Sounds wonderful

　　聽起來很美

　　The Music Instinct: How Music Works and Why WeCan t Do Without It. By Philip Ball.

　　音樂本能：音樂的作用機理及人們欲罷不能的緣由。PhilipBall著。

　　Music is a mystery. It is unique to the humanrace: no other species produces elaborate soundfor no particular reason. It has been, and remains,part of every known civilisation on Earth. Lengths ofbone fashioned into flutes were in use 40,000 years ago. And it engages people s attentionmore comprehensively than almost anything else: scans show that when people listen tomusic, virtually every area of their brain becomes more active.

　　音樂真是神秘。它對人類具有獨一無二的意義：沒有其他事物可以無端發出如此精美的聲音。它曾是且仍然是地球上任何一個已知文明的一部分。人類40000年前就開始使用骨頭制成的笛子。而且，音樂較任何其他事物更能讓大家全神貫注：觀察發現，當人們聆聽音樂的時候，大腦的幾乎每一個部分都會變得更具活力。

　　Yet it serves no obvious adaptivepurpose. Charles Darwin, in The Descent of Man, noted that neither the enjoyment nor thecapacity of producing musical notes are faculties of the least direct use to man in referenceto his ordinary habits of life. Unwilling to believe that music was altogether useless, Darwinconcluded that it may have made man s ancestors more successful at mating. Yet if that wereso, you might expect one gender to be musically more gifted than the other, and there is noevidence of that. So what is the point of music?

　　但音樂無法滿足適應性需要。查爾斯達爾文在人類的遺傳中說道 既非譜曲的樂趣也非此種能力在人們的日常生活習慣方面沒有絲毫的直接用處。由于不相信音樂一無是處，達爾文推斷它或許可以使人類祖先的交配成功率更高。然而，如果事實如此，可以預料某一種性別會較另一種在音樂方面更具天賦，而并無顯著的證據證實這一點。于是音樂的意義何在呢?

　　Steven Pinker, a cognitive psychologist best known for his book The Language Instinct,has called music auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle thesensitive spots of at least six of our mental faculties. If it vanished from our species, hesaid, the rest of our lifestyle would be virtually unchanged. Others have argued that, on thecontrary, music, along with art and literature, is part of what makes people human; itsabsence would have a brutalising effect. Philip Ball, a British science writer and an avid musicenthusiast, comes down somewhere in the middle. He says that music is ingrained in ourauditory, cognitive and motor functions. We have a music instinct as much as a languageinstinct, and could not rid ourselves of it if we tried.

　　認知心理學家Steven Pinker因作品語言的本能而出名，他將音樂稱為聽覺上的奶酪蛋糕，一份精心制作的高級甜點，至少能對六種心理官能的敏感點有所刺激。他說，如果人類突然失去音樂，我們的生活方式將幾乎一成不變。有人爭論認為，與此相反，音樂及藝術和文學是人之所以為人的一部分;沒有音樂恐怕會使人更具獸性。英國科學作家及音樂的狂熱愛好者Philip Ball在其中有所領悟。他認為音樂根植于人們的聽覺、知覺和運動技能之中。人類的音樂稟賦同語言不相上下，擺脫音樂可謂欲罷而不能。

　　Music can mean different things in different cultures. But although it is culturally specific,some of its building blocks are universal: melody, harmony, rhythm, the timbre producedby a variety of instruments and the distinctive style added by particular composers.Almost all musical systems are based on scales spanning an octavethe note that sounds thesame as the one you started off with, but at a higher or lower pitch. Pythagoras, a Greekphilosopher who lived around 500BC, is said to have discovered that notes that soundharmonious together have simple ratios between their frequencies: for example, one that isan octave higher than another has double the frequency. The Pythagorean diatonic scale,still the basis of most Western music, is made up from seven notes. But it is far from the onlyone. Javanese gamelan uses two scales with different numbers of notes; North Indian musichas 32 different scales. Arnold Schoenberg devised a 12-tone scheme of atonal music abouta century ago.

　　音樂的意義因不同文化而異。但是，即使音樂帶有文化特殊性，其某些構建模塊卻具有普適性：節奏、和諧、韻律、不同樂器產生的音色和特別作曲家增添的迥異樂風。幾乎所有的音樂體系都是基于所跨越的八度音階范圍這一音符的發音同開始時的完全一樣，只是音高或高或低。據說，公元前500年左右，希臘哲學家畢達哥拉斯已經發現了發音和諧的音符在頻率之間成簡單比例：例如，高一個八度的音符具有兩倍的頻率。畢氏全音階范圍仍然是多數西方音樂的基石，它由七個音符組成。但是，這遠不是僅有的一個。爪哇的加麥蘭樂器使用兩個音階范圍，每個音階具有不同的音符數;北美印第安音樂具有32個不同音階范圍。一個世紀以前，Arnold Schoenberg已經設計出一種無調音樂，由12音色組合而成。

　　Mr Ball goes through each component of music in turn to explain how and why it works,using plentiful examples drawn from a refreshingly wide range of different kinds of music,from Bach to the Beatles, and from nursery rhymes to jazz. If you can read music, you willfind yourself humming aloud to see what he means. If you can t, you might occasionally getlost among the technicalities. But before things get too rarefied, Mr Ball s facility forconveying complex facts in simple language comes to the rescue.

　　Ball先生曾通過依次檢查音樂的每個成分來解釋其運作機理，他從大量不同種類的音樂中抽取實例，從巴赫到披頭士，從童謠到爵士樂。如果你能領悟音樂，你會發現自己通過大聲哼唱來理解其中的含義。如果不能領悟，或許你會偶爾迷失在專業術語中。但是在事情變得簡化之前，Ball先生以簡單語言表達復雜實事的作用可以來救救場。

　　His basic message is encouraging and uplifting: people know much more about music thanthey think. They start picking up the rules from the day they are born, perhaps even before,by hearing it all around them. Very young children can tell if a tune or harmony is not quiteright. One of the joys of listening to music is a general familiarity with the way it is puttogether: to know roughly what to expect, then to see in what particular ways yourexpectations will be met or exceeded. Most adults can differentiate between kinds of musiceven if they have had no training.

　　他的基本信息就是鼓勵和激昂：大家對音樂的了解遠超所想。通過傾聽環繞周身的音樂，人們對音樂規則的無師自通與生俱來，或許更早。特別年幼的兒童也能感覺出一個曲調或和聲是否正確。聆聽音樂的一大樂趣就是對音樂組合方式的總體領悟：大概了解所期望的內容，而后知道你所期望的東西以什么具體方式得到滿足或超越。多數成年人即使不經特殊訓練也能區分不同類型的音樂。

　　Music is completely sui generis. It should not tell a non-musical story; the listener willdecode it for himself. Many, perhaps most, people have experienced a sudden rush ofemotion on hearing a particular piece of music; a thrill or chill, a sense of excitement orexhilaration, a feeling of being swept away by it. They may even be moved to tears,without being able to tell why. Musical analysts have tried hard to find out how this happens,but with little success. Perhaps some mysteries are best preserved.

　　音樂完全自成一格。它不應該講述一個無音樂的故事;聽者會自我解構。許多人，或許是大多數人，曾經歷過一聽到某首特別的樂曲而突然迸發情感;一個震顫或寒顫，一份激動感或者興奮感，被其一掃而空的感覺。人們甚至不知道究竟就被感動落淚。音樂分析家曾努力尋找發生這些現象的原因，但鮮有成功。或許，某些神秘隱藏其中。

　　Sounds wonderful

　　聽起來很美

　　The Music Instinct: How Music Works and Why WeCan t Do Without It. By Philip Ball.

　　音樂本能：音樂的作用機理及人們欲罷不能的緣由。PhilipBall著。

　　Music is a mystery. It is unique to the humanrace: no other species produces elaborate soundfor no particular reason. It has been, and remains,part of every known civilisation on Earth. Lengths ofbone fashioned into flutes were in use 40,000 years ago. And it engages people s attentionmore comprehensively than almost anything else: scans show that when people listen tomusic, virtually every area of their brain becomes more active.

　　音樂真是神秘。它對人類具有獨一無二的意義：沒有其他事物可以無端發出如此精美的聲音。它曾是且仍然是地球上任何一個已知文明的一部分。人類40000年前就開始使用骨頭制成的笛子。而且，音樂較任何其他事物更能讓大家全神貫注：觀察發現，當人們聆聽音樂的時候，大腦的幾乎每一個部分都會變得更具活力。

　　Yet it serves no obvious adaptivepurpose. Charles Darwin, in The Descent of Man, noted that neither the enjoyment nor thecapacity of producing musical notes are faculties of the least direct use to man in referenceto his ordinary habits of life. Unwilling to believe that music was altogether useless, Darwinconcluded that it may have made man s ancestors more successful at mating. Yet if that wereso, you might expect one gender to be musically more gifted than the other, and there is noevidence of that. So what is the point of music?

　　但音樂無法滿足適應性需要。查爾斯達爾文在人類的遺傳中說道 既非譜曲的樂趣也非此種能力在人們的日常生活習慣方面沒有絲毫的直接用處。由于不相信音樂一無是處，達爾文推斷它或許可以使人類祖先的交配成功率更高。然而，如果事實如此，可以預料某一種性別會較另一種在音樂方面更具天賦，而并無顯著的證據證實這一點。于是音樂的意義何在呢?

　　Steven Pinker, a cognitive psychologist best known for his book The Language Instinct,has called music auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle thesensitive spots of at least six of our mental faculties. If it vanished from our species, hesaid, the rest of our lifestyle would be virtually unchanged. Others have argued that, on thecontrary, music, along with art and literature, is part of what makes people human; itsabsence would have a brutalising effect. Philip Ball, a British science writer and an avid musicenthusiast, comes down somewhere in the middle. He says that music is ingrained in ourauditory, cognitive and motor functions. We have a music instinct as much as a languageinstinct, and could not rid ourselves of it if we tried.

　　認知心理學家Steven Pinker因作品語言的本能而出名，他將音樂稱為聽覺上的奶酪蛋糕，一份精心制作的高級甜點，至少能對六種心理官能的敏感點有所刺激。他說，如果人類突然失去音樂，我們的生活方式將幾乎一成不變。有人爭論認為，與此相反，音樂及藝術和文學是人之所以為人的一部分;沒有音樂恐怕會使人更具獸性。英國科學作家及音樂的狂熱愛好者Philip Ball在其中有所領悟。他認為音樂根植于人們的聽覺、知覺和運動技能之中。人類的音樂稟賦同語言不相上下，擺脫音樂可謂欲罷而不能。

　　Music can mean different things in different cultures. But although it is culturally specific,some of its building blocks are universal: melody, harmony, rhythm, the timbre producedby a variety of instruments and the distinctive style added by particular composers.Almost all musical systems are based on scales spanning an octavethe note that sounds thesame as the one you started off with, but at a higher or lower pitch. Pythagoras, a Greekphilosopher who lived around 500BC, is said to have discovered that notes that soundharmonious together have simple ratios between their frequencies: for example, one that isan octave higher than another has double the frequency. The Pythagorean diatonic scale,still the basis of most Western music, is made up from seven notes. But it is far from the onlyone. Javanese gamelan uses two scales with different numbers of notes; North Indian musichas 32 different scales. Arnold Schoenberg devised a 12-tone scheme of atonal music abouta century ago.

　　音樂的意義因不同文化而異。但是，即使音樂帶有文化特殊性，其某些構建模塊卻具有普適性：節奏、和諧、韻律、不同樂器產生的音色和特別作曲家增添的迥異樂風。幾乎所有的音樂體系都是基于所跨越的八度音階范圍這一音符的發音同開始時的完全一樣，只是音高或高或低。據說，公元前500年左右，希臘哲學家畢達哥拉斯已經發現了發音和諧的音符在頻率之間成簡單比例：例如，高一個八度的音符具有兩倍的頻率。畢氏全音階范圍仍然是多數西方音樂的基石，它由七個音符組成。但是，這遠不是僅有的一個。爪哇的加麥蘭樂器使用兩個音階范圍，每個音階具有不同的音符數;北美印第安音樂具有32個不同音階范圍。一個世紀以前，Arnold Schoenberg已經設計出一種無調音樂，由12音色組合而成。

　　Mr Ball goes through each component of music in turn to explain how and why it works,using plentiful examples drawn from a refreshingly wide range of different kinds of music,from Bach to the Beatles, and from nursery rhymes to jazz. If you can read music, you willfind yourself humming aloud to see what he means. If you can t, you might occasionally getlost among the technicalities. But before things get too rarefied, Mr Ball s facility forconveying complex facts in simple language comes to the rescue.

　　Ball先生曾通過依次檢查音樂的每個成分來解釋其運作機理，他從大量不同種類的音樂中抽取實例，從巴赫到披頭士，從童謠到爵士樂。如果你能領悟音樂，你會發現自己通過大聲哼唱來理解其中的含義。如果不能領悟，或許你會偶爾迷失在專業術語中。但是在事情變得簡化之前，Ball先生以簡單語言表達復雜實事的作用可以來救救場。

　　His basic message is encouraging and uplifting: people know much more about music thanthey think. They start picking up the rules from the day they are born, perhaps even before,by hearing it all around them. Very young children can tell if a tune or harmony is not quiteright. One of the joys of listening to music is a general familiarity with the way it is puttogether: to know roughly what to expect, then to see in what particular ways yourexpectations will be met or exceeded. Most adults can differentiate between kinds of musiceven if they have had no training.

　　他的基本信息就是鼓勵和激昂：大家對音樂的了解遠超所想。通過傾聽環繞周身的音樂，人們對音樂規則的無師自通與生俱來，或許更早。特別年幼的兒童也能感覺出一個曲調或和聲是否正確。聆聽音樂的一大樂趣就是對音樂組合方式的總體領悟：大概了解所期望的內容，而后知道你所期望的東西以什么具體方式得到滿足或超越。多數成年人即使不經特殊訓練也能區分不同類型的音樂。

　　Music is completely sui generis. It should not tell a non-musical story; the listener willdecode it for himself. Many, perhaps most, people have experienced a sudden rush ofemotion on hearing a particular piece of music; a thrill or chill, a sense of excitement orexhilaration, a feeling of being swept away by it. They may even be moved to tears,without being able to tell why. Musical analysts have tried hard to find out how this happens,but with little success. Perhaps some mysteries are best preserved.

　　音樂完全自成一格。它不應該講述一個無音樂的故事;聽者會自我解構。許多人，或許是大多數人，曾經歷過一聽到某首特別的樂曲而突然迸發情感;一個震顫或寒顫，一份激動感或者興奮感，被其一掃而空的感覺。人們甚至不知道究竟就被感動落淚。音樂分析家曾努力尋找發生這些現象的原因，但鮮有成功。或許，某些神秘隱藏其中。