“I love Chopin a lot. Paganini also. And of course Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Berlioz. The most important thing for me is to sense a language in the music. I love music which speaks, which expresses something. Listen to Chopin, how expressive his music is! There is language there, every notes speaks to us. And, of course, he is not the only one….
Nowadays you meet fewer and fewer truly inspired artists, these true artists who first seek to elevate themselves in order to contemplate the beauty of the world above so as to reproduce it in their art. In the past, artists did not start work until they felt they had come into communication with entities and currents of the celestial regions. And they passed on rules to each other, the art of composing music or poetry, of painting or sculpture.
Beethoven, for instance, was a being whose brain, or more exactly, whose nervous centres for music were so perfected, that he heard certain melodies from the invisible world, which he then transcribed. Of course, music can be “fabricated” : you just need to have some knowledge of the laws of harmony. And now, it has even been discovered how to compose music using computers! Musicians are becoming more and more interested in this mechanistic fashion of creating music. Instead of raising their consciousness to the highest regions of the soul so as to seize something of celestial harmony, they compose their work using apparatus. But what can these artificial fabrications bring to humanity? (More on Beethoven below)
Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov (Extracted from The Role of Music in the Teaching of Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov by Robert Soubeyran).
I love all of Beethoven’s music, especially the chorus ‘Ode to Joy’ in his choral symphony. I hope you enjoy the video of a flash mob from a Spanish bank singing the chorus (below). I have also posted more from Robert Soubeyran’s book. He reveals something of Beethoven’s spiritual ideals and inspiration for the 9th Symphony as expressed in his notebooks. (SJJ)
“Personally, in my professional work and educational research, I have always been moved by Beethoven’s music but equally by his life, the turbulent events of his existence, all his suffering, as he tried so hard not to sink beneath it, but rather to raise himself up, to communicate with Heaven, in order to find light.
“Oh men”, he wrote, “if one day you read this, all those who are unhappy will be comforted to find an unfortunate like themselves who, in spite of all the obstacles of nature, did everything in his power to be admitted to the ranks of artists and elite men. Oh Providence, give me once, one day, just one single day of pure joy.!”
As I studied the master’s teaching more deeply I discovered a new side to this genius, notably in the 9th symphony where he exalts in grand fashion the idea of divine joy and universal brotherhood. The 4th movement is a gigantic construction on a single, persistent theme, that of joy: “All men are brothers!” For Beethoven, joy is divine. It unites men and leads them towards the idea of brotherhood.
Translation of the words: To Joy
Joy, beautiful, divine spark, Daughter of Elysium
Drunk with your flame, Oh heavenly one, we enter your sanctuary.
Your charms once more unite all those whom harsh prejudice has separated.
All men become brothers wherever your soft wing alights.
(Extract from Schiller’s Hymn to Joy)
In Beethoven’s rough note books we read: “The voices of men unite with that of the orchestra to sing for joy, ‘the divine spark’ and to expand the theme of universal brotherhood”.Elsewhere, in his notebooks we find these moving phrases:
“Here there is no roof to hide me from the Sun’s majesty. The sky is my roof. Whatever touches me must come from above. What is the body without the spirit?”
“Before I depart I must bequeath all that the spirit has inspired in me. Music must strike forth the fire of man’s spirit. Music is a revelation, higher than wisdom or philosophy. Whoever enters fully into the sense of my music will be freed from all the misery which drags down other men , those men, my brothers!”
Robert Soubeyran – composer of Hymn to Brotherhood and disciple of the master – he also taught music for many years at the faculty of Music in Montpelier, France.
Thanks for reading- please share your comments.