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A Great Heart Beats No More
A tribute to Jean-Pierre Rampal (Top)
Jean-Pierre Rampal was not only a great flute player, he was much more then that. The kindness and genuine personal interest he showed to so many of us mere mortals and such honesty and integrity in all aspects of music making are rarely found amongst his peers. Who else would say to a class of admiring students 'Don't buy my editions, they are terrible!' and mean every word of it and then explain that he had since their publication learned a lot more about baroque music and changed his mind but could not convince the publisher to make changes?
The three most important people for flute playing as we know it today were Johann Joachim Quantz, giving us methodical instructions in how to play the flute, Theobald Böhm, who gave us the instrument and Jean-Pierre Rampal, who taught us how to make music. He was not interested at all in the flute itself or the typical sound it makes, all he wanted to do was to make it sing. He told me himself on his last visit to Australia that the flute was just a tool he had available to make music with. Not to sound like a flute all the time was very important. It is always worth taking any risk to achieve this, playing safe serves no purpose. Strange as it may sound but it was this very aspect that allowed him to establish the flute as a solo instrument equal to a violin or the piano and we are all very grateful for that.
I had first met him in 1971 at the summer academy in Nice. Amongst the many participants were Irena Grafenauer and Ransom Wilson and one of the most striking aspects of his teaching was that he did not want to change the way any of us played but rather help us to find our own individual unique style, within reason obviously, for when the interpretation differed too much from the norm he would modestly give us his own version. One day the famous pianist Jeanne-Marie Darré came to visit him in Nice and they promptly gave us an eye opening performance of the César Franck Sonata; it was just magic to see these two giants utterly enjoy making music together. He obviously enjoyed every phrase that he played equally to those given to the piano, very much like he would sharing a dozen of particularly nice oysters or a special bottle of wine with a friend. The warmth in personal interaction with his partners in performance and the obvious joy of making music together was one of his major secrets and an essential part of the aura that surrounded him. To see the joy in his eyes when he saw his first koala was a wonderful experience for me and probably also for the koala.
Jean-Pierre was one of only a handful of great musicians of our times and a great friend to many of us.
He will be sorely missed but his influence will last.
Jean-Pierre Rampal - Sony Classical Biography and discography
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Thomas Pinschof
Copyright © 2000 Magic Flutes International (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
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Stress-Relief, David Suzuki and the Y2K (Top)
Dear friends & colleagues of the species "homo sapiens",
Is it not high time to put our priorities right? The quality of what we do, what we are and what we can achieve depends entirely on our ability to first understand that the most important prerequisite is plain survival. This can only be achieved when we as individuals find the right balance with our environment. By that I mean everything from the universe to the our immediate surroundings down to the minutest components that exist within each life form and indeed everything that exists around us including apparently lifeless matter. Nothing is dead in a universal sense, it just forms part of the texture of the universal continuum. Macrocosm is just the sum of all microcosms and the hierarchy within is not determined by any individual but by evolution and by unchangeable cosmic laws, many of which we do not quite understand. However as long as there is harmony within this texture life can go on. Many scientists work tirelessly to understand ever more about these and most of them are way ahead of their time. Just think how many have been persecuted by the political powers of their era only to be proven right. Don't listen to politicians, make them listen to you! They do not control this hierarchy it is controlled by the sum of individual choices made by each individual life form (yes I include frogs, birds, flowers or microbes) following the inevitable cosmic laws and certain self imposed rules. Rules must make sense in the context and will not work (i.e. are bound to be broken) if not in harmony with the structure there are supposed to support.
Art and Music in particular have much to offer to help us understand this and contribute much to be able to put these rather esoteric ideas in context of day to day life. Music is all about harmony. Also about stress and release, dissonances and consonances, or as my wise old piano teacher has put it very simply: salt and chocolate. Not every dissonance is followed immediately by a consonance but there might be several dissonances following side by side, then the relief is much more appreciated when it comes. So what may appear like a dissonance when it is looked at on its own, in the context it has a pleasing effect because we know that it leads to consonance and is in harmony within a structure. Replace dissonance with with stress and consonance with relief and you are a step closer to understand that stress is only as bad as we think if it is taken out of context, in fact it is an essential part of what makes life interesting. There are of course endless parallels in every aspect of nature and you will no doubt think of one that comes to mind and fits your situation. Musicians are lucky to be close to these ideas and so it is not surprising that many leading scientists like Albert Einstein were also very accomplished musicians. I would always rather listen to the advice from a scientist than follow the trend set by politicians when it comes to making an important decision about my future.
What it boils down to is, that everything is in proportion to everything else within an hierarchic structure that works perfectly when it is not disturbed and follows a certain path within a multitude of dimensions. We known that homo sapiens is not able to fully comprehend every detail and every aspect of this gigantic system of seemingly endless possibilities. But we can understand that if we make a choice for a particular step along a particular path it may not be the simplest or most pleasant one but we must follow this path until an opportunity arises "to get back on track" and see our choice in context within a development that, in the small world of our own environment consequentially leads us somewhere.
So what can we do about it in practical terms? Think yourself as a tiny fibre of a great fabric that is a vital part of a canvas on which Leonardo da Vinci has produced a timeless work of art or perhaps of a piece of paper which J.S. Bach has used to write on. Wouldn't you want to be part of such greatness? In hindsight it is easy to make such a decision but in reality it is difficult to determine if ones chosen path leads to such greatness. What counts though is that one follows this path to the best of one's abilities and makes choices that are in harmony with ones surrounding. For example if you buy a vacant block of land in an established street build a house that doesn't just suit you but also your neighbors and the streetscape; this does not mean you can't do your own thing but by doing it thoughtfully you may reap manifold benefits such as, a good relationship with your new neighbors, an increased value of your property, a nomination for an award ....etc., but mostly it will improve the quality of your day to day life and that of your community. Build something that is not just a house, but a beautiful and timeless work of architecture and an environment that is ruled by beautiful proportions, i.e. designed in harmony with each other (im "goldenen Schnitt" - "golden mean") and not to the stock-standard sizes most commonly used. You may find that a deviation from your original plans, made necessary by such considerations will turn out as a major improvement that you may never have come up with, were it not for the potentially painful compromise your environment made you concede to. Plant some rare and endangered species in your garden and put in a pond that can recycle your waste and turn it into water for your garden giving the frogs a home to live in, the birds something to bath in and put music in your back yard. Use the endless energy provided by nature, collect your rainwater and your plants won't suffer when the water restrictions come. You can even put it on tap with a filter and you have the best drinking water in the street. Why not live surrounded by beautiful things? In short: Think long term and look at things in the largest context you can still visualize. It might cost a bit more but in the end you will end up with something priceless: a better quality of life all around you!
Copyright © 2000 Thomas Pinschof
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I received the following by e-mail a few days ago and thought it is too valuable not to pass on, so please do the same. it may seem It has stimulated the above thoughts and maybe your mind will spring into action too. Everything, no matter how horrendous it may seem at first, can be the source of something positive, it is up to us to make the most of it.
Have a very happy millenium!
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FEATURE - Canadian scientist hopes Y2K will shut down planet
CANADA: December 22, 1999
TORONTO - A little Y2K chaos would not be such a bad thing, or so says David Suzuki, a respected Canadian geneticist, broadcaster and environmentalist.
"I hope there is a major glitch. It might give Mother Earth a rest," the 63-year-old host of CBC-TV's "The Nature of Things," broadcast in more than 50 countries, told Reuters. "I think it would be wonderful if things collapsed for a few days. Chaos would happen ... but it would be an amazing opportunity for people to really start thinking about things - and a global collapse would really make people think."
Even if Y2K goes gently into the night, Suzuki believes the time is ripe for people to start paying closer attention to the environment. And if interest in his new book, which has hit Canadian bestseller lists, is an indication, he may be right. "At the end of every century people go nuts.The millennium is even a bigger deal. My message in my book is that this is a moment in time when we can reflect on where we are and where we're going," the Vancouver-based environmentalist said.
Where we are is a dismal place, according to Suzuki and his book "From Naked Ape to Superspecies," written with Holly Dressel."Water is polluted, the air is polluted, soil is polluted. We've essentially trashed the globe and I don't think there's any question that the major challenge facing us in the coming years is what are we going to do about it," he said.
DOOMSDAY PROPHET? Although seen by many as a doomsday prophet, Suzuki insists that not only he and groups such as Greenpeace are sounding the death knell of environmental Armageddon - scientists are too.
"From Naked Ape to Superspecies" refers to a document, "World ScientistsWarning to Humanity," signed in 1992 by more that 1,600 senior scientists from around the world, including more than half of ll living Nobel Prizewinners The document stated that, as of 1992, humans have as little as 10 years to avoid an ecological catastrophe.
Since then, Suzuki says, the destruction has accelerated. "It is crystal clear from what scientists are saying that we have undermined the underpinnings of life on Earth; we have added 30 percent more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which set in motion enormous changes in climate," he said. "We've trashed 78 percent of the world's forests and the remaining 22 percent are found in three countries: Brazil, Canada and Russia. And we're going to decide the fate of the remaining big forests in the next15 years." But are people heeding the warning signs ? Suzuki believes so.
He quotes a recent poll that showed one of the issues people are most concerned about today is the health of their children, based on the quality of air, water and food.
"In Canada, one out of every five children has asthma. The asthma rate is skyrocketing, as are lymphoma, breast cancer and prostate cancer in spite of billions of dollars spent on medical research. Why? Because we poison the very things that we depend on for survival," Suzuki insisted.
Much of his criticism is directed at his own country, which does not warn citizens of genetically modified foods. "The Europeans are saying, 'If you want to find out if GMOs are dangerous just watch Canada. They're doing the experimenting for us. And I think that you don't put people in an experiment unless they have been told and ask for our permission. We haven't been told or asked. We're guinea pigs."
ORGY OF CONSUMPTION. Suzuki also takes issue with the fact that Canada is the only industrialised country in the world that does not support public transit."If every human being wanted to live like we do in Toronto, we'd need five more planets," he said. "So there is no way our lifestyle can be enjoyed by everybody on Earth, but everybody wants to be like us." But all is not lost.
Suzuki believes humans can have an immediate impact on the environment by limiting consumption. "We (in industrialised countries) now consume 20 times as much as every person in China and 100 times as much as a person in Bangladesh. The Wal-Marts, the Home Depots ... the megastores. It's everything," he said. "We are in an orgy of consumption. We very often point to the developing world and say they have a population problem ... but we are the ones overpopulating because we are overconsuming and all the Indians, Brazilians and Chinese want to be like us. And we keep saying, we gotta have more, so we can't tell them no, you can't, you shouldn't, have as much as we have."
Consumer culture affects not only the environment but the quality of life, Suzuki says. According to Seattle-based New Road Map Foundation, the average American spends six to eight hours a week shopping and 40 minutes playing with his or her children. "When you're 85 years old and dying, and you're thinking back on the things that fill you with joy and happiness, that make you proud, what will it be? It's not going to be a Sony entertainment centre," Suzuki said. "It's not going to be a sports utility vehicle or Gucci clothes. It's going to be your family and friends and the things you did together that made your life richer."
Story by Leah Eichler
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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Thomas Pinschof
Copyright © 2000 Magic Flutes International (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
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