看!那个用iPad Pro来创作的音乐家,他真的太酷了

CNMO 【原创】 作者:孔六六 2019-10-30 20:39
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  在2010年1月27日苹果全球开发者大会(WWDC)上,时任CEO史蒂夫·乔布斯将他们的最新产品iPad呈现给世界的同时,也宣告了办公纸张时代的结束。三年后,新一代iPad Air正式发布,一款轻薄到可以放入文件袋里的平板电脑颠覆了人们的想象。也是在那一年,就读于英国伯明翰皇家音乐学院研究生的Johan坐在自己的电脑前观看WWDC的直播,或许在那个时候他就意识到,一直困扰他的问题即将迎刃而解。

新款iPad 10.2英寸
新款iPad 10.2英寸

  在这段时间里,Johan除了进行研究生阶段的学习以外,还开始担任起歌剧艺术指导的工作。这是个在很多人看来都是浪漫且极具艺术性的职业,需要在歌剧排练时由钢琴来替代正常歌剧的乐团伴奏。其实,仅由钢琴来承担伴奏的工作量十分大,更不用说对于伴奏者的技术要求也更高。在Johan眼中,完成这样的重任绝对是一件非常有成就感的事情。

  不过,对于Johan来说有一个一直困扰着他的问题...由于他所担任的歌剧伴奏的艺术指导需要了解乐队中每一个成员的乐谱,因此每天与同学们合演排练时,他都要携带超过十本厚厚的乐谱。这不仅造成了他宝贝自行车的负担,同时携带纸质乐谱的过程中经常会遭遇乐谱的损坏和丢失,对于一位专业的音乐指导来说这显然是非常“抓马”的事情。更不用提在重新编配伴奏时,一个人要弹奏多种乐器,纸质乐谱翻页也成了最大的问题,以至于不得不需要专门配备一名翻书员。 

Shan Johan bin Shahridzuan
Shan Johan bin Shahridzuan

  所以当Johan看到苹果发布的iPad Air之后,他看到了新的希望。

  在iPad Air到手之后,Johan便开始将自己的所有乐谱扫描至其中,然后开始自己轻装简行的上下学路程。不仅如此,Johan在使用中还发现,iPad不仅解决了他携带乐谱的困扰,通过PDF expert,他还可以便捷地在乐谱中进行标记,并且通过iPad隔空投送给自己的iPhone和Mac,甚至可以分享给乐队的同学们,大大提高了整个乐团的排练效率。

Johan与他的iPad Pro
Johan与他的iPad Pro

  当然,Johan对自己的iPad Air也有了更进一步的要求,他希望iPad Air可以在演奏中自动翻页。幸运的是,Johan发现了一款名为Piascore的App。这款软件不仅可以通过动作实现翻页,甚至可以针对演唱部分输入其他文字。

  不过这款App也有不足之处,仅仅通过动作识别经常出现翻页过早或翻页过多的情况,降低演奏的稳定性,于是Johan开始使用适配iPad的“Firefly便携式设备”,通过蓝牙连接踏板控制iPad翻页,这不但让翻页更加准确,也“解放了”他的脖子。随后,Johan还开始使用一款名为forScore 的App,它运行更稳定,也可以直接在iPad的乐谱上进行笔记。也是在这个时候,Johan收到来自中国华侨大学执教的邀约,于是Johan就带着他的iPad和Firefly来到了中国。 

PDF Expert Pro 
PDF Expert Pro 

  新的环境孕育着新的乐章,一些新的音乐家朋友也很快对Johan印象深刻,因为相比其他依旧携带厚重纸质乐谱的人来说,Johan在新的岗位上却显得更加“轻车熟路”。 

  “看那个外国人,他就是用iPad上课的那个人。” 

  来到华侨大学任教后,Johan的主导课程主要是教大家重唱课(duet)和歌剧表演,为了更好的进行教学指导,需要重新根据现有的乐器资源来重新编写自己的乐队伴奏。于是他发现了一款具有丰富多样音色库的应用:Notion。现在他可以直接在iPad上进行乐谱的改编和试听,让工作更简洁且高效。恰好这时,第一代iPad Pro与Apple Pencil正式上市,Johan没有过多考虑就购入了第一代12.9英寸的iPad Pro和Apple Pencil,这让他在工作中更加如鱼得水,随时随地都可以进行创作。这期间Johan对普契尼(Puccini)的歌剧《 波西米亚人(laBohème)》的整个第一幕和约翰斯特劳斯(Johann Strauss)的轻歌剧《蝙蝠(Die Fledermaus)》的第三幕进行了删减和还原,并让自己的乐团参与歌剧表演成功演出获得了业内的一致好评。

Johan与他的iPad Pro
Johan与他的iPad Pro

  对于Johan来说,他几乎寻找到一位与他配合无间的工作伙伴,iPad Pro让他原本需要花费300个小时的工作量,缩减了三分之二。现在Johan不仅用iPad Pro来储存、修改乐谱,也会用它来进行视频的剪辑,大多数时候这都来自于其他音乐家邀请与他合奏的情况,这也让他结识了更多可以相互促进合作的朋友,彼此交流想法,碰撞出更多灵感的火花。 

以下内容为Johan的自述: 

Johan began his career as a piano accompanist while a Post graduate Student the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in the United Kingdom. As his responsibilities grew he began to realise that carrying around a back-breaking 10 or so piano reductions of opera scores everyday to and from the university was going to result in damage to his bicycle panniers and eventually his bicycle. Not to mention the cost to his reliability if a score was damaged and a constant need for a page turner for particularly difficult pieces of music. 

在英国伯明翰皇家音乐学院就读研究生期间,Johan开启了他作为艺术指导的生涯。渐渐随着他工作的增加,他发现来往于剧院与学校之间,每次排练都随身要携带差不多十本厚厚歌剧谱,这样的日常常常使他筋疲力尽,更不用说沉重的乐谱给他的自行车造成破坏,提高了自己宝贝自行车的报废率。而纸质乐谱在日常的携带中也容易造成损坏,对于歌剧排练中这是非常不利于的,也同时会降低我在乐团的可靠程度。通常在排练中我们使用的大多是针对钢琴伴奏而将乐团部分重新编配的伴奏(常规的歌剧伴奏都是有乐团来伴奏,由铜管组、木管组、鼓组以及弦乐团组成),这种仅由一个人来进行歌剧伴奏难度十分的高,艺术指导在弹奏中总是无暇顾及于其他动作,所以在弹奏中翻页器也是必须的,否则就需要再配备一个人员来翻谱。

Even with tight finances, he scraped together enough money for his first iPad. The iPad Air. After several days of digitising his library, the weight was literally lifted from his shoulders as he now had all his music safe and conveniently stored on his device. The first hurdle he faced was that he couldn’t easily mark his score without needing to move the file to a different app. The issue was partially solved with the use of Readdle’s app, PDF Expert. 

所以即便当时生活十分拮据,Johan也节衣缩食买了他的第一部iPad,一款iPad Air。在拿到iPad后的几天把他自己所有的乐谱都扫描转移到iPad里,终于他不用每次排练肩上都背着厚重的乐谱往返于剧院与学校之间,因为他所有的乐谱都已经存储在iPad里了。但同时他也遇到了他在使用iPad之后的第一个障碍:他无法对乐谱进行标记,他需要找到一个在iPad上已经十分完善的PDF软件,最后他找到了Readdle开发的PDF Expert之后,乐谱不能标记的这个毛病也迎刃而解了。更重要的是iPad中的所有乐谱可以通过隔空投送在iPad、iPhone、Mac中来分享标记前和标记后的谱子,这样大大的提高了我们在工作与学习中的效率。 

PDF Expert App
PDF Expert App

Not all page turners were happy about not having a physical page to turn when working with Johan.  Plusadd,Inc’s app piaScore dealt with this with their head-tilt feature. All Johan needed to do was tilt his head when reaching the end of the page and the page would turn. On top of this, not only was he now able to write in his markings on the score but he was also able to type in translations for vocal pieces written in languages other than in English. These could all be neatly saved in Dropbox. That was the end of Johan‘s need for a page turner at rehearsals and performances. 

刚开始,缺少了物理翻页Johan并没有觉得这是一个特别开心的事情,因为不太习惯于在iPad上进行翻页。为了解决这个问题,Johan又找到了Plusadd公司开发的软件App Piascore,Piascore这个App可以设置把头倾斜到一定的角度的来进行翻页,所以Johan在钢琴演奏中只需在弹到页尾的时候歪一下头,乐谱就自动翻页了。最重要的是,他现在不仅可以在乐谱上写下自己的标记,而且还可以针对演唱部分输入用英语以外的其他语言编写的译文。这些乐谱和标记都可以整齐得储存在Dropbox里。在那之后Johan就在彩排和表演时就不再需要翻页机了。

However this feature had obvious problems. Not all tilts are the same; sometimes the page would not turn, or too many would turn. And sometimes an emotional flick of the hair while in the the throes of the opening bars of Kachatryan’s Armenian concerto could frustrate things. With some research Johan found a device made by PageFlip’s Firefly; an innovative Bluetooth device with a pedal on each “wing” to advance or go back a page on a particular document running on an iPad. He used this device to this day. It has never failed him. 

然而Piascore的这个翻页功能还是存在明显的问题。因为头部倾斜的程度每次都不同,所以有时乐谱不翻页,有时又翻过了好几页的这种情况。最让人头痛的是有一次在演奏亚美尼亚协奏曲开头的几个小节,Johan一个情绪化的撩头发的动作一不小心就翻到了下一页,这样的翻页事故使演奏的稳定性也得到了降低。所以回去后Johan在网上又搜寻一些信息,发现了一个叫PageFlip的公司制造了一个叫Firefly便携式设备。这是一种新型的蓝牙设备,是一个钢琴踏板样式的设备,通过踩踏它就可以在iPad上进行上一些和下一页的操作动作。所以一直到今天他还在使用这个蓝牙设备,因为它从未失误过。

As his library on piaScore grew along with the demand for his skill. PiaScore began to crash under the pressure of too many documents. Irritating lag when a large file was running. Johan started using forScore LLC’s App forScore. This supported his wildly scribbled notes in scores.  As he no longer needed the head-tilt feature which this app did not support anyway, things were just right.  Then he got the job offer. 

随着Johan演奏技术的增长,他在Piascore里的文件也越来越多。成堆的文件使Piascore经常崩溃。特别是运行大型文件时的卡顿感相当明显。Johan开始使用forScore LLC公司开发的的forScore App。这款App支持了他在乐谱上进行潦草的笔记使得标记更方便,再打开大型文件也不会崩溃和明显的卡顿。所以这款app对于他正合适。再那之后他拿到了工作邀约。 

forScore App
forScore App

“Come to China” they said. And so he did. The same trusty iPad, forScore and firefly cause people to take notice of him immediately. He became known as the pianist with the iPad while other musicians lugged around piles of photocopied and stapled paper. 

他们说:“来中国吧。”Johan带着他可靠的iPad、forScore和firefly来到了中国。在中国Johan使用iPad来进行音乐专业教学工作,这个不同于别人的习惯让人们立刻注意到了他,Johan因此成为了利用iPad来辅助演奏钢琴让众人所周知的钢琴家,而其他音乐家则还泡在成堆的纸质乐谱上让人“纠缠不清”。

Being responsible for his own department at HuaQiao University gave him the idea to start an orchestra. But with limited instruments he would need to write his own orchestra reductions. forScore was put aside while he bought an app which has been a massive investment that has certainly paid off. Notion by NotionInc. He was now able to split full scores into orchestral parts. He found the sound library more appealing than that provided by other such software, and for a lower price. 

来到华侨大学后,Johan有了自己主导的课程,在课程中Johan教授大家重唱(duet)和歌剧表演,因此他有了组建乐团的想法。但是由于乐器数量有限,他需要重新根据现有的乐器编制来编写自己的管弦乐队的伴奏,尽可能的还原作品。forScore暂时被搁置一边,同时他花了大价钱买了Notion公司的Notion App,他发现这款App的音色库比其他同类软件的更丰富多样,并且价格更低对他更具吸引力。这是一款可以在iPad上进行乐谱改编的App,同样Johan也收获了相当大的回报。现在,Johan可以将整个大乐谱分拆散成管弦乐以及各个部分,使得工作更加的简洁高效。 

Notion App
Notion App

This professional app, of course, put a strain on his already well used IPad. The iPad Pro was out and so was the first Apple Pencil. It wasn’t long before Johan had both. He would now be able take his work everywhere with him. He reduced Puccini‘s entire first act of “la Bohème” and the third act of Strauss’s “Fledermaus” while at home, on the train, on a flight and sometimes in his office. 

当然,这些个专业的App因为存储了许多资料,给他已经很好用的iPad带来了压力。恰好这时候第一代iPad Pro上市了,第一支Apple Pencil也上市了,很快Johan就购入了这两款产品。现在,他可以在家,在火车上,在飞机上,在办公室里随时随地工作,不再局限于地点与环境。利用iPad与这些软件,Johan在华侨大学成功删减还原了普契尼(Puccini)的歌剧《 波西米亚人(laBohème)》的整个第一幕和约翰斯特劳斯(Johann Strauss)的轻歌剧《蝙蝠(Die Fledermaus)》的第三幕。并且顺利的演出且获得业内好评。

As he got used to the application, his speed in writing increased. With the iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and Roli Seaboard keyboard, he is now able to finish orchestrating a full scale 3 hour opera in under 144 hours compared to the 300 hours it took him at first. 

随着他越来越熟练的使用这些App,他的编排速度也提高许多。通过使用iPad Pro、Apple Pencil和Roli Seaboard键盘的联合,他现在可以在144小时内完成完整的时长3小时的歌剧的编排,而刚开始的时候Johan完成这些工作量需要300个小时。

Any piece of music has become playable. Just this week, he was searching for an aria by Handel that only seemed to be available in its full orchestral version at very low quality. He gave up on the search and instead reduced the orchestral part for piano, all within a couple of hours. 

在iPad里任何音乐片段都可以播放。就在本周,Johan在寻找亨德尔(Handel)的咏叹调,这是一位巴洛克时期闻名的作曲家,亨德尔的咏叹调似乎只能找到完整的管弦乐的低质量版本。最后他他放弃了搜索,选择自己重新来编配这些咏叹调,最后只花了几个小时就把管弦乐部分删减改编了适合钢琴演奏的谱子。

As his mastery of his tools grew he became interested in video editing, as many musicians would ask him to accompany them on the piano for video recordings. He often edits the recordings for them. Having a video recording also helps him evaluate his own performance. He began dabbling while still in Birmingham, and picked the brains of some of the music technology students in the conservatoire using the LogicProX software. He has been able to transfer his piecemeal knowledge to use iMovie and Garage Band on his iMac. 

随着他对工具的掌握熟练程度的提高,Johan开始对视频编辑产生了兴趣,因为许多音乐家在进行视频录制时会邀请他合奏。Johan也经常为他们在iPad上编辑录音。录制视频也有助于他评估自己的表现。那时候Johan还在伯明翰的时候就开始涉猎这些,并在音乐学院里挑选了一些音乐技术专业的学生来使用LogicProX软件。现在他已经能够运用自己掌握的一些基本技巧在iPad、iMac上熟练使用iMovie和Garage Band。” 

  慢慢的,Johan发现越来越多的人和他一样开始使用iPad代替纸张来进行工作和创作,这不仅包括他的同事,也包括他的学生。“iPad可以用作自我评估的有用工具,每个使用者都可以记录自己的演奏、演唱以备将来收听,课后也可以用来复习功课。任何未知的外国专业术语也都可以直接在Safari上查找。这让我们可以更加简洁、高效的进行沟通与学习。” 

  在被问及对于iPad还有何新的要求时,Johan表示,希望未来能够见到可识别当前演奏音乐并根据乐曲适当翻页的应用,这样他就可以不再“用脚”翻页了,或许这样也会更酷。 


  编者按:当初代iPad第一次展现在人们眼前时,或许我们大部分人都没有想到,这样一款产品将会颠覆我们的工作习惯,甚至改变我们对艺术和教育等领域的认知。如今已有越来越多的人开始用iPad替代从前的生产力工具,这不仅是形式的变化,更让人们拥有更多的时间投身于更有意义、更具有创造性的事务中。从iPad到iPad Pro,苹果用了九年时间向我们诠释了新的意识形态,它不仅是工作方式的进步,也是创造美好事物的载体。

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