On An Overgrown Path

The initial spiritual idea, that music was an explanation of the divine universe, has a long and distinguished history. The symmetry of numbers presents itself as both an attractive way to account for an underlying structure in apparently chaotic nature and a fitting way to think of the beauty of God's creative mind; the important idea of music as perceptible numbers, which exemplifies this symmetry, thus stretches through history from Pythagoras and his followers to Plato , Boethius , the Corpus Hermeticum , the Camerati , Vincenzo Galileli , Ficino , Fludd , Kircher , Newton and Freemasonry . The writings of Hindemith, Schoenberg, and Stockhausen are not far removed from it either. The idea of music as being essentially entertainment was as alien to such people's attitudes as the idea of philosophy or psychology being essentially entertaining today. That is Jonathan Harvey writing in his exploration of music and spirituality In Quest of Spirit *. My first two photos were t...

Am I the only person in the whole world who is not interested in which overpaid and over-hyped celebrity maestro will replace another overpaid and over-hyped celebrity maestro in Berlin three years hence? My photo was taken in Sidi Ifni , Morocco. For these jam session the audience is rewarded, but the musicians are not. Also on Facebook and Twitter . Any copyrighted material is included as "fair use" for critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s).

I’m not a fan of silence. Wait. Allow me, please, to clarify: I’ll take contemplative silence whenever I can, or the silence that comes from crisp mountain air or the hush that befalls your heart when gazing up at the galaxy of stars on a moonless night. Oh, I love that kind of silence. But silence in the face of oppression? Nope. Not a fan. Never have been. Can’t imagine I ever will be. That doesn’t mean that I always know how to speak up, that I always do speak up, and it certainly doesn’t mean that I always know the most effective way to speak up in order to actually invite people to listen, and then – under the best of circumstances – perhaps to actually feel the call to action. No. I’m not an expert in any of those areas. But I can tell you that I at heart, in the very center of my being, not comfortable in staying quiet about causes I am personally invested in. Especially when a person’s inherent dignity is at stake. That is Joyce DiDonato writing on the eve of her much...

I have a rule of not publishing press releases On An Overgrown Path . But this one just could not be ignored: Scriabin in the Himalayas is a tribute concert for the great Russian composer Alexander Scriabin taking place on the outdoor terraces of Thikse Monastery in India this June 21st for the Summer Solstice. The multi-sensory performance includes three world-class pianists and one tenor , an interactive light show based on Scriabin's colour tonal system, Himalayan Cham dance and an olfactory score of timed scent diffusions. A limited number of 100 concert tickets have just been released via scriabininthehimalayas.com at £2,000 per person alongside an optional travel package by our partners Quintessentially Travel. This once-in-a-lifetime experience is being offered at a time when the cultures of the Himalaya, unique in the world, have suffered a great loss. Amongst the tragic loss of life, it is believed that four of seven Unesco world heritage sites in the Kathmandu v...

Peter Grimes sings of how “I hear those voices that will not be drowned” in the second act of Britten's eponymous opera . One voice that sings out against the tide while refusing to be drowned is worth one million parroting received wisdom on social media. Many lone voices have been featured over the years On An Overgrown Path , and today's article posthumously celebrates a very special voice. Temples, snake charmers, cows and call centres feature in the stereotypical Western image of India. But the reality is very different: India's economy is the seventh largest in the world measured by nominal GDP and the third-largest measured by purchasing power parity. A forecast growth of 7.2% in 2015 puts China in the economic shade, and on current trends the Indian economy will be larger than that of Japan and Germany combined by the end of the decade. This economic powerhouse has created a commercially and culturally vibrant nation, but one that is certainly not without its pro...

By one of those auspicious coincidences that haunt my life, within a few days of a Conservative government being elected in the UK I travel to the enlightened but troubled political milieu of Greece. That header image shows the 1971 CBS LP of Maria Farantouri and John Williams performing songs by Mikis Theodorakis, and by another auspicious but sad coincidence this classic of the gramophone was produced by Paul Myers who died recently . As recounted in a post many years ago , the recital includes Theodorakis' setting of Brendan Behan's verse used in Constatin Costa Gravas' legendary film Z , which protested against the despotic regime of the Greek military junta. In the note for a recording of his Requiem Mikis Theodorakis wrote: "You can't create art with slaves, no matter whether they were forced into slavery or made to adopt a slavish attitude. At this point the political dimension of the artist comes into force. He must contribute to the rescue of mankind o...

Yes, I said I would stay off this subject for a while, but classical music's reality distortion field really needs challenging. With humanitarian activist Joyce DiDonato tweeting about disappearing behind the Great Firewall , I searched in vain among her copious tweets for any comment about human rights and freedom of expression in China. So here, to balance that puzzling silence, are some links. For a full account of how dissenting voices among China's 641 million internet users are selectively silenced read Reporters Without Frontiers . Unlike Oman and Singapore, where Ms DiDonato has just performed , homosexuality is not a criminal offence in China. But Human Rights Watch puts this superficially liberal position into perspective : Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity: The Chinese government classified homosexuality as a mental illness until 2001. To date there is still no law protecting people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, ...