Vertical Horizon

Vertical Horizon

Vertical horizon. Already, the title sets the precedence for a paradoxical writing throughout the content of this letter. As we know it, paradoxes almost always reveal a truth or message or to drive in a point using the art of contradiction.

Incidentally, the first rule of art is contrast.

Whereas the christian faith is a religion of paradoxes.

Let me refresh you with some quotes from the gospel, citing the words of Christ himself.

The Sermon on the Mount

(Matt 5:3-4)

"Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!"
"Happy are those who mourn; God will comfort them!"

Matt 5:10-11

"Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!"
"Happy are you when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of evil lies against you because you are my followers"

And needless to mention the countless paradoxical examples Christ have taught us. The infamous one;

"Those who wants to be first must be last" (I am paraphrasing)

Enough quoted as this essay is not a treatment of scripture knowledge. Let us refocus on the point of content, which is music.


When the sun sets in Malaysia, it reaches its peak of noon in London. Therefore, a British only needs to look vertically upwards while a Malaysian look horizontally towards the west and they would be gazing at the same sun. They would face different directions yet arrive at the same point. Both their eyes would "meet" at the "fulcrum" which is the sun. The same sun which sustains life and provides light for Mother earth and her creatures.

The same truth also applies with the SON, the logos, the Word made flesh, the Incarnate Deity, the Messiah, the Christ.

When the Son of Man is lifted up just as Moses lifted up the bronx serpent in the desert, so shall all men gaze upon this Fulcrum which holds the weight of the world as well as one which gives life and light to all. The Cross of redemption, paid in full all our debts is the Vertical Horizon. The fundamental instrument of our very salvation and the ultimate expression of self giving love. A sacrificial love. That ONE should die for the atonement of sins and for the goodness of others.

V

E

H O R I Z O N

T

I

C

A

L

Now, since we are saved by the cross, all shall bear their crosses in anticipation of their redemption every hour, every moment and every day of our lives and in every aspect of human living. To be humane is then to carry ones cross and vice versa.

As such, we ought to carry our crosses even as musicians.

How do we do so?It is this area that I wish to dwell deeper and further in this letter.

But firstly, let us explore the vertical horizon of the music itself, before we analyse the vertical horizon of the musician.


Vertical Horizon - The Music

The vertical part of music represents;

1. Technique
   
   1. Phrasing
      
   2. Dynamics
      
   3. Tonal gradation (gradually getting louder and softer, musical colours)
      
   4. Good tone quality
      
   5. Touch
      
   6. Articulation (smooth and detach playing)
      
   7. Objective (ie, tonality, compositional technique, etc etc)
   
   
   
2. Notation (see essay "Notation Or Imitation")
   
   1. Notes
      
   2. Time/tempo
      
   3. Rhythm
   
   

However, if the performer(s) or performance, lack in the horizontal aspects, then, the music would be nothing more than just mechanical rendering of notes. This means the performer(s) or performance is lacking in, or is totally without the essential elements that makes music, MUSIC - no matter how accurate the performer may be in the vertical aspects of music as stated above.

To simply put it, mechanical rendering of notes implies that, a music performance that has no "life" nor substance OR lacking in depth.

You can not really distinguish if the music has a horizontal movement just by listening to a single note. It is in the succession of notes from beginning to the end of the music where one fully detect whether or not the music flows horizontally.

Having said that, the vertical aspects must be sorted out and mastered before the music can take shape, mature and develop towards a horizontal movement. Without which, one can not fully achieve the horizontal movement in the music although he/she has what it takes to bring out that aspect of music.

The ears can only listen what the mind knows.

When the vertical is coupled with the horizontal, you get beautiful transcending music. It is like submerging yourself so deeply into the music with your own emotions mingling with the intentions of the composer, yet, with every technical tool to your disposal. A complete authority over the music.

The below formula explains in a nut shell what the previous paragraphs meant:

Vertical + horizontal = Beautiful transcending music.

Vertical + 0(horizontal) = Mechanical rendering of notes.

0(Vertical) = No music, therefore not possible for Horizontal to take place.


What are the aspects that contribute to the horizontal movement of music? It is difficult to explain or pin-point what exactly brings forth this essential elements of vitality to music. However, I will mention the four major aspects here.

1. Maturity (It can not be taught)
   
   
2. Musical awareness/Musical knowledge
   
   1. Forms
      
   2. Features
      
   3. Stylistic traits of composers
      
   4. Era/genre
      
   5. Structure
      
   
   
3. Depth of interpretation
   
   
4. Talent/musicality (of course, and it can not be taught either. But if one has the talent, then how to help bring it forth and further develop it? That is the task of the teacher (tutor, professor, conductor, director). There are many ways of course, and everyone respond, grasp and develop differently.
   

You need all the above aspects in order to create a full flow of horizontal line/movement in music.

Let me offer you an explanation on one of these aspects. a)Maturity. No, its not maturity in age or wisdom, although they are important to the ever developing musician. Maturity here means the maturity of the finish product - namely, the performance of the music.

Like wine, it gets better with time. So, with time, the music becomes more matured. The music embodies a certain special flavour which never was there in the first place.

Like Besie always says, in a humorous way yet with such serious implications to the meaning of maturity, "Your mother's herbal soup that has been boiling for 10 hours definitely taste better than if it was boiled for only 1 hour." Well, you get the point now.

In other words, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, practise....you'll never know when full maturity comes.

Now, I will use pictorial/textual illustration to give you a deeper insight to the difference between Vertical line and Horizontal line.

Purely Vertical:

Pater Noster, Qui es in caelis

Notice the rigidity in the letters and the phrase itself. There's no forward movement in the text above.

In music, this would translate to stiffness and mechanical performance.

Vertical & Horizontal:

Pater Noster, Qui es in caelis

Here instead, you'd notice that there is a horizontal flow that directs your eyes toward the next letter and word. There is a certain sense of fluidity.

Similarly, when it comes to music, you need to create this horizontal movement so that there is life in your music.


Vertical Horizon - The Musician


The eastern fathers always teach about the vertical relationship with Christ and the horizontal relationship with men.

One needs to establish this vertical/direct relationship with Jesus before he can successfully bear good fruits in his horizontal relationship with others around him. This brings to mind the commandments of Jesus.

1) Love the Lord your God with all your mind, heart and soul.
2) Love your neighbour as yourself.

How can you truly love your neighbour or maintain a healthy relationship with others without first being in love with God? The love here that I am speaking about is the ultimate self sacrificial love. Even the eros love between husband and wife ought to be a sacrificial one. Your relationship with mankind deepens in proportion to your relationship with God.

Let us now piece this with the formula given out as above:

Vertical + horizontal = Beautiful transcending music.

When we begin to love Jesus and his people, the world would be a more beautiful place to live in.

Vertical + 0(horizontal) = Mechanical rendering of notes.

If we claim to love Jesus but not show charity to others, then what are you? Jesus would then ask you "When I was hungry, you did not feed me; when I was thirsty, you did not give me drink; when I was naked you did not clothe me...etc"

"What you did for others, you did it for me"

Is that how we ought to live our lives? Selfishly keeping Christ's love just to ourselves?


0(Vertical) = No music, therefore not possible for Horizontal to take place.

This formula is self explanatory.

So let us all be encouraged to bring Christ back into our music. Let every note that we produce be both vertical and horizontal at the same time. Let there be life in our music. Let the music transcend God's people to higher, holier and heavenly things. This can be possible if only we place the cross (vertical horizon) of Christ in the music we make.

The cross in itself has no meaning without Christ's death. Therefore, we need to die on our own crosses to our selfishness and pride. Die to the tendency to want to do what we desire and instead do what God wills. Lets take our selfish pride away when we serve God through our music.

Let every note resound the redemption work of Christ's through the cross. As such, our music would truly serve the people. This is how we can restore the true spirit of liturgy in our particular ministry because the liturgy is the work of God at hand. The central, pinnacle and climax of the liturgy is the Eucharist, which is the actual but yet perpetual sacrifice (during the last supper) of what was to come - the bloody sacrifice on the cross.

But where's the paradox is this? It is precisely the fact that one must die before he attains life. New life that is.

You need to put your own personal preference aside and focus on the music. The interpretation of the music must be true, good and beautiful whether it be for liturgy or not. It is difficult to shed all the years of being moulded by a certain way of playing and adapt a different style(approach) altogether. Yes, it is so difficult because it is a call to renounce a set of perceived beliefs; believing that what we are doing is right. But this cross that we carry will bring us to the death of our own idiosyncrasies - and then together, we shall rise to new musical heights and new life.

Alas, it is in this new height and new plane of musicianship that we find true artistic freedom which we set out to attain in the very first place - which is our own personal musical preferences, but without distorting the interpretation of the music because this new personal preference is now guided by what is True, Good and Beautiful. New life, pure music.

Dear musicians, embrace the Vertical Horizon in your quest for music. New life as a musician, pure music we produce.

Almighty Father, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks and praise through Jesus Christ your son, our Lord and redeemer. Send your Holy Spirit upon us so that we might receive strength and courage to carry our crosses as Jesus himself has requested of us. Amen.

Notation Or Imitation

Notation Or Imitation?

Peace be to you!

We are often under the impression that to play music by ear is an outstanding feat. One would be considered "gifted" or more talented than others if they possess this skill.

Perhaps in many ways, these musicians appear to be more skillful and are more admired by the vast majority. On the contrary, musicians who rely solely on notation when playing music are considered as less skillful. They are usually seen as dependable musicians who are in need of a "walking stick". The general public readily classifies them as incompetent artist. These "dark" thoughts lurk behind every human mind though they (the majority) may not consciously or openly admit it.

Why I used the word "dark"? It is because these type of thinking needs the shedding of light so we can see its perspective from the side of truth. It needs to be brought out to the open to the light so that we can better understand the concepts of play by notation or what I would say "play by sight". A deeper understanding is necessary so that we can put a stop to the bias stereotyping of talented and not - so -talented musicians based on these 2 concepts - "play be ear" and "play by sight".

Some predominantly play by ear but, at the same time, can read music to a certain degree (the degree then varies between individuals) and vice versa. For the sake of discussion, I will described the 2 concepts in such separative manner because my intention was to display the distinction between the 2 skills. Of course, there are many who harness both skills equally too.

To play by sight is an absolutely demanding task. It demands a great deal of comprehension and concentration from the musician. An intricate process in itself.

A musician reads the notes, digest and interpret what the eyes captured through the complex workings of the human mind, and then the brain fires out signals to the muscles involved in the production of a collective set/sequence/types of sound which in turn becomes what we call MUSIC.

Amusing? Certainly so. It is a muse and what amuses us is MUSE -ic. Music comes from the word muse.

Now, let us draw a parallel to literature.

There are those who can tell a story impromptu, or create one, or convey one with perfect communication but may not read or write the language.

On the contrary, there are many learned individuals who can read and write but may not be very good public speakers.

In fact, both playing by ear and playing by sight are equally important and equally challenging. The importance of play by ear skill is quite apparent. Since it is so obvious, there is no need to mention here.

Now, let us examine the skill of play by sight deeper.

Imagine if the apostles did not leave any writings behind. How can there be full unity? Many will make contradictory statements and then claim it to be made by the apostles. Even if everyone then understood the teachings of the apostles clearly, how can they pass on any of the knowledge which they attained accurately to future generations if nothing was put into writing. Surely, certain facts may have been forgotten.

Even if one wishes to put into writing, it may not be possible for him to jot everything down let alone passing the entire tradition by rote! This is evident when John wrote in his gospel:

John 21:25 "Now, there were many things that Jesus did. If they were all written down one by one, I suppose that the whole world could not hold the books that would be written"

Therefore, in this context, if all of us were competent in reading musical notes, then it is possible for the Music Ministry to achieve a certain level of unity. Not necessarily the unity in relationship but rather, unity in music. We would be able to explore new works and move out of our comfort zone without leaving anyone behind because we are united in the notes that we read. Music notation is like lighted candles placed at every step of a stairway (in the dark) so as to give us light to guide our sight.

Each member of an orchestra is able to communicate well with one another precisely because they can "read" each other. They can see what they hear/play, thus giving them a sense of direction and unity.

Secondly, it would be easier for each of us to gel so to speak in our practises. We are able to plan ahead on how to phrase the music or how to interpret them simply because now we can "see" (like the lighted candles giving light)

We become more aware of which part of the music we ought to play louder, or stop playing, or lead, or simply just playing the accompaniment.

One of the reasons we don't do this in great length is because we cannot fully determine the above as there are no notes to refer to. Even if there were, not everybody is able to read them.

Typically, someone gives the introduction, then all come in and everyone just play as he or she wishes according to the chords until the end of the music.

Hence, we need notation to guide us and give us a sense of direction. We need the written notes to steer us into the right direction.

Thirdly, when everyone is able to read notes, we become more adaptable. We are then able to learn new songs in a shorter space of time and shorten the time needed to gain maturity of the piece. We are then able to extend and widen our repertoire in sacred music easily without fret. Would you not think so?

When we play music together, we need a system to follow so that we will always be on the same page. The current system which we apply today is somewhat inadequate if we would want to better our interpretation of music. If we are satisfied with what we have right now in our quality of playing sacred music, then there is no need to explore further.

However, if we would like to improve, we can start with the basics - reading notes. Learn to read notes. It is quite simple. You can enroll for lessons.

Discuss with your potential tutor on how you would like to schedule your lessons. Once in 1 month or once in 1 week. The choice is yours. Flexibility is the key to learning.

May God bless you in your endeavour to acquire the knowledge needed for the progress of doing God's work. God willing. Amen.

Silence Is Golden

Silence is Golden

I borrowed the title from the ever so popular adage. But now, I will alter it to suit our discussion topic. My modification will be "Silence is Music".

Truly indeed, silence is music. There are 2 types of musical silence.

1) Unplayed silence
2) Played silence


Unplayed silence

Unplayed silence is the kind of silence which exist before the music begins and after the music ends. In other words, this type of silence is not notated in the scored.

It is also the type of silence which exist between movements of a piece of music, between variations of a piece, between 2 or more piece which are to be played consecutively and between the different sections or scenes within a single piece of music.

However, this type of silence must be well timed. Too long in silence can distort the flow of the music. There will be a kind of discontinuity or a sense of displacement. This is where musical awareness and musicality is applied to achieve the right timing to maximise the true potential of beauty of music.


Played silence.

Played silence are silence that exist anywhere between the 1st to the last note of the music.

This type of silence are notated with rests written in the music.

Once a composer wrote a piece of music for piano to bring home this point by means of exaggeration. The whole music is made up of rests. He went up on stage, sat the piano, placed his hands on the keyboard, and not played a single note during the entire duration of the the piece, say, about 3 minutes (can't remember the exact timing). When the 3 minutes is up, he stood up, bow to the audiences and left the stage!!!

---

Silence can create anticipation and gives time for assimilation and time for the meaning of the music to sink in. It also helps build up tension, climaxes and further intensifies the music. That is why composers use rest so silence can be played.

Rest also provides time for breathing and yes, rest.

The silence spent before the piece of music begins, gives musician the time to,

think, prepare and play - thus helping them to start the music confidently with the appropriate mood and stance. Otherwise, it will result in a hasty and shaky start and the musician will not have time to engage into the emotions and mood of the music. On the other extreme, too long a time spent in this peaceful silence will create a sluggish and not confident performance.

I had the blessed opportunity to observe how Hannu Lintu (conductor, google him), just the other day, directed the orchestra and the audiences into this unplayed silence at the end of the Rautavaara's Cantus Articus, Concerto for Birds and Orchestra.

After the last note was executed, he slowly dropped his hands from above his head to the sides of his thighs, as if to allow the final note (which is no more audible) to reverberate throughout the concert hall and saturate our senses and giving time for the music to sink in. This brief but intense moment of silence recapitulates whatever we have heard since the beginning of the music, helping us to draw the right conclusions.

The audiences held back their applause and when the silence is over, all clapped at the same time as if we could read each other's and Mr. Lintu's mind.

This unity was also made possible because of Lintu's effectiveness in his communication via his musical prowess.

The same effects can be found in played silence too.

How can we utilise this silence in liturgical or sacred music? Well, the silence in-between the Kyrie and Gloria is one example. Or transition from certain prayers to hymns and vice versa. And many more.

The Christian faith appreciates silence. The silence we have during the intercessory prayer, moments before offertory, after communion and the infamous 15 minute silence before mass after the alter candle is lit. *This 15 minute silence is an unplayed silence of the mass, to help draw the congregation to immerse fully in self surrender in the liturgy - the true worship of God which is self surrender, to simply give ourselves over to being transformed by God Himself.

If we look closely into the life of Christ, we can see how the Good Shepherd enjoys peace and quite. After every sermon or miracle wonder performed, he walks away from the hustle of life, up on the hills/mountains/other side of the lake to commune with His Father, in silence.

This Christological view of our faith shows us how important silence is. There is so much communication that takes place in the moment of silence. "Be still and know that I am God"

If you have been for a silent retreat you would understand this better. If you have not, I would encourage you to do so.

We are in a society of rush, quick, fast paced, quick time, fast foods, instant gratification and keeping up with Jones's that we forget to take time to "smell the roses" - that we cannot bear the silence. This inevitably is reflected in our attitude towards sacred music. Everything must be fast, fast, fast. Not everything must be fast though. We do not take time to pronounce our words anymore when we sing. Therefore, it affects our diction.

Another way of looking at played silence is this:

Sometimes, certain musical instrument must play silence in certain parts of the music during the course of the music itself.

Some instruments need to take a "back seat" momentarily and then joins in the other instruments again at the appropriate or agreed place in the music. And of course, there are exceptions whereby it is appropriate or musical for all to come in at the same time.

Let me try to give a suitable metaphor to explain this. When we eat in a fancy restaurant, foods are categorised in the menu as the below;

1) Drinks
2) Starters
3) Entrees
4) Deserts

The waiter will take your order and served them according to the above line-up. Imagine if all 4 categories are served in one plate, all mixed and blended up together. How would you enjoy your meal then? I bet your taste buds will suffer from abuse. I hope I make sense here.

Therefore we need to work out something during practices to determine the flow of instrumentation. This helps bring out the luminous effect of music to heighten liturgical worship. We need to know when to play and when not to play.

Some instruments take the lead (play the melody) and in the next verse, another set of instruments takes over. And at times, no instruments should play the melody at all, but purely just playing accompaniment parts.

Every hymn has a different set of instrumental combination and must be decided according to the style of music and also to the creativity of the musicians. All these should be worked out during practices.

There is no one way of doing it...only a musical way. By this I mean that as long as it is musical then, highly likely it will sound good.

And there is no fix combination. As long as the combination is musical and does justice to the inner meaning of the music, we can consider.

We need to discern; - wisely.

We pray for wisdom of discernment and a courage to submit to the silence in which you take pleasure in speaking to us. Give us a sense of understanding how important it is to dwell in this silence which is yours to give. Please supply us with opportunities to dwell in silence everyday of our lives. Through Mary's hands we offer up our humble supplication. Amen.

* This 15 minute silence before mass is practised in the Church of St. Thomas More.