The Living Room

A basic pulse

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Michaela

Listening to Orpheus (2)

Daniel Barenboim teaching a masterclass on Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas. A spiritual teaching about the sound of life. Watch the intense connection between teacher, student and the spirit of Beethoven.

Posted in Classical Music, Listening to Orpheus, Orpheus | Tagged Beethoven, Daniel Barenboim, Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano sonata | 1 Comment

A savage creative storm

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Michaela

Listening to Orpheus (1)

A tree ascended there. Oh pure transcendence!
Oh Orpheus sings!Oh tall tree in the ear!
And all things hushed. Yet even in that silence
a new beginning, beckoning, change appeared.

…so begin the “Sonnets to Orpheus”, a lyric masterpiece, written in only five days by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who had an encounter with Orpheus in 1922.

He had retreated to the Chalet Muzot to finish a project of 15 years – the Duino Elegies. But as he worked on his notes, he suddenly felt an irresistible urge to write the ” small russet sails”, as he called the sonnets. Rilke described this instance of pressing inspiration in a letter at this time as “a savage creative storm”, and claimed that he had dropped meals because the poetic spirit took hold of him for many hours on end.

Continue reading →

Posted in Listening to Orpheus, Orpheus | Tagged Apollo, Duino Elegies, Orpheus, Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, Sonnets to Orpheus: Bilingual Edition, Thracia | Leave a comment

Listening to Orpheus

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Michaela

Listening to Orpheus (0)

I am about to paint a picture of Orpheus and how his spirit is a living principle in all of us. As a lead in – a propaedeutic – I will post the master class on Beethoven’s piano sonatas given by Daniel Barenboim in Chicago, Jan 2005. To me this is one of the finest and deepest spiritual teaching I have ever heard. Enjoy

Posted in Orpheus | Tagged Beethoven, Daniel Barenboim, Ludwig van Beethoven, Orpheus, Piano sonata | 1 Comment

Orpheus: to live again

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Michaela

This is the 3rd and last part of Anthony Minghella’s adaptation of the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. A tale of love and death, faith and doubt.Its always just when you think you have things in your grasp that you close your fingers and find they have gone.

Posted in Orpheus | Tagged Anthony Minghella, Eurydice, Orpheus, Spiritual seeking | 2 Comments

Living

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Michaela

Posted in Quotes & Mantras | 1 Comment

Fireworks…

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Michaela

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 38,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 14 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

1 Comment

Orpheus: I will charm death himself

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Michaela

This is the second part of Anthony Minghella’s adaptation of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Not just a story – but a myth, full of pointers and hints to a profound truth

Posted in Orpheus | Tagged art, death, Orpheus | Leave a comment

Orpheus: Listen to the Silence

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Michaela

So I think we all should listen – really listen – to the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice.
It’s so much more than a story. This video-clip is the first of three in a beautiful adaptation of Anthony Minghella, who I believe really got it…

Posted in Orpheus | Tagged Archetype, Eurydice, Greek mythology, Orpheus | Leave a comment

Orpheus, the archetype

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Michaela

Orpheus with the lyre surrounded by beasts (Byzantine Christian Museum, Athens)

The myth of Orpheus resonates throughout time as a powerful archetype because it shows how art, poetry, and music can be used to bridge multiple realms of existence: mundane and celestial, living and dead, conscious and unconscious, chaotic and harmonious, masculine and feminine, and personal and cosmic. The bridge is created by resonances shared between these realms through air, emotion, and imagination.

Black Orpheus – Manha De Carnaval

Posted in Arts & Crafts, Orpheus | Tagged Orpheus | Leave a comment

Silent River

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Michaela

SILENT RIVER
By Justme

Silent river carry my dreams
For all is not, what it seems.
Kiss the morning, wrap up the night.
Clear the skies, let man take flight.
For there beyond the no humans land
Lives a thing, man finds bland.
They run and talk and know and fear.
Yet it’s now that I am here.

Kiss me then and hold me near
For death is watching, the night is near.
Don’t blow the flicker for it’s warm and mine.
See through the mask of blind mankind.

∞