Transcriber: TED Translators admin Reviewer: Ivana Korom
(Singing)
(Singing ends)
(Applause)
Pep Rosenfeld: Folks, you've just met Claron McFadden.
She is a world-class soprano singer
who studied in Rochester, New York.
Her celebrated operatic roles are numerous and varied.
In August 2007, Claron was awarded the Amsterdam Prize for the Arts,
winning praise for her brilliance,
her amazing and extensively wide repertoire
and her vivid stage personality.
Today, she's going to be sharing with us two arias
and her thoughts about musical traditions and the arias
and how they all come together in our contemporary days.
She's moments away from the stage, so let me just quickly point out
that when this car was revealed,
everyone in the theater went: "Oh, my God, it's so far away!"
I'm still stalling.
You know, speaking of the opera,
the tax on theater tickets
19 percent.
We all hate that, right?
How about a loud boo for the raise in theater tickets?
Audience: Boo!
That's why, right around the corner, there's a new circus opening up.
(Laughter)
Alrighty. The thing you don't know about TEDxAmsterdam
is that backstage there is an intricate labirynth of traps and pits,
you can fall down and get hurt.
But fortunately that did not happen to our next speaker.
Please welcome Claron McFadden.
(Applause)
Claron McFadden: The human voice:
mysterious, spontaneous, primal.
For me, the human voice is the vessel on which all emotions travel -
except, perhaps, jealousy.
And the breath,
the breath is the captain of that vessel.
A child is born,
takes its first breath -
(Inhales)
Whah!
And we behold the wondrous beauty
of vocal expression -
mysterious, spontaneous
and primal.
A few years ago, I did a meditation retreat in Thailand.
I wanted a place
where I would have total silence and total solitude.
I spent two weeks at this retreat
in my own little hut -
no music, no nothing - sounds of nature,
trying to find the essence of concentration,
being in the moment.
On my last day,
the woman who looked after the place,
she came and we spoke for a minute,
and then she said to me,
"Would you sing something for me?"
And I thought, but this is a place of total quiet and silence.
I can't make noise.
She said, "Please, sing for me."
So I closed my eyes,
I took breath
and the first thing that came up and out
was "Summertime,"
Porgy and Bess.
(Singing) Summertime and the livin' is easy.
Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high.
Oh, your daddy's rich and your ma is good-lookin'.
So hush little baby,
don't you cry.
And I opened my eyes,
and I saw that she had her eyes closed.
And after a moment, she opened her eyes
and she looked at me and she said,
"It's like meditation."
And in that moment I understood
that everything I had gone to Thailand to look for,
to search for,
I had it already in my singing -
the calm, but alertness,
the focus, but awareness,
and being totally in the moment.
When you're totally in the moment -
when I'm totally in the moment,
the vessel of expression is open.
The emotions can flow from me
to you
and back.
It's an extremely profound experience.
There's a piece by a composer,
an American composer called John Cage.
It's called "Aria."
It was written for an amazing singer called Cathy Berberian.
And the thing about this piece that's so special -
if you see it behind me -
it's not notated in any way.
No notes, no flats, no sharps.
But it's a kind of structure.
And the singer, within this structure,
has total freedom to be creative, spontaneous.
For example,
there are different colors
and each color gets a different type of singing -
pop, country and western, opera, jazz -
and you just have to be consistent with that color.
You see there are different lines.
You choose in your own tempo in your own way
to follow the line,
but you must respect it,
more or less.
And these little dots,
these represent a sort of sound
that's not a vocal, not a lyrical way
of expressing the voice.
Using the body - it could be sneezing,
it could be coughing, animals -
(Audience member coughs)
Exactly. (Laughter)
Clapping, whatever.
And there's different text.
There's Armenian, Russian, French, English, Italian.
So within this structure, one is free.
To me, this piece is an ode to the voice,
because it's mysterious, as we can see.
It's quite spontaneous.
And it's primal.
So I would like to share this piece with you,
It's "Aria," of John Cage.
(Singing in various languages)
Hampart-zoum
Dirouhi
Di questa Terra
Naprasno
Conscience et
(Barks)
(Singing) Arise
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
(Singing)
Vidiel’a
facilmente
E io sono per te
(Robotic voice) No other way
Dans l'espace, so help
(Singing)
Si juste
Dvidzénya bistri
(Claps)
(Singing)
On pekrásen
idyot a k u
O a k ho a
Sivayoot eternal loosin
(Sneezes)
(Laughs)
Shh!
(Singing)
Gloobinoí più chiara
Si ceci est cela cela est ceci
Totalmente soi whom they sought to slay
To have the fruits gloire
J’écoute ...
À la vie…
Leggermente snédznoi
Coo coo
P k t d
Banalité
K o e
(Makes the sound of a kiss)
(Singing)
In armonia
(Applause)
Thank you.
Some of you may have noticed that my talk is called "Two Arias."
And that is because I'd like to do the piece one more time,
but I'd like to invite all of you to join me.
(Laughter)
So I may bring my assistant out,
Sjaron Minailo, who will help explain briefly
so you have a moment to get over your panic.
I will do the lines, the colors, the text,
and you will do - we all will do - the spots.
So, take a second,
think - the idea is that it's spontaneous
nothing is wrong - as loud, as soft,
as sick as you would like it.
(Laughter)
And the last thing is that we all as a group sing in armonia - in harmony.
Nervous?
(Laughter)
Feel the adrenaline, isn't it wonderful?
Spontaneous expression.
(Singing in various languages)
Hampart-zoum
Dirouhi
Di questa Terra
Naprasno
Conscience et
(Audience whistles and claps)
(Singing) Arise
(Audience claps and cheers)
(Singing)
Vidiel’a
facilmente
E io sono per te
(Robotic voice) No other way
Dans l'espace, so help
(Singing)
Si juste
Dvidzénya bistri
(Audience claps, cheers)
(Singing)
On pekrásen
idyot a k u
O a k ho a
Sivayoot eternal loosin
(Audience whistles and claps)
Gloobinoí più chiara
(Audience whistles and claps)
Si ceci est cela cela est ceci
(Audience whistles and claps)
Totalmente soi whom they sought to slay
To have the fruits gloire
J’écoute ...
Leggermente snédznoi
(Audience whistles and claps)
P k t d
Banalité
K o e
(Audience whistles and claps)
In armonia
(Applause) (Cheers)