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Friday, August 29, 2003
A understanding of masculine and feminine types of energy has been a big breakthrough for Wrench and I during our
infinite brain-storm phone calls, which are filled with radiant puns, consciousness gags, and true Kosmic silliness abound.
©2003 Electric Goose Productions
Nonetheless, a big huge unbelievably real WOW to the poles of masculine and feminine. And how to describe these poles, you ask?
It's so breath-takingly simple it basically floors me at every turn. Concisely put by David Deida, a true pioneer in the
relationships between types and how each manifests from the poles of magnetic energy:
From the Masculine pole, you direct consciousness and presence.
From the Feminine pole, you invite light and life.
And both are available to every person.
Take the Mozart and Haydn approaches to creative flow in music composition, which I talk about in one of my essays
published in my Writings section.
Here's an excerpt from my upcoming essay, Integral Artist Practice:
I suggest that the Mozart approach emphasizes a more masculine-, consciousness-based, directed type of vital flow. And
the Haydn approach emphasizes a more feminine-, light-based, invited type of vital flow.
In a masculine creative flow, the artist is captured by an inward inspiration and works single-pointedly towards the
realization of that inner vision. The piece of art appears whole and the artist captures the vision in an often intense
and excruciating period of creation.
In a feminine creative flow, the artist invites the light and life-energy into their practice, through improvisation for
example. The realized piece of art is less from a directed intention, and more from the unpredictable feelings the artist
has during creation. Another example is artistic brainstorming, where the artist or artists generate many many ideas and
feel out which ones seem the most appropriate.
These two types of flow are available at every step of the way in the vital stream. As David Deida says, an artist may
emphasize one type over the other, and that is okay. But a more complete approach to raw creative flow arises when an
artist has had direct exposure to both.
There will be example and explanations of how types work in artistic practice according to all the streams of artistic
development. This is outrageously exciting, informative stuff. This excitement will hopefully come to more life as we flesh out,
with specific experiential accounts, the basic landscapes of how types can operate at every step of the way. The tip of an
avalanche is just appearing in our aural consciousness, so we all better look out before we are swept away by the AQAL torrent.
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
I feel I might be letting on too much about myself, but whatever. I'm allowed every once in a while, so sue me.
Life is so damn complicated, huh?
Can I get an Amen?
Sometimes asking those close to you for a simple acknowledgement of your feelings can be difficult, can't it?
"Yes, I see you are feeling that way, Matthew."
As we commune with other people, offering our love, our support, and sometimes our critiques of behavior, art, whatever,
it seems to me right now that the support AND the critiques are both a form of love. After all, non-love would be the
apathetic tossing-off of attention to you at all. But both support and critique are difficult to execute, at least in ways that
the person receiving the energy is ready for.
Ken Wilber talks about the idea of 5%--you can only change someone 5% at a time, and if you go over the 5% in your words, help,
or suggestions, they will shut down and even the 5% of progress is lost. So it's a delicate process, that of feeding people back
energy that we all want yet often aren't really ready for.
My friend Erik Fabian will talk about this more in an upcoming paper he's developing, but it seems to me that the MOST important
step in offering critique is the first step. And what is the first step?
What it is NOT is prescriptive suggestions to change this or that. Talk about shutting the receiver down in a single breath.
Get prescriptive right away, and it's over before you had a chance to sip a glass of white wine.
What it MIGHT BE is a simple statement by the critiquer of what he/she has percieved in the art. A judgementless, "I saw ____,
or _______, and here I saw _______." Using this simple technique---simple, and for some people treacherously difficult to execute---
you give the receiver, the artist, the other person, a quick idea if whether the art is getting across what the artist meant for it to, at
least in a basic, in the ballpark sort of way.
Can't this simple injunction, which brings presence and awareness to both the giver and the receiver of the critique, can't
this simple injunction work in life, too? As we go about our day to day dealings with those close to us, can't a first step of an
serious conversation about behavior begin with a simple, "I'm hearing _______, ________, and _______ in what you are saying and doing."?
This doesn't seem to me to be too much to ask.
Then again, I come up with lots of dumb ideas.
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
That said, I must say I'm thrilled on a daily basis to be part of Integral Institute,
and the host for the Art Domain of Integral University. Me, and the people I am working directly with---Matt Rentschler (co-host),
Erik Fabian, Dana Tanner, and James Wagner---are four of the most creative, fun-loving, intelligent and bad-ass people I've ever
been around. We are working to grow the seeds we have planted to provide in no small measure a true integral, comprehensive, all-embracing,
intelligent, attractive, engaging and enlightening online learning community for the arts. If you are interested in working with us,
please let me know because there will be a place for everyone motivated and committed.
Also, check the soon-to-be released ISofART.org. Just a coming soon page right now, but
it will grow, and be a solid and engaging place for us to say, "We exist!"
I met with James John, choral director at Queens College, who is a good friend I worked with when I attended that school
last fall. He's interested in my Who Am I Chant and Motet choral work. I would really love to work with him. We will see.
My successful meeting with James was just another confirmation that leaving music school without a degree was the best career
move of my life. I DID learn quite a bit in school, very lucky for me. But as a (at the time) 28 yr-old, married, and with a
lot of composed music in my past, Queens College for me was a time to dive into relationships with good professors, mine
whatever knowledge resonated with me, then quick get out of there. Why? Because classical conservatories, at least QC,
definitely funnel the students in a certain academic direction. This direction, to use my own low-fi term, is towards the dead
end of difficult music. Music with which to pull your teeth out. 20th C stuff mathematical-bourne algorithms. I am
being a bit harsh, I imagine.
Monday, July 21, 2003
Lots of new happenings to report. Firstly, I uploaded two new works for you to listen to. Suite for the Familiar
and the Unknown and Spring Still Makes Spring. Please check them out and let me know what you think.
I also linked to my newly published essay, Constructing an Artistic IOS, for which I'm grateful to say that
Frank Visser published on his site. Writing and publishing this
essay was a large personal victory for me. It captures my basic perspective on comprehensive artistic practice, and provides a
clear understanding, I hope, for artists to use in their practice. I have had great feedback on this essay so far from members of the
Integral Salon of Art, and please let me know any feedback you may have.
Speaking of the IS of Art, I just participated in a tremendous weekend in Boulder. We had our second meeting, and it was
out and out and pure energy blast. Called the ITP Jubilee, we engaged a comprehensive and exciting set of experiences
geared to give us a first-hand perspective on the multi-form manner we might go about being creative humans. More and more I believe
that taking an integral approach to human endeavor provides more resonance, depth, understanding, and experience than any other
approach. I've been using Artistic IOS for a year now, and it's helped me be more creative and productive than I've ever been. Less
truly does mean more.
On a personal level, the weekend was just amazing. I debuted two new compositions, both compositions for guitar and spoken word. I collaborated
separately with Matt Rentschler and Marco Morelli, and each were very satisfying. They should be available in about three or four months, so
look for them.
I finished the prototype for my first album of compositions. Spiral Suite, and Other Works, 2001-2003. I have
some business to complete, including securing permissions from the three publishers who own the rights to the poetry I used for the
Suite for the Familiar and the Unknown. But I distributed the CD to Boulder friends and some of my family, and the response has been
overwhelming so far. Thanks to all for checking it out, and for those who haven't, it will be available soon. Check back!
I gave a presentation in Boulder on Artistic IOS that was well-received. It was cut short by other activities, but the integral terrain
covered was valuable. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to address the IS of Art from a position of small authority.
Finally, in addition to meeting Ken Wilber, in and of itself a dream, I was asked by him to host the creation of the Art Domain of the
Integral University. My buddy in integral crime, Matt Rentschler, was asked to be co-host, and we'll be working closely along with other members of the IU-Art creative team
to create a true learning community for integrally informed artists. This is a truly amazing opportunity so the onus is on us to create
something valuable and transformative for artists. The site will be part of the larger Integral University, which will house over 30 sites
that run the gamut of human experience, from law to business to health care to psychology to mysticism to urban planning and much more.
The best source for information regarding this behemoth creation can be found at the website of Integral Institute,
www.integralinstitute.org. The old name for IU is the Multiplex.
The world has changed, yet it's remarkably similar. I chop wood. I carry water. I have plenty of adventures and ordinary days
with Hannah. I'm lucky as hell to have my family and friends and my health. And just the ability to present simple music pictures
for others to experience as they come along this little sidepath. To everyone, and to you, thank you.
Wednesday, July 2, 2003
More good news on several fronts. On the music front, I had a great weekend up in the Twin Cities--which I think will
always be our home away from home, no matter where we live. Anyway, on Friday Hannah and I attended the wedding of
our good friends Matt MacPhail and
Amanda Stickler, and during the cocktail hour I sat in on guitar with the jazz combo. We performed "Footprints" and "Four", and it
was so nice to blow jazz again. First time in a while.
Then on Saturday, I met with Andy Carlson, voice, and Matt O'Neill, banjo, to record two separate projects. One was a bluegrass
tune I composed using poetry by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and it's called Spring Still Makes Spring. The other project was
to record Matt O'Neill, whose main gig is as a trained operatic tenor--and truly amazing at that--as he performed four of my recent
chant compositions. You can listen to the chants here.
On Sunday, I met with Adam Mass to make final preparations for the recording of the Spiral Suite. He sounded
great and eager to make a great recording. Crossing m'fingers!!
And a little bit of a dream came true recently. Both Ken Wilber and Philip Rubinov Jacobson have reviewed my soon-to-be-published
essay, Introducing Artistic IOS. Ken said it was "way cool" and Prof Phil said it was "brilliant". I sit here
melting and dying, and I don't really know what to do with myself now. How fortunate I am!
Monday, June 23, 2003
Aaron Moore, a close friend of mine, has agreed to create the cover art for the upcoming release of the Spiral Suite.
The dude has a wicked sense of color, humor, mood, and mystery...and that's not even a small slice of his vision and talent.
We are in prototype phase for the art, and I can say that I'm super excited about the possibililties we are working with.
And I am going to meet with Adam Maas in a week to go over final decisions about the performance and recording of the Suite.
I guess it is time to do the liner notes, eh? How exciting to have reached this phase. Looks like we will make our schedule for
completion and release of the Suite by the second week of July.
Tuesday, June 17, 2003
Had a major breakthrough with my understanding of Artistic ITP. Basically, that Artistic IOS is really what I've been
conceiving this whole time. From now on, my work is in Artistic IOS. A-IOS is a specialized application of the IOS template, and which
in the case of the artist, is situated in the UL quadrant of the four quadrant ITP framework. Aurobindo wrote that art, if intended to
be, is a spiritual endeavor. And even if it is not a spiritual practice, art-making still is not integral and comprehensive when it
comes to being a human being. It's one very resonant Stream of human living, yet there are bounds around art-making. The other Streams can
briefly be called "Body", "Mind", and "Heart." In this sense, art-making covers the same quadrant as "Soul." See my short
essaym on ITP in the Writings section. What a breakthrough, and this name change doesn't radically alter the writings I've been working
on about integral art approach. Thanks thanks thanks to Bob Richards, the pioneer of IOS, for our chats in February in Boulder!
Ken Wilber defines IOS thusly (scroll down quite a bit):
"IOS ... sweeps the system looking to see whether any endeavor that you are pursuing at least
touches bases with all the known quadrants (I, we, and it); all the known waves (such as preconventional, conventional,
postconventional); all the known streams (e.g., cognitive, interpersonal, emotional, spiritual, etc.);
states (e.g., gross-waking, subtle-dreaming, causal-formless); types (e.g., masculine and feminine, autonomy and relationship, agency and communion); and so on."
In my own experience of practicing an Artistic IOS, and talking about the subject with other artists, I think an effective way to introduce Artistic IOS to artists is to concentrate on the Quadrants and the Streams.
By doing so, you consciously cover, in a sense, the horizontal span of Artistic IOS. You find practices that cover all
the quadrants, and even all the Streams of artistic endeavor. I suggest the Streams are: Contemplative, Vital, Technical, Critical,
Public, and Ethical. Work consciously in each Stream, and you are practicing an Artistic IOS, because in concert they cover all
four quadrants.
This is distinct from your own depth of Artistic IOS development, over time. Wilber's waves, states, amd types--not only
are this more difficult to describe (and, I might add, somewhat controversial), but they develop and are cultivated, in some senses,
without the artist having to intellecualize each and every one of them. They evolve and transform as the artist consciously and with strong will
creates art-making energy in each Stream and quadrant.
Talking about depth is an important discussion, especially when successful artists relay
their personal experiences of their journey, for the rest of us to learn from. But we don't want to get prescriptive when it comes to creativity. At this point, I do
not see much value in developing a workable Artistic IOS framework that includes a lot of theory on IOS depth; talking about the waves, states, and types
can quickly become a headgame, and that's the last thing we want to happen as we introduce Artistic IOS.
Sunday, June 8, 2003
I have done lots of writing lately. I published the new essay, about two approaches to composition which I call the Mozart Approach
and the Haydn Approach. And my Artistic ITP essay, which I hope to publish on the
worldofkenwilber.com site, is coming along great. For
that essay, I'm hoping that I get some decent peer review, perhaps from some biggies in the integral field. Hannah has been
checking it out as I go, and it sounds like, well, it isn't crap. Which is nice, eh. I'm hoping it's a quality statement of how
to go about constructing your own Artistic ITP, and I'm hoping it's resonant with people so that I have the juice to take the vision
into a book-length manifestation.
Can I just say how amazing it is to read Sri Aurobindo!! I am reading his Integral Yoga book, and my jaw drops
on a regular basis. The man just has it throughout every sentence and thought. His perpective has been invaluable
for the Artistic ITP essay, as well as my own AITP. He stresses the importance of having a personal glimpse and realization
of the Divine, before one perhaps has the drive and fuel needed to commmit to a integral yoga, a variation of which is
ITP. Any multi-form yoga requires the person to surrender to it, to open to it, and to be disciplined in practice of it.
And you really can't say to someone, "you have to commit to this!" because it seems to me that the person already has to have
the committment, and if they do it because you say so, that's a kind of ego-worship that might fade over time. Instead, with
the glimpse of the Divine as a precursor, the person never has to been told of the deep commitment needed for Artistic ITP, because
they already have experienced the rewards of deep commitment, in order to have a realization of and connection with the
Divine.
So exciting to be collaborating with Matt Rentschler for a spoken
word & guitar duo for the
Is of Art Mini-Festival that's happening in Boulder this July. Matt manifested a beautifully present
and radiant poem, as yet untitled but I'm sizzling to know what he'll decide.
Also have been talking with Marco Morelli about a
spoken word & guitar work using one of his poems, and that would be amazing to see to fruition, and I think we will.
Matt and Marco are two very talented poets
who effortlessly are able to get the hell out of the way and let the Divine manifest through their poetry, and take your breath away. Plus, they are both
super cool cats.
Off to see the new Audrey Tautou (who played Amelie) flick, which is called, L'Auberge Espagnole. Hannah is particularly excited because
Ms. Tautou is one of her favorites (mine, too).
Wednesday, May 28, 2003
The performance of Suite for the Familier and the Unknown was a success. The ceremony in general was beautiful
and very moving. Christa and Anna wrote their own vows, which to me is always a fuller experience and more personal public statement.
The two readers I worked with, Stacy DeRuiter and Carrie Henning, were great collaborators. They were easy to take direction but didn't really
need any. I received many warm compliments on the work, and most importantly Christa and Anna were very happy. As my first commissioned work,
I don't think I could have entered the domain of the professional composer any better. I composed a work for good friends, with their input
and encouragement; the venue--Our Savior Lutheran Church, in Minneapolis--was acoustically sparkling; and because it was a special occassion,
everyone was open, present, and functioning on all levels with all cylinders, which is a tremendous vibe to perform within.
I made a connection with the piano player who performed during the ceremony. Turns out she is also a choral director at a Minneapolis
high school, and she agreed to examine the score of my Who Am I Chant & Motet. With some good fortune, I may have an opportunity
to bring this piece into the public domain in the not too distant future.
Thursday, May 22, 2003
Life's been picking up. I finished a new composition. It's called "Suite for the Familier and the Unknown, for guitar and spoken
word." I composed it specifically for performance at a committment ceremony for two good friends who live in Minneapolis. They
provided the text because the piece functions as the Reading. It is made up of excerpts from works by e.e. cummings, Nikki Giovanni, Alice Walker
and the Book of Matthew from the New Testament. I will record a version and upload it to the site in the future. First, I'll see how
it plays in front of the wedding guests. Always an exciting time.
I've had a couple of job interviews in the Windy City, which is promising. Nothing stable yet, but my card will be dealt at some point
soon and I'll trump the house.
I've restarted my personal Artistic ITP music log. It is simple, yet increases my awareness of what I'm doing for music and my life. I had to
put it down for the last couple months because life was too destabilized. But now that I have a place to hang my Mexican hat, I can
get back to a routine of my own choosing, and it's pretty exciting. For me, the log is an essential component to my Artistic ITP. Without it,
everything tends to become this big headgame, where I struggle to remember what I have to do in order to be acting AQAL (all quadrant, all lines).
I think my next posted essay with explain this log a bit more precisely. It's yet another invaluable piece of advice from
composer W.A. Mathieu, who is one of my musical heroes.
Thursday, May 15, 2003
I added the rough draft version of my Spiral Suite for Alto Saxophone in G Major to my Serious section.
Here's the story with it. Adam Maass is a friend I met in the Twin Cities and I sat in with his group, the Big Deal Trio, on several occassions. He has a degree in classical saxophone performance from the University of St. Thomas. We first worked together to record Blued Out for Jazz Quartet so I could submit it to composition competitions.
His intuitive ability to seamlessly jump between the classical world and the jazz world--and honor the depth in each--immediately caught my attention. After I heard his Spring 2002 Senior Recital, I instantly wanted to write a solo piece of music just for him.
I began the process, and he agreed early on to perform it. As life went, however, Hannah and I moved to Brooklyn in the fall of 2002, and I had only about half of the Suite completed. Music school intervened in my composition routine, so I wasn't able to finish the Suite until half a year later, in January, 2003.
So I sent the Suite to Adam and asked if he could record at least an initial version so I could take it to the IS of Art meeting in Boulder, which was scheduled for late February. Adam was on tour playing piano, but thought he'd somehow have enough time.
Problem was that shortly after he agreed, the sax was crushed while still on tour in a freak accident by a road-mate. He was rather, ehem, disconcerted by this sitation, but amazingly said he'd still have a recording for me as agreed. Maybe because it's true, and maybe to make me feel better, he tells me that in lieu of a sax, he's learned to whistle the entire piece note for note. I'm still not sure I believe this. But it did make me feel better.
So the week that I really need the recording comes around, and Adam's tour ends. It's Monday and we leave for Boulder on Friday. He gets off the plane at 7 pm Monday night. He drives to an instrument shoppe to pick up a loaner alto sax. Mind you--he hasn't played saxophone in over a month. Not a note. After securing the sax, he drives to a friend's house south of Minneapolis and arrives around 10 pm. Red eyed and exhausted, he assembles the sax, gets out the score, and his friend hits record. At times, he said, his eyes hurt so much he couldn't see the score and did it from memory. It's a fight, it's a climb. Bam! eighteen minutes later, he stops. One take. The studio was the bedroom of the friend's son, and it was time, his wife rather urged, for his bedtime.
They transfer it to CD, send it overnight to me in Milwaukee, and I take it to Boulder where the artists I play it for seem to like it very much.
There are squeeks and pops galore, but in one way it embodies a very pure thing. Literally, it's a record of an event. "Adam plays the Spiral Suite." I couldn't be happier.
Thank you Adam.
Tuesday, May 13, 2003
Added my first essay tonight. It's about Artistic ITP and meant to be absurdly concise. Longer
essays will come because of the convergence of several endeavors: the Boulder IS of Art group, the presentation I hope to give to them in July, and the book and essays I plan to submit for online and print publication. I truly believe AITP can be useful to many artists, not just those who have read Ken Wilber and sweat his aqal technique.
I've been using my own AITP for music composition and guitar performance for the last 10 months, though for my practice has been scatter-shot for the last three because Hannah and I have been settling our, ehem, core existential concerns. In my experience, one cannot learn to be a Circus Clown when one is stuck on a Merry-Go-Round Ride from Hell. That's exactly what the last three months have been, up until we received a call from Columbia College in Chicago that told Hannah she was one of 12 applicants accepted to the Film & Video MFA program. If we didn't get that call, not only would we still be in Milwaukee but we'd still be amok in analysis paralysis of the worst kind.
But yes, Artistic ITP simply aims to organize the different perspectives of making art into a coherant and practical framework. We don't want to give undo priviledge to any one perspective because each is beautiful and important but ultimately limited and partial. For example, the study of Western classical harmony and counterpoint is a subject one could spend 9 lifetimes on and still not entirely exhaust. It's infinite, though the limits of its cultivation are easily apparent.
Why? Because for one, the study of Western theory will in and of itself tell you absolutely nothing about how to deal in the art business world in order to develop a performance career. Each subject--music theory and art business--is vast and infinite, yet the bounds of each can be reached using not high-falutan jargon but open-minded common sense. Each is a different realm of art-making. Each is a different line of development. Mastery along one does not mean mastery on others.
We want to cultiviate all lines (I call them "centers-of-gravity") because our art-making is not as whole if we don't. And anyone who will tell you that art business skills are not as important as music theory to the making of art is undercutting the very existence of each work in the Western canon that contributed to the creation of music theory. Most every work was first performed for captive audiences in its own time. Not only performed, but often cherished and well-loved.
So what we aim to do with Artistic ITP is first name the various centers of gravity (or dimensions, or lines, or realms) of art-making. Then with that information in hand, we find activities that cultivate, hone, and exercise each dimension. Put another way, first we understand the different areas of art-making that in concert form a complete and integral approach, then we aim to master each area. We may already be covering them all with current art-making practices. But consciousness of how they work in communion with one another will allow for growth and evolution of our art-making as we grow and evolve as people who live lives. And we can cut and paste new practices over old as needed while still energizing all the centers-of-gravity.
If this sounds simple, frankly it is meant to be. The trick is to include enough areas at the outset so that we cover all the potential energy that we can without leaving anything out. To really touch and cultivate all the areas (the span of which I will cover in due time) we have to ditch our egos at the door and accept the fact that even if we are long-time artists, there are activities that we may have to suck at like naive newbies before we can take that next step with our art.
For example, if you haven't been energizing your contemplative dimension all this time you have been starving-artist painting, then you may want to start kickin' it contemplative. One way is to keep an art diary ala a pre-teen pre-puberty zitty kid in order to secretly journal all your silly ego-centric ambitions and huge big goals of your radical never-before-seen art. This may grow into a regular notebook of your artistic thoughts and ideas as they pass by and grow. Or later even a journal of your Artistic ITP so it is not a forgetful headgame. This is all to say there's depth to each center-of-gravity, the nature of which is entirely dependent on the temperament and desires of the artist. Not easily talked about because of the individuality involved. But what we can easily talk about is the horizontal span of Artistic ITP. So we begin to do so now.
Hey you@yo.com: if checking your ego isn't a problem, then Hey! stop back around these parts for more info.
Or better yet, email me cuz I luv to chat. Or stop by our apartment in Chicago and be sure to bring good ice cream.
Tuesday, May 6, 2003
The move has happened. Our neighborhood in Rogers Park is nice and ohmygod we are close to the Lake. I have to hunker down and complete the
many projects I have going right now. A bit tricky to do when your home looks like a tidal wave just came through, but
thems the breaks, eh.
No trouble hooking up the cable modem, although the cable guy had to careen and leap over boxes to find the jack.
But ahhh, the dignity of internet technology.
Tuesday April 29, 2003
Met with Erik Fabian and Marco Morelli today for a small-scale IS of Art pow-wow. We had breakfast at a Andersonville neighborhood restaurant in Chicago where we sat, literally, in Indian-style on cushions around a foot-tall table. I ordered a very non-cushion style meal of a bagel schmear and coffee.
Amongst the ideas the three of us came up with is my suggestion to start the Journal of Integral Art. It would be a trade magazine of sorts that would regularly publish. Contained in each issue would be some mix of essays, art, poetry, and perhaps a calender of IS-member performances. I view it as a collection of thought and energy that centers around integral art, though not necessarily confined to it. There's a great jazz-poetry journal called "Brilliant Corners" that would be a model for the JIA. I'm shooting for the first issue by July.
My "Who Am I Chant & Motet" is finished and sent off to James John, choral director for Queens College, for examination. And the search for singers begins in earnest.
Monday April 21, 2003
Hannah and I are moving to Chicago in less than two weeks. We will be living in the Rogers Park area of north Chicago. Two blocks from Lake Michigan. Yes!
It's difficult to contemplate deep concepts when one faces basic survival concerns, so I won't pretend to right now. If you know the Memes of Spiral Dynamics, then we are digging it Beige and will be for the near future. From what we hear from Sophia, our landlord, the Purpleness of our apartment building--filled with artists--resonates strongly. Here's hoping our building resemebles the movie Amelie with the old painter a floor down whom we can watch at work through our kitchen window, his hands wrapped in protective bandages because he can't hold anything heavy or else he breaks bones.
I am putting finishing touches on my new choral work. It's called Who Am I Chant & Motet. It's for three voices: soprano, tenor, and bass. The text is an adaptation of a Ken Wilber prayer from his book, No Boundary, as well as inspired by Ramana Maharshi, with my own original contribution, as well:
I have a body, but I am not my body.
I have desires, but I am not my desires.
I have emotions, but I am not my emotions.
I have thoughts, but I am not my thoughts.
So who am I?
It's in the same ballpark as my first vocal work: You're Sleeping Motet. That was pretty much my effort to create a coherant piece using the skills I learned in studying 16th C European counterpoint for 2 years. The main example is the Italian composer, Palestrina. Check out his "Song of Songs" motets--they are beautiful.
With this new work, I aimed to create a more modern sounding polyphonic setting. Now to the task of finding singers.
And lots of work to do for the music for Christa and Anna's wedding, my Spiral Suite, and this website.