Ode to Freedom, A poem by Friedrich Schiller, The Symphony No. 9 (final movement) by Ludwig van Beethoven Schiller’s words are fused with Beethoven’s music is a message of striking universality which transcends the boundaries of time and culture. “I know no more certain and higher fortune in the world today that the complete enjoyment of our friendship, the wholly indivisible consolidation of our being, our joys and sufferings.” Schiller wrote to a life-long friend. For Schiller, this euphoria, this insatiable drive for friendship is a saving grace for the species. It is essential if humankind is to overcome its darker moments, including the perilous path that leads to cynicism and nihilism. Beethoven finally found exactly the right line of music to express the developmental possibilities of Schiller's concept of human brotherhood under a benevolent Creator. By using simple material and weaving it into higher and higher orders of complexity spanning the entire universe of human thought and feeling, Beethoven unfolded the message of human redemption which is implicit throughout Schiller's Ode to Joy, and carries us, together with the cherub at the climax of the finale, until we “stand before God.”
Ode to Freedom, A poem by Friedrich Schiller
The greatest liberation that needs to happen for a human being is to be liberated from one’s ignorance, one’s limitations and one’s compulsive nature. This implies to move into knowledge, to move into enlightenment, to move into knowing, and above all to move from compulsiveness to consciousness. It is equanimity that gives access to everything that is possible within a human being and outside a human being. If you look at Nature that is functioning around us; it is not fired by passion, not by greed, not by anger. Nature is simply on at its fullest capability all the time. Every life upon this planet from a worm to an insect to a plant to a tree and everything else, do their life at the fullest. They’re all doing 100% life because there is certain equanimity in Nature.
The four Brahma Viharas, Mudita
Franz Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra
"The gods were everywhere and mingled in all the events of daily life. The fire which cooked the means of nourishment for the believers and which warmed them; the water which quenched their thirst and cleansed them; also the air which they breathed, and the day which shone for them, were the objects of their homage. Perhaps no religion has given to its adherents in so large a degree as Mithracism opportunity for prayer and motive for devotion. When the initiated betook himself in the evening to the sacred grotto concealed in the solitude of the forest, at every step new sensations awakened in his heart some mystical emotion. The stars that shone in the sky, the wind that whispered in the foliage, the spring or brook which hastened murmuring to the valley, even the earth which he trod under his feet, were in his eyes divine; and all surrounding nature a worshipful fear of the infinite forces that swayed the universe." Franz Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra
Speech is originally a system of emotional and imitative sounds " sounds which express terror, fear, anger, love; and sounds which imitate the noises of the elements, the rushing and gurgling of water, the rolling of thunder, the tumults of the winds, the tones of the animal world, and so on; and, finally, those which represent a combination of the sounds of perception and of affective reaction. Likewise in the more or less modern languages, large quantities of onomatopoetic relics are retained; for example, sounds for the movement of water, "...Wasser, wissen, wissern, pissen, piscis, fisch. Thus language is originally and essentially nothing but a system of signs or symbols, which denote real occurrences, or their echo in the human soul. Psychology of the Unconscious, C. G. JUNG
Psychology of the Unconscious, C. G. JUNG
You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with. -Wayne W. Dyer
...go outside, somewhere where you can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As longs as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles. -Anne Frank
Bygone poetry has little or no attraction for modern readers. And yet these forgotten works of the imagination are full of hidden treasures! There is not one of Byron's "impressionist studies" of striking episodes of history or historical legend, flung, as it were,..., which does not transform names and shadows into persons and substance, which does not contain lines and passages of unquestionable beauty and distinction. The reader who comes within speaking distance of his author can hear him, and to bring the living within speaking distance of the dead, the living must know the facts, and understand the ideas which informed and inspired the dead. Thought and attention are scarcely to be reckoned among necromantic arts, but thought and knowledge "can make these bones live," and stand upon their feet, if they do not leap and sing. Ernest Hartley Coleridge
Peace! I have sought it where it should be found, In love—with love, too, which perhaps deserved it; And, in its stead, a heaviness of heart, A weakness of the spirit, listless days, And nights inexorable to sweet sleep Have come upon me. Peace! what peace? the calm60 Of desolation, and the stillness of The untrodden forest, only broken by The sweeping tempest through its groaning boughs; Such is the sullen or the fitful state Of my mind overworn... A dramatic monologue from the play by Lord Byron, Heaven and Earth
But which is best, a dead eternity, Or living, is but known to the great Giver. A dramatic monologue from the play by Lord Byron, Heaven and Earth
Lila by Marilynne Robinson
Marilynne Robinson’s new novel “Lila” shed light on complexities—the solitude that endures inside intimacy, the sorrow that persists beside joy.. Lila, an outsider, steps inside a small-town Iowa church—the only available shelter from the rain—and ignites a debate that will reshape her life. She becomes the wife of a minister, John Ames, and begins a new existence while trying to make sense of the life that preceded her new-found security. Largely uneducated, almost feral, Lila has a thirst for stability and knowledge. As she yearns to forget the terrible memories and shame of her past, Lila is hesitant to reveal them to her loving new husband. Lila is a gift, not only for her companionship but as a window into another dimension of human life and spirituality, search for the meaning of existence. She is bright and curious, and her perspective is riveting if bleak. Indeed, her intellect causes her intense pain, hungering as she does for understanding about life on earth and her place in it - as don't we all. “Somebody who had read ‘Lila’ asked me, ‘Why do you write about the problem of loneliness?’ I said: ‘It’s not a problem. It’s a condition. It’s a passion of a kind. It’s not a problem. I think that people make it a problem by interpreting it that way.”Marilynne Robinson
Pavel Kolesnikov's piano solo recital
Pablo de Sarasate, Zigeunerweisen Op.20 (Gypsy Airs)
“the strongest man upon the earth is he who stands most alone.”
Henrik Ibsen offers a way to define an inner strength when he says, “the strongest man upon the earth is he who stands most alone.” If I'm ever to reach any understanding of myself and the things around me, I must learn to stand alone. One of the qualities of liberty is that, as long as it is being striven after, it goes on expanding. It is not for a care-free existence I am fighting, but for the possibility of devoting myself to the task which I believe and know has been laid upon me ... that of arousing the nation and leading it to think great thoughts. The worst that a man can do to himself is to do injustice to others. Henrik Ibsen
Mean World Syndrome, The Media Violence & the Cultivation of Fear Examining how heavy exposure to media violence normalizes violence, numbing some people to real-world violence even as it whets the appetite in others for ever-higher doses. Individuals who watch television infrequently and adolescents who talk to their parents about reality are said to have a more accurate view of the real world than those who do not, and they are able to more accurately assess their vulnerability to violence and tend to have a wider variety of beliefs and attitudes.
"When people take precautions based on fear that restrict their life and their children’s lives, we restrict our freedom and we do so unnecessarily. Fear also undermines the civility and trust in our communities that make civic life possible, and that’s a terrible consequence for a democratic society.” Mark Warr
Mean World Syndrome, The Media Violence & the Cultivation of Fear
Henrik Ibsen - An Enemy of the People
I maintain that it is absolutely inexcusable in the "People's Messenger" to proclaim, day in and day out, the false doctrine that it is the masses, the crowd, the compact majority, that have the monopoly of broad- mindedness and morality- and that vice and corruption and every kind of intellectual depravity are the result of culture...And yet this same "People's Messenger" can go on preaching that the masses ought to be elevated to higher conditions of life! But, bless my soul, if the "Messenger's" teaching is to be depended upon, this very raising up the masses would mean nothing more or less than setting them straightway upon the paths of depravity! No, it is ignorance, poverty, ugly conditions of life, that do the devil's work! In a house which does not get aired and swept every day...in such a house, let me tell you, people will lose within two or three years the power of thinking or acting in a moral manner. Lack of oxygen weakens the conscience. And there must be a plentiful lack of oxygen in very many houses in this town, I should think, judging from the fact that the whole compact majority can be unconsciousness enough to wish to build the town's prosperity on a quagmire of falsehood and deceit... Besides, what I want is so simple, so clear and straightforward... I don't see any man free and brave enough to dare the Truth... The strongest man is he who stands most alone. Henrik Ibsen - An Enemy of the People (a play about the travesty of the truth and the triumph of political and financial expediency and self-interest) Henrik Ibsen dramatic art, without his rebellion against every authoritative institution, against every social and moral lie, against every vestige of bondage, were inconceivable. Just as his art would lose human significance, were his love of truth and freedom lacking.
Robert W. Service -The Song of the Pacifist What do they matter, our headlong hates, when we take the toll of our Dead? Think ye our glory and gain will pay for the torrent of blood we have shed? By the cheers of our Victory will the heart of the mother be comforted? ...
When our children's children shall talk of War as a madness that may not be; When we thank our God for our grief to-day, and blazon from sea to sea In the name of the Dead the banner of Peace . . . THAT WILL BE VICTORY.
the words of joy and peace are hollow and ineffective when, as Leonard Bernstein described the reality of our lives, "we have not yet found ways, short of murder, to act out our suppressed rages, hostilities, xenophobias, provincialisms, mistrust and need for superiority. We still need some kind of lower class as slaves, prisoners, enemies, scapegoats." ... The "crooked timber of humanity" cannot be made straight right here and now. But Bernstein believed, Beethoven represented: "Perhaps there was in Beethoven the man, a child inside that never grew up, that to the end of his life remained a creature of grace, innocence and trust, even in his moments of greatest despair. And that innocent spirit speaks to us of hope and future and immortality. And it's for that reason that we love his music now, more than ever before. In this time of world agony, we love his music and we need it. As despairing as we may be, we cannot listen to this Ninth Symphony without emerging from it changed, enriched, encouraged. And to the man who could give to the world so precious a gift as this, no honor could be too great, and no celebration joyful enough. It's almost like celebrating the birthday of music itself.
The Symphony No. 9 (final movement) by Ludwig van Beethoven
Ain't Gonna Study War No More
“Learn to love solitude, to be more alone with yourselves. The problem with young people is that they try to come together around events that are noisy, almost aggressive at times, not to feel lonely. And this is a sad thing." Andrei Tarkovsky
Julia Franck - The Blind Side of the Heart
Julia Franck - The Blind Side of the Heart & Back to Back (Motherhood In Between) Mother’ is a construct, a concept like God – and as we read about a mother our understanding is shaped by our inner image, which is both culturally embossed and based on our personal experience, views and expectations of a mother. We idealise mothers as containers of warmth, providers of benevolence, understanding and emotional care. How is it possible for a woman to give up a child and say nothing? There is no black-and-white morality or easy outcomes; there are simply all kinds of loss – loss of one’s sanity, loss of innocence, loss of love, loss of the natural order of things, loss of hope. The more the characters lose, the more they must abandon. In many ways, we know they are already as good as gone. It takes courage to confront the demons in ones past. Franck – like modern Germany itself – is subjecting herself to a kind of intense self-psychoanalysis. This humane and moving process is based on the Freudian idea that the repressed (or at least unspoken) will fester like a canker unless it is brought to the light. The insistence on memory – on facing the past - the conviction that for the psychic health of both an individual and a society the past – with all its sins, pain and ‘wrong decisions’ - must be unearthed and confessed as a condition of healing.
"The first moment I see a movie, I don’t think melodies, I think colors,... What texture does this movie need? It’s about moving you, about making your emotions tremble. If I can achieve that, then I have succeeded.” Alexandre Desplat
"I remember the first time I saw the cue where Griet opens the shutters. He was really describing what the light was doing, articulating that in a musical sphere." Peter Webber
“Alexandre was tacitly able to tune into the pictures, He managed to transform the film’s undertones into music." Jonathan Glazer, “Birth,” film’s director
Girl with a pearl earring soundtrack by Alexandre Desplat
To the invisible. To the ether. I, Lev Sergeyvich Termen, mouthpiece of the universe."
Congradulation Sean Michaels recipient of 2014 the Scotiabank Giller Prize for his debut novel Us Conductors. "making music to sing from the pages of a novel"
The novel, loosely based on the facts of the Dr. Lev Termen’s life, is conceived as a letter to the love of his life, Clara. Terman is a scientist, musician, and the inventor of the theremin. As Termen constructs a narrative of his life around his longing for Clara, the novel explores the subjectivity of memory and the way the past sings to us from across the years. Stripped of nearly everything that makes him recognizable to himself, Termen internalizes his memories of the past and creates a narrative of his life as a means of hanging on to it. "Not that the theremin emulated my voice, but that with it I gave voice to something. To the invisible. To the ether. I, Lev Sergeyvich Termen, mouthpiece of the universe.
Franz Liszt - Piano Concerto No.1
François Adrien Boieldieu Concerto for Harp and Orchestra
Dard Se Mera Daaman Bharde Ya Allah - Lata Mangeshkar Fill my lap with pain, and make me insane if you desire....I never asked you for moon or stars, But give me a heart that is enlightened and eyes that are lit.....We have all seen the sun, But show us now a dawn that is for real...Take away the pains of this earth, Or make my heart into a stone.
Vimy Ridge memorial stands as a visual representation of a nation mourning the loss of thousands of her sons. The central figure is of a woman, representing Canada, the look of anguish on her face almost too much to bear.
Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia merges science with human concerns and ideals, examining the universe’s influence in our everyday lives and ultimate fates through relationship between past and present, order and disorder and the certainty of knowledge. Arcadia is a commentary on the progression of knowledge or quest for knowledge in modern times. The quest of all of the scholars thus forms a sort of loop; what is undervalued in one generation is greatly revered in the next. The state of inquiry revolves and evolves from an interest in the future to that of the past.
And, like Septimus's apt description of humanity's quest for knowledge, the modern day continues to pick up what has been lost in the past, while simultaneously finding new ideas and formulas.
