PBS高端访谈:让音乐走进气候变化

NICK SCHIFRIN: We return to climate change, but on a very different note. Valerie Kern of Alaska Public Media explores how one artist is examining the melting of glaciers² to create music. It's part of our ongoing³ arts and culture coverage⁴, Canvas.

MATTHEW BURTNER, Composer and Eco-Acoustician: I was out recording⁵ the wind sounds, and I was, it was really snowy and icy. And I came back down into the building, and I was just covered in like ice on my beard and snow. And, you know, my, everything was frozen up. And someone said: Matthew, what are you doing? And I said: I'm composing. Well, I'm a composer, and a sound artist, and an eco-acoustician. So I work with environmental sounds, and I create music and sound art in dialogue with nature. So I particularly focus on climate change. So, you know, I'm interested in composing music that reflects changes in our climate, and I try to bring attention to that and work with the natural world as a musical instrument. So I'm very often composing with glaciers and with the snow or the wind, and things, any way that I can discover how we hear climate change. By thumping⁶ it, I hear like the snow bank as a bass⁷ drum. You know, some days, I'm out in the mountains, listening and recording sounds. There are days where I sit at the computer programming. There are days when I sit at a music paper writing music. No, it's never dull. I made an album called Glacier¹ Music. It's published. So it kind of fixes in time snapshots of these glaciers. As the glaciers are retreating, they go through a rapid kind of time of retreat, and that has a certain sonic signature. And then the glacier goes through a period of thinning. And you can hear that too, because the water that's thinning comes out of the glacier on the sides, and usually makes these rushing rivers on the sides of the glaciers. That sound, to me, is a signature sound of a glacier that's in advanced retreat. When I was studying music, I was impressed by the sounds of the natural world, and, in general, the power and the presence of the Alaskan wilderness⁸. And so I naturally made music with those things.

As I got older the, you know, the environment started changing, and I started hearing those changes in the sounds that I loved. I want people to feel something. If the music is made by a glacier, for example, will we feel more connected to the glaciers and think about them in a different way? Through composing these pieces, we're kind of documenting the world now. And, in the future, maybe a glacier like Matanuska will sound very different, if it sounds at all. And I still hope that we can change that, that the glaciers won't disappear. It's stressful to think about, you know, a million species of animals being, becoming extinct in the next few years. You know, to think about all the Arctic animals that are among those million, like what can I do to help with that? Is the music really going to stop the extinctions? No, it's not. Maybe the music can be used in a kind of joint⁹ science, policy, art discourse¹⁰ that does change that in some way.

尼克·斯齐弗林：本期节目再次关注气候变化的问题，不过是从另一个角度。瓦莱丽·克恩任职于阿拉斯加公共媒体，他深入了解了艺术家是如何通过冰川融化来进行音乐创作的。本期节目是帆布系列艺术与文化报道的部分内容。

马修·伯特纳，作曲家、生态声学家：我之前出去录下过风的声音，那一天的雪下得很大，路上都是冰。我回到了楼里，我浑身都是冰雪，胡子上也有。可以说是浑身都冻住了。然后有人跟我说：马修，你干啥呢？我说：我在作曲。毕竟我是作曲家，是声音艺术家，也是生态声学家。我每天要跟环境里的不同声音打交道，我通过与自然对话来创作音乐和声音艺术。所以我尤为关注气候变化问题。所以，我对反映气候变化的作曲很感兴趣，我试图关注这方面并将大自然当成我的乐器。我经常用冰川、雪、风等事物来作曲，这些都让我以声音的方式来感受气候变化。雪堤受风雪敲击的声音就像低音鼓一样。你知道，我有时候会去山里，聆听并记录那里的声音。有时候我坐在电脑前编程。有时候，我坐在桌前创作音乐。我的生活永远不会无聊。我曾做过一张专辑，名叫《冰川的音乐》，目前已面世。这张专辑就像是对冰川的时间快照一样。随着冰川的融化，时间也像回退了一样，这就会有某种声音上的标签。然后冰川就会越来越小。这个过程也是有声音的额，因为融化的水从冰山侧面流出来，在冰山侧面形成湍急的河流。这个声音对我而言也是冰川的一种声音的标签，是冰川融化一种先进的表达方式。我之前研究音乐的时候就对自然世界的声音印象深刻，总体来说，是对阿拉斯加茫茫的地貌感到震撼。所以，我创作音乐的源泉就是这些自然景象。

随着我年龄的增长，环境也开始发生改变，我开始听到我喜欢的这些声音也发生了变化。我希望人们也能感觉到什么。如果音乐是用自然景象来创作的，比如冰川，那么我们是否会感觉与冰川的联系更紧密呢？我们是否会用不同的方式来思考这些自然景象呢？通过创作这些作品，我们也是在记录世界。以后，或许像马塔努斯加冰川这样的冰川会发出不同于现在的声音（如果那时候它还能发声的话）。我依然希望我们能改变气候变化，这样冰川就不会消失。每当想到地球上有100万种生物在未来几年里要灭绝我就感到压力倍增。而当想到北极的一些动物也在这即将灭绝的100万种生物里时，我就会想我能做什么之类的问题。音乐真地能助力阻止生物灭绝吗？不，不能。或许音乐可以用于科学、政策、艺术的合并之中，这几样元素的合并可以从某种程度上改变气候变化。

1 glacier   

n.冰川，冰河

参考例句：

• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。
• The upper surface of glacier is riven by crevasses.冰川的上表面已裂成冰隙。

2 glaciers   

冰河，冰川( glacier的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Glaciers gouged out valleys from the hills. 冰川把丘陵地带冲出一条条山谷。
• It has ice and snow glaciers, rainforests and beautiful mountains. 既有冰川，又有雨林和秀丽的山峰。 来自英语晨读30分（高一）

3 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

4 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

5 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

6 thumping   

adj.重大的，巨大的；重击的；尺码大的；极好的adv.极端地；非常地v.重击(thump的现在分词)；狠打；怦怦地跳；全力支持

参考例句：

• Her heart was thumping with emotion. 她激动得心怦怦直跳。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He was thumping the keys of the piano. 他用力弹钢琴。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

7 bass   

n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴

参考例句：

• He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
• The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。

8 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

9 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

10 discourse   

n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述

参考例句：

• We'll discourse on the subject tonight.我们今晚要谈论这个问题。
• He fell into discourse with the customers who were drinking at the counter.他和站在柜台旁的酒客谈了起来。