ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Natalie MacMaster - Fiddler
Natalie MacMaster is a star of Cape Breton fiddling, a Canadian tradition with Scottish roots. Her energetic style and virtuoso talent has brought her star billing on the international folk circuit.

Why you should listen

It's not easy to make traditional Irish-Scottish music sound sexy and yet still seem wholesome. But Natalie MacMaster manages this feat, drawing listeners in with her playful showmanship, and then holding them rapt with astounding technical flourishes.

The niece of renowned Canadian fiddler Buddy MacMaster, she's taken up the mantle as standard-bearer for Cape Breton fiddling, a method of Scottish-style violin-playing that's evolved over the last century on this island neighbor to Nova Scotia. The tradition was on the wane when, in 1972, a CBS documentary provocatively titled The Vanishing Cape Breton Fiddler jump-started preservation efforts in the fiddling community.

MacMaster's enthusiastic charm and extraordinary skill has landed her star billing on the international folk circuit and multiple Grammy nominations. She's released nine albums, including Yours Truly (2006), Natalie and Buddy MacMaster (2005) and My Roots Are Showing (1998). She's toured with countless performers, including the Chieftains, Faith Hill, Carlos Santana and Alison Krauss, and has been awarded two Juno Awards (Canada's equivalent to the Grammy).

More profile about the speaker
Natalie MacMaster | Speaker | TED.com
Thomas Dolby - Electronic music pioneer
Thomas Dolby has spent his career at the intersection of music and technology. He was an early star on MTV, then moved to Silicon Valley, then went back on the road with his album, "A Map of the Floating City."

Why you should listen

Perhaps best known for blinding us with science, Thomas Dolby has always blurred the lines between composition and invention. As a London teenager, Tom Robertson was fascinated with the convergence of music and technology. His experiments with an assortment of keyboards, synthesizers and cassette players led his friends to dub him “Dolby.” That same fascination later drove him to become an electronic musician and multimedia artist whose groundbreaking work fused music with computer technology and video. Two decades, several film scores, five Grammy nominations and countless live-layered sound loops later, it's clear Dolby's innovations have changed the sound of popular music.

In the 1990s, Dolby re-created himself as a digital-musical entrepreneur, founding Beatnik, which developed the polyphonic ringtone software used in more than half a billion cell phones. From 2001 to 2012, Dolby served as TED's Music Director, programming great music for the TED stage, assembling a wide variety of house bands and collaborations to play between speakers. At TED2010, backed by the string quarter Ethel, he premiered the song "Love Is a Loaded Pistol," from his sweeping, A Map of the Floating City. The album marked his return to recording and touring after a 15-year hiatus, and used seriously retro technology -- '40s-era oscilloscopes and Royal Navy field-test equipment -- to control modern synthesizers, in shows at once nostalgic and cutting edge.

In 2014, Dolby took on a new name: professor. He was named the Homewood Professor of the Arts at Johns Hopkins University, teaching the course "Sound on Film."

More profile about the speaker
Thomas Dolby | Speaker | TED.com
TED2002

Natalie MacMaster: Cape Breton fiddling in reel time

Natalie MacMaster toca el violín en tiempo "reel".

Filmed:
832,973 views

La violinista Natalie MacMaster y el director musical de TED, Thomas Dolby, tocan la canción original de Dolby "Blue is a River" ("Azul es un río") en un dueto etéreo... y un poco de baile.
- Fiddler
Natalie MacMaster is a star of Cape Breton fiddling, a Canadian tradition with Scottish roots. Her energetic style and virtuoso talent has brought her star billing on the international folk circuit. Full bio - Electronic music pioneer
Thomas Dolby has spent his career at the intersection of music and technology. He was an early star on MTV, then moved to Silicon Valley, then went back on the road with his album, "A Map of the Floating City." Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:25
♫ Like the heatherbrezo
0
0
3000
♫ Como el brezo ♫
00:28
♫ on the hillsideladera
1
3000
4000
♫ en la ladera ♫
00:32
♫ as they drovecondujo us ♫
2
7000
3000
♫ mientras nos llevan ♫
00:35
♫ from the HighlandsTierras altas
3
10000
4000
♫ desde las Highlands ♫
00:39
♫ Like the icehielo flowfluir
4
14000
4000
♫ Como el témpano ♫
00:43
♫ from the ArcticÁrtico
5
18000
3000
♫ del Ártico ♫
00:46
♫ where we landedaterrizado
6
21000
4000
♫ al que llegamos ♫
00:50
♫ in NewfoundlandTerranova
7
25000
5000
♫ en Newfoundland ♫
00:55
♫ There's a colorcolor
8
30000
5000
♫ Hay un color ♫
01:00
♫ to my sorrowdolor
9
35000
3000
♫ para mi pesar ♫
01:03
♫ There's a namenombre for ♫
10
38000
4000
♫ Hay un nombre para ♫
01:07
♫ all this sadnesstristeza
11
42000
3000
♫ toda esta pena ♫
01:10
♫ Like the oceanOceano
12
45000
4000
♫ Como el océano ♫
01:14
♫ in betweenEntre us ♫
13
49000
3000
♫ entre nosotros ♫
01:17
♫ I am blueazul
14
52000
4000
♫ Soy azul ♫
01:25
BlueAzul is a riverrío
15
60000
4000
♫ Azul es un río ♫
01:29
BlueAzul rememberedrecordado
16
64000
4000
♫ Azul recordado ♫
01:33
BlueAzul wateragua
17
68000
5000
♫ Agua azul ♫
01:38
runningcorriendo clearclaro
18
73000
3000
♫ que corre clara ♫
01:41
BlueAzul like a planetplaneta
19
76000
4000
♫ Azul como un planeta ♫
01:45
♫ to a spacemanastronauta
20
80000
3000
♫ para el astronauta ♫
01:48
BlueAzul riverrío
21
83000
4000
♫ Río azul ♫
01:52
♫ of my tearslágrimas
22
87000
4000
♫ de mis lágrimas ♫
01:56
(FiddleViolín and synthesizersintetizador)
23
91000
33000
(Violín y sintetizador)
02:29
♫ So I camevino here ♫
24
124000
3000
♫ Así que vine aquí ♫
02:32
♫ to the cityciudad
25
127000
4000
♫ a la ciudad ♫
02:36
♫ where the dreamsueño burnsquemaduras
26
131000
4000
♫ donde el sueño quema ♫
02:40
♫ like a furnacehorno
27
135000
4000
♫ como un hornillo ♫
02:44
♫ And I dazzleddeslumbrado
28
139000
4000
♫ Y yo deslumbro ♫
02:48
♫ in these darkoscuro streetscalles
29
143000
3000
♫ en estas calles oscuras ♫
02:51
♫ like a diamonddiamante
30
146000
5000
♫ como un diamante ♫
02:56
♫ in a coalfacecara de carbón
31
151000
4000
♫ en una pared de carbón ♫
03:00
♫ Then the coldfrío windviento
32
155000
4000
♫ Luego el viento frío ♫
03:04
♫ from the islandsislas
33
159000
3000
♫ de las islas ♫
03:07
blewsopló a stormtormenta cloudnube
34
162000
4000
♫ trajo una nube de tormenta ♫
03:11
acrossa través de the newnuevo moonLuna
35
166000
5000
♫ por delante de la luna nueva ♫
03:16
♫ Like the gunpistola smokefumar
36
171000
4000
♫ Como el humo de una pistola ♫
03:20
aboveencima the housescasas
37
175000
3000
♫ por encima de las casas ♫
03:23
♫ in my home ♫
38
178000
4000
♫ en mi hogar ♫
03:30
BlueAzul is a riverrío
39
185000
4000
♫ Azul es un río ♫
03:34
BlueAzul rememberedrecordado
40
189000
5000
♫ Azul recordado ♫
03:39
BlueAzul wateragua
41
194000
4000
♫ Agua azul ♫
03:43
runningcorriendo clearclaro
42
198000
3000
♫ que corre clara ♫
03:46
BlueAzul like a planetplaneta
43
201000
4000
♫ Azul como un planeta ♫
03:50
♫ to a spacemanastronauta
44
205000
4000
♫ para el astronauta ♫
03:54
BlueAzul riverrío
45
209000
5000
♫ Río azul ♫
03:59
♫ of my tearslágrimas
46
214000
3000
♫ de mis lágrimas ♫
04:02
BlueAzul riverrío
47
217000
5000
♫ Río azul ♫
04:07
♫ of my tearslágrimas
48
222000
3000
♫ de mis lágrimas ♫
04:10
(FiddleViolín and synthesizersintetizador)
49
225000
61000
(Violín y sintetizador)
05:11
(ApplauseAplausos)
50
286000
7000
(Aplauso)
Translated by Jay C. I.
Reviewed by Marcos Alvarez Alvarez

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Natalie MacMaster - Fiddler
Natalie MacMaster is a star of Cape Breton fiddling, a Canadian tradition with Scottish roots. Her energetic style and virtuoso talent has brought her star billing on the international folk circuit.

Why you should listen

It's not easy to make traditional Irish-Scottish music sound sexy and yet still seem wholesome. But Natalie MacMaster manages this feat, drawing listeners in with her playful showmanship, and then holding them rapt with astounding technical flourishes.

The niece of renowned Canadian fiddler Buddy MacMaster, she's taken up the mantle as standard-bearer for Cape Breton fiddling, a method of Scottish-style violin-playing that's evolved over the last century on this island neighbor to Nova Scotia. The tradition was on the wane when, in 1972, a CBS documentary provocatively titled The Vanishing Cape Breton Fiddler jump-started preservation efforts in the fiddling community.

MacMaster's enthusiastic charm and extraordinary skill has landed her star billing on the international folk circuit and multiple Grammy nominations. She's released nine albums, including Yours Truly (2006), Natalie and Buddy MacMaster (2005) and My Roots Are Showing (1998). She's toured with countless performers, including the Chieftains, Faith Hill, Carlos Santana and Alison Krauss, and has been awarded two Juno Awards (Canada's equivalent to the Grammy).

More profile about the speaker
Natalie MacMaster | Speaker | TED.com
Thomas Dolby - Electronic music pioneer
Thomas Dolby has spent his career at the intersection of music and technology. He was an early star on MTV, then moved to Silicon Valley, then went back on the road with his album, "A Map of the Floating City."

Why you should listen

Perhaps best known for blinding us with science, Thomas Dolby has always blurred the lines between composition and invention. As a London teenager, Tom Robertson was fascinated with the convergence of music and technology. His experiments with an assortment of keyboards, synthesizers and cassette players led his friends to dub him “Dolby.” That same fascination later drove him to become an electronic musician and multimedia artist whose groundbreaking work fused music with computer technology and video. Two decades, several film scores, five Grammy nominations and countless live-layered sound loops later, it's clear Dolby's innovations have changed the sound of popular music.

In the 1990s, Dolby re-created himself as a digital-musical entrepreneur, founding Beatnik, which developed the polyphonic ringtone software used in more than half a billion cell phones. From 2001 to 2012, Dolby served as TED's Music Director, programming great music for the TED stage, assembling a wide variety of house bands and collaborations to play between speakers. At TED2010, backed by the string quarter Ethel, he premiered the song "Love Is a Loaded Pistol," from his sweeping, A Map of the Floating City. The album marked his return to recording and touring after a 15-year hiatus, and used seriously retro technology -- '40s-era oscilloscopes and Royal Navy field-test equipment -- to control modern synthesizers, in shows at once nostalgic and cutting edge.

In 2014, Dolby took on a new name: professor. He was named the Homewood Professor of the Arts at Johns Hopkins University, teaching the course "Sound on Film."

More profile about the speaker
Thomas Dolby | Speaker | TED.com

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