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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
That Grand Old Catch 22 - The Spiritual Significance of Music, March 21, 2010
This review is from: The Spiritual Significance of Music (Paperback)
"The spiritual significance of music is a subject so deep and full of subjective sinkholes it would require a book."
Gerald Casale, Devo
`Dialogue' has become one of our century's biggest buzz-words. The corporates have stolen it for their keystones and politicians have started using it in lieu of human shields.
Philosophically speaking though, getting Socratic's always been a good way of chipping away at the fundamentals. If it's mankind's prerogative to explore the unknown, then a good round of circular questioning is the best place to start.
The concept behind The Spiritual Significance of Music is simple enough; an array of artists, musicians and professionals brought together to provide commentary on the question "What do you believe is the spiritual significance of music?"
Most of them have at it. Anyone who has had experience with a musician or creative will know that they have opinions in spades - a good thing, considering they are some of the world's foremost voices.
One of editor Justin St. Vincent's masterstrokes was in taking steps to avoid TSSOM being some kind of one-sided homily from the Christian Music Scene. To this end, the artists interviewed are from a wide spectrum of believers, atheists and cynics, with a few Satanists thrown in for good measure.
The leading question too, is deceptively brilliant. St. Vincent gets no objections for leading the witness. It's genius in it's vagueness; there's no mention of God, instead leaving the subject to come to their own conclusions on the meaning of spirituality itself, and introducing the question within a question.
Many of the artists start there. "First of all, what is spirituality?" asks Sander Gommans of After Forever, waxing Socratic. The views of the artists are fascinating in their diversity; some discount the term in favour of a Powerful Emotional Response, others give names; whether that name be God, Allah, Yahweh, Satan, or some kind of universal force, "something substantial in the universe". The honourable Ravi Shankar makes mention of "The highest mental orgasm", which is a poetry all in itself.
As far as the link between spirit and music, the dialogue descends further into the rabbit-hole. Which is not surprising since explaining a tangible link between the invisible realm and the tangible has been keeping church and science at odds for centuries. Perhaps trying to find a link between the spirit and the song is an equally difficult endeavour.
The artists are a real banquet on this one. A surprising amount of them head for the realm of science as their first port of call; Daniel Beddingfield refers to the sound of the "Deep hum behind reality...particle and wave...the excitement of electrons", singer-songwriter Victor Crowl pays tribute to the "energy between the notes", while composer Peter Davison brings the big bang into play. Industrial dance producer J.S Clayden's piece is full of humanist and meta-physical argument and is a fascinating essay in leftfield.
Of course, there is plenty of standard Protestant argument when it comes to God and music - "Music was created by God, as was every instrument to be used to bring Him glory" says Sonic Flood's Rick Heil.
Again, St. Vincent's great masterstroke is at show here. The book is treated with great objectivity; every opinion gets its own weighting, and the reader is left with a challenging depth of opinion, without any kind of overarching proselytism. It seems that for every religious view, there is an equal and opposite view - Michael IX Williams is left to assert his view that spirituality is a completely subjective concept; comparing a group of religious fanatics to a group of Dinosaur Jr fans squabbling over J. Mascis lyrics.
One thing that becomes clear within TSSOM is the chasm between the language used by the overtly Christian artists and the others. A fascinating subtext in this whole book is the fact that the contributors without a clearly stated or defined religion seem to tackle the aspects of spirituality and music with a much wider lens - without any pre-conceived notions or definitions, they are willing to tackle the thing with wider arms than Christians. The Christian artists seem to be bound by a form of their own language, where `spirituality' becomes `God', `spiritual music' becomes `Worship'. They argue over semantics (Petra's John Schlitt - "I don't believe there is spiritual significance in music, but I do believe music is a powerful tool for a spiritual end")
To a certain extent, this makes their view come off as a little narrow. As a person with spiritual beliefs myself, I stop short of advocating some kind of universalism , but I definitely think that our language needs to change when we're exploring a matter so wide and expansive, otherwise we miss out on a powerful opportunity to grow our outlook. As the apostle Paul said to the Athenians, there's a lot to be said for communicating our views in the language of a wider world.
The dialogue within TSSOM is important. Because spirituality is a wide and often intangible thing. It encompasses dark and light, good and evil. It's not so much an explanation of the divine as our experience to it, and our reaction to it. It's a matter that was meant to conjure mystery, elude classification and for eternity. And like the rabbi says, it's a fool who thinks he can figure out the eternal mystery.
Luke Oram
[...]
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spirituality has many meanings..., March 10, 2010
This review is from: The Spiritual Significance of Music (Paperback)
When I first agreed to review this, I had no idea what I was getting myself into - I thought that 'spirituality' might be a code word for Christianity and that I would be reading about gospel music or something. I was excited to find that 'spirituality' was defined in each interview as whatever it meant to that artist. For some, it was a communion with god, but for others, it was more obscure, a feeling of connectedness with other people or a direct line to emotion.
One of the ideas I really liked was that the space between the notes was just as important as the notes themselves. When I began listening to music for the spaces, I realized it was true. The difference for me between great music and just good is where they let you breathe - if they do at all. I love that music is a universal language that touches people on an emotional level, rather than an intellectual one. I have never met a person that doesn't like music itself (though obviously everyone has their own brand).
Reading The Spiritual Significance of Music is not like reading a novel. Each page is a new person, offering their little piece of wisdom about what music means to them. These perspectives open conversation, especially in a musically oriented family like mine. It's the sort of book that makes you suddenly think of four or five friends who really should read this (I have two lined up already). It's the sort of book that really should be a documentary like 'The Secret' or 'What the Bleep' because that way, you could listen to the music and hear the people speak, and I think it would be a moving experience.
A great book to buy, gift or pass around. A conversation that intigues me... after all, what is so special about music?
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Spiriual Significance of Music, March 17, 2010
This review is from: The Spiritual Significance of Music (Paperback)
Justin St. Vincent, editor
The Spiritual Significance of Music
Xtreme Music, ISBN 978-0-473-15690-9
Non-Fiction-spirituality, religion, music, mind and body
214 pages
March 2010 Review for Bookpleasures
Reviewer-Michelle Kaye Malsbury, BSBM, MM
Review
Justin St. Vincent, editor for The Spiritual Significance of Music, is founder and director of Xtreme Music. He is a native of New Zealand and has lived in the UK, Hong Kong, and North America. (2010, p.213) New Zealand is now is choice of residence. For more information about Mr. St. Vincent please visit his web site [...].
While most when queried about the connection between music and spirituality might come back with something entirely religious the various people that Mr. St. Vincent has invited to participate in this book range from total religious experiences in creating, listening, or playing, music to more subtle and less concrete versions of the connection that one might get from music itself. The pool of experts he questions on this topic is vast and multidimensional in breadth of life/vocational experiences across this mystical musical industry.
Some of the more memorable excerpts, to me, are listed below: From guitarist/vocalist Sander Gommans from After Forever "The lyrics...do handle something bigger than ourselves: a force we cannot explain." (2010, p.6) Music therapist Kenneth Aigen says (p.7) "The creation of groove is a spiritual discipline because it requires focus and abandonment, body and mind, unison and variation, intention and surrender." Gonzo Sandoval, percussionist for Armored Saint, says that "We allow listeners to peek into our very soul." (p.13) Percussionist, Cyro Baptista writes that " ...it takes a lot of courage to make music from your heart, certainly more courage than getting a gun to make war." (p.22) Rand Bishop, author, defines that connection as "Nimble fingers, dexterous lips, powerful diaphragms, and sonorous throats give wings and fuel to music's flight." (p.29)
Those above are but a few of the quotes that stick out in my mind as defining the spirituality of music as asked by Justin St. Vincent in this book. Common threads that can be read across the people who participated in this book are that music can take the listener, musician, or writer to places where words cannot completely express: moving us to spiritual heights unlike anything else we are able to feel as humans: it is subjective in nature and resonates with each person differently. Many participants also say that music has the ability to change moods or actions across the entire socio-emotional spectrum. Music can evoke love and hate, depression and elation, religious and/or atheist like no other art form. Gerald Casale, bassist, vocalist, and co-founder for Devo said that "True spirituality seeks to re-unite a thread that connects all of us to the rest of life and, thus, brings us together." (p.52) Peijman Kouretchian, drummer for Girth, said that "Music...is an instantaneous sensory....decoding of spirit." (p.77) Kouretchian also adds that the more pure [paraphrase] the artist the more powerful the music.
The pages of this book are filled with opinions and thoughts on the topic of spirituality and music, but few can touch what Wendy Bartlett, director of Healing with Harmony, said "Maybe Heaven is not a place at all, but rather a feeling that awakens our Spirit because for that moment in time we are touched by music, we are one with our Maker." (2010, p.86) Thank you Justin St. Vincent for editing these many excerpts and combining them into a cohesive format for a thought provoking and insightful reading.
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