Friday, May 8, 2015, 7:30 PM Blais Pavilion, Lazare Building, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Program
- Gary Gackstatter {slide= Spirit Resonance ~ Meditation and Dance}
In the fifth century A.D., artist Hseih Ho wrote the first treatise on what defines quality in Chinese ink brush painting. His First Principle, Spirit Resonance, or life force, translates to the energy transmitted from the artist into the work. He said that without Spirit Resonance, “there is no need to look further”. How true this is of Music, as well as all the Arts, and indeed life itself.
When generations come together to make Music, it is a thing of beauty. Younger musicians look to the older ones and think, “I will be able to do that someday.” Older musicians look to the younger ones and think, “I remember.” These diverse, individual human beings coming together as one to make Music is a sacred act, in my opinion; it brings life to all involved. Making Music is what makes us human beings. Making Music for a lifetime is our goal.
Our notes are our language. As musicians, we must play each note as if we wrote it. In fact, our interpretation of the notes is as important as the notes themselves. If the music does not become ‘ours’, we have no hope of translating it for the listener. Worse, we have no hope of putting our own Spirit Resonance into it.
Computers can play notes far better than human beings can, but they fail miserably at expression, feeling, emotion, and hundreds of things we do not have words to express. To deny the Spirit Resonance is to deny what makes us musicians, what makes us human.
~~ Gary Gackstatter
“Technique, wonderful sound…all of this is sometimes astonishing- but it is not enough”
“They call me a great cellist. I am not a cellist; I am a musician. That is much more important.”
-Pablo Casals, cellist
{/slide}
Commissioned in honor of the 10th Anniversary of the Seven Hills Symphony - Camille Saint Saens ~ Selections from Carnival of the Animals
- Sergei Rachmaninoff ~ Symphony No. 2, Mvts 3 and 4
