我翻译的《音乐的未来》，附原文

2009-01-09 00:28:02 来自: 毛毛虫(终于买了。。。)

音樂的未來：信經

――約翰·凱奇，1937年於西雅圖縯講錄



我所相信噪音的應用

無論我們身處何處，所聽到的大部分都是噪音。當我們試圖忽略它，它令人煩躁;而當我們傾聽它，卻發現它如此迷人。50邁呼嘯而過的卡車。調頻電台間的靜電噪音。雨。我們希望捕捉並控制這些音響，使用它們，象使用樂器那樣把它們轉變成音樂，而不僅僅是音效。每個電影工作室都有一套錄制在電影膠片上的音效庫。用電影膠片畱聲機1，如今我們可以控制任何一種聲音的振幅和頻率，並賦予其各種預期的或超乎想象的節奏。只要有四台畱聲機，我們就可以編寫並演奏關於轟鳴的馬達，風，心跳和地裂山崩的四重奏。

來制造音樂

如果"音樂"這個詞，是十八，十九世紀樂器所演奏音樂的神聖專指，那我們可以用一個更形象的表達:聲響集。

將不斷持續發展，直到我們能借助電子樂器創作音樂。

像早期的汽車設計師拷貝馬車造型那樣，大多數電子樂器的發明者們不過是在模擬十八，十九世紀的樂器。電子管風琴2與索洛沃克斯電子琴3就是模擬過去而非創造未來的意願的產物。泰勒明電子琴4給了我們全新的可能性，可演奏家們卻竭盡全力讓它聽上去像傳統樂器，賦予它甜得惡心的顫音，吃力地用它演奏經典曲目。盡管一個簡單的撥動就能使泰勒明電子琴制造出變化多端的音質，演奏家們卻像檢察官一樣，只給聽衆聽他們所認為的聽衆喜歡的音色。我們被屏蔽於新音響試驗之外。

電子樂器的特質使其能對樂音(相對噪音而言)的泛音結構進行完全控制，並得到任意頻率，振幅和周期的聲響。

這些應用將使所有人耳所聽之聲音均可成為音樂作品的成因。用光電，膠片和機械媒質合成的音樂作品

這讓作曲家們現在可以脫離作為載體的演奏家們，直接創作音樂。音軌上的任何聲音只要重復足夠次數後都將具有可聽性。每秒280轉的音軌會髮齣一種聲音，而貝多芬的肖像在音軌上一秒重復50次則將有不同的音調與音質效果。 5

將被人們探索。盡管過往的主要分歧存在於不諧和與諧和音程之間，但在不久的將來，這種分歧將轉為噪音與所謂的"樂音"的對立。

現有的作曲技法主要是在聲響領域內依照特定規范並以調性和聲為基礎的，然而這將不足以應對作曲家將面臨的整個聲響領域。

作曲家(聲響組織者)不僅將面對孤立的聲響領域，還將面對整個時間領域。根據已有的電影技術，每秒可分的幀格數將有可能成為時間計量的基本單位。沒有什麼節奏將是作曲家無法做到的。

新技法將會出現，它根植於勛伯格的十二音體系

勛伯格的技法平均分配每一個音在音列中的作用，同一音列裡的每個音同等重要。(調性和聲則分配基本或主要音型，而同一和弦裡的不同音地位不等。)勛伯格的作曲法類似現代社會,強調整體的同時關注個體於其中的整合。

和現有的打擊樂作曲法

打擊樂是音樂從鍵盤主導音樂到未來的"全聲響"音樂的現代性轉變。打擊樂作曲家接受任何聲音，盡其所能地探索學術上"非音樂"聲響的禁區。

已有的打擊樂作曲技法以作品的節奏構架為目標。一旦這些技法凝集為一種或幾種廣為接受的作曲法，它就將為那些不可記錄但文化意義重大的即興音樂的創作而存在。這在東方文化與熱爵士裡已先行一步。

以及其它任何擺脫基音概念作曲的技法。

形式的本質將是我們與過往唯一不變的聯系。賦格與奏鳴曲曾是過去某個時代的偉大形式，未來時代的音樂形式雖然會有所不同，但仍然與這些形式密切相關，就像它們彼此

在這發生之前，實驗音樂的中心必須確立下來。在這裡，新材料、振蕩器、發電機、聲音放大設備、電影膠片留聲機等等都將派上用場。作曲家用20世紀的手段來制造音樂。演奏結果。以純音樂與戲劇、舞蹈、電影音樂為目的的聲響集。

通過音樂的構成原理或人類共有思考力緊密地聯系在一起。



注:凱奇原文的黑體字標題合在一起看，能單獨形成一篇關於文章主旨的陳述，因此翻譯時我也按照這個風格來斷句。

1 film phonograph電影膠片畱聲機，早期電影錄音采用的方法是將聲音信號轉換為電信號後，用光電技

術把電信號轉化為不同的光能，再感光到膠片上進行聲音錄制，播放的時候就采用與錄制時同樣轉速的留

聲機把該過程反之。

2 Novachord電子管風琴，美國人勞倫斯哈蒙德發明的電子管風琴，發明於1934年，1939由哈蒙德公司生

產出品。是世界上首部模擬合成器，由169只真空管構成，外形酷似鋼琴，有72鍵的鍵盤與音量踏板、低音

踏板和延音踏板，鍵盤上方的控制面板有14個各種控制轉換開關。是現代電子琴的開山鼻祖。



3 Solovox索洛沃克斯電子琴，也是由哈蒙德公司設計的電子琴產品，40年代中問世，比Novachord輕便，

能有12種樂器模擬效果可選。可為簡單的鋼琴演奏配上樂隊伴奏效果，因而一經推出就大受歡迎。

4 Theremin泰勒明電子琴，真空管發聲的第一台電子琴。由前蘇聯電子工程師及大提琴家泰勒明發明於

1917年，两组振荡器构成发声元件，由一個方形留声机、一個天線感應器和一個金屬線圈構成。演奏者一

只手在金屬線圈旁移動控制音量，另一只手在天線感應器旁移動控制音調。最早的機器模擬小提琴的聲

音。1927年泰勒明離開蘇聯將這個發明帶到美國，並與30年代在美國批量生產。



5 指用電影膠片在電影膠片畱聲機上播放，由于轉速的不同，膠片上的圖像産生的音調與音質不同。

按:這篇文章網上有人翻譯過片段,但沒有全文,而且網上的翻譯有點像翻譯軟件干的事,讓人看起來丈二和尚摸不著頭腦.最近老曹對現代音樂頗感興趣,特別是凱奇.我們對於現代音樂因此有過不少爭論.對於凱奇的音樂理論與理想我們知之甚少,這篇論文算是為我們最近的爭論都補了一課.還是那句話,對現代藝術作品的評判必須基於文本的研究,這文本既包括樂譜也包括作者本人的論著.於是我試著翻譯了這篇文章.



The Future of Music: Credo

---by John Cage

by john cage, 1937
from john cage: documentary monographs in modern art, edited by richard kostelanetz. praeger publishers, 1970.
scanned and re-formatted by eluna

Perhaps the single most influential of Cage's written texts, this was first delivered as a lecture in 1937 in Seattle, but not published until 1958 in the brochure accompanying George Avakian's recording of Cage's 25-Year Retrospective Concert.

I BELIEVE THAT THE USE OF NOISE

Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating. The sound of a truck at 50 m.p.h. Static between the stations. Rain. We want to capture and control these sounds, to use them, not as sound effects, but as musical instruments. Every film studio has a library of “sound effects” recorded on film. With a film phonograph it is now possible to control the amplitude and frequency of any one of these sounds and to give to it rhythms within or beyond the reach of anyone’s imagination. Given four film phonographs, we can compose and perform a quartet for explosive motor, wind, heartbeat, and landslide.



TO MAKE MUSIC

If this word, music, is sacred and reserved for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century instruments, we can substitute a more meaningful term: organization of sound.



WILL CONTINUE AND INCREASE UNTIL WE REACH A MUSIC PRODUCED THROUGH THE AID OF ELECTRICAL INSTRUMENTS

Most inventors of electrical musical instruments have attempted to imitate eighteenth- and nineteenth-century instruments, just as early automobile designers copied the carriage. The Novachord and the Solovox are examples of this desire to imitate the past rather than construct the future. When Theremin provided an instrument with genuinely new possibilities, Thereministes did their utmost to make the instrument sound like some old instrument, giving it a sickeningly sweet vibrato, and performing upon it, with difficulty, masterpieces from the past. Although the instrument is capable of a wide variety of sound qualities, obtained by the mere turning of a dial, Thereministes act as censors, giving the public those sounds they think the public will like. We are shielded from new sound experiences.

The special property of electrical instruments will be to provide complete control of the overtone structure of tones (as opposed to noises) and to make these tones available in any frequency, amplitude, and duration.



WHICH WILL MAKE AVAILABLE FOR MUSICAL PURPOSES ANY AND ALL SOUNDS THAT CAN BE HEARD. PHOTOELECTRIC, FILM, AND MECHANICAL MEDIUMS FOR THE SYNTHETIC PRODUCTION OF MUSIC

It is now possible for composers to make music directly, without the assistance of intermediary performers. Any design repeated often enough on a sound track is audible. 280 circles per second on a sound track will produce one sound, whereas a portrait of Beethoven repeated 50 times per second on a sound track will have not only a different pitch but a different sound quality.



WILL BE EXPLORED. WHEREAS, IN THE PAST, THE POINT OF DISAGREEMENT HAS BEEN BETWEEN DISSONANCE AND CONSONANCE, IT WILL BE, IN THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE, BETWEEN NOISE AND SO-CALLED MUSICAL SOUNDS.



THE PRESENT METHODS OF WRITING MUSIC, PRINCIPALLY THOSE WHICH EMPLOY HARMONY AND ITS REFERENCE TO PARTICULAR STEPS IN THE FIELD OF SOUND, WILL BE INADEQUATE FOR THE COMPOSER WHO WILL BE FACED WITH THE ENTIRE FIELD OF SOUND.

The composer (organizer of sound) will not only be faced with the entire field of sound but also with the entire field of time. The “frame” or fraction of a second, following established film technique, will probably be the basic unit in the measurement of time. No rhythm will be beyond the composer’s reach.



NEW METHODS WILL BE DISCOVERED, BEARING A DEFINITE RELATION TO SCHOENBERG’S TWELVE-TONE SYSTEM

Schoenberg’s method assigns to each material, in a group of equal materials, its function with respect to the group. (Harmony assigned to each material, in a group of unequal materials, its function with respect to the fundamental or most important material in the group.) Schoenberg’s method is analagous to modern society, in which the emphasis is on the group and the integration of the individual in the group.



AND PRESENT METHODS OF WRITING PERCUSSION MUSIC

Percussion music is a contemporary transition from keyboard influenced music to the all-sound music of the future. Any sound is acceptable to the composer of percussion music; he explores the academically forbidden “nonmusical” field of sound insofar as is manually possible.

Methods of writing percussion music have as their goal the rhythmic structure of a composition. As soon as these methods are crystallized into one or several widely accepted methods, the means will exist for group improvisations of unwritten but culturally important music. This has already taken place in Oriental cultures and in hot jazz.



AND ANY OTHER METHODS WHICH ARE FREE FROM THE CONCEPT OF A FUNDAMENTAL TONE.

THE PRINCIPLE OF FORM WILL BE OUR ONLY CONSTANT CONNECTION WITH THE PAST. ALTHOUGH THE GREAT FORM OF THE FUTURE WILL NOT BE AS IT WAS IN THE PAST, AT ONE TIME THE FUGUE AND AT ANOTHER THE SONATA, IT WILL BE RELATED TO THESE AS THEY ARE TO EACH OTHER

Before this happens, centers of experimental music must be established. In these centers, the new materials, oscillators, generators, means for amplifying small sounds, film phonographs, etc., available for use. Composers at work using twentieth-century means for making music. Performances of results. Organization of sound for musical and extramusical purposes (theater, dance, film).



THROUGH THE PRINCIPLE OF ORGANIZATION OR MAN’S COMMON ABILITY TO THINK.


毛毛虫

08-1-19