08.58
David Singleton, Minister Unto The Greater Crim, commented in his DGM Diary for 16th. July https://www.dgmlive.com/diaries/David%20Singleton/Mexico_City that after our first performance here, questions began to be asked along the lines of: Can music change the world?
Were I to be asked the question, on this morning, my answer/s would be…
1. That the question is asked, suggests to me that the world has already been changed by music.
2. Yes, but music doesn’t act like a lobotomy. There are subtleties involved.
3. Music speaks directly to us, acts directly on us, if we are available. So let’s not concern ourselves with subtlety! Jump in with open ears, open eyes, open heart.
4. Explaining how and why this is, and might be, can get complicated. The good news is, being touched by Music is simple. It is experiential.
5. The act of music is the Music.
I would love to engage in conversation with those good people who ask the question, but it is difficult to engage meaningfully and usefully in an unmediated public forum; only one of the reasons why I no longer do interviews. The most useful answers, which I have given to the question, has been in Guitar Craft / Guitar Circle contexts. Many of the words remain available…
http://historyproject.orchestraofcraftyguitarists.com/the-guitar-circle-book/the-guitar-circle-by-robert-fripp.
RF on Facebook July 13th. 2017: People travel long distances, buy expensive tickets, and get stuck with bad sonics. Acoustics are only one of the dangers and hazards of contemporary live rock performance. Like drunks, conversationalists, photographers, recordists, theatre persons privileging their own interests over players and audients. And the players themselves have invested a great deal in getting to the stage. So, an ongoing concern until a new breed of humanity appears, where conscience is active, courtesy in effect, and good manners an external indication of such?
A reply from Valentine Michael Smith…
Valentine Michael Smith Forget about the «new breed of humanity». At least for several thousand years. Probably never... July 14 at 9:16am
… has continued to hover with me. I disagree. Like, totally to the max, dude.
The Second Lie Of The Devil: There’s nothing you can do!
So, we do nothing.
Tomorrow! is The First Lie Of The Devil.
And if we are going to do something, it can wait. Perhaps tomorrow even lasts for several thousand years.
A different approach is where I am, here and now. Perhaps even at a KC performance: simply by listening with intention. I tell myself, listen, putting aside all other concerns. And the world has changed. There is a second approach: to intentionally refrain from an act that I know to be wrong, mistaken or non-consensual. Like, putting away my cell-phone. And the world has changed! by one audient accepting their responsibility within the act of music. The act of music is the Music.
This small intentional act is governed by the First Rule Of Quality: Quality is ungovernable by number. That is, a small act of quality is as big as a big act of quality. I find hope in this. When life gets tough; and as wonderful and joyful as my life is, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone (with the possible exception of a former manager); and I find comfort here http://historyproject.orchestraofcraftyguitarists.com/the-guitar-circle-book/two-seven-affirmations:
Seven Affirmations
Affirmation One:
The benevolence of the Creative Impulse is inexpressible.
We cannot know this benevolence, while accepting that Benevolence knows us better than we know ourselves.
Affirmation Two:
Love cannot bear that even one soul be denied its place in Paradise.
Affirmation Three:
In strange and uncertain times, sometimes a reasonable person might despair.
But Hope is unreasonable, and Love is greater even than this.
Affirmation Four:
Music is our friend, if only we might listen; if only we can listen.
Affirmation Five:
The poverty of our nature is no limit to our aspiration.
Affirmation Six:
Although I stumble and fall, each time I will rise again.
Affirmation Seven:
Not even death can end the process of our becoming.
