ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Meklit Hadero - Singer-songwriter
Meklit Hadero is an Ethiopian-American singer-songwriter living the cultural in-between, both in her own luminous compositions and as a co-founder of the Nile Project.

Why you should listen

Meklit Hadero's music is imbued with poetry and multiplicity, from hybridized sounds of Tizita (haunting and nostalgic music) drawing from her Ethiopian heritage, to the annals of jazz, folk songs and rock & roll. Hadero describes her music as emanating from “in-between spaces,” and the result is a smoky, evocative world peopled by strong bass, world instruments and her soothing voice.

In the Nile Project, founded along with Egyptian ethnomusicologist Mina Girgis, Hadero set out to explore the music of the Nile basin, pulling influences from countries along the river, from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, and finally to Egypt. The project brings together hip-hop, traditional and contemporary music, with instruments and traditions old and new. As she says, "My work on a lot of levels is about multiplicity." Their new record is Aswan

About her own music, here's what people say:

“Soulful, tremulous and strangely cinematic, Meklit’s voice will implant scenes in your mind — a softly lit supperclub, a Brooklyn stoop, a sun-baked road. Close your eyes, listen and dream." -- Seattle Times

"Meklit… combines N.Y. jazz with West Coast folk and African flourishes, all bound together by her beguiling voice, which is part sunshine and part cloudy day.” -- Filter Magazine

More profile about the speaker
Meklit Hadero | Speaker | TED.com
TED Fellows Retreat 2015

Meklit Hadero: The unexpected beauty of everyday sounds

Meklit Hadero: Bukuria e papritur e tingujve te perditshem

Filmed:
1,132,751 views

Duke perdor shembuj prej kengeve te zogjeve, ritmit natyral te gjuhes se shprehur madje edhe duke perdorur kapakun e tenxheres, kengetarja-tekstshkruesja Meklit Hadero tregon se si tingujt e perditshem, madje edhe qetesia, krijon muzike. "Bota eshte gjalle per shkak te ketyre shprehjeve muzikore," ajo thote. "Dhe tashme jemi te zhytur ne te."
- Singer-songwriter
Meklit Hadero is an Ethiopian-American singer-songwriter living the cultural in-between, both in her own luminous compositions and as a co-founder of the Nile Project. Full bio

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

00:13
As a singer-songwriter,
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Si kengetare-tekstshkruese,
00:15
people often ask me about my influences
or, as I like to call them,
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njerezit shpesh me pyesin se kush
me inspiron, ose si deshiroj t'i them une,
00:19
my sonic lineages.
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prejardhja ime e zerit.
00:21
And I could easily tell you
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Dhe shume lehte mund t'ua tregoj
00:23
that I was shaped by the jazz
and hip hop that I grew up with,
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qe jam rritur duke degjuar xhaz
dhe hip hop,
00:26
by the Ethiopian heritage of my ancestors,
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nga trashegimia e paraardheseve te mi
etiopiane,
00:29
or by the 1980s pop
on my childhood radio stations.
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ose nga pop-i i viteve 1980 qe kam degjuar
ne radio stacione qe prej femijerise.
00:33
But beyond genre,
there is another question:
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Por pertej zhanrit,
shtrohet nje pyetje tjeter:
00:37
how do the sounds we hear every day
influence the music that we make?
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si tingujt qe i degjojme cdo dite
kane ndikim ne muziken qe e krijojme?
00:42
I believe that everyday soundscape
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Une besoj qe tingujt qe i degjojme
çdo dite
00:44
can be the most unexpected
inspiration for songwriting,
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mund te jete inspirimi
i papritur per te shkruar tekste,
00:48
and to look at this idea
a little bit more closely,
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le te shikojme me shume se çfare
dua te them rreth kesaj,
00:50
I'm going to talk today
about three things:
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sot do te flas per tri gjera:
00:52
nature, language and silence --
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natyren, gjuhen dhe qetesine --
00:55
or rather, the impossibility
of true silence.
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ose me mire t'a quajme, pamundesine
e vertete te qetesise.
00:59
And through this I hope to give you
a sense of a world
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Dhe nepermjet kesaj shpresoj
te percjell nje bote
01:02
already alive with musical expression,
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ne te cilen eshte e pranishme
me ane te muzikes,
01:05
with each of us serving
as active participants,
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me secilin nga ne qe te
sherbej si pjesemarres aktiv,
01:09
whether we know it or not.
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me dijenine apo pa dijenine tone.
01:12
I'm going to start today with nature,
but before we do that,
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Sot do te filloj se pari me natyren,
po para se te filloj,
01:14
let's quickly listen to this snippet
of an opera singer warming up.
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le te degjojme nje pjese te nje kengetari
opere duke e nxehur zerin.
01:18
Here it is.
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Le t'a degjojme.
01:20
(Singing)
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(Kendim pa instrument)
01:35
(Singing ends)
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(Te kenduarit mbaron)
01:37
It's beautiful, isn't it?
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Eshte shume e bukur, apo jo?
01:40
Gotcha!
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Ju zura!
01:41
That is actually not the sound
of an opera singer warming up.
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Kjo ne fakt nuk eshte tingulli i nje
kengetari opere duke nxehur zerin.
01:45
That is the sound of a bird
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Ky eshte tingull zogu,
01:47
slowed down to a pace
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Eshte nje kenge e laureshes qe
leshohet ne nje ritem
01:49
that the human ear mistakenly
recognizes as its own.
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qe veshi i njeriut gabimisht e identifikon
si ze te vetin.
01:54
It was released as part of Peter Szöke's
1987 Hungarian recording
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Eshte leshuar si pjese e albumit hungarez
te Peter Szöke ne vitin 1987
01:58
"The Unknown Music of Birds,"
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"Muzika e padegjuar e zogjve,"
02:01
where he records many birds
and slows down their pitches
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kur ai incizon tone te shume zogjve
dhe e ngadaleson deri te toni
02:05
to reveal what's underneath.
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qe te zbuloje se cka ka perbrenda.
02:07
Let's listen to the full-speed recording.
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Le te degjojme nje version te shpejt
te incizimit.
02:11
(Bird singing)
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(Zogu duke kenduar)
02:15
Now, let's hear the two of them together
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Tash, le t'i degjojme te dyte bashke duke
kenduar
02:17
so your brain can juxtapose them.
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ne menyre qe truri juaj te bej dallimin.
02:20
(Bird singing at slow then full speed)
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(Zogu duke kenduar shpejt dhe ngadale)
02:38
(Singing ends)
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(Te kenduarit mbaron)
02:42
It's incredible.
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Eshte e mrekullueshme.
02:43
Perhaps the techniques of opera singing
were inspired by birdsong.
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Ndoshta teknikat e te kenduarit te operes
ishin te frymezuar nga tingulli i zogjeve.
02:48
As humans, we intuitively understand birds
to be our musical teachers.
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Intuita njerezore, na bene te kuptojme
qe zogjte jane mesuesit tane muzikor.
02:54
In Ethiopia, birds
are considered an integral part
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Ne Etiopi, zogjet konsiderohen
si nje pjese perberese
02:57
of the origin of music itself.
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e vet muzikes.
03:00
The story goes like this:
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Tregimi vazhdon keshtu:
03:03
1,500 years ago, a young man
was born in the Empire of Aksum,
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para 1,500 vjeteve, nje burre i ri
kishte lindur ne Perandorine e Aksumit,
03:08
a major trading center
of the ancient world.
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nje qender e madhe tregtare
nga koha e lashte.
03:11
His name was Yared.
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Emri i tij ishte Yared.
03:14
When Yared was seven years old
his father died,
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Kur Yared ishte vetem shtate vjeç,
i vdiç babai i tij,
03:17
and his mother sent him to go live
with an uncle, who was a priest
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dhe nena e tij e dergoi ate, te jetonte
me xhaxhain e tij, qe ishte nje prift
03:21
of the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition,
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i tradites ortodokse etiopiane,
03:23
one of the oldest churches in the world.
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qe eshte nje nder kishat me te
vjetera ne bote.
03:26
Now, this tradition has an enormous amount
of scholarship and learning,
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Tash, kjo tradite ofron shume
bursa dhe studime,
03:30
and Yared had to study and study
and study and study,
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dhe Yared kishte vetem per te
studiuar e studiuar,
03:33
and one day he was studying under a tree,
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dhe nje dite ai ishte duke mesuar
poshte nje peme,
03:36
when three birds came to him.
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kur tri zogj iu afruan.
03:39
One by one, these birds
became his teachers.
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Nje nga nje, keta zogj
u bene edhe mesuesit e tij.
03:42
They taught him music -- scales, in fact.
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I mesuan muziken -- posaçerisht, notat.
03:47
And Yared, eventually
recognized as Saint Yared,
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Dhe Yared, qe me vone u be i njohur
si Saint Yared,
03:50
used these scales to compose
five volumes of chants and hymns
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i ka perdorur keto nota qe te kompozoje
pese volume te psalmeve dhe himne
03:54
for worship and celebration.
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per lutje dhe festime.
03:56
And he used these scales
to compose and to create
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Dhe i ka perdorur keto nota
qe te kompozoje dhe te krijoje
04:00
an indigenous musical notation system.
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nje sistem muzikor indigjen.
04:03
And these scales evolved
into what is known as kiñit,
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Dhe keto nota kane evoluar
ne ate qe tashme eshte e njohur si kiñit,
04:07
the unique, pentatonic, five-note,
modal system that is very much alive
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nje sistem modal unik, pentatonik,
pese-noteshe, qe eshte teper i pranishem
04:13
and thriving and still evolving
in Ethiopia today.
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ne maje te suksesit dhe qe eshte
ende duke evoluar ne Etiopine e sotme.
04:18
Now, I love this story because
it's true at multiple levels.
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Me pelqen shume ky tregim sepse
eshte i veçante ne shume nivele.
04:21
Saint Yared was a real, historical figure,
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Saint Yared ishte nje figure
e vertete historike,
04:24
and the natural world
can be our musical teacher.
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dhe vete natyra mund te jete
mesuesi yne i muzikes.
04:29
And we have so many examples of this:
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Dhe kemi mjaft shembuj
te kesaj qe po them:
04:31
the Pygmies of the Congo
tune their instruments
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Pigmit e Kongos, melodine e
instrumenteve e kane akorduar
04:33
to the pitches of the birds
in the forest around them.
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me tonin e zogjve te malit perreth tyre.
04:36
Musician and natural soundscape
expert Bernie Krause describes
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Muzikanti dhe eksperti i tingujve
Bernie Krause pershkruan
04:39
how a healthy environment
has animals and insects
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se si nje ambient i shendetshem
ka kafshe dhe insekte
04:42
taking up low, medium
and high-frequency bands,
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qe perdorin bandat e frekuencave
te ulta, mesme e te larta,
04:46
in exactly the same way
as a symphony does.
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sikur te ishte nje simfoni.
04:50
And countless works of music
were inspired by bird and forest song.
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Dhe shume vepra muzikore jane inspiruar
nga zogjte dhe kenget e malit.
04:54
Yes, the natural world
can be our cultural teacher.
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Po, bota e natyres mund
te sherbeje si mesuesi yne i kultures.
05:00
So let's go now to the uniquely
human world of language.
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Le te vazhdojme tash me menyren
unike te gjuhes njerezore.
05:05
Every language communicates
with pitch to varying degrees,
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Çdo gjuhe perdor tonin e vet,
05:08
whether it's Mandarin Chinese,
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qofte gjuha kineze mandarine,
05:09
where a shift in melodic inflection
gives the same phonetic syllable
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ku nje ndryshim i melodise i
jep te njejtes zanore fonetike
05:13
an entirely different meaning,
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nje kuptim krejtesisht ndryshe,
05:15
to a language like English,
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nje gjuhe si anglishtja,
05:16
where a raised pitch
at the end of a sentence ...
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ku nje rritje e tonit
ne fund te fjalise ...
05:19
(Going up in pitch) implies a question?
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(duke e rritur tonin)
nenkupton nje pyetje?
05:21
(Laughter)
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(Te qeshura)
05:23
As an Ethiopian-American woman,
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Si grua ameriko-etiopiane,
05:24
I grew up around the language
of Amharic, Amhariña.
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une jam rritur ne gjuhen e Amharik,
Amhariña.
05:27
It was my first language,
the language of my parents,
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Ishte gjuha ime e pare, gjuha e prinderve,
05:29
one of the main languages of Ethiopia.
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nje nder gjuhet kryesore te Etiopise.
05:32
And there are a million reasons
to fall in love with this language:
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Dhe ka nje milion arsye
per tu dashuruar me kete gjuhe:
05:35
its depth of poetics,
its double entendres,
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thellesia e saj poetike,
kuptimet e dyfishta te saj,
05:38
its wax and gold, its humor,
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dylli dhe ari i saj, humori i saj,
05:41
its proverbs that illuminate
the wisdom and follies of life.
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fjalet e saj te urta qe ndriçojne
mençurine dhe marrezite e jetes.
05:46
But there's also this melodicism,
a musicality built right in.
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Por kjo gjuhe ka edhe melodine,
nje muzikalitet te brendshem.
Dhe kete e gjej te distiluar me se shumti
05:50
And I find this distilled most clearly
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05:52
in what I like to call
emphatic language --
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ne ate se cfare deshiroj t'i them une
si gjuhe e theksuar --
05:55
language that's meant
to highlight or underline
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gjuhe qe eshte krijuar te
te theksoje ose te nenvizoje
05:57
or that springs from surprise.
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ose qe lind nga befasia.
06:00
Take, for example, the word: "indey."
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Te marrim nje shemull, fjala: "indey."
06:03
Now, if there are Ethiopians
in the audience,
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Tash, nese eshte ndonje etiopian
ne publik,
06:05
they're probably chuckling to themselves,
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ata ndoshta jane edhe duke nenqeshur
me veten e tyre,
06:07
because the word means
something like "No!"
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sepse kuptimi i fjales eshte
dicka si "Jo!"
06:09
or "How could he?" or "No, he didn't."
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ose "Si ka mundur ai?" ose
"Jo, ai nuk e beri."
06:11
It kind of depends on the situation.
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Varet nga situata.
06:13
But when I was a kid,
this was my very favorite word,
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Kjo ishte fjala ime e preferuar si femije,
06:17
and I think it's because it has a pitch.
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dhe mendoj sepse e gjitha varet
rreth tonit.
06:20
It has a melody.
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Ka melodi.
06:21
You can almost see the shape
as it springs from someone's mouth.
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Pothuajse mund t'a shohesh formen e
kesaj fjale kur e shqipton.
06:24
"Indey" -- it dips, and then raises again.
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"Indey" -- ulet, dhe ngritet perseri.
06:28
And as a musician and composer,
when I hear that word,
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Dhe si nje muzikante dhe kompozitore,
kur e degjoj kete fjale,
06:31
something like this
is floating through my mind.
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dicka si kjo qarkullon rreth mendjes sime.
06:35
(Music and singing "Indey")
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(Muzika dhe kendimi i "Indey")
06:45
(Music ends)
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(Muzika mbaron)
06:48
Or take, for example, the phrase
for "It is right" or "It is correct" --
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Ose si shembull, fraza per
"Eshte ne rregull" ose "Eshte e sakte" --
06:52
"Lickih nehu ... Lickih nehu."
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"Lickih nehu ... Lickih nehu."
06:54
It's an affirmation, an agreement.
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Eshte nje pohim, dhe nje pranim.
06:56
"Lickih nehu."
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"Lickih nehu."
06:58
When I hear that phrase,
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Kur e degjoj kete fraze,
06:59
something like this starts rolling
through my mind.
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dicka si kjo perseritet ne mendjen time.
07:04
(Music and singing "Lickih nehu")
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(Muzika dhe kendimi i "Lickih nehu")
07:11
(Music ends)
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(Muzika mbaron)
07:14
And in both of those cases,
what I did was I took the melody
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Dhe ne te dyjat raste, ajo çfare
kam bere eshte se kam marre melodine
07:17
and the phrasing
of those words and phrases
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dhe menyren e te folurit
e ketyre fjaleve dhe frazave
07:19
and I turned them into musical parts
to use in these short compositions.
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dhe i kam shnderruar ne pjese
muzikore ne keto kompozime te shkurta.
Dhe me pelqen te shkruaj rreshta basi,
07:24
And I like to write bass lines,
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07:26
so they both ended up
kind of as bass lines.
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ne menyre qe te dyja te
perfundojne si rreshta basi.
07:29
Now, this is based on the work
of Jason Moran and others
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Tash, kjo eshte bazuar ne punen e
Jason Moran dhe te tjereve
07:32
who work intimately
with music and language,
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qe kane punuar gjate tere kohes
me muzike dhe gjuhe,
07:35
but it's also something I've had
in my head since I was a kid,
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por eshte gjithashtu dicka qe
kam pasur ne mendje qe prej femijerise,
07:38
how musical my parents sounded
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sa melodik prinderit e mi kane tingelluar
07:40
when they were speaking
to each other and to us.
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kur kane folur me njeri-tjetrin
dhe me neve.
07:44
It was from them
and from Amhariña that I learned
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Ishte prej atyre dhe prej
Amhariña qe me mesuan
07:46
that we are awash in musical expression
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qe jemi zhytur ne shprehje muzikore
07:49
with every word,
every sentence that we speak,
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ne çdo fjale, ne çdo fjali qe flasim,
07:52
every word, every sentence
that we receive.
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çdo fjale, çdo fjali qe e marrim.
07:54
Perhaps you can hear it
in the words I'm speaking even now.
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Ndoshta mund t'a degjoni
ne fjalet qe jam duke folur tash.
08:00
Finally, we go to the 1950s United States
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Ne fund, vazhdojme me Shtetet
e Bashkuara ne vitet 1950
08:02
and the most seminal work
of 20th century avant-garde composition:
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dhe veprat themelore dhe kryesuese te
te kompozimeve te shekullit XX:
08:06
John Cage's "4:33,"
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John Cage "4:33,"
08:08
written for any instrument
or combination of instruments.
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e kompozuar per çdo instrument
ose kombinim te instrumenteve.
08:12
The musician or musicians are invited
to walk onto the stage
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Muzikanti ose muzikantet jane te ftuar
te ecin ne skene
08:16
with a stopwatch and open the score,
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me nje kohemates dhe te hapin pjesen,
08:19
which was actually purchased
by the Museum of Modern Art --
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qe eshte blere nga
Muzeu i Artit Modern --
08:22
the score, that is.
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pjesa.
08:24
And this score has not
a single note written
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Dhe kjo pjese nuk ka as edhe
nje note te shkruar
08:28
and there is not a single note played
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dhe nuk eshte as edhe nje note e luajtur
08:30
for four minutes and 33 seconds.
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per kater minuta e
tridhjete e tre sekonda.
08:34
And, at once enraging and enrapturing,
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Dhe, ne nje moment
te ngazellyer e te terbuar,
08:39
Cage shows us that even
when there are no strings
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Cage na tregon se edhe nese nuk ka tela
08:42
being plucked by fingers
or hands hammering piano keys,
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te cilat jane keputur nga gishtat ose duar
qe jane duke goditur çelesat e pianos,
08:47
still there is music,
still there is music,
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ende ka muzike, ende ka muzike,
08:49
still there is music.
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ende ka muzike.
08:51
And what is this music?
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Dhe çfare eshte kjo muzike?
08:54
It was that sneeze in the back.
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Ishte ajo teshtitje prapa.
08:57
(Laughter)
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(Te qeshura)
08:58
It is the everyday soundscape
that arises from the audience themselves:
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Jane tingujt e perditshem
qe lindin nga vet publiku:
09:03
their coughs, their sighs, their rustles,
their whispers, their sneezes,
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te kolliturat e tyre, psheretimat,
shushurimat, peshperitjet, teshtitjet,
09:08
the room, the wood
of the floors and the walls
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dhoma, druri i dyshemeve dhe i mureve
09:10
expanding and contracting,
creaking and groaning
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zgjerimet dhe kontraktimet,
kercimet dhe ofshamat
09:13
with the heat and the cold,
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me te nxehtin dhe me te ftohtin,
09:14
the pipes clanking and contributing.
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me vringellimet e tubave duke kontribuar.
09:19
And controversial though it was,
and even controversial though it remains,
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Edhe pse ka qene i debatueshem,
dhe si i tille mbetet gjithmone,
09:22
Cage's point is that there is no
such thing as true silence.
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pikepamja e Cage eshte qe
nuk ka qetesi absolute.
09:28
Even in the most silent environments,
we still hear and feel the sound
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Edhe ne vendet me te qeta,
ne ende degjojme dhe ndjejme tingullin
09:32
of our own heartbeats.
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e rrahjeve te zemrave tona.
09:34
The world is alive
with musical expression.
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Bota eshte gjalle fale ketyre
shprehjeve muzikore.
09:38
We are already immersed.
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Dhe ne tashme jemi te zhytyr ne te.
09:42
Now, I had my own moment of,
let's say, remixing John Cage
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Une kam pasur nje moment,
le te themi, te remix John Cage
09:46
a couple of months ago
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disa muaj me pare
09:47
when I was standing
in front of the stove cooking lentils.
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kur po gatuaja thjerrza mbi sobe.
09:50
And it was late one night
and it was time to stir,
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Dhe ishte naten vone
dhe ishte koha t'i perzieja,
09:53
so I lifted the lid off the cooking pot,
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1972
keshtu qe hoqa kapakun e tenxheres,
09:55
and I placed it onto
the kitchen counter next to me,
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2433
dhe e vendosa mbi banakun e kuzhines
afer meje,
09:58
and it started to roll back and forth
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dhe filloi te rrotullisej para mbrapa
10:00
making this sound.
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duke e bere kete tingull.
10:04
(Sound of metal lid
clanking against a counter)
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5000
(Tingull i kapakut metalik
duke u kerkellitur perkundrejt banakut)
10:10
(Clanking ends)
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(Te kerkelliturit mbaron)
10:13
And it stopped me cold.
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1534
Dhe u shtanga.
10:15
I thought, "What a weird, cool swing
that cooking pan lid has."
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Mendova, "Çfare ritmi te çuditshem,
paska kapaku i tenxheres."
10:22
So when the lentils were ready and eaten,
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Kur thjerrzat ishin gati per tu ngrene,
10:26
I hightailed it to my backyard studio,
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e kapa shpejt dhe e lash ne studion time
ne kopsht,
10:30
and I made this.
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1843
dhe e krijova kete.
10:33
(Music, including the sound
of the lid, and singing)
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5000
(Muzika, duke perfshire edhe tingullin
e kapakut, dhe kendimi)
10:50
(Music ends)
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(Muzika perfundon)
10:52
Now, John Cage
wasn't instructing musicians
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John Cage nuk i udhezonte muzikantet
10:54
to mine the soundscape
for sonic textures to turn into music.
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3695
te germojne ne tinguj qe te shnderrojne
teksturat zanore ne muzike.
10:59
He was saying that on its own,
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Ai ishte duke percjelle qe,
11:01
the environment is musically generative,
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3461
vet ambienti eshte prodhues muzikor,
11:05
that it is generous, that it is fertile,
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qe eshte zemergjere, pjellor,
11:09
that we are already immersed.
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qe tashme jemi zhytur.
11:12
Musician, music researcher, surgeon
and human hearing expert Charles Limb
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Muzikant, hulumtues i muzikes, kirurg
dhe ekspert i degjimit Charles Limb
11:18
is a professor at Johns Hopkins University
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eshte nje profesor ne Universitetin
e Johns Hopkins
11:20
and he studies music and the brain.
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2269
dhe studion muziken dhe trurin.
11:24
And he has a theory
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Dhe ka nje teori
11:27
that it is possible -- it is possible --
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qe eshte e mundshme -- eshte e mundshme --
11:30
that the human auditory system
actually evolved to hear music,
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qe sistemi degjimor tek njerezit
faktikisht ka evoluar te degjoj muzike,
11:36
because it is so much more complex
than it needs to be for language alone.
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sepse eshte shume me e komplikuar
se sa ka nevoje te jete nje gjuhe ne vete.
11:41
And if that's true,
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1775
Dhe nese kjo eshte e vertete,
11:43
it means that we're hard-wired for music,
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nenkupton qe ne jemi te lidhur
ngushte me muziken,
11:46
that we can find it anywhere,
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qe mund t'a gjejme kudo,
11:48
that there is no such thing
as a musical desert,
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3078
se nuk ekziston diçka si
shkretetire muzikore,
11:51
that we are permanently
hanging out at the oasis,
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qe ne pergjithmone jemi
duke qendruar mbi oaze,
11:55
and that is marvelous.
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dhe qe eshte e mrekullueshme.
11:58
We can add to the soundtrack,
but it's already playing.
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Ne mund t'i shtojme diçka,
por tashme eshte duke luajtur.
12:02
And it doesn't mean don't study music.
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Dhe nuk po them qe te mos
studioni muziken.
12:04
Study music, trace your sonic lineages
and enjoy that exploration.
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4496
Studioni muziken, ndiqni shtegun e
tingujve tuaj e kenaquni duke eksploruar.
12:09
But there is a kind of sonic lineage
to which we all belong.
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3735
Por eshte nje prejardhje e zerit te
cilet ne te gjithe i perkasim.
12:14
So the next time you are seeking
percussion inspiration,
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Atehere heren tjeter kur
jeni duke kerkuar per inspirim,
12:16
look no further than your tires,
as they roll over the unusual grooves
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mos shikoni me tej se gomat e juaja,
derisa bejne rrotullisjen e pazakonte
12:20
of the freeway,
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ne autostrade,
12:22
or the top-right burner of your stove
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ose shikoni pllaken e sobes suaj
12:24
and that strange way that it clicks
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dhe menyren e çuditshme se si kercet
12:25
as it is preparing to light.
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derisa behet gati te ndizet.
Kur jeni duke kerkuar inspirim muzikor,
12:28
When seeking melodic inspiration,
216
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1612
12:30
look no further than dawn
and dusk avian orchestras
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mos shikoni me larg se agimi
dhe muzgu i orkestres se cicerimave
12:33
or to the natural lilt
of emphatic language.
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ose kadencen natyrale
te gjuhes se shprehur.
12:37
We are the audience
and we are the composers
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Ne jemi publiku ne jemi vet kompozitoret
12:40
and we take from these pieces
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dhe marrim prej ketyre pjeseve
12:41
we are given.
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qe na jane dhene.
12:43
We make, we make, we make, we make,
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Ne krijojme, krijojme, krijojme, krijojme,
12:45
knowing that when it comes to nature
or language or soundscape,
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duke ditur se kur vjen fjala te
natyra ose gjuha ose tingulli,
12:49
there is no end to the inspiration --
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kemi inspirim te pafund --
12:52
if we are listening.
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nese jemi duke degjuar me kujdes.
12:55
Thank you.
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Faleminderit.
12:56
(Applause)
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(Duartrokitje)
Translated by Drilona Gashi
Reviewed by Helena Bedalli

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Meklit Hadero - Singer-songwriter
Meklit Hadero is an Ethiopian-American singer-songwriter living the cultural in-between, both in her own luminous compositions and as a co-founder of the Nile Project.

Why you should listen

Meklit Hadero's music is imbued with poetry and multiplicity, from hybridized sounds of Tizita (haunting and nostalgic music) drawing from her Ethiopian heritage, to the annals of jazz, folk songs and rock & roll. Hadero describes her music as emanating from “in-between spaces,” and the result is a smoky, evocative world peopled by strong bass, world instruments and her soothing voice.

In the Nile Project, founded along with Egyptian ethnomusicologist Mina Girgis, Hadero set out to explore the music of the Nile basin, pulling influences from countries along the river, from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, and finally to Egypt. The project brings together hip-hop, traditional and contemporary music, with instruments and traditions old and new. As she says, "My work on a lot of levels is about multiplicity." Their new record is Aswan

About her own music, here's what people say:

“Soulful, tremulous and strangely cinematic, Meklit’s voice will implant scenes in your mind — a softly lit supperclub, a Brooklyn stoop, a sun-baked road. Close your eyes, listen and dream." -- Seattle Times

"Meklit… combines N.Y. jazz with West Coast folk and African flourishes, all bound together by her beguiling voice, which is part sunshine and part cloudy day.” -- Filter Magazine

More profile about the speaker
Meklit Hadero | Speaker | TED.com