Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Crossing the Steams

I wanted to briefly explain what I mean when I speak in my blog of crossing the steams. I myself am the product of many different intellectual streams. I am in many ways, mathematician, scientist, philosopher, theologian, musician and composer. My music reflects a deep belief that in music is expressed a certain perfection, although only in shadow, of the perfection of God. Music is a highly spiritual thing to me. That might sound surprising considering that I am an electronic artist but my use of electronics and software is merely to get to places that traditional instruments can't get me.

I believe that each of us shares in the creative power of God when we create ourselves be it music or art, literature or any other creative endeavor. Creating is something sacred and good. It can be corrupted by certain things and all created works are only at various levels of perfection but they do reflect in us the desire to achieve something new which moves beyond the fray of ordinary human activities.

Music is also recreation. Music is play. As we get older, we lose some of the imagination that we once had a a child. But music can open us up again to imagination. It is to this imagination that I try to speak to in my music. I believe that our experience of music is very much influenced by our memories of things and even memories that are part of our cultural heritage or even ones that are archetypal, universal in nature. I have often said, music play us more than we play it. How music effects us can't be reduced to a scientific formula. This is one of my objections to surrealism and totally algorithmic based composition. Once the heart can speak to the heart not a computer program.

Music is also healing. Sometimes music becomes therapy, it expressed deep fears and anxieties and the release of those. It lets us express our faith, our hopes, our dreams in a way that mere words cannot. It is transformative. In creating we recreate ourselves., transform ourselves, explore ourselves. This is why I am interested in music therapy. Using music to heal people is a very good idea. Music has powerful restorative powers and can do thngs that medicine and even ordinary therapy cannot.

So that's a short expression of how I see music. Music crosses many streams because it speaks to the universal human condition. It speaks to the perfection of the music of the spheres, the ratios of pure harmony but it also speaks of our longing for God, our desire to experience beauty and yes, the many human emotions that flood or days from fear to hope and even beyond.

I guess that's all for now. I know this is different than most of my posts but from time to time I like to take a new direction and see where it leads.

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