American Beauty ——

  生之流螢  小人物淡彩  詩  年青而純明的愛

電視裡重播這部電影，人歪倒在沙發上，忍不住又看了一遍。

想起 ——

As cool as the pale wet leaves
  of lily-of-the-valley
  She lay beside me in the dawn

  泠然如青潤的君影草葉一般 / 躺在我身旁黎明中的她

2005年底，看過 Thomas Riedelsheimer 關于擊打樂者（percussionist——我實在想不出一個更好的翻譯） Evelyn Glennie 的電影 Touch the Sound，我想起失掉味覺的 Stephan。

蘇格蘭生長的 Evelyn 說話很慢，帶些微奇怪的口音。當電影看到中段，我才明白她其實是個幾近全聾的人（profoundly deaf），沒有助聽器雙耳根本無法聽到聲音。八歲起逐漸失聰的她沒有轉學去就讀聾啞學校，而是探索和適應身體的變化，從鋼琴轉而修習擊打樂器。她的音樂老師教她用手掌扶住墻壁，以體會不同音調的鼓聲裡掌心的不同振感，漸而在這個過程中她獲得更為深刻的聆聽——用身體的聆聽——她聽到一個不尋常的世界。

她可以讀唇語，可以說話。她像尋常人一樣生活。她演奏時不要戴助聽器。

我蹩腳的文字很難對她的世界做出闡釋，也許只有摘錄她的話——

Hearing is a sensation for which you need your whole body…and my whole life is about sound; you know, it’s what makes me tick as a human being.

聆聽是一種需要用全身體投入的知感。而我的一生都與聲音息息相關，聲音賦予我存在的涵義，它是我生命時鐘的擺。

Hearing is a form of touch, something that’s so hard to describe because in a way…you know, something that comes, sound that comes to you, you know, you, you can feel as though you can literally, sort of, almost reach out to that sound and feel that sound.

聆聽是一種無法言會的觸摸。這種感覺，如同是，當聲音向你靠近，你幾乎可以迎身上前去感知它。

Silence is probably one of the loudest sounds… and heaviest sounds that you’re every likely to experience.

寂靜或許是人一生可以體會的最強烈、最沉重的聲音。

The opposite of sound … definitely isn’t silence … in my mind anyway… I think the … I don’t even know if there is such a thing … well, there must be an opposite, actually … but… What that is, I don’t know … I wonder whether it is something that is more static, something that you can take away with … with you … It’s the closest thing that I can imagine … to … to death.

在聲音的對面是什麼，我不知道，但我想，那絕對不是寂靜。也許聲音之外別無他物，如果有，大概是某種更為靜止、某種與你可以相攜而去的存在……在我想像中，那最接近於……死亡。

Being a musician, being a dancer, being an artist, you know, is all about the sense of touch, really … the form of communication is about touch, and I don’t literally mean … that kind of thing, I , I mean, touch is just something that … a little bit like hearing, it’s just so vast, you know, we need all our senses for the others to function, we just do, and, you know, to take away the eye, it’s, it’s not a big deal; to take away the ear, it’s not a big deal; all the other senses will become that particular sense that you’ve lost, you know, this is what the mysterious sixth sense is about, you know, it creates a, a type of sense that, you know, we, we never knew existed until one or the other disappears … you know, in the same way that if suddenly I couldn’t function as … an actual percussion player, I’d never ever stop being a musician because I couldn’t communicate through the percussion instruments, you know, I’d always be a musician because that’s something that is so internal and no-one can take that away, you know, no-one.

對於一個樂者，一個舞者，一個藝者，一切表達都是某種意義的觸知，我們溝通的方式也是一點觸知。譬如這種種聆聽，它的涵義和潛能是如此廣闊，我們需要所有的官能彼此協助以運營，因而失明、失聰並沒有那麼可怕，你剩餘的感官會補足你的缺憾，它們的甦醒創造了一種唯有失去才可獲得的知感。也許那就是神秘的第六感。即使我有一天突然不能再演奏擊打樂，我也不會停止音樂。音樂是一種內心，它不會因無法由某種方式傳達而就此消逝，就如同聆聽不會因為失卻雙耳而停止。我，將永遠是一個樂者。

- Evelyn Glennie, Touch the Sound
(see full transcript in English)

Evelyn Glennie: The Way (Touch the Sound)

今年的天寒得晚，冬至將臨，才零星下過兩場雨。白天一如既往的明媚溫暖，只有在夜晚，從忘記関緊的窗戶逼進的涼氣，讓人想起穿上襪子，才想起冬天。夜裏濕潤的薄寒，在這個季節，卻似彌足珍貴。有些很鍾愛的碟，對環境的要求卻很苛刻，凡常人心浮躁，難以放來聼，這時候倒是心境恰如其分的詮釋。

Thomas Binkley，1932-1995，魯特琴師和早期音樂學者，1964年領德國慕尼黑早期音樂組 Studio der Fruehen Musik (Early Music Quartet) 錄製了一輯《布蘭詩歌》，摒棄了歌劇弦管，清簡樸素，始終是我最愛。

Tempus transit gelidum
mundus renovatur,
verque redit floridum,
forma rebus datur.
avis modulatur,
modulans letatur
lucidior
et lenior
aeriam serenatur;
iam florea,
iam frondea
silva comis densatur.

Ludunt super gramina
virgines decore,
quarum nova carmina
dulci sonant ore.
annuunt favore
voluchres canore,
favent et odore
telllus picta flore.
cor igitur
et scingitur
et tangitur amore,
virginitues et avibus
strepentibus sonore.

Tendit modo recia
puer pharetratus;
cui deorum curia
prebet famulatus,
cuius dominatus
nimium est latus,
per hunc triumphatus
sum et sauciatus:
pugnaveram
et fueram
in primis reluctatus,
sed iterum
per puerum
sum veneri prostatus.

Unam, huius vulnere
saucius, amavi,
quam sub firmo federe
michi copulavi.
fidem, quam iuravi,
numquam violavi;
rei tam suavi
totum me dicavi
quam dulcia
sunt basia
puelle!
iam gustavi:
nec cinnanum
et balsamum
esset tam dulce favi!

Thomas Binkley: Tempus Transit Gelidum (Carmina Burana)

1990年重版的CD唱片插頁上，他寫道：

在六十年代初，對早期音樂的研習更加注重旋律上的細節：混淆正確和錯誤的音符如同混淆現實與虛構。那時候我們不僅不像現在這樣願意接受一支樂曲可以存在不同的版本、並且每個版本同樣具有相當的藝術價值和可信度，更缺乏即興演奏所需要的對中古樂器及其技巧的熟知。事實上，那時候我們對中古樂器幾乎一無所知，沒有人願意參照中世紀的演奏範例，早期音樂全部使用近代樂器和演奏規則，並認爲製造美麗的音色比製造有特色的樂符更重要。其實，重要的原始素材就在我們面前，只不過都被我們忽略了：我指的是整個中世紀修辭學體系。那時候我們剛剛開始探索和認知由一種樂器對整篇樂曲的色彩能到達什麽程度的影響。直到決定放棄採用文藝復興時期音樂形式的時候，我們才終于取得了一個飛躍：從某些東南亞、中東和北非的音樂形式中我們找到了範曲，那是一種以單部音色為基礎、產生于嚴謹的美學理論的樂器搭配方式，在廣泛的程度上可以應用于西方音樂。我們從未試圖單純效仿東方音樂，而是在探索重現中世紀音樂的過程中得到了一種似乎被“濾”過的西洋樂。

In the early 1960s early-music specialists greatly concerned about the details of the melodies: the ambiguity of right notes versus wrong notes was regarded as being similar to the ambiguity that exists between fact and fiction. At that time we did not easily accept as we do now, that there could be multiple versions of a piece of music, each with equal artistic merit and historical credibility. There was no clear understanding regarding the details of instruments and their playing techniques, so important in devising an improvisatory performance style. Indeed, very little was actually known about medieval instruments. No one performing medieval music at that time was willing to trust the performance paradigms of the Middle Ages, everyone employed instruments from more recent times and applied modern “quality control” to performance standards, believing that it was more virtuous to make a beautiful sound (whatever that may be) than to select interesting notes to play. Although an important original source for historical performance was readily available, we did not recognize it: I am thinking of the whole complex of medieval rhetoric. At that time we were just beginning to understand to what extend the characteristics of an instrument condition the tonal picture. When we stopped projecting Renaissance musical characteristics back into the Middle Ages we made a great leap forward: our new models were found in selected practices from South-East Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, music based upon monophony and instrumental applications growing out of a serious aesthetic theory which in very general terms could be applied to Western music. We never directly imitated Eastern music, but passed what we had learned through what might be termed a “Western filter” in an attempt to recreate the lost art of medieval instrumental performance.