The Inner Breath of Music
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By its nature the inner breath is the essence of music. The inner breath enters the mind and enlivens it from within. Thereby the mind gains universality an infinitely manifold form.
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The Essence of the Musical Performance |
The subtle vibrating of the inner breath within the mind brings about the connection of all the musical parameters, and this perfect coordination results in the natural integration of the composition.
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The Process of Combining all Musical Parameters |
The breath that enters the mind from within must not be mistaken for our outer breath just as the thought of a house is not identical with its physical structure. Our inner breath underlies our thinking, and from the depth of our mind it causes the movement of the mind’s surface; it causes its wave structure.
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The Seat of the Inner Breath of Music |
Let’s imagine the smooth surface of the water of a lake being stirred from outside, by the wind, to move in waves. On the mental level this corresponds to an external stimulation: through the senses of perception or through memory which may also result in some sort of composition.
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The Uncreative Method of Creating Music |
The true creative mental stimulation through the inner breath is a completely different process. Originating from beyond inhalation and exhalation, and being the basis of both, the inner breath creates from within itself a universal, infinitely subtle vibration through the process of self-realization. This subtle vibration permeates the substance of our mind and stimulates it to assume a form; thus on the basis of the natural inner breath, from the inner freedom of self-realization the live composition arises in the mind of the musical artist.
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The Realization of the Enlivened Composition |
With the inner breath the most comprehensive height of humanity, that is, the characteristics of the soul, is carried into music; and through the inner breath music, in its essence, is sustained in the musical event. The inner breath is the most refined tool for creating music and is the primary matter of music itself.
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The Characteristics of the Soul in Music |
In the fullest sense of the word, the inner breath is the soul of the composition and is the deepest place to where the music lover can mentally reach. Only here can the listener succeed in truly uniting with the truth expressed in music.
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And here the listener experiences himself as identical with the composer himself. Here the listener perceives himself as the composer of all compositions as the creator of all music.
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The Process of the Music Listener's Identification with the Composer |
On this level of his inner breath, the cognizing listener experiences the supreme, musical creative feeling of power and thus experiences the ultimate happiness of the realm of music.
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He who experiences the material of the mind as a substance as clearly as he perceives the water-material of a wave splashing around him, is not yet perceiving the lively substance of that inner breath which causes the creative, free mental wave function from within, and which, at the same time, remains as if hidden.
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The Original Material of the Art of Sound |
The means to perceive this inner breath lies in the complete integration of the threefold structure of the intellect with the self-consciousness; and this is a gift of the inner breath to the self-consciousness.
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The Means to Perceive the Inner Breath |