Podcast 005 http://aldeamark.hipcast.com/rss/the_divine_now.xml
It was only after we finished our conversation that I realized I could have elaborated on an interesting aspect of the piece: The 6 texts I used (inspired by Jewish mysticism) were chosen carefully by me, and they all have something to do with music or language (or a combination thereof). I wanted the texts to be deep and beautiful, of course, and interesting for me to set to music- but also to have a connection to what I was doing- writing a piece of music about the mysticism of music....
I am attaching the texts, and some explanations about the piece- either just for your own curiosity, or if you wish, to put online...If people who heard the interview would like to see the texts for themselves, they will be able to if you add a link to the attachments I am sending you.
On The Bridge Of Words- Notes About the Piece
On The Bridge Of Words was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library Of Congress and the 92nd Y in New York. The occasion for which the work was commissioned was a concert featuring pianist David Greilsammer and Ensemble SuedamA, which sought to present philosophical and musical connection between Freemasonry and the Jewish Cabbala. I was given complete freedom in composing this piece, apart from the fact it had to feature a narrator (and therefore text had to be chosen); and it had to have a distinct connection to the Cabala.
The Cabbala, for me and for many others, feels infinite and untouchable. The subject of mysticism fascinates me, but in order for an artist to create their own paraphrase on a given subject, they need to study that subject with profundity and care...and in the case of the Cabbala, maybe even a lifetime would not be sufficient.
Confronted with this conflict on the one hand, and my enthusiasm about writing the piece (and fascination with the subject) on the other, I started with acquiring the very basics of Cabbala. The commission required a text, and thus the piece could not be an abstract work, which can be inspired by a preexisting text or by abstract ideas. My idea from the start, rather then dealing with primary Cabbalistic sources, which are often indecipherable, was to focus on secondary sources, namely literary works that are inspired by Jewish mysticism. This would create a triangular relationship between the original Cabbalistic texts, the writers inspired by them, and finally the composer, looking at the two from a distance, from a different era.
In my research I explored the extent to which the Cabbala has influenced and inspired writers and philosophers for centuries, from Jewish poets and writers in medieval Spain, through Kafka, Freud and Yung, Bashevis-Singer and the latest generation of Hebrew literature in Israel. At the same time I investigated the history of music in early Judaism, possible connections between Cabbala and music, and the way music is viewed in different Cabbalistic sources. This research, which went on for a few months, helped me not only in choosing the text for the piece, but also conceiving its structure.
The seven lower Sefirot (the attributes) in the Cabbala correspond to the seven days of the week, the seven stars in our solar system, but also, according to some scholars, to the seven notes in the diatonic scale. There is also a correspondence between the ten attributes and the instruments that were used in the temple in Jerusalem. I decided to find different texts, each one corresponding in character to a different attribute, and each one is based on a different note in the diatonic scale.
Six texts were chosen, but there is a seventh one, which consists of a mix of all other text- a Cabbalistic idea in itself.
As for the actual sources, I chose text that deal with music and language, which adds another layer to the Cabbala- inspired text- composition relationship. They do have, in my opinion, a distinct mystical flavor. From the selection of texts I used, I should just mention one curious detail: two of the writers of the texts I chose, Franz Kafka and S.Y. Agnon, read the Book of Dreams by Rabbi Nachman of Breslow, and both were deeply influenced by it. Especially for Kafka, this book was the spiritual gate to Jewish mysticism. Although S.Y. Agnon denied that there was any influence of Kafka on his work (in fact, he claimed he did not know it very well, and the little he know did not speak to him) there are some striking similarities in the writing of the two- and because of this special connection I chose texts by these three writers.
Jonathan Keren
Here are the texts
THE TEXTS
I spend my life working with thoughts. And one problem that gives me no rest is: do these thoughts ever rise to the heights reached by authentic music?
What should amaze us is the general sense of security and self- sufficiency which usually attends man when he speaks. The average man feels as if he were actually conveying his expressed thoughts or emotions, as if the words he uses were steel bridges over still waters.
Most men do not realize how tenuous is the bridge of words, how deep and dark is the yawning abyss that lies below, and how miraculous is each successful step made on the bridge of words.
Translated from Hebrew By Avraham Holtz
It is known that sound is heard more purely in a place which is hollow or pierced, due to the purity of the spiritual air which enters therein, as in the case of the kinnor and similar musical instruments, which produce sound without any speech. And so also the concavities of the upper stories, caves, mountains, bathhouses, ruins etc, whose interior is hollow- notice that from them there is also produced a sound like the sound of the one who is speaking. By means of this secret you will understand the meaning of " Moses spake and God answered him by a voice", in a voice similar to that of Moses. You must know that the body of man is full of hole and cavities, from which you may understand how the Shekhina dwells in the body which is pierced and contains cavities and which gives birth to speech.
Translated from Hebrew By Jonathan Chipman
I took a seat and watched intently.
Each musician plays by himself, but all the strains are blended into one song.
Every man and woman is joined to his or her instrument, and the instruments are joined to the floor of the temple, but each player thinks the he alone is bound, he is too ashamed to ask his neighbor to set him free.
Translated from Hebrew By Walter Lever
Now the Sirens have a still more fatal weapon than their song, namely their silence. And though admittedly such a thing has never happened, still it is conceivable that someone might possibly have escaped from their singing, but from their silence certainly never.
But Ulysses did not hear their silence; he thought they were singing and that he alone did not hear them. For a fleeting moment he saw their throats rising and falling, their breasts lifting, their eyes filled with tears, their lips half-parted, but believed that these were accompaniments to the airs which died unheard around him.
Soon, however, all this faded from his sight as he fixed his gaze on the distance, the Sirens literally vanished from his resolution, and at the very moment when they were nearest to him he knew of them no longer.
Translated from German by Willa and Edwin Muir
There is a land that includes all other lands.
In the land that includes all other lands, there is a city that includes all the cities of hat land.
In the city that includes all cities, in the land that includes all lands, there is a building that includes all buildings.
Here, there is a man who includes everything in that entire building.
Here, there is the one who composes all the humor and jokes in the entire land.
Translated from Yiddish By Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan
VII
…Here, there is the one who composes all the humor and jokes in the entire land.
…But Ulysses did not hear their silence; he thought they were singing and that
he alone…
…he alone is bound, he is too ashamed to ask his neighbor to set him free.
And so also the concavities of the upper stories, caves, mountains, bathhouses, ruins etc, whose interior is hollow- notice….
…how deep and dark is the yawning abyss that lies below.
I spend my life working with thoughts. And one problem that gives me no rest is: do these thoughts ever rise to the heights reached by authentic music?
