2014年1月26日日曜日

177. こたえあわせ(X-T1のペンタ部)



2013年12月25日の記事「ハイレベルコミュニケーション」で、富士フイルム Xシリーズの一眼レフスタイルの新型機について書いた。


http://7billionth-essay.blogspot.jp/2013/12/167.html


この記事で注目していたのは、ペンタ部(実際にはEVFなのでペンタプリズムは入っていないが慣例としてそう書くことにする)のロゴだ。

そこでは、

---

もしも「ボディーがFUJICA様の直線基調デザインであった場合」という前提条件において、あり得るパターンは、


FUJIFILMという通常の社名ロゴでくる
他のXシリーズ同様、全面には社名なしで、ペンタ部にも何も書かれない
FUJIFILMという社名は入るが、字体を直線基調に変える
FUJICAブランドの復活で、FUJICAというロゴが入る

くらいかと思う。

---


と予想していた。
答合わせをすると、









画像引用元:デジカメ info http://digicame-info.com/2014/01/x-t1-4.html

ご覧の通り、「1.通常の社名ロゴ」となった。(とはいえ、この画像自体は正式発表されたものではないので、プロトタイプの可能性は残っている)

このロゴについては、予想通り賛否両論あり、引用元であるデジカメinfoのコメントを見ると大変面白い。自分と同じように、このロゴについて熱く考える人達が多くいると思うと、なぜか不思議と勇気づけられる(笑)

中には、すごい熱心な人達がいて、ロゴをニコンDfのようにレトロなフォントに変えた合成画像や、FUJICAブランドにした画像を投稿されている。




ジェイコプスラダーさんによる合成画像(引用元 ttp://digicame-info.com/2014/01/x-t1-4.html


ジェイコプスラダーさんによる合成画像(引用元 ttp://digicame-info.com/2014/01/x-t1-4.html



R.Tさんによる合成画像(引用元 ttp://digicame-info.com/2014/01/x-t1-4.html


元のリーク画像では、やや富士フイルムのロゴが小さく、余白が多い。このため、R.Tさんはロゴを18%拡大して納まりのいいサイズに変更している。
なるほど、同じフォントであっても、印象は大分異なっている。

さて、みなさんはどれがいいだろう?

僕は直線的なフォントを用いたFUJIFILMが好みだ。
しかし、以下のように色々と思案した末、現行のロゴでもいいような気がしている。


このロゴについて、富士フイルム社内でどれだけ議論があったかは分からないが、どうやらこの新型機X-T1は、「富士フイルム80周年」の記念モデルらしい。
そのような文脈で考えると、現行の社名ロゴ以外にありえなかったように思う。

写真のフイルム自体は、もはや慈善事業のような、収益を生み出しにくい事業になってしまっている。それでもフイルムという名称が入った社名を変える事無く、フイルム事業の対極にあるデジカメ事業や、撮像センサーの開発や、化粧品や医薬品、医療機器といった異分野へも積極的に挑戦している。確か、富士フイルムの売上げのうち、フイルムが占める割合は5%程度に縮小していたと思う。つまり、残りの95%は、新たな挑戦によって生まれた。(そして、その挑戦が実を結ばなかったら、この企業は倒産していたか、かなり縮小していた)

コダックのように倒産することなく、今でも写真のフイルムを作り続けている(銘柄は減ったが)。こう考えると、写真文化への貢献度という意味で、他のカメラメーカーとは違った立ち位置にいると思う。

「フイルムも含めた写真文化の継承者」として、FUJIFILMというロゴを掲げるのであれば、それでいいように思っている。

さて、後は正式発表と、質感性能だ。
触れたときに「凝縮感」を感じられるような造りを願いたい。大変楽しみである。

2014年1月13日月曜日

176. テクノロジーがつなぐ絆(Eric Whitacre)

Eric Whitacreによる「2000人のバーチャル合唱団」

I wanted to be a rock star. I dreamed of it, and that's all I dreamed of. To be more accurate, I wanted to be a pop star. This was in the late '80s. And mostly I wanted to be the fifth member of Depeche Mode or Duran Duran. They wouldn't have me. I didn't read music, but I played synthesizers and drum machines. And I grew up in this little farming town in northern Nevada. And I was certain that's what my life would be.
And when I went to college at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas when I was 18, I was stunned to find that there was not a Pop Star 101, or even a degree program for that interest. And the choir conductor there knew that I sang and invited me to come and join the choir. And I said, "Yes, I would love to do that. It sounds great." And I left the room and said, "No way." The choir people in my high school were pretty geeky, and there was no way I was going to have anything to do with those people. And about a week later, a friend of mine came to me and said, "Listen, you've got to join choir. At the end of the semester, we're taking a trip to Mexico, all expenses paid. And the soprano section is just full of hot girls." And so I figured for Mexico and babes, I could do just about anything.
And I went to my first day in choir, and I sat down with the basses and sort of looked over my shoulder to see what they were doing. They opened their scores, the conductor gave the downbeat, and boom, they launched into the Kyrie from the "Requiem" by Mozart. In my entire life I had seen in black and white, and suddenly everything was in shocking Technicolor. The most transformative experience I've ever had -- in that single moment, hearing dissonance and harmony and people singing, people together, the shared vision.And I felt for the first time in my life that I was part of something bigger than myself. And there were a lot of cute girls in the soprano section, as it turns out.
I decided to write a piece for choir a couple of years later as a gift to this conductor who had changed my life. I had learned to read music by then, or slowly learning to read music.And that piece was published, and then I wrote another piece, and that got published. And then I started conducting, and I ended up doing my master's degree at the Juilliard School.And I find myself now in the unlikely position of standing in front of all of you as a professional classical composer and conductor.
Well a couple of years ago, a friend of mine emailed me a link, a YouTube link, and said, "You have got to see this." And it was this young woman who had posted a fan video to me, singing the soprano line to a piece of mine called "Sleep."
(Video) Britlin Losee: Hi Mr. Eric Whitacre. My name is Britlin Losee, and this is a videothat I'd like to make for you. Here's me singing "Sleep." I'm a little nervous, just to let you know. ♫ If there are noises ♫ ♫ in the night ♫
Eric Whitacre: I was thunderstruck. Britlin was so innocent and so sweet, and her voice was so pure. And I even loved seeing behind her; I could see the little teddy bear sitting on the piano behind her in her room. Such an intimate video.
And I had this idea: if I could get 50 people to all do this same thing, sing their parts -- soprano, alto, tenor and bass -- wherever they were in the world, post their videos to YouTube, we could cut it all together and create a virtual choir. So I wrote on my blog, "OMG OMG." I actually wrote, "OMG," hopefully for the last time in public ever. (Laughter)And I sent out this call to singers. And I made free the download of the music to a piece that I had written in the year 2000 called "Lux Aurumque," which means "light and gold."And lo and behold, people started uploading their videos.
Now I should say, before that, what I did is I posted a conductor track of myself conducting. And it's in complete silence when I filmed it, because I was only hearing the music in my head, imagining the choir that would one day come to be. Afterwards, I played a piano track underneath so that the singers would have something to listen to. And then as the videos started to come in ...
(Singing) This is Cheryl Ang from Singapore.
(Singing) This is Evangelina Etienne
(Singing) from Massachusetts.
(Singing) Stephen Hanson from Sweden.
(Singing) This is Jamal Walker from Dallas, Texas.
(Singing)
There was even a little soprano solo in the piece, and so I had auditions. And a number of sopranos uploaded their parts. I was told later, and also by lots of singers who were involved in this, that they sometimes recorded 50 or 60 different takes until they got just the right take -- they uploaded it. Here's our winner of the soprano solo. This is Melody Myers from Tennessee. (Singing) I love the little smile she does right over the top of the note -- like, "No problem, everything's fine."
(Laughter)
And from the crowd emerged this young man, Scott Haines. And he said, "Listen, this is the project I've been looking for my whole life. I'd like to be the person to edit this all together." I said, "Thank you, Scott. I'm so glad that you found me." And Scott aggregated all of the videos. He scrubbed the audio. He made sure that everything lined up. And then we posted this video to YouTube about a year and a half ago. This is "Lux Aurumque" sung by the Virtual Choir.
(Singing)
I'll stop it there in the interest of time. (Applause)
Thank you. Thank you.
(Applause)
Thank you. So there's more. There's more. Thank you so much.
And I had the same reaction you did. I actually was moved to tears when I first saw it. I just couldn't believe the poetry of all of it -- these souls all on their own desert island,sending electronic messages in bottles to each other. And the video went viral. We had a million hits in the first month and got a lot of attention for it. And because of that, then a lot of singers started saying, "All right, what's Virtual Choir 2.0?" And so I decided for Virtual Choir 2.0 that I would choose the same piece that Britlin was singing, "Sleep," which is another work that I wrote in the year 2000 -- poetry by my dear friend Charles Anthony Silvestri. And again, I posted a conductor video, and we started accepting submissions.This time we got some more mature members. (Singing) And some younger members.
(Video) Soprano: ♫ Upon my pillow ♫ ♫ Safe in bed ♫ EW: That's Georgie from England. She's only nine. Isn't that the sweetest thing you've ever seen?
Someone did all eight videos -- a bass even singing the soprano parts. This is Beau Awtin.(Video) Beau Awtin: ♫ Safe in bed ♫
EW: And our goal -- it was sort of an arbitrary goal -- there was an MTV video where they all sang "Lollipop" and they got people from all over the world to just sing that little melody.And there were 900 people involved in that. So I told the singers, "That's our goal. That's the number for us to beat." And we just closed submissions January 10th, and our final tally was 2,051 videos from 58 different countries. Thank you. (Applause) From Malta, Madagascar, Thailand, Vietnam, Jordan, Egypt, Israel, as far north as Alaska and as far south as New Zealand.
And we also put a page on Facebook for the singers to upload their testimonials, what it was like for them, their experience singing it. And I've just chosen a few of them here. "My sister and I used to sing in choirs together constantly. Now she's an airman in the air force constantly traveling. It's so wonderful to sing together again!" I love the idea that she's singing with her sister. "Aside from the beautiful music, it's great just to know I'm part of a worldwide community of people I never met before, but who are connected anyway." And my personal favorite, "When I told my husband that I was going to be a part of this, he told me that I did not have the voice for it." Yeah, I'm sure a lot of you have heard that too. Me too. "It hurt so much, and I shed some tears, but something inside of me wanted to do this despite his words. It is a dream come true to be part of this choir, as I've never been part of one. When I placed a marker on the Google Earth Map, I had to go with the nearest city, which is about 400 miles away from where I live. As I am in the Great Alaskan Bush,satellite is my connection to the world."
So two things struck me deeply about this. The first is that human beings will go to any lengths necessary to find and connect with each other. It doesn't matter the technology.And the second is that people seem to be experiencing an actual connection. It wasn't a virtual choir. There are people now online that are friends; they've never met. But, I know myself too, I feel this virtual esprit de corps, if you will, with all of them. I feel a closeness to this choir -- almost like a family.
What I'd like to close with then today is the first look at "Sleep" by Virtual Choir 2.0. This will be a premiere today. We're not finished with the video yet. You can imagine, with 2,000 synchronized YouTube videos, the render time is just atrocious. But we do have the first three minutes. And it's a tremendous honor for me to be able to show it to you here first.You're the very first people to see this. This is "Sleep," the Virtual Choir.
(Video) Virtual Choir: ♫ The evening hangs ♫ ♫ beneath the moon ♫ ♫ A silver thread on darkened dune ♫ ♫ With closing eyes and resting head ♫ ♫ I know that sleep is coming soon ♫ ♫ Upon my pillow, ♫ ♫ safe in bed, ♫ ♫ a thousand pictures fill my head ♫ ♫ I cannot sleep ♫ ♫ my mind's aflight ♫ ♫ and yet my limbs seem made of lead ♫ ♫ If there are noises in the night ♫
Eric Whitacre: Thank you very, very much. Thank you. (Applause) Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.
(Applause)


プレゼンがどうこうというよりも、この「現象」を目の当たりにすること自体に意味を感じる。You Tubeを介して、2000人以上の人が、58カ国から参加して、一つの合唱曲を歌う。この「現象」は、テクノロジーによって、人々が絆を持てることを証明している。

インターネットは、元々軍事用のネットワークが払い下げられたものから出発しているが、その黎明期においては、「心と心との会話」が重視され、商業用途は固く禁じられていた時代があった。

しかし、ユーザーが増え、大規模サーバーが必要になり、維持管理が難しくなったとき、インターネットはスポンサーを受け入れ、結果、広告媒体としての存在に堕ちてしまった。

以上のようなことを12年ほど前に、大学の社会学の講義で聴いたことがある。
「崇高な理念は、商業主義に負ける。」
当時、そう思ったことを思い出した。
所詮人間だもんな、と。

ただ、こういう現象を見てしまうと、「なかなか人間も捨てたもんじゃないなぁ」と思う。

2014年1月11日土曜日

175. 2013年を振り返って(予定帳より)

2013年の手帳をパラパラと見直してみて、「去年も色々あったなぁ。」としみじみしてしまった。

全てをここに書くことはできないから、パッと思い出すハイライトのみ書いてみようと思う。

  • 仕事:日米欧亜の拠点をつなぐプロジェクトに携われるようになった。これは自分にとって大きな転機で、仕事に対する熱意や、また同時に自分の未熟さを痛感する機会となった。NY出張や、ロンドン出張も、いい経験となった。まだまだ英語が未熟だし、知らないことも多い。ただ、新しい航路が見えてきたのも事実。情報の流れを掴み、自分の頭で考え、針路を見い出し、一歩一歩、歩んでいきたい。
  • 家庭:息子が11月で1歳になった。初めての子育てで、大変なこともあったけれど、笑顔になることが多かった1年だったと思う。息子のできることがどんどん広がっていて、それこそ毎日が変化に満ちている。2013年中には、既につかまり立ち、1〜2歩のつかまり歩きが出来て、意味のある言葉は話さないものの、発声することには自覚的になっている。これからも、その成長を見逃さず、一緒に時間を過ごしていきたい。
  • 環境:5月に引っ越しをした。以前の家は75平米くらいだったのだが、今の家は63平米。駅から近くなったり、買い物や外食がしやすくなったのはいいのだけれど、物が納まり切らない。秋頃から、ようやく落ち着き始めたものの、まだまだ開けていない段ボールがクローゼットに多数ある。
  • 英語:短期の通訳養成のコースに通ってみた。自分のリスニング力の低さ、音読の下手さに愕然としながら、いい刺激にはなったと思う。後は、これを日常の英語トレーニングにどう活かしていくかだ。差し当たっては、授業を真似た形で、音を聞き、内容を想像し、一文ごと書き取り、翻訳しということをやっていきたい。教材はTEDが良さそうだ。
  • 写真:10月に無事写真展(写本展)を終了。広報班の仕事も頑張ったと思う。平日は仕事で、土日は広報班で、夏〜秋は大変だった。出展した写本はコンテストで優秀賞に選ばれた。素直に嬉しい。
  • カメラ:2013年はそれほど大きな買い物をしていない。まず、EOS 6D(2012年12月購入)以降、カメラ本体は買っていない。なんてことだ。これはキヤノンのフルサイズ機に更新がなかったことと、新規マウントの追加に消極的だったことが原因だ。買うなら富士フイルムのXシリーズと思っている。なお、今年は防湿庫が一台増えて、二台体制となった。カメラが一通り収まってスッキリした。今のメイン機種はEOS 6D + EF40mmF2.8である。軽快で、光学ファインダーで、フルサイズ。とりあえず、キヤノンユーザーとしては最も小さなフルサイズセットだ。40mmという焦点距離は、フルサイズ素子の対角線長(43mm)に近く、結果として、パースペクティブ(遠近感)が自然で、人間の視野にかなり近い画角だなと感じる。また、よくレストランで対面の家族を撮るのだが、そのときもぎりぎりテーブルと上半身が納まって、いい感じなのである。これがいわゆる「標準」の50mmだと、やや画角が狭く、テーブルの上までは入らない(結果、どこのレストランかよく分からない写真になるか、自分がのけぞって撮ることになる)。今のところ、キヤノンのフルサイズを日常的に使うという選択においては、最良の組み合わせだと思っている。
  • その他:車の運転を少しだけやった。三島から伊豆の堂ヶ島までのドライブや、新三郷のIKEAまで等。正直まだ慣れていなくて、駐車とかガソリンスタンドとかが億劫で仕方ない。うーん、なんとかしないとなぁ。

上記のカテゴリは、今年も継続されることになるだろう。
今年は、習慣的な目標として、

「リアルタイムの整理整頓」
「節度ある飲食生活」

を心がけたい。これは、別に今年だけでなくいつだってそうなのだが。
シンプルな環境は集中力を高めるし、
節度ある飲食は、成人病を遠ざける。
これに運動の習慣が加われば尚いいのだが、あまり高望みはしていない。(おい)

さて、最近ふと思うのは、「大人になると時間の流れが速い」ということだ。
これは体感的にそうなのだが、その一方で、
「1歳になるこの息子も、同じ時間の1年を経験しているはずだ」
ということも、頭では分かっている。

物理的に経過した時間は、父にも息子にも、等しく1年間。
しかし、父には早く感じられ、恐らく息子には長く感じられたはずだ。

自分の「体感」だけを信じると、どんどん時間は短くなっていきそうなのだが、
しかし、息子にも同じ時間が流れているという事実を思うと、そうでもないような気がしてくる。公平感とでも言うのか、「なんだ、自分にも許されている時間があるのだ」という気がしてくる。

息子は1年で立てるようになった。
背は24cmも伸びた。体重は3倍以上の10kg弱になった。
急速に成長しているわけだけれど、それは不公平なものではない。
例えば、30年後の彼が「体感する」時間は、多分、僕が感じている時間とそう変わらないはずだ。

人が1年でできることは、その人のステージによって違う。
時間は常に、一定の速度で流れている。
機会は平等。
だとしたら、後は「単位時間当たりの成長の効率」を上げていくしかない。
しかし、そんなことできるだろうか?

最近こんなことに気付いた。

僕は、歩きながら、将来のことや、仕事のことについて、コンセプトを考えたり、構想を練ったりしていることがある。そうやって、併行的な、細切れの思考は、後日、机に向かった時に一気に組み合わさり、一つのプレゼン資料になったりする。

このように、細切れの思考をストックして後日ステッチするようにすると、実はデスクに向かっている時間が仮に短かったとしても、仕事は進められる。特に、情報を咀嚼し、着想を得るようなタイプの仕事だと、こんな方法は効果的な気がする。

だから、休日に思考を止めるのは、やめよう。
休日でも、通勤中でも、自然と仕事のことを考え始めてしまったら、そのまま、徹底してしまおうと思う。

今までは、「今日は休日だから」と、考えることを中止したりしていたのだが、そんなに明確に線引きをする必要はないように思えてきた。何より、仕事のことを考えるのは、楽しいのだ。こんな熱中できることって他にあまりない。

こうやって、歩いたり、買い物したりしているときにでも、有意義な頭の使い方をしていると、時間はずっと長くなる。

2014年も、ギッシリ詰まった1年にしたい。


2014年1月8日水曜日

174. クラシック音楽と最後の言葉(Benjamin Zander)

軽妙でいて、ジェットコースターのようなBenjamin Zanderのプレゼン

Probably a lot of you know the story of the two salesmen who went down to Africa in the 1900s. They were sent down to find if there was any opportunity for selling shoes, and they wrote telegrams back to Manchester. And one of them wrote, "Situation hopeless. Stop.They don't wear shoes." And the other one wrote, "Glorious opportunity. They don't have any shoes yet." (Laughter)
Now, there's a similar situation in the classical music world, because there are some people who think that classical music is dying. And there are some of us who think you ain't seen nothing yet. And rather than go into statistics and trends, and tell you about all the orchestras that are closing, and the record companies that are folding, I thought we should do an experiment tonight -- an experiment. Actually, it's not really an experiment, because I know the outcome.
But it's like an experiment. Now, before we -- (Laughter) -- before we start, I need to do two things. One is I want to remind you of what a seven-year-old child sounds like when he plays the piano. Maybe you have this child at home. He sounds something like this. (Piano)I see some of you recognize this child. Now, if he practices for a year and takes lessons, he's now eight and he sounds like this. (Piano) Then he practices for another year and takes lessons -- now he's nine. (Piano) Then he practices for another and takes lessons -- now he's 10. (Piano) At that point, they usually give up. (Laughter) (Applause) Now, if you'd waited, if you'd waited for one more year, you would have heard this. (Piano)
Now, what happened was not maybe what you thought, which is, he suddenly became passionate, engaged, involved, got a new teacher, he hit puberty, or whatever it is. What actually happened was the impulses were reduced. You see, the first time, he was playingwith an impulse on every note. (Piano) And the second, with an impulse every other note.(Piano) You can see it by looking at my head. (Laughter) The nine-year-old put an impulse on every four notes. (Piano) And the 10-year-old, on every eight notes. (Piano) And the 11-year-old, one impulse on the whole phrase. (Piano)
I know -- I don't know how we got into this position. (Laughter) I didn't say, "I'm going to move my shoulder over, move my body." No, the music pushed me over, which is why I call it one-buttock playing. (Piano) It can be the other buttock. (Piano) You know, a gentleman was once watching a presentation I was doing, when I was working with a young pianist. He was the president of a corporation in Ohio. And I was working with this young pianist and I said, "The trouble with you is you're a two-buttock player. You should be a one-buttock player." And I moved his body like that, while he was playing. And suddenly, the music took off. It took flight. There was a gasp in the audience when they heard the difference. And then I got a letter from this gentleman. He said, "I was so moved. I went back and I transformed my entire company into a one-buttock company." (Laughter)
Now, the other thing I wanted to do is to tell you about you. There are 1,600 people, I believe. My estimation is that probably 45 of you are absolutely passionate about classical music. You adore classical music. Your FM is always on that classical dial. And you have CDs in your car, and you go to the symphony. And your children are playing instruments.You can't imagine your life without classical music. That's the first group; it's quite a small group. Then there's another group, bigger group. These are the people who don't mind classical music. (Laughter) You know, you've come home from a long day, and you take a glass of wine, and you put your feet up. A little Vivaldi in the background doesn't do any harm. (Laughter) That's the second group. Now comes the third group. These are the people who never listen to classical music. It's just simply not part of your life. You might hear it like second-hand smoke at the airport, but -- (Laughter) -- and maybe a little bit of a march from "Aida" when you come into the hall. But otherwise, you never hear it. That's probably the largest group of all.
And then there's a very small group. These are the people who think they're tone-deaf.Amazing number of people think they're tone-deaf. Actually, I hear a lot, "My husband is tone-deaf." (Laughter) Actually, you cannot be tone-deaf. Nobody is tone-deaf. If you were tone-deaf, you couldn't change the gears on your car, in a stick shift car. You couldn't tell the difference between somebody from Texas and somebody from Rome. And the telephone. The telephone. If your mother calls on the miserable telephone, she calls and says, "Hello," you not only know who it is, you know what mood she's in. You have a fantastic ear. Everybody has a fantastic ear. So nobody is tone-deaf.
But I tell you what. It doesn't work for me to go on with this thing, with such a wide gulf between those who understand, love and [are] passionate about classical music, and those who have no relationship to it at all. The tone-deaf people, they're no longer here. But even between those three categories, it's too wide a gulf. So I'm not going to go on until every single person in this room, downstairs and in Aspen, and everybody else looking, will come to love and understand classical music. So that's what we're going to do.
Now, you notice that there is not the slightest doubt in my mind that this is going to work if you look at my face, right? It's one of the characteristics of a leader that he not doubt for one moment the capacity of the people he's leading to realize whatever he's dreaming.Imagine if Martin Luther King had said, "I have a dream. Of course, I'm not sure they'll be up to it." (Laughter)
All right. So I'm going to take a piece of Chopin. This is a beautiful prelude by Chopin. Some of you will know it. (Music) Do you know what I think probably happened in this room? When I started, you thought, "How beautiful that sounds." (Music) "I don't think we should go to the same place for our summer holidays next year." (Laughter) It's funny, isn't it? It's funny how those thoughts kind of waft into your head. And of course -- (Applause) -- and of course, if the piece is long and you've had a long day, you might actually drift off.Then your companion will dig you in the ribs and say, "Wake up! It's culture!" And then you feel even worse.
But has it ever occurred to you that the reason you feel sleepy in classical music is not because of you, but because of us? Did anybody think while I was playing, "Why is he using so many impulses?" If I'd done this with my head you certainly would have thought it.(Music) And for the rest of your life, every time you hear classical music, you'll always be able to know if you hear those impulses.
So let's see what's really going on here. We have a B. This is a B. The next note is a C.And the job of the C is to make the B sad. And it does, doesn't it? (Laughter) Composers know that. If they want sad music, they just play those two notes. (Music) But basically, it's just a B, with four sads. (Laughter) Now, it goes down to A. Now to G. And then to F. So we have B, A, G, F. And if we have B, A, G, F, what do we expect next? Oh, that might have been a fluke. Let's try it again. Ooh, the TED choir. (Laughter) And you notice nobody is tone-deaf, right? Nobody is. You know, every village in Bangladesh and every hamlet in China -- everybody knows: da, da, da, da -- da. Everybody knows, who's expecting that E.
Now, Chopin didn't want to reach the E there, because what will have happened? It will be over, like Hamlet. Do you remember Hamlet? Act one, scene three, he finds out that his uncle killed his father. You remember, he keeps on going up to his uncle and almost killing him. And then he backs away, and he goes up to him again and almost kills him. And the critics, all of whom are sitting in the back row there, they have to have an opinion, so they say, "Hamlet is a procrastinator." (Laughter) Or they say, "Hamlet has an Oedipus complex." No, otherwise the play would be over, stupid. That's why Shakespeare puts all that stuff in Hamlet -- you know, Ophelia going mad and the play within the play, and Yorick's skull, and the gravediggers. That's in order to delay -- until act five, he can kill him.
It's the same with the Chopin. He's just about to reach the E, and he says, "Oops, better go back up and do it again." So he does it again. Now, he gets excited. (Piano) That's excitement, you don't have to worry about it. Now, he gets to F-sharp, and finally he goes down to E, but it's the wrong chord -- because the chord he's looking for is this one, (Piano) and instead he does ... (Piano) Now, we call that a deceptive cadence, because it deceives us. I always tell my students, "If you have a deceptive cadence, be sure to raise your eyebrows. Then everybody will know." (Laughter) (Applause) Right. So, he gets to E, but it's the wrong chord. Now, he tries E again. That chord doesn't work. Now, he tries the E again. That chord doesn't work. Now, he tries E again, and that doesn't work. And then finally ... (Piano) There was a gentleman in the front row who went, "Mmm." It's the same gesture he makes when he comes home after a long day, turns off the key in his car and says, "Aah, I'm home." Because we all know where home is.
So this is a piece which goes from away to home. And I'm going to play it all the way through and you're going to follow. B, C, B, C, B, C, B -- down to A, down to G, down to F.Almost goes to E, but otherwise the play would be over. He goes back up to B. He gets very excited. Goes to F-sharp. Goes to E. It's the wrong chord. It's the wrong chord. It's the wrong chord. And finally goes to E, and it's home. And what you're going to see is one-buttock playing. (Laughter) Because for me, to join the B to the E, I have to stop thinking about every single note along the way, and start thinking about the long, long line from B to E.
You know, we were just in South Africa, and you can't go to South Africa without thinking of Mandela in jail for 27 years. What was he thinking about? Lunch? No, he was thinking about the vision for South Africa and for human beings. That's what kept -- this is about vision. This is about the long line. Like the bird who flies over the field and doesn't care about the fences underneath, all right? So now, you're going to follow the line all the way from B to E.And I've one last request before I play this piece all the way through. Would you think of somebody who you adore, who's no longer there? A beloved grandmother, a lover --somebody in your life who you love with all your heart, but that person is no longer with you. Bring that person into your mind, and at the same time follow the line all the way from B to E, and you'll hear everything that Chopin had to say. (Music) (Applause)
Now, you may be wondering, you may be wondering why I'm clapping. Well, I did this at a school in Boston with about 70 seventh graders, 12-year-olds. And I did exactly what I did with you, and I told them and explained them and the whole thing. And at the end, they went crazy, clapping. They were clapping. I was clapping. They were clapping. Finally, I said, "Why am I clapping?" And one of the little kids said, "Because we were listening."(Laughter) Think of it. 1,600 people, busy people, involved in all sorts of different things,listening, understanding and being moved by a piece by Chopin. Now that is something.Now, am I sure that every single person followed that, understood it, was moved by it? Of course, I can't be sure. But I tell you what happened to me.
I was in Ireland during the Troubles, 10 years ago, and I was working with some Catholic and Protestant kids on conflict resolution. And I did this with them -- a risky thing to do, because they were street kids. And one of them came to me the next morning and he said,"You know, I've never listened to classical music in my life, but when you played that shopping piece ... " (Laughter) He said, "My brother was shot last year and I didn't cry for him. But last night, when you played that piece, he was the one I was thinking about. And I felt the tears streaming down my face. And you know, it felt really good to cry for my brother." So I made up my mind at that moment that classical music is for everybody. Everybody.
Now, how would you walk -- because you know, my profession, the music profession doesn't see it that way. They say three percent of the population likes classical music. If only we could move it to four percent, our problems would be over. I say, "How would you walk? How would you talk? How would you be? If you thought, three percent of the population likes classical music, if only we could move it to four percent. How would you walk? How would you talk? How would you be? If you thought, everybody loves classical music -- they just haven't found out about it yet." (Laughter) See, these are totally different worlds.
Now, I had an amazing experience. I was 45 years old, I'd been conducting for 20 years, and I suddenly had a realization. The conductor of an orchestra doesn't make a sound. My picture appears on the front of the CD -- (Laughter) -- but the conductor doesn't make a sound. He depends, for his power, on his ability to make other people powerful. And that changed everything for me. It was totally life changing. People in my orchestra came up to me and said, "Ben, what happened?" That's what happened. I realized my job was to awaken possibility in other people. And of course, I wanted to know whether I was doing that. And you know how you find out? You look at their eyes. If their eyes are shining, you know you're doing it. You could light up a village with this guy's eyes. (Laughter) Right. So if the eyes are shining, you know you're doing it. If the eyes are not shining, you get to ask a question. And this is the question: who am I being, that my players' eyes are not shining?We can do that with our children, too. Who am I being, that my children's eyes are not shining? That's a totally different world.
Now, we're all about to end this magical, on-the-mountain week, and we're going back into the world. And I say, it's appropriate for us to ask the question, who are we being as we go back out into the world? And you know, I have a definition of success. For me, it's very simple. It's not about wealth and fame and power. It's about how many shining eyes I have around me.
So now, I have one last thought, which is that it really makes a difference what we say --the words that come out of our mouth. I learned this from a woman who survived Auschwitz, one of the rare survivors. She went to Auschwitz when she was 15 years old,and her brother was eight, and the parents were lost. And she told me this, she said, "We were in the train going to Auschwitz, and I looked down and saw my brother's shoes were missing. And I said, 'Why are you so stupid, can't you keep your things together for goodness' sake?' " The way an elder sister might speak to a younger brother. Unfortunately, it was the last thing she ever said to him, because she never saw him again. He did not survive. And so when she came out of Auschwitz, she made a vow. She told me this. She said, "I walked out of Auschwitz into life and I made a vow. And the vow was, I will never say anything that couldn't stand as the last thing I ever say." Now, can we do that? No. And we'll make ourselves wrong and others wrong. But it is a possibility to live into. Thank you. (Applause) Shining eyes, shining eyes. Thank you, thank you. (Music)

要点をまとめるタイプのプレゼンではないけれど、自分に刺さったのは以下のようなことだ。
  • 敬愛していたのに、もうこの世にはいない人物を思い浮かべ、聞くショパン。それが、彼が言いたかったことの全てだ。
  • 成功の定義はシンプルだ。自分の周りにどれだけ多くの輝いた目があるか。自分の子供の目が輝いていなかったら、一体私はなんなんだ?
  • 「もしこれが、その人の聞いた自分の最後のセリフになったら耐えられないような台詞を、今後一言たりとも口にしない」と決めたこと。(アウシュビッツで生存した少女の言葉。靴をなくした弟を罵ってしまい、それが弟が最後に聞いた姉の台詞となってしまった。)
しかし、世界には自分の知らない種類の人がいるものだ。
僕は彼からビジネススキルとしてのプレゼンは学ばないと思うけど、人間的な、根源的な「良さ」は、とてもよく憶えると思う。そういうプレゼンだった。