I visited Vienna last year and there I visited the “Hundertwasserhaus’. There was an interesting quote from the architect/artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser.
“Art isn’t between people, but between a human-being and Nature.”
It that made me think about the past 2 weeks of studying several conductors and contemplating the books of conductor/educator Edward Lisk. I never thought about art in this way, because I always let ‘the instruments talk to each other’ when I’m orchestrating. Suggesting to myself that art is a communication between people.
But inspired by his ideas, I thought: “I could think of a performance/rehearsal as a joined prayer to Nature, rather then a conversation between people.”
Yes, I was also at a lot of crazily decorated Rococo churches. I sat there and thought, being used to protestant churches, it’s better to begin this train of thinking from the Beginning, the Genesis. When there was nothing but a New Beginning.
This whole discussion about what art between people actually is and whether mr. Hundertwasser has a point, had to start at the beginning, the Genesis, wondering:
Where does the Music come from?
When you think the Music comes from ‘Nowhere and Anywhere in the Universe’, all that people have to do is search for the Truth in the Music together to make it sound Great. I call this Universal Music.
Because there is always a Composer involved Listening and writing the Music down, you will hear the soul/emotion of the Honest Composer added to the Universal Music. It can’t be helped. The Real Composer will try to let go of his/her ego to be able to write Musical Truth down as well as possible.
A Conductor can help this type of Composer bring the Music forward, Listening to the Truth of Music rather then the Composers added soul/emotions. Because there is a Truth to look for, it’s also easier for the Conductor to let go of the projection of his/her own emotions onto the Music.
This Music could become a Healing experience for all participants. This is why some works have a generally understood meaning and others don’t, we come to those later on in this post.
When you think Music is a projection of the soul of the composer onto the Musical Universe, then you will hear the Composers’ soul/emotions. I call this ego-centric music. Because the ego of the composer is in the way, it’s hard for the composer to hear Universal Music instead of him-/herself babbling.
The conductor can now only bring forward the emotions of the composer, because the composer didn’t Listen to ‘Nowhere and Anywhere’, but just to him/herself.
A Conductor can Honestly help bring forward the personal emotional story of the composer. Because there is no universal Truth to look for together, the conductor has to look for the shared emotions involved. But the conductor has to force the personal emotions of the composer onto the orchestra, because there will always be musicians that won’t resonate with the emotions of the composer of that piece.
And the conductor can easily get in trouble, because his/her own emotions get easily mixed up with those of the composer, when they line up. I think that conductors who want to express themselves rather then help search for the Universal Music we all share, will prefer this kind of ego-centric music. Especially when it resonates with something they need to express themselves.
This could be a personal Healing experience for the composer, and for those who share the composers personal story, for those who can impose their own emotions onto that composition, so it becomes their own.
Actually, they make themselves ego-centric composers by twisting the composition. This can only be done, because there is no general Truth to search for in the composition.
When you think Music is Sound, you will only listen to the existing music around you, rather then somewhere else. This composer thinks mostly of how to work with instruments/effects. This music can be highly entertaining, which is of course also nice to have. But it will never be Universal Music. I call this ’empty music’. It’s a summary of everything we already heard, a history lesson. There is not even a personal story or emotion in this music.
A Conductor can look for Truth in this music, try to help bring out the emotions of the composer, but it won’t work. Because the composer didn’t even listen to him-/herself, but only to Sounds. There is no Beauty, nor Story in this Music, there is only Sound.
Writing this kind of music is ‘fun work’ and people like me for writing it. But the powerful parts of that piece is always, where the other kinds of writing kicked in by accident….and it was not fun to write either…
The combination of the empty conductor with the empty music will work fine, because the overall goal is to just sound like the known standards. This is where music will get stuck, but for a party-concert it will work fine. People will be comfortable, because they get what they know already.
The combination of a Conductor and a Composer searching for Truth, trying to express the Music that comes from ‘Nowhere and Anywhere in the Universe’, will change lives. Because this Beauty is the kind of Truth we all pray/hope for, we all share Universal Music in a Natural way. Within this Truth we don’t look at instruments, nor each other, but we all look in the same direction searching for the goal, the same Truth.
“Art isn’t between people, but between a human-being and Nature.”
You could think of a performance/rehearsal as a joined prayer to Nature, rather then a conversation between people. I also think, this is why Edward Lisks Idea is so powerful, because with his way of unleashing all that unique creativity, having them search together for the same Beauty, the same Truth, they will do exactly what is needed. But conductors like Edward need Real Music to make these method Really work and only then we will hear his Vision of music education properly.
