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2007年10月6日 星期六

紐時精譯:在虛擬世界為古典樂迷舉辦實況音樂會


Live Music in a Virtual World for Fans of Classical Music

在虛擬世界為古典樂迷舉辦實況音樂會

By Anna Midgette
People really dress for concerts around here. One man sports a bright purple suit, with a hat and roller skates to match. A woman wears a gown that appears to be made of peacock feathers, and a large blue butterfly flaps gently in circles around her.
這裡的觀眾盛裝聽音樂會。一位男士穿一套鮮紫色的西裝,搭配一頂帽子和溜冰鞋。一位女士穿一件晚禮服,似乎是用孔雀羽毛做的,一隻藍色的大蝴蝶繞著她翩翩飛舞。

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic went to the unusual extreme of building a new hall for the opening of its season: a virtual environment in the online world Second Life. In a virtual replica of the Art Deco hall, an audience of animated figures, known as avatars, watched the orchestra perform live in a choppy video streamed over the Internet on a screen at the front of the room.
皇家利物浦愛樂管弦樂團為了本季的開幕演出,極不尋常地建了一座新音樂廳:位在「第二人生」線上世界的一個虛擬環境。在虛擬世界複製的「裝飾藝術音樂廳」內,由動畫人物,也就是「化身」組成的觀眾,在房間前頭螢幕上透過網路斷斷續續播出的影片中,觀賞管弦樂團的現場演奏。

Call it the future, call it a stunt, Second Life is attracting more and more attention, and classical music is starting to get in on the act. Universal Classics has built an online island where visitors can inspect a replica of the exhibition of artifacts associated with the legendary mezzo-soprano Maria Malibran that is now touring Europe to promote Cecilia Bartoli’s next Malibran-themed album.
稱 它是未來世界也好,稱它是噱頭也罷,「第二人生」線上遊戲愈來愈受注意,古典音樂也開始摻一腳。環球古典音樂公司已建立線上網站,瀏覽者可以仔細欣賞傳奇 次女高音瑪莉‧馬利布蘭相關文物展的複製品,這項展覽,目前正在歐洲巡迴展出,為(次女高音)芭托莉下一張主打馬利布蘭歌曲的專輯宣傳。

In May the pianist Lang Lang, in the form of an avatar, gave a live concert. And the Liverpool was the third orchestra to give a live concert on Second Life this year, after Sinfonia Leeds, an amateur group in England, and Red {an orchestra}, a chamber ensemble in Cleveland.
5月時,鋼琴家朗朗以「化身」形式開了一場現場演奏會。利物浦愛樂是今年第三個在「第二人生」舉行現場音樂會的樂團,之前是英格蘭業餘樂團里茲交響樂團和克利夫蘭「紅色」室內管弦樂團。

There are technical and conceptual hurdles in watching animations play live music in a virtual world. A YouTube video of a Dutch pianist playing Beethoven’s “Pathétique” Sonata on Second Life illustrates some of the issues: the performance is fine, but the figure’s fingers keep disappearing into the keys.
觀賞動畫人物在虛擬世界現場演奏音樂,有技術上和觀念上的障礙。一位荷蘭鋼琴家在「第二人生」中演奏貝多芬「悲愴奏鳴曲」的YouTube影片顯示出一些問題:演奏還不錯,但動畫人物的手指一再消失在琴鍵中。

“It’s an odd medium,” said John Shibley, the director of organizational learning at the consulting company EmcArts, which helped manage Red’s performance. “It’s sort of like listening to the radio and watching a puppet show, and the puppet show is not synched to the radio.”
協助安排「紅色」管弦樂團演奏的EmcAtrs顧問公司組織學習部門主管約翰.希布萊說:「這是奇怪的媒體,有點像一邊聽廣播,一邊看木偶劇,而木偶劇和廣播不同步。」

Leeds offered live streaming audio, with a small orchestra of miming avatars. Red created the equivalent of a television broadcast. Liverpool opted for a cheaper solution: a single static camera.
里茲交響樂團提供現場即時影像,配上由模仿動作的「化身」組成的小型樂團。「紅色」的表演類似電視轉播。利物浦管弦樂團則選擇較便宜的方式:靜止不動的單機攝影機。

There are limitations to the Second Life concert experience. A sim (a unit a land in Second Life) can hold only 50 to 70 avatars without crashing, so even though Liverpool built its hall over two sims and broadcast the concert to other Second Life locations, it had a relatively small audience.
「第二人生」的音樂會體驗有其限制。一個「模擬區」(「第二人生」中的土地單位)要不顯擁擠,只能容納5070個「化身」。因此即便利物浦愛樂建的音樂廳跨越兩個「模擬區」,並將音樂會轉播到其他「第二人生」地點,觀眾仍相當少。

And as with any streamed Internet broadcast, transmission quality depends on your Internet connection. 而且,就如同任何一種動態線上廣播,傳輸品質視你的網路連線品質而定。

Dave Schwartz, the founder of Music Academy Online, where he conducts small listening sessions, dreams of bringing classical music to a wider audience by creating a “Disney World of classical music” on Second Life.
「線上音樂學院」創辦人達夫‧史瓦茲在他的學院教授一些音樂欣賞課程,他夢想在「第二人生」創建「古典樂的迪士尼世界」,把古典音樂介紹給更廣大的觀眾。

But Mr. Schwartz is also trying to bring newer music to this environment. “You haven’t heard ‘Poème Électronique,’ ” he said, referring to a piece by Edgard Varèse, “till you’ve heard it streamed over the Internet in a virtual world.”
不過,史瓦茲也嘗試把更新的音樂帶進這個虛擬環境。他說:「在你從虛擬世界透過網路播放聽到『電子詩篇』之前,你從未聽過這首曲子。」他指的是艾德加‧瓦瑞斯的作品。

原文參照http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/arts/music/18seco.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1191816194-bGzcp9DkkZXimFkptJtJuQ

2007-10-06/聯合報/C4/教育 田思怡 原文請見101日紐時周報七版左下

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