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

Filmed:
832,973 views

Violinist Natalie MacMaster and TED Musical Director Thomas Dolby play Dolby's original song "Blue Is a River" in this ethereal duet -- with a little dancing.
- 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 heather ♫
0
0
3000
00:28
♫ on the hillside ♫
1
3000
4000
00:32
♫ as they drove us ♫
2
7000
3000
00:35
♫ from the Highlands ♫
3
10000
4000
00:39
♫ Like the ice flow ♫
4
14000
4000
00:43
♫ from the Arctic ♫
5
18000
3000
00:46
♫ where we landed ♫
6
21000
4000
00:50
♫ in Newfoundland ♫
7
25000
5000
00:55
♫ There's a color ♫
8
30000
5000
01:00
♫ to my sorrow ♫
9
35000
3000
01:03
♫ There's a name for ♫
10
38000
4000
01:07
♫ all this sadness ♫
11
42000
3000
01:10
♫ Like the ocean ♫
12
45000
4000
01:14
♫ in between us ♫
13
49000
3000
01:17
♫ I am blue ♫
14
52000
4000
01:25
♫ Blue is a river ♫
15
60000
4000
01:29
♫ Blue remembered ♫
16
64000
4000
01:33
♫ Blue water ♫
17
68000
5000
01:38
♫ running clear ♫
18
73000
3000
01:41
♫ Blue like a planet ♫
19
76000
4000
01:45
♫ to a spaceman ♫
20
80000
3000
01:48
♫ Blue river ♫
21
83000
4000
01:52
♫ of my tears ♫
22
87000
4000
01:56
(Fiddle and synthesizer)
23
91000
33000
02:29
♫ So I came here ♫
24
124000
3000
02:32
♫ to the city ♫
25
127000
4000
02:36
♫ where the dream burns ♫
26
131000
4000
02:40
♫ like a furnace ♫
27
135000
4000
02:44
♫ And I dazzled ♫
28
139000
4000
02:48
♫ in these dark streets ♫
29
143000
3000
02:51
♫ like a diamond ♫
30
146000
5000
02:56
♫ in a coalface ♫
31
151000
4000
03:00
♫ Then the cold wind ♫
32
155000
4000
03:04
♫ from the islands ♫
33
159000
3000
03:07
♫ blew a storm cloud ♫
34
162000
4000
03:11
♫ across the new moon ♫
35
166000
5000
03:16
♫ Like the gun smoke ♫
36
171000
4000
03:20
♫ above the houses ♫
37
175000
3000
03:23
♫ in my home ♫
38
178000
4000
03:30
♫ Blue is a river ♫
39
185000
4000
03:34
♫ Blue remembered ♫
40
189000
5000
03:39
♫ Blue water ♫
41
194000
4000
03:43
♫ running clear ♫
42
198000
3000
03:46
♫ Blue like a planet ♫
43
201000
4000
03:50
♫ to a spaceman ♫
44
205000
4000
03:54
♫ Blue river ♫
45
209000
5000
03:59
♫ of my tears ♫
46
214000
3000
04:02
♫ Blue river ♫
47
217000
5000
04:07
♫ of my tears ♫
48
222000
3000
04:10
(Fiddle and synthesizer)
49
225000
61000
05:11
(Applause)
50
286000
7000

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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