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Dear Pliable, Lovely album cover. Above is another from Westminster that really takes the biscuit! An all-time favourite of mine. Never heard the recording.
Michael Richards, Sydney
Thanks Michael, knowing the wonderful piece you contributed about Stravinsky's Tibetan connection I thought it was an LP of music by George Crumb. Read here how Crumb was an influences on another vastly underrated contemporary composer.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
'How many people are aware the modern torch relay was introduced by Carl Diem, president of the organisation committee for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, as part of an effort to turn the games into a glorification of the Third Reich. "Sporting chivalrous contest helps knit the bonds of peace between nations. Therefore may the Olympic flame never expire," - Adolf Hitler' - writes Patricia van den Brink from Herne, Germany in today's Guardian.
And how many people are aware that Hitler's court composer was a Harvard alumni?
Photo of demonstration in London on April 6, 2008 from Students for a Free Tibet UK. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
While in the Guardian author Charles Cumming makes an important point about China's Turkic-Muslim minority - The British media's obsession with Buddhist Tibet says a great deal about western attitudes to Xinjiang and to its predominantly Turkic-Muslim population. It may be that people remain ignorant of Xinjiang because it has no Dalai Lama, no Richard Gere, to bring its cause to the world's attention. If it did, then we would know more about the barbaric treatment meted out to Uighurs on a day-to-day basis.
So paranoid is the Chinese government about the threat of a separatist movement in Xinjiang that it will incarcerate innocent civilians on the flimsiest pretexts. Uighurs have been jailed for reading newspapers sympathetic to the cause of independence. Others have been detained merely for listening to Radio Free Asia, an English-language station funded by the US Congress. Even to discuss separatism in public is to risk a lengthy jail sentence, with no prospect of habeas corpus, effective legal representation or a fair trial. About 100 Uighurs were arrested in Khotan recently after several hundred demonstrated in the marketplace of the town, which lies on the Silk Road.
And what happens to these innocent Uighur men and women once they land up in one of Xinjiang's notorious "black prisons"? Amnesty International has reported numerous incidents of torture, from cigarette burns on the skin to submersion in water or raw sewage. Prisoners have had toenails extracted by pliers, been attacked by dogs and burned with electric batons, even cattle prods.
Listen to samples of the music of the Turkic-Muslim people, not of China but of Azerbaijan here, and more art of protest here.
Image credit Free Tibet Campaign. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
BBC News reports today - A prominent activist who publicised human rights abuses across China has been convicted of subversion and jailed for three-and-a-half years. Hu Jia, 34, was convicted of "inciting subversion of state power and the socialist system", his lawyer said. He has long campaigned for the environment, religious freedom and for the rights of people with HIV and Aids.
In 1997 Adrian Abbotts wrote - Over thirty million people are estimated to have disappeared through China's gulags since 1949. Fox Butterfield's all too valid critique that when a dissident was sent to a prison camp in the Soviet Union it was headline news, but when it happened in China no-one cared came instantly to mind. The former Soviet Union was for years subjected by the West to the propganda attacks of the Cold War while China, though worse in many ways than the USSR, remained a curiosity shop on the edge of the universe.
It is changing a little now, but names such as Wei Jingsheng amd Phuntsok Nyidron (A Tibetan nun serving nine years for demonstrating, whose sentence was increased by a further eight years in 1994 for singing a song of independence while in jail - she is on the right in the photo below) do not yet trip so easily from the tongue as Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn, and China remains a blind spot in the eyes of the West, visible only when it comes to trade.
Chinese troops can kill hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators in Lhasa or the centre of their own capital, live on television with running commentary, yet 'favoured nation' trading status is not withdrawn by the United States, and British towns twin happily with Chinese cities in a way that would have been unthinkable with the Soviet Union or South Africa a decade earlier. This is all apart from the evidence linking Western companies with the export of precision-made torture instruments to China, none of which have been prosecuted.
It is curious to think that the adults involved in such decisions, presidents and prime ministers included, who are themselves instrumental in perpetuating the worst excesses of totalitarianism this planet has yet produced, would be horrified should their child return from school having been told that the Holocaust was a good thing.
Will we find the Chinese Shostakovich here?
Second quotation from Naked Spirits, A Journey into Occupied Tibet by Adrian Abbotts; out of print, but well worth searching out. Photo credits: Hu Jia European Parliament, Phuntsok Nyidron with fellow dissident Ngawang Sangdrol from Tibet Chine Actualité. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
'There is no continuous, unchanging identity at the heart of the universe. Both we and all compounded things are like onions, centreless, devoid of any ultimate being. Behind the transient pleasures and inevitable sufferings of old age, sickness and death, lies nothing but constantly changing appearances. There is no rock of God on which the world rests, no eternal soul that resides within the flesh. All things are unsatisfactory, marked by impermanence and empty of inherent existence. We are such stuff as dreams are made on - literally...
There are those who may consider this depressing... The correct view, according to Nagarjuna's famous 'four-cornered argument', is that "Things do not exist, nor not-exist, nor both exist and not-exist, nor do they neither exist nor not exist"' ~ exploring Buddhism in Naked Spirits, A Journey into Occupied Tibet by Adrian Abbotts; out of print, but well worth searching out.
Photo of monks venerating Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) in Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, Tibet from Naked Spirits by Adrian Abbotts. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
There are times when an artist must put their art aside in order to do something positive in life, something modest that may not earn them a place in history, but which is the expression of a moral imperative or simply a love for people - Václav Havel
More new music from Iceland here.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
My post identifying music blogs blocked by the Chinese government has caused justified indignation over on Renewable Music, Soho the Dog and elsewhere. But here is how you breach the great firewall of China. Make sure New Music Reblog mirrors your site, because that's not blocked.
Martin Scorsese's 1997 film Kundun, with its Philip Glass score, was a brave and pioneering anti-Chinese government statement. Remember you read it here first.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
'Meaningful dialogues between religions is no doubt one of the most pressing challenges of the modern world. Developments over the past few years clearly confirm what a significant role this aspect of human communication represents. Despite breathtaking technological breakthroughs and the related trend of rational scepticism, man still remains a religous creature. Ignoring this sphere of human personality not only leads to an impoverishment of the spiritual culture of a nation, but also to mutual estrangement of nations. And so what a wonderfully enriching experience it is when two cultures meet in mutual dialogue rather than confrontation.'
These words introduce the inspiring new CD Close Voices from Far-away released by Sony in the Czech Republic. The mutual dialogue is provided by the Buddhist monks of Gyosan-ryu Tendai Shomyo from Japan and the Schola Gregoriana Pragensis from Prague, who are seen together in my footer image. The CD was recorded in a former Augustian monastery in České Lípě in November 2006, and was the brainchild of the Schola's founder David Eben.
Close Voices from Far-away is both a moving musical experience and a remarkable work of scholarship. Sources and editions are listed, and the comprehensive documentation includes short essays on the Shomyo Chants, the Buddhist Liturgy, the Tendai school of chant (Gyosan-ry Tendai Shomyo) as well as Gregorian Chant.
Hearing the two vocal groups individually is a privilege. But hearing the two ensembles singing together and layering Buddhist and Greorian Chant on two of the tracks takes us into a unique sound-world that is more contemporary than medieval. Read a fuller appreciation of this remarkable release here. Close Voices from Far-away is not easily found outside the Czech Republic. I bought my copy online from cdMusic.cz who provided a very fast and problem free service. Here is a link to the CD on their site.
I will be playing music from Close Voices from Far-away on my Future Radio programme this Sunday December 2 at 5.00pm UK time. The Buddhist and Gregorian Chants will be interleaved with music from Philip Glass' score for Kundun. This film by Martin Scorsese depicts the exile of the 14th Dalai Lama from Tibet. Both Close Voices from Far-away and Kundun are vivid reminders of the Buddhist culture that is under continued threat from the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
Now follow the Buddhist way with Lou Harrison. And remember that at 12.01am UK time Wednesday December 5 Future Radio is giving the world broadcast premiere of Alvin Curran's complete Inner Cities, with an introduction from pianist Daan Vandewalle. Full details of this webcast here.
Listen by launching the Radeo internet player from the right side-bar, or via the audio stream. Convert broadcast times to your local time zone using this link. Windows Media Player doesn't like the audio stream very much and takes ages to buffer. WinAmp or iTunes handle it best. Unfortunately the royalty license doesn't permit on-demand replay, so you have to listen in real time. If you are in the Norwich, UK area tune to 96.9FM. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
My photo shows a Buddhist monk creating a sand mandala at the recent Free Tibet event which we attended in Malaucène, France (poster below). Buddhist monks and nuns have fought for human rights in Tibet since the Chinese invasion in 1950, and today are demonstrating against the military junta in Burma. Our thoughts are with them, here is a playlist for this disturbing time:
* Le Boudha de la Compassion from La Montagne de la Grande Pureté played by Alain Kremski on sacred percussion instruments collected from Tibet, Burma, Nepal, India and China. Composer Alain Kremski (below) studied with Darius Milhaud and has been influenced by Igor Stravinsky, Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen. 
Kremski is best known for his percussion works, but is also a noted pianist who has transcribed the Adagietto from Mahler's Fifth Symphony for piano, has recorded the piano music of G.I. Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann, and orchestrated Gurdjieff's sacred dances for Peter Brook's 1979 film, Meetings with Remarkable Men. La Montagne de la Grande Pureté is typical of Kremski's eclectic style, 65 minutes of Eastern influenced percussion compositions are followed by a Siloti transcription for piano of a Bach prelude. Do check out Alain Kremski's website. CDs can be bought direct from it, but La Montagne de la Grande Pureté sadly isn't among them.
* The Great Mandala from Songs of Conscience & Concern by Peter, Paul and Mary. One of the great protest songs. The album title says it all, and a contribution from sales of the CD goes to The Centre for Constitutional Rights. Click here for the lyrics, and read the chorus in the context of today's events in Burma.
* Koan: Having Never Written A Note For Percussion by James Tenney played by Matthias Kaul. Several excellent CDs of contemporary music by James Tenney and others including Morton Feldman and John Cage have been released on the Swiss Hat (now) Art label. The CDs were selling for budget price in France and are highly recommended. I will be playing music by James Tenney on a future Overgrown Path radio programme.
Now go Buddhist with Lou Harrison.
Header photo copyright On An Overgrown Path 2007. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Dear Pliable, I must agree with Sir John's comments on Stravinksi's innate spirituality, despite the superficial appearance of coldness in his music. But this note is more prompted by one of those coincidences that often happen in life. My brush with the famous of 20th Century music, if you like.
I grew up in the 50's with three recordings of The Rite of Spring: Stravinsky's own recording on 78's (not very good, I'm afraid and not in the league of his later stereo version for CBS), Fantasia (of course, and always hated the cuts and other liberties), and a mono Decca by Ansermet (my very favourite which I wore out with repeated playings).
Well, fast forward to circa 1980 in India when I was living in Dharamsala, India, working on a mammoth Tibetan translation. (BTW, the 3rd edition has just been printed!) It turned out that both Ansermet's widow and daughter had been ordained Buddhist nuns and were living there. I only talked to the daughter once, over lunch in a Tibetan restaurant in McLeod Ganj. We got to talking about the old days in Paris and the Ballet Russe, Dhiagalev and all that. And that The Rite had been composed in the Ansermet family home. But the thing that really struck me was the following. (Note: we all called her "madame", though that was, I guess, technically incorrect.)
Me: Madame, but why did you come to Dharamsala of all places?
Madame: Because of Roerich, my dear!
Nicholas Roerich (picture below), of course, co-wrote the scenario of The Rite with Stranvinski and also designed the sets and costumes. 
He is well known in Tibetan studies for translations and dictionary -- all now deprecated by modern scholarship. But he died at Tsho Pema (The Lotus Lake) near Kulu-Menali. This is close enough to Dharamsala, though I've never been there myself. It's a strange spot, where there are three strange islands on the lake. The two smaller islands circumambulate around the largest island, the place where Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava was burned at the stake by some local king or other in the 9th C.
I know nothing of what Stravinski thought of Roerich's later adventures. But for me, there is now a very strong (post) connection between Tibet and The Rite.
Michael Richards, Sydney.
P.S. Thank you so much for your writings. Very much appreciated, I can tell you.
Now for another 20th century composer with Tibetan connections read The wheel would scar the earth, and for more on the mountain kingdom see Freedom to Tibet's serfs and slaves, Tibetan Monk up for Grammy, and Bloggers for Tibet.Image credits - Padmasambhava Guru Rinpoche from Tibetan Foundation, Nicholas Roerich from Roerich Museum, NY. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
