Nowadays the western governments, who we know are all pursuing a policy of eradicating all intellectual activity and replacing it with a form of castrated thought, the better to induce each populace to support their governments’ ‘preventative’ measures, frequently talk about ‘the arts.’ That is, they introduce funding for a version of ‘the arts’ which provides money to intellectual and spiritual weaklings, in the hope that the ‘art’ that they produce will be similarly weak. By expecting the populace to ingest this cultural torpor, they hope to increase the intellectual and spiritual torpor which is increasing on a daily basis.

This is the subject of another posting. In fact what I really wish to say is that these governments, in their great stupidity (and you get what you vote for, alas!) are incorrect in describing ‘the arts.’ What in fact they should say is ‘music and the arts.’ There is such a great gulf between music and the other arts that music cannot properly be described anymore as an ‘art.’ It is in fact an intermediary between the individual and religious experience. It is a sort of halfway point between mundane activity and entering into Gulistan.

This is an especially significant point for those who belong to the Baha’i Faith. In the most significant scripture within this religion we find the teaching that music ‘is a ladder for the soul.’ That is, with music one can rise out of this mortal prison and reach into the infinite realm. But music, in this same text, is not considered a purely spiritual activity. Like science, it is amoral and can also be used for ill. For this reason we read, ‘make it [music] not therefore as wings to self and passion.’ This is a warning against using music as a way to encourage the ‘sins’, for instance promiscuity and selfishness and war. (Music is used for all of these on an ongoing basis.)

I am currently listening to Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux. This is a 150-minute work for piano solo which was written in the mid 1950s. Messiaen travelled around France and made recordings and notated transcriptions of dozens of birds and created music which not only contains his versions of the birds but also the colour of their plumage and the landscape in which they sing. Messiaen was obsessed with birdsong and he considered the birds to be God’s musicians. In writing his Catalogue he was engaging in yoga – meditating upon the purity and holiness of God’s musicians and seeing reflected in their music the essence of Him. This piece is one of the great moments in 20th-century music and was written when High Modernism had prevailed. It was written as a protest against the earthly concerns of serialism. And as 2.5 hours of radiance and joy it is a true protest against and the way of the world. It is also an example of how to spend your time. And it is pure ladder music.

Bookmark:

This entry was posted on Monday, July 10th, 2006 at 10:05 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.