The Rautavaara Connection
In the second to last chapter of Music and the Soul, I wrote a lengthy essay on the music of the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara (b. 1928), whom I consider to be an "evolving mystic." Rautavaara's music, considered as a whole, records his spiritual evolution beyond the level of thinking mind that most composers work from.
I believe that the higher levels of creative achievement are related to higher levels of consciousness experienced by longtime meditators. Beyond the thinking mind comes higher mind, illumined mind, intuitive mind, and overmind. (These terms come from the Integral Yoga developed by the early twentieth-century spiritual teacher Sri Aurobindo.)
An evolving mystic is one who is progressing through these states with each stylistic period. Bach represents the highest level of development, as an overmind composer. At this level, the cosmic or God consciousness works directly through the composer with no interference from the ego. On the other extreme, thinking mind composers are bound by the ego.
The determining factor is where one's music originates from. The easier it is for a composer to access the seventh (expanded consciousness) and eighth (cosmic consciousness) centers in his or her music, the higher the level of spiritual evolution, and the greater the likelihood of producing a transcendent musical experience in a listener.
Rautavaara seems to me to have achieved the level of illumined mind, a rare distinction. Illumined mind composers write music from middle or upper 7.
Middle 7 is the full expression of the crown chakra or seventh center, located a the crown of the head. It deals with the nobility of humanity and the love of God. Upper 7 is a more developed version of this chakra that starts to express characteristics of the next higher center, cosmic consciousness, located just above the head. Upper 7 deals with mystical or divine ecstasy and the praise of God.
When Music and the Soul was published, I sent Rautavaara a copy and in return he thanked me by sending me a copy of the newly released CD of his Clarinet Concerto, as played by Richard Stoltzman. Being a clarinetist myself, this work was of special interest to me. Although I've listened to it several times, I'm still trying to track how Rautavaara uses the centers in this piece. So I can't provide an outline yet.
Suffice it to say that for me the concerto has a spiritual impact similar to that of Mahler's Ninth Symphony (an all-time favorite piece of mine), but in 26 minutes instead of Mahler's 81. It's clearly a late period work full of a lifetime of human wisdom, a deep retrospective look at the beauties and difficulties of life experienced in our world.
During an Internet search, I found an interesting article about Rautavaara in the on-line version of the Julliard Journal, a publication for students and alumini of the Julliard School of Music in New York. The Julliard School commissioned Rautavaara to compose a piece in honor of the school's centennial. Much to my surprise, the article about this comission ended with quotations from Music and the Soul.
(The above explanation of what I mean by evolving mystics and the seventh and eighth centers should make the references in the article a bit clearer.)
I believe that the higher levels of creative achievement are related to higher levels of consciousness experienced by longtime meditators. Beyond the thinking mind comes higher mind, illumined mind, intuitive mind, and overmind. (These terms come from the Integral Yoga developed by the early twentieth-century spiritual teacher Sri Aurobindo.)
An evolving mystic is one who is progressing through these states with each stylistic period. Bach represents the highest level of development, as an overmind composer. At this level, the cosmic or God consciousness works directly through the composer with no interference from the ego. On the other extreme, thinking mind composers are bound by the ego.
The determining factor is where one's music originates from. The easier it is for a composer to access the seventh (expanded consciousness) and eighth (cosmic consciousness) centers in his or her music, the higher the level of spiritual evolution, and the greater the likelihood of producing a transcendent musical experience in a listener.
Rautavaara seems to me to have achieved the level of illumined mind, a rare distinction. Illumined mind composers write music from middle or upper 7.
Middle 7 is the full expression of the crown chakra or seventh center, located a the crown of the head. It deals with the nobility of humanity and the love of God. Upper 7 is a more developed version of this chakra that starts to express characteristics of the next higher center, cosmic consciousness, located just above the head. Upper 7 deals with mystical or divine ecstasy and the praise of God.
When Music and the Soul was published, I sent Rautavaara a copy and in return he thanked me by sending me a copy of the newly released CD of his Clarinet Concerto, as played by Richard Stoltzman. Being a clarinetist myself, this work was of special interest to me. Although I've listened to it several times, I'm still trying to track how Rautavaara uses the centers in this piece. So I can't provide an outline yet.
Suffice it to say that for me the concerto has a spiritual impact similar to that of Mahler's Ninth Symphony (an all-time favorite piece of mine), but in 26 minutes instead of Mahler's 81. It's clearly a late period work full of a lifetime of human wisdom, a deep retrospective look at the beauties and difficulties of life experienced in our world.
During an Internet search, I found an interesting article about Rautavaara in the on-line version of the Julliard Journal, a publication for students and alumini of the Julliard School of Music in New York. The Julliard School commissioned Rautavaara to compose a piece in honor of the school's centennial. Much to my surprise, the article about this comission ended with quotations from Music and the Soul.
(The above explanation of what I mean by evolving mystics and the seventh and eighth centers should make the references in the article a bit clearer.)
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home