Cymbals

Walk into your local music store and pick up the biggest, most obnoxious looking pair of cymbals you can find. Then, start clanging them together for all you're worth. Observe those around you. Are they annoyed, irritated... HORRIFIED? To this scripture likens professed believers who don't love others. I have been around many different drummers over the years and they always strive to make their drums and cymbals sound a certain way, especially in recording situations. Words such as "crisp", "clean", "deep", "resonant" and "clear" come to mind. "Clangy" is decidedly not the sound they're going for. During this journey of dealing with serious illness in my own family, the love others have shown has been invaluable. Conversely, I have been perplexed at some who would, as the passage in I Corinthians 13 says, be willing to literally burn for their faith but lack simple human compassion. Francis Bacon seems to almost paraphrase the passage politely, "For a crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."

Before percussionists start feeling they're getting a bad rap, there are many, many positive verses about cymbals such as, "Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals" (Psalm 150:5). Orchestral percussionists are amazing in their technique to manipulate the sound of cymbals. The layman might assume that playing the cymbals is less rigorous than other instruments. To the contrary, playing them correctly requires great skill. While playing traditional cymbals, "in preparation for a stroke they are held parallel a few inches apart, with the surfaces vertical, one at waist height and the other some distance above it. They are struck together by bringing the upper cymbal down while the lower freely catches the upper motion. Depending on the type of crash desired, the cymbals should be brought together with either a very quick or longer "fa-lam" (flam) If only a single crash is to be played, the sounding cymbals are then both raised in a follow through and held vertical but no longer parallel, but instead in roughly the same plane with their concave surfaces facing the conductor and held head high on either side of the player. This allows the maximum effect to reach the conductor and audience. Alternatively, if another stroke is to follow, the cymbals are allowed to follow through only until they have reached the same heights as they started (but now vertically reversed), and are then ready in position for the next stroke. For softer strokes, in preparation the cymbals are held not quite vertically but at a slight angle, but still parallel, and the upper cymbal is then allowed to fall towards the lower. The follow through is reduced or even omitted after softer strokes. Other common techniques are to choke the sounding cymbals by bringing them together and holding them with their entire rims touching, thus quickly damping their vibration, or to damp one or both against the body, and there are many more advanced techniques. A skilled player can produce elaborate rhythms by combining these techniques, and with fine cymbals can exercise precise control over both the loudness and the decay and apparent duration of each crash." (from Drum Solo Artist).

So clanging the cymbals indiscriminately is a misuse of an instrument that's primary Biblical purpose is to praise God. Hmmm...

Jesus Christ said to the Church of Laodicea, "I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth." (Revelation 3:15,16) The opposite of love has been described not as hate, but as indifference, to which it appears Jesus referred in this passage. This indifference in the context of perceived piety greatly distressed Jesus. I was recently involved in a Christian mother's group that was very indifferent to my situation. There are few things that confound me more than believers being apathetic toward hurting people because they are so involved with their own concerns. Such was the case with the Laodiceans. I have a friend who had fourth stage ovarian cancer. She called a woman from her church after a particularly difficult chemotherapy treatment and asked her to bring a meal over for her husband and four children. The woman said she'd love to, but couldn't- she was hurrying out the door for a Bible study! Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees! CLANG CLANG CLANG!

Love isn't just a part of the life of a believer or group of believers. It's not just a side issue. A Christian cannot neglect loving others and be pleasing to God, no matter what they do. Rather, love DEFINES such person or group. Are the CYMBALS in the I Corinthians passage a SYMBOL for the heart of man? Is the heart either strangely warmed by the love of God, such as a sensitivity of the skilled percussionist, or coldly and recklessly clamorous? I bought a t-shirt in a resale shop the other day that has a tattoo inspired graphic design akin to the "Hell's Angels" tattoos of old, only this one reads "Dare to Love". Is it the rebellious, non-conformists among us who love others?

If so, I guess I'm for the ones who "march to a different drummer" -so to speak.

My Invisible Objects

Yesterday I drove an hour to a house on Frenchman's Bay. Rae's house has a beautiful view, her baby grand Steinway is honored with it's own room. The small jazz group chooses not to have a drummer, which is disconcerting to me, but musically kind of interesting(certainly a challenge when playing Latin tunes). The players are piano, acoustic bass, vocal, trombone and I play flute and alto. In order to partake in this musical buffet, I first drove my husband to Old Town, then took my kids to a friend's house, then made the hour and fifteen minute drive out to Lamoine. As I was driving I was thinking, "am I crazy? All the time and money my "hobby" has cost over the years." As the mother of two small children and the wife of a seriously ill husband, I have been completely overwhelmed by the everyday tasks of life for the last couple of years. Music seems to fall way down my "to do" list.

I was reading about the view the Greeks had of music in an address given by Karl Paulnack, a director at Boston Conservatory:. "...music and astronomy were two sides of the same coin. Astronomy was seen as the study of relationships between observable, permanent, external objects, and music was seen as the study of relationships between invisible, internal, hidden objects. Music has a way of finding the big, invisible moving pieces inside our hearts and souls and helping us figure out the position of things inside us.

One of the most profound musical compositions of all time is the Quartet for the End of Time written by French composer Olivier Messiaen in 1940. Messiaen was 31 years old when France entered the war against Nazi Germany. He was captured by the Germans in June of 1940, sent across Germany in a cattle car and imprisoned in a concentration camp.

He was fortunate to find a sympathetic prison guard who gave him paper and a place to compose. There were three other musicians in the camp, a cellist, a violinist, and a clarinetist, and Messiaen wrote his quartet with these specific players in mind. It was performed in January 1941 for four thousand prisoners and guards in the prison camp. Today it is one of the most famous masterworks in the repertoire.

(Given)life in the concentration camps, why would anyone in his right mind waste time and energy writing or playing music? There was barely enough energy on a good day to find food and water, to avoid a beating, to stay warm, to escape torture-why would anyone bother with music? And yet-from the camps, we have poetry, we have music, we have visual art; it wasn't just this one fanatic Messiaen; many, many people created art. Why? Well, in a place where people are only focused on survival, on the bare necessities, the obvious conclusion is that art must be, somehow, essential for life. The camps were without money, without hope, without commerce, without recreation, without basic respect, but they were not without art. Art is part of survival; art is part of the human spirit, an unquenchable expression of who we are. Art is one of the ways in which we say, "I am alive, and my life has meaning."

Mr. Paulnack talked about a gig at a nursing home with a violinist. They began as they often did, with Aaron Copland's Sonata, which was written during World War II and dedicated to a young friend of Copland's, a young pilot who was shot down during the war. "Midway through the piece, an elderly man seated in a wheelchair near the front of the concert hall began to weep. This man... was clearly a soldier-even in his 70's, it was clear from his buzz-cut hair, square jaw and general demeanor that he had spent a good deal of his life in the military...

(They then discussed) both the first and second pieces, and described the circumstances in which the Copland piece was written and mentioned its dedication to a downed pilot. The man in the front of the audience became so disturbed that he had to leave the auditorium...he (later came) backstage, tears and all, to explain himself."

He told them: "During World War II, I was a pilot, and I was in an aerial combat situation where one of my team's planes was hit. I watched my friend bail out, and watched his parachute open, but the Japanese planes which had engaged us returned and machine gunned across the parachute chords so as to separate the parachute from the pilot, and I watched my friend drop away into the ocean, realizing that he was lost. I have not thought about this for many years, but during that first piece of music you played, this memory returned to me so vividly that it was as though I was reliving it. I didn't understand why this was happening, why now, but then when you came out to explain that this piece of music was written to commemorate a lost pilot, it was a little more than I could handle. How does the music do that? How did it find those feelings and those memories in me?" Remember the Greeks: music is the study of invisible relationships between internal objects.

The Judeo-Christian scriptures offer examples of God using music to help find the big, invisible moving pieces inside our hearts and souls and help us figure out the position of things inside us. David was the chief musician for King Saul's court. According to I Samuel 16: 23, “it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took a harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.” Saul was ‘refreshed’ by the beautiful melodies flowing from the harp’s strings. Psalm 147: 3 and 7 read, “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds…. Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God.”

So Maslow's hierarchy might not be quite accurate. I think I'll go play some blues.

Invoking the Tenth Muse

How can my Muse want subject to invent,
While thou dost breathe, that pour’st into my verse
Thine own sweet argument, too excellent
For every vulgar paper to rehearse? -William Shakespeare

I recently had a very meaningful conversation with friend who is a breast cancer survivor. We were discussing the unfortunate things people say to suffering people. Just as she started to give an example that perfectly suited my situation, we ran out of time. "No worries!" she said, as she promptly printed out her blog on the topic and handed it to me as I rushed out the door. The blog was so apropros- just what I needed to hear. A cherished friend from high school also started a fascinating blog. It's been such a treat to read his thoughts on different topics. It's so rare to have the time to talk at length with others. I recently wrote in his blog, “...(certain) topics banned from polite conversation are the only ones that really matter, and they determine how we should treat every living person, animal and thing on this planet (the planet itself for that matter)- not to mention consider the substance of every other possible dimension! These (discussions) lead to true intimacy with other people and critical thought, both no-nos in our culture...”

I've worked in the field of mental health for over fifteen years. Some of the most profound sentiments I've ever heard have come from very unlikely people. Even opinions with which I did not agree, when spoken with conviction, can be magnificent in their daring. How can human beings come to well considered conclusions without conversation? Hearing passionate discourse of significance is like poetry to my ears. Poetry I seldom hear.

I hope to do my part to contribute to a revolution of people striving for connection, which leads to significance. Sonnet 38 helps ground my efforts. Shakespeare names the muses of artistic inspiration the “old nine” who “rhymers invocate.” There is no comparison with the “tenth Muse,” whose “sweet argument” is “too excellent” and beyond the reach of the commonplace. The sonnet acknowledges the true Source of inspiration: the Ultimate Poet, “the tenth muse,” Truth and Perfect Expression.

Here's to sweet arguments.