哲理散文：偷音樂的人

摘錄：我的成就妙不可言：將已存在的事物——從我最喜愛的樂隊中“偷”一首歌——改造成另一種完全不同的、只屬於我自己的作品。我是一個小偷，但同時也是一個藝術家。

In the middle of a hot July afternoon, when the stifling air came with rippling waves of heat, I became a thief of some sort—a thief of music.

For the first time, I had created an original piano arrangement of one of my favorite songs. Not once had I looked for the help of premade sheet music or video tutorials on YouTube. Using only my ears and iPod, I had transformed a mix of intermingling sounds and intricate melodies into the tones of a single instrument; I had created complex harmonies and voices into something I could perform with only two hands. No help, no guide: I had done it on my own.

七月的一個下午，天氣炎熱，令人窒息的空氣伴隨着一波波熱浪不斷襲來。某種程度上，我在這天下午成爲了小偷——一個偷音樂的人。

生平第一次，我將自己最喜歡的一首歌改編成了原創鋼琴曲。我既沒有參考已經譜好的活頁樂譜，也沒有觀摩YouTube上的視頻教程。僅憑藉着自己的耳朵和iPod音樂播放器，我把一組混雜的聲音和複雜的旋律改編成單樂器曲子，把錯綜複雜的和聲和(不同樂器的)聲音改編成我用雙手就能夠彈奏的樂章。沒有任何幫助，沒有任何指導，我憑藉一己之力獨立完成了這一挑戰。

I’ve been a pianist since before my hands were big enough to reach an octave: with a musician and composer for a father, I was all but born on the piano bench. For many years, my musical identity was defined by the notes that others had written in centuries past: elegant lines of neatly printed notes stamped across sheet music became the script I was obligated to perform. I valued playing classical music—adored it, even—but such performances felt inherently shallow, lacking in depth and details because I had nothing of my own to contribute to the masterful compositions of Bach or Rachmaninov.

當我的雙手還太小，無法跨越一整個八度音之前，我就已經是一個小小鋼琴家了。由於父親是一名音樂家兼作曲家，我幾乎一生下來就坐在鋼琴凳上了。多年來，我的音樂認同感建立在幾個世紀之前他人創造的音符之上：活頁樂譜上整齊排印的音符構成優雅的線條，成了我必須彈奏的腳本。我很重視彈奏經典樂曲——甚至很喜歡——但是我覺得這類彈奏本質上有些膚淺，缺乏深度和內涵，這是因爲我不能爲巴赫或拉赫曼尼諾夫的精湛作品錦上添花。

This was why, when I added the finishing touches to my piano version of a modern alt-rock song, my pride was all-consuming and glorious: this arrangement was mine. What I’d done seemed magical: an ability to take what had already existed—to “steal” a song from my favorite band—and to change it into something different and all my own. I was a thief, but I was also an artist.

這也是爲什麼當我完成由一首另類搖滾改編而來的原創鋼琴版本的最後幾個音符時，自豪和欣喜之情油然而生，充滿了我的胸膛：這首改編曲是我的作品。我的成就妙不可言：將已存在的事物——從我最喜愛的樂隊中“偷”一首歌——改造成另一種完全不同的、只屬於我自己的作品。我是一個小偷，但同時也是一個藝術家。

In music, as in other aspects of life, I believe that true originality rarely exists. Almost everything has, in one form or another, been done before. The most passionate romance novel may very well be a slightly changed version of a play by Shakespeare, which in turn is borrowed from the playwrights of Ancient Greece: same themes, different characters, different circumstances. But, the novel is no less deserving of praise just because its uniqueness is compromised. Adaptation is not a synonym for failure.

我認爲，在音樂領域，正如在生活的其他方面一樣，幾乎不存在完全原創的東西。幾乎所有的事情，以這種或那種形式，都曾有人做過的。即使是最激情奔放的浪漫小說，也很有可能是莎士比亞所寫的一部戲劇經過稍微修改後的一個版本罷了，而該戲劇則可能借鑑了古希臘劇作家的作品：同樣的主題、不同的角色、不同的時代背景。然而，這一部小說並不會因爲其獨特性有所欠缺而不值得獲得褒獎。改編並不意味着失敗。

The gift of creativity is the ability to do what I did on the piano: to find something beautiful, to analyze and twist it and lose yourself in the mystery of its composition, and then to make it new. Such an act is not copying; it is finding inspiration and having the strength and the innovation to use it as fuel for your own masterpiece. The world is nothing more than disparate collections of preexisting parts—scattered and often lost in the chaos of everyday life. I believe it is my job, as an artist, to rearrange this world into what I envision it to be.

創新其實就是我利用鋼琴進行改編的能力：尋找美的事物，分析分解它，使自己完全沉浸在創作的神祕之中，然後創造出新的作品。這種行爲並非抄襲，而是尋找靈感，運用自己的能力和創新精神，充分利用已找到的靈感，使之成爲創造屬於自己的傑作的動力。這個世界不過是業已存在的元素無規則地零散組合在一起，分散甚至常常迷失在混亂的日復一日當中。我堅信，作爲一名藝術家，將這個世界塑造成我理想中的樣子是我的使命。

I refuse to live as if I were trapped within the walls of a museum: looking but never touching, afraid to ruin the so-called perfection of the artifacts inside. Therefore, I will embrace my ability to be a thief, because if I don’t steal what the world has to offer, I’ll never have the tools to share with others a creation of my own.

我拒絕這樣的生活：彷佛被禁錮在博物館的高牆之內，只能觀看，不能觸碰，害怕破壞展品的所謂的“完美”。因此，我很慶幸自己有成爲“小偷”的能力，因爲如果我不能盜取這個世界所提供的東西，那我也就無法與世界分享我的獨特創作。

My life is my own arrangement, and because of that, anything is possible.

我的人生就是我的改編曲。因此，一切皆有可能。