.

可能是因為受我父母的啟發，

And I think inspired by that memory,

我一直希望盡我所能

it's been my desire to try and bring it

將音樂帶給更多人，

to as many other people as I can,

竭盡所能地傳承下去。

sort of pass it on through whatever means.

而人們對音樂的領悟，以及音樂如何影響他們的生活，

And how people get this music, how it comes into their lives,

對我而言是很有趣的問題。

really fascinates me.

有天我走在紐約街上，

One day in New York, I was on the street

看到小孩在車子和消防栓中間打棒球。

and I saw some kids playing baseball between stoops and cars and fire hydrants.

然後有一個大塊頭上場打擊，

And a tough, slouchy kid got up to bat,

他用力一揮，結實地擊中球。

and he took a swing and really connected.

他花了一兩秒看著球飛出去，

And he watched the ball fly for a second,

然後唱著:「答答答...(音樂)

and then he went, "Dah dadaratatatah.

巴拉答答答... 」

Brah dada dadadadah."

邊唱邊繞著壘包跑。

And he ran around the bases.

我心裡想著，還真奇妙了。

And I thought, go figure.

十八世紀奧地利貴族的娛興，

How did this piece of 18th century Austrian aristocratic entertainment

昰如何變成這紐約孩子的勝利之歌?

turn into the victory crow of this New York kid?

是怎麼被傳承下來的？他怎麼聽到莫札特的？

How was that passed on? How did he get to hear Mozart?

然而講到古典樂，

Well when it comes to classical music,

要傳承的東西可就多了，

there's an awful lot to pass on,

比莫札特、貝多芬、柴可夫斯基還要多太多。

much more than Mozart, Beethoven or Tchiakovsky.

因為古典樂

Because classical music

是超過一千年以來

is an unbroken living tradition

不曾中斷過的傳統。

that goes back over 1,000 years.

而在這當中的每一年，

And every one of those years

都能透過獨一無二的語道，

has had something unique and powerful to say to us

告訴我們活著，是什麼樣的感受。

about what it's like to be alive.

當然這所有的原料，

Now the raw material of it, of course,

僅是日常生活中的音樂。

is just the music of everyday life.

是所有的詩歌和瘋狂舞蹈，

It's all the anthems and dance crazes

民謠及進行曲。

and ballads and marches.

但是古典樂的角色在於，

But what classical music does

把所有這些音樂提煉

is to distill all of these musics down,

凝聚出它們的精華，

to condense them to their absolute essence,

並用這精華創造出一個新的語言。

and from that essence create a new language,

這語言以充滿愛和執著堅定的口吻，

a language that speaks very lovingly and unflinchingly

傾訴著我們的真實面貌。

about who we really are.

這是個仍在演變的語言。

It's a language that's still evolving.

經過幾世紀的沿革， 它發展成我們常常想到的大型曲目，

Now over the centuries it grew into the big pieces we always think of,

像是協奏曲和交響曲等等。

like concertos and symphonies,

但是即使是最具有企圖心的巨作，

but even the most ambitious masterpiece

它的最終宗旨，

can have as its central mission

仍是將你帶回曾經歷的脆弱、孤單的時刻，

to bring you back to a fragile and personal moment --

就如這首貝多芬的小提琴協奏曲:

like this one from the Beethoven Violin Concerto.

(音樂)

(Music)

它是如此的簡單，如此的令人回味，

It's so simple, so evocative.

之中似乎夾雜著無數情緒。

So many emotions seem to be inside of it.

然而，就如所有的音樂，

Yet, of course, like all music,

它實質上並沒有任何含意。

it's essentially not about anything.

它僅是音調、寂靜、和拍子的設計組合。

It's just a design of pitches and silence and time.

而那些音符，你應知道，只是振動而已。

And the pitches, the notes, as you know, are just vibrations.

它們是聲波譜上的一些位置。

They're locations in the spectrum of sound.

我們可以叫它"每秒振440次"，或是A，

And whether we call them 440 per second, A,

或每秒振3729次，這是降B -- 相信我，這是正確的 --

or 3,729, B flat -- trust me, that's right --

但它們只是物理現象而已。

they're just phenomena.

但是我們對於這些現象的各種組合 產生的反應，

But the way we react to different combinations of these phenomena

是非常複雜且情緒化的，並尚未被完全解釋。

is complex and emotional and not totally understood.

而且我們對音樂的反應 在過去幾世紀中也有極大的轉變，

And the way we react to them has changed radically over the centuries,

對音樂的喜好也是一樣。

as have our preferences for them.

我舉例來說，在十一世紀時，

So for example, in the 11th century,

人們喜歡音樂有這樣的結尾:

people liked pieces that ended like this.

(音樂)

(Music)

但在十七世紀，人們卻比較喜歡這樣:

And in the 17th century, it was more like this.

(音樂)

(Music)

然後在21世紀:

And in the 21st century ...

(音樂)

(Music)

你們的21世紀耳朵聽到那最後一個和絃 覺得挺順耳的，

Now your 21st century ears are quite happy with this last chord,

然而在一些年前它可能會使你覺得奇怪或厭煩，

even though a while back it would have puzzled or annoyed you

或是使你們一些人奪門而出。

or sent some of you running from the room.

而你會喜歡它的原因

And the reason you like it

是因為不管你知不知道，你已經繼承了

is because you've inherited, whether you knew it or not,

幾世紀累積下來

centuries-worth of changes

音樂理論、實行、及流行的演變。

in musical theory, practice and fashion.

而在古典樂中我們可以非常準確地追尋這些演變。

And in classical music we can follow these changes very, very accurately

多虧於音樂強大而沉默的搭檔，

because of the music's powerful silent partner,

也是它傳承的機制: 樂譜

the way it's been passed on: notation.

想把音樂以符號表示的衝動，

Now the impulse to notate,

或更正確地說，將音樂編碼，

or, more exactly I should say, encode music

已經跟著我們很久了。

has been with us for a very long time.

在西元前200年，一位叫Sekulos的人

In 200 B.C., a man named Sekulos

為他去世的妻子寫了這首歌，

wrote this song for his departed wife

並以希臘人的記譜系統

and inscribed it on her gravestone

把它刻於她的墓碑上。

in the notational system of the Greeks.

(音樂)

(Music)

而一千年後，

And a thousand years later,

我們寫下音樂的慾望演變成完全不同的型式。

this impulse to notate took an entirely different form.

你可以想像這是如何發生的。

And you can see how this happened

聽聽這些片段，取自聖誕彌撒 "Puer Natus est nobis" (拉丁文)

in these excerpts from the Christmas mass "Puer Natus est nobis,"

" (嬰孩) 為我們誕生"

"For Us is Born."

(音樂)

(Music)

在十世紀，扭曲的小線條

In the 10th century, little squiggles were used

用來表示曲調的大概形狀。

just to indicate the general shape of the tune.

然後在十二世紀，增加了一條線，像是音樂的地平線，

And in the 12th century, a line was drawn, like a musical horizon line,

用來更準確地指出音調的位置。

to better pinpoint the pitch's location.

然後於十三世紀，有更多的線條和不同形狀的音符，

And then in the 13th century, more lines and new shapes of notes

將曲調的概念更加準確地具體化，

locked in the concept of the tune exactly,

並演變成我們現今擁有的記譜系統。

and that led to the kind of notation we have today.

記譜不只是讓音樂傳承下去，

Well notation not only passed the music on,

將音樂記下並編碼完全改變了音樂的重心，

notating and encoding the music changed its priorities entirely,

因為它使音樂家們

because it enabled the musicians

能於更加遼闊的規模想像音樂。

to imagine music on a much vaster scale.

如此一來即興的演出

Now inspired moves of improvisation

就能夠被記錄、保存、研究、給予優先順序，

could be recorded, saved, considered, prioritized,

並加以構成精密的設計。

made into intricate designs.

從此刻開始，古典音樂就形成

And from this moment, classical music became

它最根本的特質，

what it most essentially is,

也就是我們本性最重要的兩面: 直覺與智慧，

a dialogue between the two powerful sides of our nature:

之間的對話。

instinct and intelligence.

從此刻起，即興創作的藝術

And there began to be a real difference at this point

與作曲的藝術之間

between the art of improvisation

開始有實質的不同之處。

and the art of composition.

現在，即興演奏家感受並演出下一個很酷的招數，

Now an improviser senses and plays the next cool move,

但是作曲家卻能夠考慮所有可能的路數，

but a composer is considering all possible moves,

一個個嘗試、評斷

testing them out, prioritizing them out,

直到他看出它們如何形成一個強大連貫的設計

until he sees how they can form a powerful and coherent design

充滿著最絕對與持久的「酷」。

of ultimate and enduring coolness.

然而世界上一些最頂尖的作曲家，像是巴哈，

Now some of the greatest composers, like Bach,

是這兩者的組合。

were combinations of these two things.

巴哈就像是一個擁有西洋棋大師般縝密思維 的即興創作家，

Bach was like a great improviser with a mind of a chess master.

莫札特也是。

Mozart was the same way.

但是每一個音樂家在信念與邏輯，

But every musician strikes a different balance

直覺和智慧間，會取得不同的平衡點。

between faith and reason, instinct and intelligence.

而每一個年代的音樂 對於這些東西的優先順序也有所不同。

And every musical era had different priorities of these things,

傳承著不同的東西，不同的「如何」及「為何」。

different things to pass on, different 'whats' and 'hows'.

在這個傳統的前八個世紀左右

So in the first eight centuries or so of this tradition

最重要的「為何」是去榮耀上帝。

the big 'what' was to praise God.

到了十五世紀，人們開始創作音樂

And by the 1400s, music was being written

來揣摩上帝於設計夜晚星空

that tried to mirror God's mind

所表現出的思想端倪。

as could be seen in the design of the night sky.

而「如何」表現則是一種叫複音音樂的風格，

The 'how' was a style called polyphony,

它由許多獨自移動的人聲組成，

music of many independently moving voices

用來象徵托勒密的地心宇宙觀中

that suggested the way the planets seemed to move

星球移動的現象。

in Ptolemy's geocentric universe.

這真正是星體的音樂:

This was truly the music of the spheres.

(音樂)

(Music)

李奧納多‧達文西可能聽的就是這種音樂。

This is the kind of music that Leonardo DaVinci would have known.

而搞不好這種音樂的知性完美及寧靜

And perhaps its tremendous intellectual perfection and serenity

代表著某些新穎的作品必須出現--

meant that something new had to happen --

革命性的新舉，而這在十七世紀時的確發生了

a radical new move, which in 1600 is what did happen.

(音樂) 男聲: 阿，嚴酷的打擊!

(Music) Singer: Ah, bitter blow!

阿，邪惡又殘酷的命運!

Ah, wicked, cruel fate!

阿，凶煞之星!

Ah, baleful stars!

阿，貪婪的上天!

Ah, avaricious heaven!

這正是歌劇的誕生，

MTT: This, of course, was the birth of opera,

而它的發展將音樂引往全新的軌道。

and its development put music on a radical new course.

那時的「為何」不再是揣摩上帝的心意，

The what now was not to mirror the mind of God,

而是追尋人類如漩渦般的複雜情緒。

but to follow the emotion turbulence of man.

而「如何」則表現於和聲，

And the how was harmony,

把音符堆疊起來變成和絃。

stacking up the pitches to form chords.

他們發現和弦可以表現

And the chords, it turned out,

驚人的多種不同情緒變化。

were capable of representing incredible varieties of emotions.

最基本的和弦我們現在仍在使用，

And the basic chords were the ones we still have with us,

就所謂的三和弦，

the triads,

可以是大調的，

either the major one,

我們覺得聽起來是快樂的，

which we think is happy,

或是小調的，

or the minor one,

而我們感覺它是難過的。

which we perceive as sad.

但這兩個和弦之間的不同到底在哪裡?

But what's the actual difference between these two chords?

其實就只是中間的這兩個音符罷了。

It's just these two notes in the middle.

它可以是還原E，

It's either E natural,

每秒振動659次，

and 659 vibrations per second,

或是降E，每秒622次。

or E flat, at 622.

所以人類快樂與悲傷的不同到底在哪裡?

So the big difference between human happiness and sadness?

就那37個振動而已阿!

37 freakin' vibrations.

因此在這麼一個系統中，

So you can see in a system like this

你可想有多少細微變化和潛力

there was enormous subtle potential

來表示人類的情緒變化。

of representing human emotions.

事實上，當人們開始更加了解

And in fact, as man began to understand more

他們自己複雜又模稜兩可的本性時，

his complex and ambivalent nature,

和聲便隨之演變得更加複雜。

harmony grew more complex to reflect it.

人們發現它能夠描繪

Turns out it was capable of expressing emotions

言語無法傳述的情感。

beyond the ability of words.

所以擁有了這無限可能，

Now with all this possibility,

古典樂真正開始飛黃騰達。

classical music really took off.

這就是那些主要的作曲形式開始發展的時代。

It's the time in which the big forms began to arise.

並開始受到科技的影響，

And the effects of technology began to be felt also,

因為印刷技術將樂譜，音樂的編碼書，

because printing put music, the scores, the codebooks of music,

放入世界各處的演奏家手中。

into the hands of performers everywhere.

而更新改良的樂器，

And new and improved instruments

造就了演藝精湛的音樂家世代。

made the age of the virtuoso possible.

那些大型的音樂型式就是這時開始崛起--

This is when those big forms arose --

如那些交響樂、奏鳴曲、協奏曲。

the symphonies, the sonatas, the concertos.

而在這些跨越時空的結構中，

And in these big architectures of time,

像貝多芬這樣的作曲家就能夠與別人分享他一生的經驗。

composers like Beethoven could share the insights of a lifetime.

如貝多芬的第五號交響曲，

A piece like Beethoven's Fifth

讓我們見證它如何能夠

basically witnessing how it was possible

由悲傷和憤怒

for him to go from sorrow and anger,

在半個鐘頭之中

over the course of a half an hour,

一步一步，精確地，

step by exacting step of his route,

走向喜悅的那一剎那。

to the moment when he could make it across to joy.

(音樂)

(Music)

而且交響樂也可以用來表達更複雜的領域，

And it turned out the symphony could be used for more complex issues,

像是文化，

like gripping ones of culture,

如民族主義或是對自由的追尋，

such as nationalism or quest for freedom

或是人類性情的邊境。

or the frontiers of sensuality.

但無論音樂的走向是如何，

But whatever direction the music took,

一直到最近，有一樣東西一直都不變，

one thing until recently was always the same,

那就是，當音樂家停止演奏時，

and that was when the musicians stopped playing,

音樂也隨之靜止。

the music stopped.

這一刻一直令我十分感興趣。

Now this moment so fascinates me.

我認為它意義深遠。

I find it such a profound one.

當音樂停止時，會發生什麼事?

What happens when the music stops?

它跑去哪裡?它留下了什麼?

Where does it go? What's left?

當表演結束後，觀眾腦海裡還遺留着些什麼?

What sticks with people in the audience at the end of a performance?

是曲調，是節奏，

Is it a melody or a rhythm

還是一種情緒或是一種態度?

or a mood or an attitude?

而這會如何改變他們的生活?

And how might that change their lives?

對我而言這是音樂最深切、私人的一面。

To me this is the intimate, personal side of music.

是那個傳下去的部分，那個「為什麼」的部分，

It's the passing on part. It's the 'why' part of it.

對我來說這才是最重要的。

And to me that's the most essential of all.

這大多都是一種人和人之間的互動，

Mostly it's been a person-to-person thing,

像是師生之間，或演出者與觀眾之間。

a teacher-student, performer-audience thing,

但在1880年代一個新科技誕生了，