譚盾：他讓世界聽(tīng)懂了東方

From every perspective, you can call Tan Dun a music master that has won over the world with his work.

He has conducted all of the world's top Symphony Orchestras, and has performed in all the best concert halls round the world.

He has also won all of the world's top music awards. When I, in my conservative mind, asked what was his secret of impressing the West, he told me that the most prominent fi gures of the world has been learning to look back to the ancient East.

從任何一個(gè)角度看，譚盾都可以說(shuō)是征服了國(guó)際主流的大師。

他指揮了世界上所有頂級(jí)交響樂(lè)團(tuán)，在世界上所有最好的音樂(lè)廳演出，獲得世界上各大最頂尖的音樂(lè)獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)。

當(dāng)我?guī)е逃械乃季S，尋問(wèn)他打動(dòng)西方世界的法門(mén)時(shí)，他告訴我，現(xiàn)在世界上最優(yōu)秀的人都已經(jīng)在回望古老的東方。

1

Making an appointment for an interview with Tan Dun, then you need to be precise: to the minute.

He is extremely busy.

Other than preparing the “The Martial Arts Trilogy”concert in the Guangzhou Opera House on May, 3rd, he is also producing and recording his new piece with an American team of artists. Rumor says it will be a totally unexpected piece.

The music Tan created has always been unexpected:Water Passion was composed with architectures, water, and household utensils. Nu Shu: The Secret Songs of Women used both Western Harp and the folk singing of West Hunan. For the things that people are usually unfamiliar with, he can easily break through the shackles of geography, materials and sense of forms to grasp their spiritual inner core quickly and accurately. Then, with his familiar music logic, he capture pieces one by one and arrange them tightly and naturally. Eventually a complete soul that everyone can connect with is born.

This whole process is like a mysterious communication with nothingness, senses, and imaginations, just like how he describe the shaman who can speak with Wind and Cloud in his Western Hunan hometown.

However, Tan doesn't believe that all of these are random. Sound has its own life. There is a reason for where it comes from and where it willgo. Its like Daoism, but also logical like maths. Tan Dun, with a keen perception, is also a researcher who can immerse himself in studying the rational rule of music. He said he's not making music, but looking for a color, a shortcut, an invisible path to touch the listener's heart quickly and deeply.

Just like a scientist, Tan is full of curiosity and the spirit of practice upon the inf i nite variations of the sound.

2

Tan has never been shy about his history as a village boy from Hunan province, nor did he hesitate when admitting that before the entering exam at his college, he didn't even know who Mozart or Beethoven was. On his fi rst day of college, he carried all his luggage on a carrying pole, and his classmates gave him a nickname "Hunan landlord". A few years later, this “Hunan landlord” became one of the four most promising young artists in China's Central College of music, and his fi rst Symphony was called Lisao.

Tan's fi rst forays into music were much more intuitive and spontaneous. His perception comes from the most immediate experiences of villages, space and earth. In an interview with the New York Times, Tan insisted that "his music comes from his survival experience, from ghost tales, from Buddhists, and from the village shamans he encountered from an early age”. In his music, he extensively uses the sounds of fl owing water and stones. A sounds that were probably rooted in his memory at an early age.

After graduating from the Central Conservatory of Music, he got a scholarship to Columbia University in the City of New York. Faced with the strange listeners of a completely different culture, he learned to throwback to China in his music "in a worldwide way".

He found a way to incorporate traditional Chinese music that was not just simply stuff i ng eastern musical instruments into a western composition, but instead to adapt all kinds of music including symphony and opera, to rebuild and increase his understanding of Chinese culture and music.

3

Chatting with Tan is very enjoyable. He has a gentle and relaxing tone, without pretending or seriousness, and he would occasionally and suddenly utter some words of quite philosophical and profound meanings.

His mandarin is spoken with the Hunan accent, but his English is very standardized and fl uent. When it came to very funny topics, he laughed with a sound from his nose. As I asked him if all Hunan people were so funny and humorous, he answered, yes and they were very stubborn just like mules. But when we talked about his music, nothing could distract him.

However, he is always open when it comes to something or someone new, unknown and strange, just like a garden without fences. When it comes to music, Tan has an endless imagination. Artists must be very honest, he said, when you embrace more, you can learn more and your world will expand. He is called the interdisciplinary musical urchin, and also Bai Yansong's "scientif i c god". Last Christmas, he took his whimsical work Secret Words Between Wind and Birds, playing it in fron of 1500 audiences, and completed a symphony created from interactive WeChat messages with his colleagues.

Tan thinks, in this era, tradition is changing, the way of composing is changing, and even our cultural backgrounds need to be changed. “No matter what history or archeology you are doing, the essence is to be clear with our past. Why? Absolutely, for our future.”

1

與譚盾預(yù)約采訪時(shí)間，需要精確到分。他非常得忙。

除了準(zhǔn)備5月7日在廣州大劇院的《武俠三部曲》視聽(tīng)交響音樂(lè)會(huì)，他和來(lái)自美國(guó)的團(tuán)隊(duì)正進(jìn)入新作品的創(chuàng)作、錄制。據(jù)說(shuō)，這會(huì)是一個(gè)讓人大吃一驚的作品。

譚盾的創(chuàng)作，幾乎沒(méi)有一次不讓人吃驚。

不論是用建筑、水和器皿組合出的《水樂(lè)》，還是用西方豎琴與湘西唱調(diào)完美融合的微電影交響樂(lè)《女書(shū)》。

對(duì)這些人們普遍比較陌生的事物，他總能輕易地突破地域、物質(zhì)和形式感的束縛，迅速而準(zhǔn)確地捉到精神內(nèi)核。然后，用他熟悉的音樂(lè)邏輯，把那些被捕捉到的碎片一一嚴(yán)密又天然地組合排列，最終呈現(xiàn)出一個(gè)人人都可觸及的完整靈魂。

這整個(gè)過(guò)程，就像一場(chǎng)與虛無(wú)、與感官、與想象的神秘交流，就像他常常提到湘西家鄉(xiāng)可以與風(fēng)云對(duì)話的巫師。

譚盾說(shuō)，這一切不是隨意的。聲音有自己的生命，從哪里來(lái)，到哪里去，都有來(lái)龍去脈的，像道家的哲學(xué)，又像數(shù)學(xué)一樣充滿邏輯。敏銳感性的譚盾，同時(shí)也是一個(gè)可以沉下心來(lái)探索理性規(guī)律的“研究者”。他說(shuō)，他不是在做音樂(lè)，而是在尋找一種顏色、一種捷徑，一種無(wú)形的道路，可以迅速地、深入地觸動(dòng)聽(tīng)者的心靈。

像一個(gè)科學(xué)家，他對(duì)聲音和靈魂，充滿了實(shí)踐精神和好奇心，他把這個(gè)稱(chēng)作為“貪玩”。

2

譚盾從來(lái)不避諱說(shuō)他來(lái)自湖南鄉(xiāng)村，也不避諱談到他最初參加面試時(shí)，甚至不知道莫扎特和貝多芬是誰(shuí)。挑著扁擔(dān)進(jìn)入大學(xué)的那一天，同學(xué)給他起了一個(gè)外號(hào)叫“湖南地主”。幾年以后，這個(gè)“湖南地主”成為了中央音樂(lè)學(xué)院的四大才子之一，他創(chuàng)作的第一首并迅速贏得矚目的交響樂(lè)叫作《離騷》。

與從三、四歲懵懂期就開(kāi)始練習(xí)古典音樂(lè)的很多音樂(lè)家們不同，他對(duì)世界、對(duì)聲音最初的啟蒙是非常直觀的，來(lái)源于鄉(xiāng)村、自然和土地。這讓他對(duì)他音樂(lè)里闡述的文化內(nèi)核和外延，有著骨血里的認(rèn)同和充足的想象。后來(lái)，他在接受《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》采訪時(shí)，堅(jiān)持認(rèn)為“他的音樂(lè)來(lái)自他的生存體驗(yàn)，來(lái)自神鬼故事，來(lái)自佛教徒，來(lái)自幼年遇到的鄉(xiāng)村巫師?！蹦切┝魉⑹^的聲音，大約都曾在某個(gè)時(shí)空儲(chǔ)存在于他的記憶中。

從中央音樂(lè)學(xué)院畢業(yè)后，他取得了去紐約哥倫比亞大學(xué)修讀博士的獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金。面對(duì)多元文化的奇異聽(tīng)眾，他第一次學(xué)會(huì)了“以世界的方式回望中國(guó)?！彼业搅艘粭l回歸傳統(tǒng)的路子，不是用東方樂(lè)器堆砌出的西式作曲，而用包括交響樂(lè)、歌劇在內(nèi)的各種形式，來(lái)重塑和豐滿他理解的東方。

譚盾說(shuō)，他喜歡水，那是第一次讀老鄉(xiāng)沈從文寫(xiě)水的句子時(shí)產(chǎn)生的情愫。他說(shuō)，水讓他想到從哪里來(lái)，到哪里去。

這是一個(gè)深深熱愛(ài)著自己出處的人。

3

與譚盾交流是一件很享受的事情。他保持著溫和而輕松的語(yǔ)調(diào)，不裝，不端著，偶爾冒出充滿哲學(xué)和深意的句子。

他講一口湖南口音的普通話與非常標(biāo)準(zhǔn)流利的英語(yǔ)。說(shuō)到有趣的話題，會(huì)從鼻腔里發(fā)出笑聲。比如我問(wèn)他，是不是湖南人都很幽默。他笑著說(shuō)，好像挺幽默但也有點(diǎn)騾子脾氣。進(jìn)入創(chuàng)作狀態(tài)時(shí)，他完全沉浸在音樂(lè)里，任誰(shuí)都拉不出來(lái)。

然而，對(duì)于新鮮的、未知的、陌生的人和事，他卻像一道沒(méi)有籬笆的院子，歡迎著每一種到來(lái)的可能。譚盾說(shuō)，他的音樂(lè)是沒(méi)有邊際的暢想。他說(shuō)藝術(shù)家必須真誠(chéng)、豐富，容納的陌生越多，學(xué)到的就越多，世界也就越大。他被稱(chēng)作跨界音樂(lè)頑童，又被白巖松稱(chēng)為“科學(xué)男神”。去年圣誕節(jié)，譚盾帶著他“異想天開(kāi)”的作品《風(fēng)與鳥(niǎo)的密語(yǔ)》指揮著1500多個(gè)觀眾，與臺(tái)上的樂(lè)手一起完成了一曲手機(jī)微信互動(dòng)交響樂(lè)。他把“社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)”變成了“樂(lè)器”。

他說(shuō)，在這個(gè)時(shí)代，傳統(tǒng)在改變，創(chuàng)作在改變，文化也需要改變?！捌鋵?shí)讀歷史也好，考古也好，都是把過(guò)去搞清楚。我們?yōu)槭裁匆闱宄^(guò)去，當(dāng)然是為了未來(lái)?！?/p>

TAN DUN LISTEN TO THE SOUL OF THE EAST

Text by Yan Junling Photos from TanDun's Workshop
Translations by Tao Wenjia&Bian Jiajin&Zheng Ying