不知道什么时候开始喜欢音乐了我也记不起来了. 从小时候的经典拉萨老歌, 之后风迷全球的 ACE OF BASE, 初中时候的 COCO LEE 和伟大的 BEYOND 到现在的 COLDPLAY, JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, YEAH YEAH YEAHS 和 SHAKIRA 等等.... 我可是作到了称职的音乐迷. 我真是看到音乐在短短的十几年里的变化. 同样也是歌手, 有些老了, 有些干脆就消失了, 有些更年轻了. 比如; 内地孙阅! 天啊! 我无法接受97年左右的我在拉萨每天晚上在拉萨电视台节目"点歌台", ( 三个字从无到有, 从小到大渐渐出现在电视屏幕试图挑战 CHANNEL V ) 上听她的"祝你平安". 我没有觉得好听, 只是这个也是电视台能提供的最好的音乐之一. 所以我想这个也算是我我对我市电视台娱乐节目的支持吧! 不过孙姐也够厉害, 不知就在哪里听到了她的就在就在就在就在.....反正有N个就在的那首惊天动地...人间人唉...车见车踩的歌, 感觉创作也可以这么简单. 反正本以为会早早退出歌坛的她既然也算是国内 HIPHOP 的一个勇敢者. 看到她的努力的自信, 我有一种的强烈的愿望重新去做高考数学题. 好了! 废话说到这里. 我呢是个音乐痴, 很难想象我的世界没有音乐的陪伴. 自从有了 MP3 之后我就以最大的限度利用了它的功能, 从不忘记给它喂最新最经典的歌. 我几乎爱所有类型的歌, 甚至我个人认为 BOLLYWOOD 95到97的歌可以称之经典. 不过我很少听 JAZZ, 不知道为什么只有 NORAH JONES 的才例外.

 

        已经是2007年了，在过去的一年里还是音乐陪我度过了我的息怒哀乐. 我的最大的乐趣也是和朋友共享好听的歌. 在这里我想和朋友们分享我个人比较喜欢的10首歌. 希望这些歌能使你的 MP3 更精彩, 也希望它能在新的一年里给你带来更多的快乐! HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

       (中文翻译在下方)

Every civilization in the history of mankind has had some form of music. 30,000 years ago in the Swabian Mountains of southern Germany, homo sapiens of the last ice age played 3-holed flutes made of the highest quality material of the time, the tusks from woolly mammoths. 9,000 years ago, in Jia Hu, Henan, musicians played 7-holed flutes made of bird bone. Confucius would accompany himself on a qin while singing verses from the “Shi Jing” 2,500 years ago. Roman Catholic monks sang Gregorian chant, Jews gave melodic readings of the Torah and Muslims sang verses of the Qur’an, all around 2,000 years ago. Music is not just rhythm, melody, harmony, or sound frequencies, it is a manifestation of humanity’s ingenious ability to express itself, its ever-mysterious soul. Like a mirror reflecting the character of every civilization, music is in constant mutation.

In my trip to Shangri-la, I realized that the local folk songs still reflected age-old rural lifestyle with authenticity. Some of these songs were closely tied in with agrarian life: barley farming, yak ranching, and the manual labor that comes with it, others dealt with religious stories of the Buddha, and of course, there were also the ever-popular romantic love songs.

The performances of these songs were genuine as well. With no microphones, amplifiers, or artificial lighting, I was finally experiencing this music in the environment in which it originated. It seemed to sound so different than the CD’s I had heard in Taiwan, due in large part to the fact that we were outdoors now, in rolling fields of barley and endless stretches of arid terrain specked with patches of wild Gesang flower. With no amplification, I could hear the human body functioning as a musical instrument in all of its natural resonances. The Tibetan songs suddenly sounded so natural, as if they had always been a part of the surroundings, like the sound of wind blowing across treetops or water babbling in a brook.

I was thoroughly amazed by the musicians who could sing while playing the two stringed xian zi and dance at the same time. The physically rigorous spinning and jumping that they performed would have been impressive even at sea level, but we were 3,000 meters above that. I also mustn’t forget to mention that everyone had also just downed three shots of barley wine, the local custom when meeting someone for the first time. What a laudatory display of balance and coordination!

After the folk songs were finished, I asked to hear some local mountain songs. Encompassing a range so high, at times I felt uncomfortable listening, these songs showcase interesting vocal techniques in which the voice is connected into a high upper register with no break into falsetto. The melodies are improvisationally embellished and the rhythm is free, creating a powerful sound capable of traveling great distances (useful for people living in the mountains). The men could sing in this style as well, also with a chest voice connected all the way through the highest register.

When we finally arrived in Lhasa, Tibet, Professor Ge Qu of the Lhasa Music Conservatory took us to a village called Ci Jiao Lin Xiang where we watched live performances of Lhamo, or traditional Tibetan Opera. These operas, dating back 1,400 years, have the longest history of all Chinese ethnic minority folk operas. And there we were, watching Lhamo performed live in front of our eyes just as Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty might have seen it when she married the Tibetan king Songtsen Gambo. In this fantastic art form, there are elaborate costumes and masks, solo singers and choruses, improvisational rap-like verses which reminded me so much of hip-hop artist Nelly’s style of rapping (free-style mostly on “do” and “sol”), that I used an excerpt of Lhamo as the opening to my song “Zhu Lin Shen Chu”.

These are “living fossils”, exceptional because unlike most ancient music, they are still in practice today. Chinese ethnic minorities’ music has not only taught me a lot about Chinese history, but has also allowed me to hear it intact and preserved. Just as we learn from traveling or studying history books, keeping our ears open can provide an acoustic portrait of ancient civilizations. Like in Li Jiang, Yunnan, the Naxi ancient music from the Tang Dynasty is regarded as a truly original Chinese musical form. A combination of Daoist and Confucian musics (Bai Sha Xi Yue, Dong Jing Yin Yue, and Huang Jing Yin Yue), a full orchestra including the flute, suona, pipa, yang qin, erhu, bells, various gongs and large drums, performs this “Naxi Gu Yue” music regularly in the Naxi ancient city to this day.

While globalization has resulted in a more homogeneous artistic aesthetic, and has trained the average ear to understand certain musical motifs as being associated with specific emotions, we should also remind ourselves that these vernaculars are merely trends. Although they are valuable clichés to learn in order to communicate with today’s audiences en masse, very different sensibilities apply in other cultures, especially when we factor in the musics of past civilizations.

Aside from the cultural and historical value, I also learned an even more important lesson from the ethnic minorities’ music, and that is that music is a natural part of who we are, were, and always will be as human beings. It can be the “hunting song” or the “working song” that I heard Tibetan construction workers sing together as they built small concrete houses by hand. They’re not thinking about pitch accuracy and tone production, or technique at all for that matter…it’s just a part of their daily life, making their jobs a little easier.

T.S. Eliot wrote in his poem Little Gidding, one of the Four Quartets,

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

My journey to the West, including Dali, Lijiang, Kunming, Xishuang Banna, Shangri-la, Tibet, and Xin Jiang opened my ears to the colorful palate of ancient Chinese music, and infused my Chinked-out style of music with a new sound.

But this, like all journeys should be, was also a journey of the self, and I ultimately learned some intangible qualities of the human soul. A musical thread connects us, consistently from civilization to civilization. And that thread runs through you just as it does me. What patterns, and colors it will weave as the course of history plays out is only limited by our imagination and ability to dream. 

                                                                   翻译 徐旻莉 / 徐稳贵
人类历史中的每一个文明都曾有着某种形式的音乐，三万年前，冰河时代末期，德国南方斯瓦本（Swabian）山脉的人类，他们吹奏的三孔笛是用当时最好的材质 -- 长毛象的长牙做成的。九千年前，在河南省的贾湖，音乐家吹奏的七孔笛是用鸟的骨头做的。两千五百年前，孔子吟唱诗经以琴相伴；两千年前左右，罗马天主教修道士以单音颂唱格里高里赞美诗（Gregorian Chant）；犹太人用有旋律的调子颂读犹太人的圣经Torah；回教徒也已经在吟唱着可兰经的经文。音乐不只是节奏、旋律、和声或某种声音的频率而已，它是人类用来表达自己奥袐心灵的一种独特方式，音乐它持续在进展、永远在蜕变，就像一面镜子反映着每一个文明的特质。

这次香格里拉之行，我了解到当地的民歌仍然真实地反映着当地古老的乡土生活。这些民歌与种植青稞、放牧牦牛、用劳力干着粗活的农耕生活紧密地连结在一起。除了这些民歌之外，他们也有描述藏传佛教和佛陀故事的歌曲和诗文，当然，还有那些广受欢迎的浪漫情歌。

这些歌曲演唱的方式非常独特，没有麦克风、没有扩音器、没有人造的灯光，我终于在这个音乐的发源地体验到由这个环境孕育出来的音乐。这和我以前在台湾听过这类音乐的CD是多么的不同，主要的原因是因为我们当时在户外 -- 在绵延的青稞田和散布着野生格桑花的无边干燥草原上。没有扩音器的现场，我可以听见人的身体如乐器般运作所产生的自然共鸣。这些西藏歌曲听起来是这样的自然，如同风吹过树梢的声音、或是溪流淙淙的水声，好像它们原本就是这周遭环境的一部分。

有些歌手们不仅边唱边跳，还同时演奏着两弦的“弦子”（译注：藏族乐器，又叫哑胡）这种消耗体力的旋转与跳跃。若是在平地上演出就足以令人印象深刻，何况我们是在海拔三千公尺以上的高原！我还必须提及，他们才刚喝了三杯青稞酒 -- 这是当地的习俗，对初次见面的客人以敬上三杯青稞酒为礼遇。他们这样一边唱、一边跳、一边弹奏，却能同时保持身体的平衡与协调，这是多么令人赞赏啊！

听完了民歌，我要求听一些当地的山歌。山歌的音域相当的高，听起来有的时候让我觉得不是很舒服，这些歌曲展现的是不用假声即让声音直接进入高音域的发声技巧。即兴的旋律、自由的节拍，这种充满力量的声音可以传达得非常远（对住在山上的人来说很有用）。男人也能应用这种技巧，他们用胸腔的声音直接运气到头腔的高音域引吭高歌。　

当我们最后到达西藏拉萨，拉萨音乐学院的格曲教授带领我们到拉萨市次角林乡的村落，在那里我们观赏了藏戏（Lhamo传统的西藏歌剧）的现场演出。这些歌剧源于一千四百多年前，是中国少数民族歌剧中历史最悠久的。就这样，藏戏在我们眼前历历呈现，我想唐朝文成公主在嫁给西藏王（当时的吐蕃王）松赞干布时很可能也看过这出戏吧！在这个令人赞叹的艺术形式中，有许多精致的戏服与面具、独唱与合唱，以及非常即兴、像饶舌歌一般的词句，像极了hip-hop歌手Nelly的饶舌风格（不拘形式，多半用“do”和“sol”），于是我节录了一小段藏戏音乐作为我“竹林深处”这首歌的前奏。

有别于其他失传的古代音乐，这些音乐可以说是活化石，因为它们至今仍然流传着。中国少数民族音乐不仅教导我许多中国的历史，也让我得以聆听到保存完整的曲子。如同我们透过旅行或阅读史书来了解古代文明，竖起耳朵同样地也能给我们古代文明听觉上的写真。就像云南丽江的纳西古乐，其历史可上溯至唐朝并被认为是中国音乐最初原始的形式。它融入了道教法事音乐和儒教典礼音乐（包含白沙细乐、洞经音乐与皇经音乐），乐团的编制包括了笛子、唢呐、琵琶、扬琴、二胡、钟、各式的锣和大鼓等乐器，直到今天纳西古乐仍在纳西古城中日复一日地演奏着。

当全球化让大家的审美观趋于一致，一般人的耳朵已经被训练成听到某种音乐的调子和节拍，即会把某种情绪和这类音乐联想在一起，我们应该提醒自己，每一种通俗的音乐语言，只不过是当时的一种潮流；当然，为了和现今的听众们沟通，这些通俗的音乐语言固然有值得学习的价值，但是不同文化有不同的口味，尤其是当我们考虑到以往文明中不同的音乐形态。

撇开文化和历史的价值，从少数民族音乐我学习到一个更重要的课题，那就是音乐是我们的过去、现在和未来最自然的一部份。它可以是我听见西藏的建筑工人用手在搭建小水泥房屋时一起唱的“打猎歌”或“打工歌”。他们从来不会顾虑有没有走音、调子对不对、技巧好不好的问题，对他们来说，音乐就是日常生活的一部份，也许能让他们粗重的工作变得稍微轻松一点。

诗人艾略特在他的诗集“四首四重奏”的“小吉丁”中写道：

我们不应停止探索
而我们一切探索的终点
将会回到我们原来的起点
这时才首次真正认识它

我在中国西部的旅程，包括大理、丽江、昆明、西双版纳、香格里拉、西藏和新疆，让我对多彩多姿的中国古乐大开耳界，给我Chinked-out的音乐风格注入一股新的声音。

但是，这旅程就像所有的旅程一样，也是我自我认知的旅程，我最终学习到了一些人类心灵的无形特质。一条音乐的线将我们连结在一起，从一个文明串连到另一个文明。这一条线穿越你，也穿越我。随着历史过程的发展，这条音乐之线究竟会编织出甚么样的图案和颜色，就端看你我有多少想像力和编织梦想的能力了。