Ted英语演讲：一个2000人的虚拟唱诗班高声歌唱 ——Eric Whitacre
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埃里克·惠特克Eric Whitacre在TED演讲：一个2000人的虚拟唱诗班高声歌唱。
I wanted to be a rock star. I dreamed of it, and that’s all I dreamed of. To be more accurate, I wanted to be a pop star. This was in the late ’80s. And mostly I wanted to be the fifth member of Depeche Mode or Duran Duran. They wouldn’t have me. I didn’t read music, but I played synthesizers and drum machines. And I grew up in this little farming town in northern Nevada. And I was certain that’s what my life would be.
我想成为一名摇滚歌星。 这就是我的梦想，我梦想的一切。 更准确的说，我想成为一名流行歌星。 那是在八十年代末。 我主要是想成为 流行尖端或杜兰杜兰（两个著名乐队）的第五名成员。 但没成功。 我不识谱，但我会用合成器和电子鼓。 我在内华达州北部的一个农业小镇长大。 我很确定我的生活会是怎样。
And when I went to college at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas when I was 18, I was stunned to find that there was not a Pop Star 101, or even a degree program for that interest. And the choir conductor there knew that I sang and invited me to come and join the choir. And I said, “Yes, I would love to do that. It sounds great.” And I left the room and said, “No way.” The choir people in my high school were pretty geeky, and there was no way I was going to have anything to do with those people. And about a week later, a friend of mine came to me and said, “Listen, you’ve got to join choir. At the end of the semester, we’re taking a trip to Mexico, all expenses paid. And the soprano section is just full of hot girls.” And so I figured for Mexico and babes, I could do just about anything.
去拉斯维加斯的内华达大学上学时 我18岁， 我吃惊地发现 那儿没有流行歌星基础课程， 甚至也没有与此相关的学位。 那儿的唱诗班指挥 知道我会唱歌 并邀请我加入唱诗班。 我回答道，“好的，我非常愿意加入。听起来非常不错。” 接着我离开了房间，说到，“没门。” 我高中学校唱诗班里的人都非常怪异， 我可不想与这种人有任何关联。 大约一周后，我一位朋友找到我，对我说， “听着，你必须加入唱诗班。 在这学期末，我们一起去墨西哥旅行， 所有费用全免。 而且女高音部全是辣妹。” 因此因为墨西哥和美女们，我想通了， 我能为此做任何事。
And I went to my first day in choir, and I sat down with the basses and sort of looked over my shoulder to see what they were doing. They opened their scores, the conductor gave the downbeat, and boom, they launched into the Kyrie from the “Requiem” by Mozart. In my entire life I had seen in black and white, and suddenly everything was in shocking Technicolor. The most transformative experience I’ve ever had — in that single moment, hearing dissonance and harmony and people singing, people together, the shared vision. And I felt for the first time in my life that I was part of something bigger than myself. And there were a lot of cute girls in the soprano section, as it turns out.
我去唱诗班的第一天， 与坐在了男低音部 仔细观察他们在做什么。 他们打开乐谱，指挥一挥指挥棒， 轰隆一声，他们开始演唱 莫扎特“安魂曲”中的求怜经。 在此之前我的世界是黑白的， 而突然所有的事物都变得绚丽多彩。 这是我经历过的最具变革性的经历 — 在那一刻，听着和谐的不和谐的歌声 人们在歌唱，人们拥有共同的愿景。 我人生中第一次感受到 我是比自身更大的事物的一部分。 事实证明，在女高音部有许多可爱的女孩儿。
I decided to write a piece for choir a couple of years later as a gift to this conductor who had changed my life. I had learned to read music by then, or slowly learning to read music. And that piece was published, and then I wrote another piece, and that got published. And then I started conducting, and I ended up doing my master’s degree at the Juilliard School. And I find myself now in the unlikely position of standing in front of all of you as a professional classical composer and conductor.
在一两年后我决定为 唱诗班写一篇作品， 作为礼物献给这名 改变了我人生的指挥。 我在那时学会了阅读五线谱，或者说慢慢地学会了读五线谱。 这一作品发行了， 然后我又写了一个，也发行了。 接着我开始指挥乐队， 我在茱莉亚音乐学院获得硕士学位。 我发现我现在作为一名专业古典作曲者和指挥 站在各位面前还是让我有些恍惚。
Well a couple of years ago, a friend of mine emailed me a link, a YouTube link, and said, “You have got to see this.” And it was this young woman who had posted a fan video to me, singing the soprano line to a piece of mine called “Sleep.”
几年前， 我的一个朋友email给我 一个链接，一个YouTube的链接， 说道，“你必须看看这个。” 那是名年轻的女性上传的一段献给我的视频， 演唱的是我的 一部女高音作品，名为“睡眠”。
(Video) Britlin Losee: Hi Mr. Eric Whitacre. My name is Britlin Losee, and this is a video that I’d like to make for you. Here’s me singing “Sleep.” I’m a little nervous, just to let you know. ♫ If there are noises ♫ ♫ in the night ♫
（视频）布瑞林·洛西：你好，埃里克·惠特克先生。 我的名字叫布瑞林·洛西， 这个视频我想献给你。 由我演唱的“睡眠”。 我只想告诉你，我有点紧张。 ♫如果在夜晚♫ ♫出现噪音♫
Eric Whitacre: I was thunderstruck. Britlin was so innocent and so sweet, and her voice was so pure. And I even loved seeing behind her; I could see the little teddy bear sitting on the piano behind her in her room. Such an intimate video.
埃里克·惠特克：我震惊了。 布瑞林是如此的单纯，如此的甜美， 她的声音是如此的纯净。 我甚至爱上了在她后面看到的东西。 我能看到在她房间中在她身后一只小泰迪熊坐在钢琴上。 多么亲切的一个视频啊。
And I had this idea: if I could get 50 people to all do this same thing, sing their parts — soprano, alto, tenor and bass — wherever they were in the world, post their videos to YouTube, we could cut it all together and create a virtual choir. So I wrote on my blog, “OMG OMG.” I actually wrote, “OMG,” hopefully for the last time in public ever. (Laughter) And I sent out this call to singers. And I made free the download of the music to a piece that I had written in the year 2000 called “Lux Aurumque,” which means “light and gold.” And lo and behold, people started uploading their videos.
我有了这样的想法：如果我能让50个人 都做这同一件事， 演唱自己的声部 — 女高音、女低音、男高音和男低音 — 无论他们身处何方，再把他们的视频放到YouTube上， 我们能把这些视频剪辑在一起，变成一个虚拟的唱诗班。 我在我的博客上写道，“OMG OMG”（天呐！天呐！） 我真的写了，“OMG”（天呐！） 希望这是我最后一次在公众面前这么做。 （笑声） 我开始招募演唱者。 我提供了我在2000年创作的 作品的免费下载， 作品名为“金色之光”，它表示“光芒和金子。” 慢慢引起了注意，人们开始上传他们的视频。
Now I should say, before that, what I did is I posted a conductor track of myself conducting. And it’s in complete silence when I filmed it, because I was only hearing the music in my head, imagining the choir that would one day come to be. Afterwards, I played a piano track underneath so that the singers would have something to listen to. And then as the videos started to come in …
我得说，在此之前， 我所做的就是贴出了我自己 指挥的一段音频。 在我录制它的时候，完全沉浸其中， 因为我在脑海里仅有听到的音乐， 想象着某天能够成真的唱诗班。 然后，我在后面演奏了一段钢琴曲， 这样演唱者就能够有伴奏可以边听边唱了。 接着视频开始进入时…
(Singing) This is Cheryl Ang from Singapore.
（歌声） 这是来自新加坡的谢丽尔·昂。
(Singing) This is Evangelina Etienne
（歌声） 这是伊万杰里纳·艾蒂安
(Singing) from Massachusetts.
（歌声） 来自马萨诸塞州。
(Singing) Stephen Hanson from Sweden.
（歌声） 来自瑞典的斯蒂芬·汉森。
(Singing) This is Jamal Walker from Dallas, Texas.
（歌声） 来自德克萨斯州达拉斯市的贾马尔·沃克。
(Singing)
（歌声）
There was even a little soprano solo in the piece, and so I had auditions. And a number of sopranos uploaded their parts. I was told later, and also by lots of singers who were involved in this, that they sometimes recorded 50 or 60 different takes until they got just the right take — they uploaded it. Here’s our winner of the soprano solo. This is Melody Myers from Tennessee. (Singing) I love the little smile she does right over the top of the note — like, “No problem, everything’s fine.”
这一作品中甚至还有一小段女高音独唱， 因此我有试镜的程序。 不少女高音歌手上传了她们演唱的部分。 后来有人告诉我， 许多参与这个项目的歌唱者也告诉过我， 他们有时会录制50或60个不同的镜头， 直到他们满意 — 然后再上传。 这是我们女高音独唱的优胜者。 来自田纳西州的梅勒妮·梅尔斯。 （歌声） 我喜欢她在上面露出的小笑脸 — 就像是在说，“没问题，一切都很好。”
(Laughter)
（笑声）
And from the crowd emerged this young man, Scott Haines. And he said, “Listen, this is the project I’ve been looking for my whole life. I’d like to be the person to edit this all together.” I said, “Thank you, Scott. I’m so glad that you found me.” And Scott aggregated all of the videos. He scrubbed the audio. He made sure that everything lined up. And then we posted this video to YouTube about a year and a half ago. This is “Lux Aurumque” sung by the Virtual Choir.
从人群中 脱颖而出一个年轻人，斯科特·海恩斯。 他说道，“听，这就是 我一生都在寻找的。 我非常荣幸成为这些视频的剪辑者。” 我说道，“谢谢你，斯科特。我很高兴你找到了我。” 斯科特把所有视频聚集在一起。 他整理了音频。 他确保一切井井有条。 接着一年半之前我们把这段视频放在了YouTube上。 这是由虚拟唱诗班演唱的“金色之光”。
(Singing)
（歌声）
I’ll stop it there in the interest of time. (Applause)
时间有限，就放到这里吧。 （掌声）
Thank you. Thank you.
谢谢。谢谢。
(Applause)
（掌声）
Thank you. So there’s more. There’s more. Thank you so much.
谢谢。 还有更多，更多。 非常感谢。
And I had the same reaction you did. I actually was moved to tears when I first saw it. I just couldn’t believe the poetry of all of it — these souls all on their own desert island, sending electronic messages in bottles to each other. And the video went viral. We had a million hits in the first month and got a lot of attention for it. And because of that, then a lot of singers started saying, “All right, what’s Virtual Choir 2.0?” And so I decided for Virtual Choir 2.0 that I would choose the same piece that Britlin was singing, “Sleep,” which is another work that I wrote in the year 2000 — poetry by my dear friend Charles Anthony Silvestri. And again, I posted a conductor video, and we started accepting submissions. This time we got some more mature members. (Singing) And some younger members.
我也有与各位同样的反应。 我第一次听的时候，感动的泪流满面。 我简直不敢相信其中蕴含的诗意 — 这些灵魂都在自己的荒岛上， 相互用瓶子发送电子信息。 这个视频迅速传播开来。 第一个月就有一百万次点击， 它受到了极大的关注。 正因如此，许多歌唱者开始说， “不错，虚拟唱诗班2.0呢？” 因此，我决定开始制作虚拟唱诗班2.0， 其中我会选择一些与布瑞林所演唱的相同的片段。 “睡眠”，这是另一个我在 2000年创作的作品 — 由我亲爱的朋友查尔斯·安东尼·维斯特里创作诗词。 再一次的，我贴出了指挥视频， 接着开始接收提交的作品。 这次我们发现了有些更年长的参与者。 （歌声） 一些更年轻的参与者。
(Video) Soprano: ♫ Upon my pillow ♫ ♫ Safe in bed ♫ EW: That’s Georgie from England. She’s only nine. Isn’t that the sweetest thing you’ve ever seen?
（视频）女高音：♫在我的枕头之上♫ ♫安睡在床上♫ 埃里克：这是来自英格兰的乔吉。她只有九岁。 这难道不是各位曾看到过的最甜美的事物么？
Someone did all eight videos — a bass even singing the soprano parts. This is Beau Awtin. (Video) Beau Awtin: ♫ Safe in bed ♫
有人完成了所有八个视频 — 一个男低音甚至演唱了女高音的部分。 这是柏·安汀。 （视频）柏·安汀：♫安睡在床上♫
EW: And our goal — it was sort of an arbitrary goal — there was an MTV video where they all sang “Lollipop” and they got people from all over the world to just sing that little melody. And there were 900 people involved in that. So I told the singers, “That’s our goal. That’s the number for us to beat.” And we just closed submissions January 10th, and our final tally was 2,051 videos from 58 different countries. Thank you. (Applause) From Malta, Madagascar, Thailand, Vietnam, Jordan, Egypt, Israel, as far north as Alaska and as far south as New Zealand.
埃里克：我们的目标是 — 这是个有点随意的目标 — 有一个音乐电视中大家都在唱“棒棒糖”， 他们让来自世界各地的人演唱那一小段曲调。 有超过900人参与其中。 因此我告诉演唱者，“这就是我们的目标。 这就是我们要超越的数字。” 我们在一月十号停止接收作品， 我们最终收到了2,051个视频 来自58个不同的国家。 谢谢。 （掌声） 来自马耳他、马达加斯加、泰国、越南、 约旦、埃及、以色列， 最北端来自阿拉斯加，最南端来自新西兰。
And we also put a page on Facebook for the singers to upload their testimonials, what it was like for them, their experience singing it. And I’ve just chosen a few of them here. “My sister and I used to sing in choirs together constantly. Now she’s an airman in the air force constantly traveling. It’s so wonderful to sing together again!” I love the idea that she’s singing with her sister. “Aside from the beautiful music, it’s great just to know I’m part of a worldwide community of people I never met before, but who are connected anyway.” And my personal favorite, “When I told my husband that I was going to be a part of this, he told me that I did not have the voice for it.” Yeah, I’m sure a lot of you have heard that too. Me too. “It hurt so much, and I shed some tears, but something inside of me wanted to do this despite his words. It is a dream come true to be part of this choir, as I’ve never been part of one. When I placed a marker on the Google Earth Map, I had to go with the nearest city, which is about 400 miles away from where I live. As I am in the Great Alaskan Bush, satellite is my connection to the world.”
我们在Facebook也有一个页面 让歌唱者可以上传他们的推荐作品， 他们喜欢什么样的作品，他们演唱时的经历。 我也从中选出了一部分。 “我姐姐和我过去时常一起在唱诗班中唱歌。 现在她是一名不断旅行的空军飞行员。 能再次一起演唱实在是太棒了！” 我喜欢她与她姐姐一起唱歌的看法。 “除了美妙的音乐以外， 这是一个我之前从未遇到的世界范围的社区，其中的人们联系在一起， 知道自己是其中的一份子真是太好了。” 我个人最喜欢的一段， “当我告诉我丈夫我打算参与其中时， 他对我说，你没有唱这些歌的嗓子。” 是的，我保证各位中许多人都曾听到过这些。 我也是。 “这太伤人了，我的眼泪喷涌而出， 但尽管他说了这些伤人的话，我内心深处还是想参与其中。 参与这个唱诗班能让梦想成真， 我从未参与过唱诗班。 当我在Google Earth Map上做上标记时， 我不得不去最近的城市，离我生活的地方大约有400英里远。 由于我生活在大阿拉斯加小镇， 卫星是我与世界的唯一连接途径。”
So two things struck me deeply about this. The first is that human beings will go to any lengths necessary to find and connect with each other. It doesn’t matter the technology. And the second is that people seem to be experiencing an actual connection. It wasn’t a virtual choir. There are people now online that are friends; they’ve never met. But, I know myself too, I feel this virtual esprit de corps, if you will, with all of them. I feel a closeness to this choir — almost like a family.
有两件事让我深有感触。 第一件是，人类将跨越任何距离去相互寻找和联系。 这与科技无关。 第二件是， 人们似乎正在经历的是一个真实的联系。 这不是个虚拟唱诗班。 这些在线的人们是朋友；他们从未见过。 但我也了解我自己，我感觉得到所有参与者的这一虚拟团队精神。 我感觉到这一唱诗班的亲密 — 几乎像个大家庭。
What I’d like to close with then today is the first look at “Sleep” by Virtual Choir 2.0. This will be a premiere today. We’re not finished with the video yet. You can imagine, with 2,000 synchronized YouTube videos, the render time is just atrocious. But we do have the first three minutes. And it’s a tremendous honor for me to be able to show it to you here first. You’re the very first people to see this. This is “Sleep,” the Virtual Choir.
我想用来结束今天的演讲的是 由虚拟唱诗班2.0 演唱的“睡眠”的首映。 这是初次亮相。 我们还没完成这一视频。 各位能想象一下，2,000个同步的YouTube视频， 光是渲染的时间就够骇人听闻的了。 但我们完成了头三分钟。 我感到极其荣幸， 能够在这儿向各位首次展示这一视频。 各位是最先看到它的人。 这就是虚拟唱诗班歌唱的“睡眠”。
(Video) Virtual Choir: ♫ The evening hangs ♫ ♫ beneath the moon ♫ ♫ A silver thread on darkened dune ♫ ♫ With closing eyes and resting head ♫ ♫ I know that sleep is coming soon ♫ ♫ Upon my pillow, ♫ ♫ safe in bed, ♫ ♫ a thousand pictures fill my head ♫ ♫ I cannot sleep ♫ ♫ my mind’s aflight ♫ ♫ and yet my limbs seem made of lead ♫ ♫ If there are noises in the night ♫
（视频）虚拟唱诗班：♫夜晚悬挂在♫ ♫月亮之下♫ ♫一道银丝在黑暗的沙丘之上♫ ♫紧闭的双眼和放松的头部♫ ♫我知道睡眠就要来临♫ ♫在我的枕头之上♫ ♫安睡在床上♫ ♫脑海中充满了无数画面♫ ♫我无法入睡♫ ♫我心潮澎湃♫ ♫而我的四肢像是灌满了铅♫ ♫如果在夜晚出现噪音♫
Eric Whitacre: Thank you very, very much. Thank you. (Applause) Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.
埃里克·惠特克：非常非常感谢。谢谢。 （掌声） 非常感谢。谢谢。谢谢。
(Applause)
（掌声）