Robert Fripp's Diary for Monday, 24th January 2011

Robert Fripp's Diary

	Monday, 24th January 2011

09.16

Monasterio Notra Senora De Los Angeles,
Monjas Dominicas,
Sant Cugat, Spain.

Rising at 06.10.

Morning Sitting at 07.15. A lot of twitching in the room. It is not easy to sit & direct the attention for 45 minutes, even with any degree of experience. With almost none, 45 minutes is a very long time indeed.

Breakfast at 08.00 with useful & even important comments.

One from a member of the Beginners’ Group on yesterday morning’s meeting: they found themselves accepting a note, rather than taking it, from the adjoining chair.

Mark is a happy boy, and referred to yesterday evening as The Orchestra. And in a sense it was.

Mikael’s comment on yesterday evening: one note, and the sense of a circulating note moving to him and moving on its way. The next time the note came to him, he played it.

This is how music is actually played. It is not possible to play music, it is possible to be played by music. We accept, we receive, we allow the note / music on its way. When we do something with the note, it is a very different experience.

Other very good comments. Then our work for the morning was called.

Discussion with Dr. Mike on The DU & the SSGIV Reading Group.

It is very cold this morning.

13.48 Three personal meetings beginning at 11.30.

T’ai Chi at 12.30. Very cold in the Mosquito Grove, but not quite reaching the pain level of yesterday. I found myself associatively remembering the cold of Sherborne House.

Lunch at 13.00. An outbreak of noise, which subsided, then comments & observations were invited.

One very good comment: while playing in 5 & 7 with another Beginner whose name began with R, the commentator noticed a ray of sunlight with specks of moving dust.

Noticing is remarkable. We easily assume that these little noticings are trivial: this is not so at all. If the commentator had not noticed the sunbeam & particles of dust, they would not have existed in his world. So noticing makes our lives richer, wider & deeper. Without noticing, there is very little available to us. This a larger topic, but not for this lunchtime, with other comments following.

The work for this afternoon was called, along the lines of designing our perfect afternoon-world.

The corridor-with-doors-at-each-end-and-a-noticeboard-and-windows-and-a-wall-opposite-the-windows was named: The Hall.

20.09 Tea at 16.00. Personal meetings followed at 16.30, the final with Director Nunez. Discussing broad-ranging matters & arisings, including plans for The Orchestra Of Crafty Guitarists V.

T’ai Chi at 18.30, which I was too late to enter.

Dinner at 19.00. Good dessert with extra very-tasty cream. My criterion for the right amount of cream is: the dessert is hidden beneath it.

Noisy, falling to a nourishing, embracing Silence. House Meeting without guitars called for 21.15.

22.20 Several questions. A question worth asking is based in experience & driven by necessity. That is, a question worth asking is practical.

The terrible man Fripp almost fell asleep while one particularly endless cosmic question, relating to RF’s own practice, was being asked. Here, is a place & time to ask questions which originate in the questioner’s own experience.

Some good comments, one on the strength & power available when working in the Circle.

Firstly, there is our personal contribution, then that of the others sitting in the Circle. Also, it is in the nature of the Circle to concentrate & intensify power. But there is something more than this: in addition to what is available in our Circle, there is the eternal Guitar Circle our particular Circle exemplifies. When we are inside the Circle, all the work that has gone into the eternal Circle is available to support our work within this specific form of it.

Music never goes away: it is not possible to keep Music out of our world. Although at our Beginners’ Meetings we’ve tried hard enough.

Two hats were produced with 14 names, those of the Beginners, in each. Names were pulled from each, the Hats being fair in their assignments, albeit with some cruelty. Every Beginner participates in two ensembles in addition to a large group piece. Two trios, two quartets, one sextet, one quintet, one duo, one soloist.

The ballroom & downstairs is available until 05.00 to prepare for a performance by the Beginners’ Group for the House tomorrow evening at 21.15.

The board in the Hall I…