MUSIC'S POWER heals Middle East people and relationships

Thursday, 02 June 2011

"Do any of us really know what music is? Is it merely physics?

Mathematics? The stuff of romance, or of commerce?

Why is it so important to us? What is its essence?"

-- Sting (1951-     )

British rock musician

"Music is the hidden mathematical endeavor of

a soul unconscious it is calculating."

-- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716)

German inventor of calculus

"Without music life would be a mistake."

-- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

German philosopher, poet

"I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy;

but most importantly music, for

in the patterns of music and all the arts are

the keys of learning."

-- Plato (428-348 BC)

Greek mathematician, philosopher

"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.

Music is the electrical soil in which

the spirit lives, thinks, and invents."

-- Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

German composer, pianist

Science confirms that humans are hard-wired to respond to music.      
     Studies suggest that music helps patients and relationships heal.
Music's power to affect our brains, bodies,  and spirits is universal across cultures on all continents.

Yesterday -- June 1st, 2011 -- National Public Radio illustrated the supreme value of music to human life, health, and healing.
READ more:

"The Power Of Music" To Affect The Brain

NPR: Talk of the Nation -- 01 June 2011

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/01/136859090/the-power-of-music-to-affect-the-brain

HEAR more:

"The Power Of Music" To Affect The Brain

NPR 30 min radio interview

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=136859090&m=136859080

     World-class musicians have long-experienced what todays scientists confirm.
     Daniel Bernard Roumain, a young cross-genre violinist known as DBR, believes music has power because it reverberates throughout our bodies.
"You know when someone says that a piece of music 'touched me' or 'moved me,' it's very literal."

     Daniel Barenboim, conductor and pianist, has dedicated himself to fostering shared musical experiences among Arab and Israeli musicians.
     He co-created the 12-year-old West-Eastern Divan Orchestra -- http://www.west-eastern-divan.org/
     Barenboim believes that our early connection to sound from gestation is one reason for its power one that in today's world we sometimes forget.
"Sound literally penetrates the human body."

READ NPR guest Elena Mannes' complete book:

The Power Of Music:

Pioneering Discoveries In The New Science Of Song

By Elena Mannes

Walker & Company, 2011, 288 pages

http://www.amazon.com/Power-Music-Pioneering-Discoveries-Science/dp/0802719961

     Now appreciate living examples -- how music works in real life, on the ground.
     Dignifying everyone -- artists and audience.
     Healing.

                        - L&L



MUSIC BRINGS TOGETHER
PALESTINIAN AND ISRAELI
TEACHERS, STUDENTS, PARENTS
Nablus, West Bank, Palestine

     In May, 2011, the Palestinian music center in Salem, near Nablus, hosted Jewish Israeli teachers and pupils of Tel Aviv Municipal Arts High School A.
The visit was a result of personal relationships, familiarity, and growing trust between the Palestinian and Israeli music educators and parents.
     The milestone engagement of Israeli and Palestinian youth and adults at Salem Music Center in the West Bank strengthened ties and opened windows to different and varied musical worlds for the students and teachers.
     Additional information is available from organizer Ehud Krinis -- ksehud@gmail.com
PHOTOS and more are at:

Music Teachers and Students from Tel-Aviv

Visit Salems Music Center in West Bank

Perhaps we cannot bring about a general peace,

but we can perform deeds of peace

Published by The Villages Group -- Cooperation in Israel-Palestine -- 28 May 2011

http://villagesgroup.wordpress.com/2011/05/28/may-21-2011-music-teachers-and-students-from-tel-aviv-visit-salems-music-center/

MUSIC LIFTS
HOLY COLLABORATION FOR
CELEBRATION OF FREEDOM
Los Angeles, California, USA

     In April, 2001, in West Los Angeles, over 150 Muslims, Jews, Christians, and a host of other faiths gathered for a Universal Freedom Seder.
     The "holy collaboration" was inspired by the mass citizen public expressions in Egypt and elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East.
     Live music and dance was interspersed throughout the evening, with lyrics varying from English to Hebrew to Arabic.
     Music can act as a tool to bridge gaps between people and their different cultures, believed the organizers.
     It opens peoples hearts to connect to themselves and each other, said one participant.
     She called the evening a holy collaboration.
SEE VIDEO:

UNIVERSAL SEDER

14-min video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lba3AZOjttY

READ more:

This seder honors todays Egyptians

The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles -- 20 April 2011

http://www.jewishjournal.com/community/article/this_seder_honors_todays_egyptians_20110420/

MUSIC HUMANIZES, DIGNIFIES
GAZANS, ARTISTS, EVERYONE
Beit Lahiya, Gaza, Palestine

In May, 2011, Jewish Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim and an orchestra of prestigious European musicians played an historic concert in Gaza, drawing rapturous applause.
     It was the first time such a large group of celebrated classical musicians had played in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip
     It dignified and delighted the hundreds of first-time concert goers, including many teenagers.

Gazans packed into a seafront hotel in the northern town of Beit Lahiya to hear the performance by the "Orchestra for Gaza" -- a 25-member ensemble put together especially for the occasion.
     Many in the audience said they were heartened that an Israeli had chosen to come to Gaza.
     "...understand that many people from all over the world care for you," Barenboim said.
"I am a Palestinian," he said to thunderous applause, and "I am also Israeli, so you see it is possible to be both."

     "It is very significant," said Fatma Shahin, a 28-year-old English teacher.
     "It will really make a difference since he is bringing a message of peace," she added.
Shahin said it gave people "a message ... a chance to think before judging people."

     It was also an emotional day for the musicians.
     "I've played these pieces hundreds of times before but playing here was entirely different," said Dieter Flury, a flautist with the Vienna Philharmonic.
     "It was probably more of an historical moment than any other concert I've ever played."

     One of those accompanying them was Jerome Clement, former president of French-German TV network ARTE.
     Asked if it was a frightening experience to come to Gaza, Clement, who is Jewish, thought for a moment: "A little."
     "But it was very important to give this message of peace, friendship and humanity through music.
     "That's why we came."
READ more:

Maestro Barenboim leads historic concert in Gaza

Yahoo! News -- Tuesday, 03 May 2011

by Hazel Ward (AFP)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110503/ennew_afp/israelpalestiniansgazamusicbarenboim_20110503191939

VEW video:

Barenboim conducts his "Orchestra for Gaza"

EuroNews -- 03 May 2011

1-1/2 min video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKuHx0WAQMM&NR=1

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music.

It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain.

Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.

-- George Eliot (1819-1880)

English novelist, journalist

"When I hear music, I fear no danger, I am invulnerable, I see no foe.

I am related to the earliest times and to the latest."

-- Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

American author, naturalist, social innovator

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These and hundreds of other success stories are preserved at http://traubman.igc.org/messages.htm