TED2011
Maya Beiser: A cello with many voices
Filmed:
Readability: 5.2
991,353 views
Cellist Maya Beiser plays a gorgeous eight-part modern etude with seven copies of herself, and segues into a meditative music/video hybrid -- using tech to create endless possibilities for transformative sound. Music is Steve Reich's "Cello Counterpoint," with video from Bill Morrison, then David Lang's "World to Come," with video by Irit Batsry.
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:32
(Music)
0
17000
10000
07:04
(Applause)
1
409000
22000
07:27
Thank you.
2
432000
2000
07:29
Imagining a solo cello concert,
3
434000
3000
07:32
one would most likely think of Johann Sebastian Bach
4
437000
3000
07:35
unaccompanied cello suites.
5
440000
3000
07:38
As a child
6
443000
2000
07:40
studying these eternal masterpieces,
7
445000
3000
07:43
Bach's music would intermingle
8
448000
2000
07:45
with the singing voices of Muslim prayers
9
450000
3000
07:48
from the neighboring Arab village
10
453000
2000
07:50
of the northern Kibbutz in Israel
11
455000
2000
07:52
where I grew up.
12
457000
2000
07:54
Late at night, after hours of practicing,
13
459000
2000
07:56
I would listen to Janis Joplin and Billie Holiday
14
461000
3000
07:59
as the sounds of tango music
15
464000
2000
08:01
would be creeping from my parents' stereo.
16
466000
3000
08:04
It all became music to me.
17
469000
3000
08:07
I didn't hear the boundaries.
18
472000
3000
08:10
I still start every day
19
475000
2000
08:12
practicing playing Bach.
20
477000
2000
08:14
His music never ceases
21
479000
2000
08:16
to sound fresh and surprising to me.
22
481000
2000
08:18
But as I was moving away
23
483000
2000
08:20
from the traditional classical repertoire
24
485000
2000
08:22
and trying to find new ways
25
487000
2000
08:24
of musical expression,
26
489000
2000
08:26
I realized that with today's technological resources,
27
491000
3000
08:29
there's no reason to limit
28
494000
2000
08:31
what can be produced at one time
29
496000
3000
08:34
from a single string instrument.
30
499000
2000
08:36
The power and coherency
31
501000
2000
08:38
that comes from one person hearing, perceiving and playing all the voices
32
503000
4000
08:42
makes a very different experience.
33
507000
3000
08:45
The excitement of a great orchestra performance
34
510000
3000
08:48
comes from the attempt to have a collective of musicians
35
513000
3000
08:51
producing one unified whole concept.
36
516000
3000
08:54
The excitement from using multi-tracking,
37
519000
3000
08:57
the way I did in the piece you will hear next,
38
522000
4000
09:01
comes from the attempt
39
526000
2000
09:03
to build and create a whole universe
40
528000
3000
09:06
with many diverse layers,
41
531000
3000
09:09
all generated from a single source.
42
534000
3000
09:12
My cello and my voice are layered
43
537000
2000
09:14
to create this large sonic canvas.
44
539000
3000
09:17
When composers write music for me,
45
542000
3000
09:20
I ask them to forget what they know about the cello.
46
545000
2000
09:22
I hope to arrive at new territories
47
547000
3000
09:25
to discover sounds I have never heard before.
48
550000
3000
09:28
I want to create endless possibilities
49
553000
2000
09:30
with this cello.
50
555000
2000
09:32
I become the medium through which the music is being channeled,
51
557000
3000
09:35
and in the process, when all is right,
52
560000
3000
09:38
the music is transformed
53
563000
2000
09:40
and so am I.
54
565000
2000
09:49
(Music)
55
574000
10000
19:59
(Applause)
56
1184000
24000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Maya Beiser - CellistMaya Beiser commissions and performs radical new work for the cello.
Why you should listen
The founding cellist of the Bang on a Can All Stars, cellist Maya Beiser is a frequent collaborator with artists across the spectrum of creativity -- visual artists such as Shirin Neshat, video artists such as Irit Batsry -- to produce groundbreaking multimedia concerts.
Composers who write for her follow her passion for melding influences -- Middle Eastern sounds, classic and modern tones. Her newest project, Elsewhere, is described as "a CELLoOpera." Elsewhere is an imaginative retelling of the Biblical legend of Lot's wife, created by the "dream team" of Maya, director Robert Woodruff, composers Missy Mazzoli and Eve Beglarian, writer Erin Cressida Wilson, and choreographer Karole Armitage
Maya Beiser | Speaker | TED.com