playing during speeches / great movie

[Matthias Grob <matthias@grob.org>]

* OT introduction
I cared for the sound of a 3 day conference about "integral sciences" -
experienced people talking about everything between Homöopathy,
Permaculture, female power and UFOs. No religions, no proofs. Experiences,
Faith - the old "new age" conspiracy, but a lot more mature and concrete.
No one sold any truth, and mutual respect and tolerance was a strong base.
The aim is not so much the survival of mankind (much less of certain groups
or individuals), but the humble acceptance of necessary changes in the
course of the bigger evolution.

* The work
I played most of the time, during the speeches! Its somewhat like
improvising a sound track. For me, its rather easier to follow a difficult
speech while playing.
The sound was mostly very low, and nobody seamed to care about what I
played, but as soon as I stopped or got lost, the difference became
obvious. Sometimes I was amazed how nicely the sound coincided with the
speech or even prepared for a change in it. It once happened that I
developped a theme while an ancient story was told and later in the speech,
when that story was mentioned again, I already was back at that same theme!
Loops helped a lot to simplify my work and the listeners reception, but I
rarely had time to build a complex loop and often just used single notes to
keep flexible. Pretty different styles were appropriate, between
nature-like noises, romantic harmonies, intergalactic conflicts, softly
animating rhythms and silence (also because I am not used to play 8
hours/day). Since I had my "magic box" set up in the corner of the stage, I
was free to leave and come back when I felt necessity.
Two of the speakers asked me not to play, because they felt it would
distract from their subject. Others wanted me to play. Most agreed without
comment.

* Interpretation
At some point I felt like the "fool of the court". During the questions
phases I did not play, but made "innocent" questions from my special 
corner.
I understood I was doing little corrections in the energy flow. Its not so
much about music, but about the perception of moods, a rhythm flowing
between speaker and listener and about the experience to influence an
experience.
Historical reviews and analytical subjects are much harder to support with
sound than emotional or spiritual contents.
The flow of the speech (or the lack of it!) becomes more obvious through
the parallel music and can be improved by the music if the speaker is
receptive and speaks rather free. I would like to try to work together with
a speaker.
No chance to do this work with prerecorded music!

Towards the end, people came to me, saying that I had helped a lot to keep
the balance of the event and bought CDs.

* A marvelous movie
By a nice accident, a week before the event, I had stumbled over a French
movie on TV called "the violinist" that ends with a brilliant Bach solo in
some dirty underground, causing an old man to die in peace and poor people
to gather around a fireplace, starting to share the little they have - this
may sound ridiculous as I tell it here, but it makes a lot of sense, watch
this movie!
I cried of deep emotion and understood:

WE ARE USEFULL WHEREVER WE CAN PLAY SINCERELY !



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