郭逸纯  供稿

The second Tuesday of October is Ada Lovelace Day, a day first founded in 2009 to celebrate the achievements of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). You may not be familiar with Ada Lovelace, but you must have heard of her father—the famous English poet Lord Byron. Ada Lovelace, the only legitimate child of Byron, is widely hailed as the very first computer programmer.

十月的第二个星期二是“埃达·洛夫莱斯日”，这一节日设立于2009年，旨在庆祝女性在科学、技术、工程与数学领域的成就。也许你对埃达·洛夫莱斯这个名字有些陌生，但你一定听说过她的父亲——著名英国诗人拜伦。埃达·洛夫莱斯是拜伦唯一的合法子嗣，她被广泛誉为世界上第一位计算机程序员。

What makes Ada distinguished is not only her contribution in creating the first computer algorithm, but also her far-sighted insight into the diverse potential of computing machines. She realized that the capability of computers could go beyond mere crunching numbers. One of the exciting potential that she imagined computers might have is to compose music. This idea, which might sound crazy when it was put forward by Ada in 19th century, has now become a reality. In 2015, computer scientist Donya Quick wrote a program named Kulitta, which could compose new pieces of music based on existing music styles. When people listened to some fragments of Kulitta’s compositions, some of them thought the music was written by a famous musician.

埃达的卓越之处不仅仅在于她创造了世界上第一种计算机算法，还在于她颇有远见地看到了计算机拥有的丰富多彩的潜能。埃达意识到，计算机所能做的远远不只是处理大量数据。在她的想象之中，计算机拥有的美妙潜能之一就是作曲。19世纪埃达提出这一想法时或许听起来有些不可思议，但如今它已成为现实。2015年，计算机科学家唐亚·奎克编写了一个名为Kulitta的程序，它能根据现有音乐的曲风创造出新的乐曲。当人们听到Kulitta创作出的部分音乐片段时，有些人竟以为那是某位著名音乐家的作品。

Now the magic process of creating music with a mess of numbers and punctuation marks can even be directly shown to the audience. Almost every weekend in New York City, people can enjoy a “live coding” music show. What makes these shows special is that the DJs don’t use any electronic musical instrument, but use a coding language named Sonic Pi during their performance. Sonic Pi was originally designed as a teaching aid to add some joy when helping children learn programming, but has now been developed into a new musical instrument.

如今，以一大串数字和标点符号来谱写出乐曲的神奇过程甚至可以直接展现在观众面前。在美国纽约，几乎每个周末人们都可以观赏到一场“现场编码”的音乐表演。这种表演的独特之处就在于，DJ在演出过程中并不使用任何电子乐器，而是运用一种名为“Sonic Pi”的编码程序。Sonic Pi最初是为了帮助孩子在学习编程的过程中增加些许乐趣而设计的教学工具，而现在，这一程序已进一步发展成为一种新型的演奏乐器。

According to some DJs, the best part of live coding is the freedom and flexibility it offers. Coding on computers instead of using traditional instruments makes musicians no longer constrained by their body during performance, and ensures that any idea that flashes into their minds can be directly transformed into fantastic melodies. Typically, the whole process of writing source code is projected onto a screen so that it is visible to the audience. The strands of code appearing at a massive scale can create a special visual effect.

一些DJ认为，现场编码最值得称赞的地方是它的自由度和灵活度。与使用传统乐器相比，在电脑上编写代码的方式可以使音乐家在表演中不再受限于他们的身体，而他们大脑中突然闪现的任何奇思妙想都能够直接转化为美妙的旋律。通常，编写源代码的整个过程都会被投射到大屏幕上呈现给观众。一串串代码接连涌现在观众眼前，总能营造出一种独特的视觉效果。

Live coding is not only a form of music performance, but has been used as an innovative technique to create sound, image, and even improvised dance and poetry. It means that art and technology are further integrated, enabling us to express ourselves in more diverse and creative ways.

现场编码不仅仅被用于音乐表演，更成为了一种制造声效和图像，甚至即兴创作舞蹈和诗歌的新型技术工具。这意味着艺术和科技得到进一步融合，让我们能够以更加多元、更具创意的方式表达自我。

VOCABULARY

hail v. 赞扬，称颂

distinguished adj. 卓越的，杰出的

far-sighted adj. 有远见的

crunch v. （用计算器或计算机）

处理大量数据

project v. 投影，投射

strand n. 一股，一缕