w o r k s - s t u d y - p r a c t i c e - i m p r o v i s a t i o n
a d a p t a t i o n - e x p e r i m e n t a t i o n - e x e r c i s e c o l l a b o r a t i o n - d r e a m - l o v e - m e m o r y
T R O M B O N I S T — A R T I S T
n e w y o r k c i t y — s a n t a b a r b a r a
The myriad creatures all rise together
And I watch their return.
The teeming creatures
All return to their separate roots.
Returning to one's roots is known as stillness.
This is what is meant by returning to one's destiny.
Returning to one's destiny is known as the constant.
Knowledge of the constant is known as discernment.
— LAO TSU
The Creative is the strongest of all things in the world.
The expression of its nature is invariably the easy,
in order thus to master the dangerous.
The Receptive is the most devoted of all things in the world.
The expression of its nature is invariably simple,
in order thus to master the obstructive.
— THE I CHING
Anyone who steps into an orchard
walks inside the orchard keeper.
Millions of love-tents bloom on the plain.
A star in your chest says, None of this is outside you.
— RUMI
To be a part, that is fulfillment for us: to be integrated with our solitude into a state that can be shared.
— RAINER MARIA RILKE
The time man was a tree without organs or function
but only will
and was a tree walking at will
will return.
It was, and will return.
— ANTONIN ARTAU
Nature cannot be outwitted. Its true organic creativeness cannot be supplanted
either by poverty-stricken or luxurious theatricality.
A time will come when the evolution of art shall have completed its predestined circle
and nature itself will teach us methods and technique for the interpretation of the sharpness of the new life.
— CONSTANTIN STANISLAVSKI
No poet knows from birth the stratifications of the soil or historical dates.
What do I know from birth? The soul of my heroes.
— MARINA TSVETAEVA
Any documents of emotion and passion, of sensitivity or even of thought left on marble,
on canvas or in a book, are sacred. There is our true inheritence, our most precious one.
And with what nobility it clothes us, poor and precarious creatures that we are:
the slightest chronicle, the most precious date, a simple human fact, could they ever tell
what the marvels of a cathedral reveal, the smallest shred of stone from its walls!
Touched by man, it is steeped in the spirit of the time. Thus every age leaves behind its spiritual age.
It is by art that the moral and thinking life of humanity can be felt again and recovered.
To find newer and more mysterious properties we must have recourse to new combinations.
For example: the statue in a bedroom, alone or in the company of living persons,
could provide a new sensation especially if one sees to it that its feet,
instead of standing on a pedestal, stand directly on the floor. Or one thinks of the impression
made by a statue seated in a real armchair or leaning out a real window...
Also very profound is the impression one would have of furniture placed in deserted lands,
in the midst of infinite nature. Imagine an armchair, a divan, chairs grouped together on a plain in Greece,
deserted and covered by ruins, or in the traditionless prairies of far-off America.
The nature that surrounds this furniture reveals, by contrast, an aspect of it we did not know.
There are others still more solitary and more mysterious...
— GIORGIO DE CHIRICO
Every one should be as free as possible to encourage every one, including himself, to work
and to be willing to stand unprotected from all the showers of the absolute which may
beat upon him, to use or learn to use, or at least to be unafraid of trying to use,
whatever he can of any and all lessons of the infinite which humanity has received
and thrown to him, that nature has exposed and sacrificed for him, that life and death
have translated for him, until the products of his labor shall beat around and through
his ordinary work - shall strengthen, widen, and deepen all his senses, aspirations,
or whatever the innate power and impulses may be called, which God has given man.
Everything from a mule to an oak which nature has given life has a right to that life,
and a right to throw into that life all the values it can. Whether they be approved by
a human mind or seen with a human eye is no concern of that right. The right of a tree,
wherever it stands, is to grow as strong and as beautiful as it can whether seen or unseen,
whether made immortal by a Turner, or translated into a part of Seraphic architecture or
a kitchen table. The instinctive and progressive interest of every man in art, we are
willing to affirm with no qualification, will go on and on, ever fulfilling hopes,
ever building new ones, ever opening new horizons, until the day will come when every
man while digging his potatoes will breathe his own epics, his own symphonies
(operas, if he likes it); and as he sits of an evening in his backyard and shirt sleeves
smoking his pipe and watching his brave children in their fun of building their
themes for their sonatas of their life, he will look up over the mountains
and see his visions in their reality; will hear the transcendental strains of the day's
symphony resounding in their many choirs, and in all their perfection,
through the west wind and the tree tops!
— CHARLES IVES
In the future music will return to another form of freedom it once had--improvisation.
Outstanding examples of this in the past were when Bach improvised on the organ, and Mozart and Beethoven on the piano.
At the present time in Java and Bali this improvisational freedom in music is part of daily life.
When our Occidental music regains this spontaneous improvised freedom, all the phases of music that we now have
will be like one in feeling. The day will also come when the composer, instead of writing notes into a score,
will compose directly into tone—just as a painter composes his picture directly into color.
I believe I can see how in the future this will be possible, but at present man's knowledge of sound—its expression—its control—
is not quite complete enough for this. When that day arrives the composer will make his own conception and at the same time
his own interpretation. Others may later make different interpretations... The composer will make a permanent sound recording
of his conception and his interpretation. This record will be like a painting in tone—it will be continuous—without breaks—
and the composer will have at his disposal all the timbres that are possible in Nature...
— LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI, 1943 (!!)
I always loved the word "miracle" because I always felt that everything in the universe
without exception, is a miracle, and that nothing our brains can conceive of or even dream of is impossible.
If you could look at at the world with fresh, unspoiled eyes after a state of amnesia, you would understand what I mean.
Can there be a greater miracle than life itself, than music, than flowers, than love?
The unfortunate thing is human nature's tendency to become so familiar with the miracle
that we develop a vicious way of taking everything for granted.
— ARTHUR RUBINSTEIN
We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that
we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future.
Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions,
and pass them on. It is our responsibility to leave the people of the future a free hand.
— RICHARD FEYNMAN
I glimpsed the world I needed to create to enable me to breathe.
It doesn't matter if you're not published. One does it to be able to breathe.
— SAMUEL BECKETT
You don't paint the way someone, by observing your life, thinks you have to paint,
you paint the way you have to in order to give, that's life itself,
and someone will look and say it is the product of knowing,
but it has nothing to do with knowing,
it has to do with giving.
— FRANZ KLINE
Be for a single day unfashionable,
and you will see how much eternity you have within you.
— RAINER MARIA RILKE
The manner in which a work is conceived is the great thing, and
everything else must follow the same lines. The same atmosphere
must pervade the whole. The environment may be of one character
or another, but whichever aspect of the scene you choose must
remain supreme. We should be accustomed to receive our impressions
direct from nature, whatever their kind, and whatever our own temperament
may be. We should be steeped in her, saturated with her, and
careful only to think thoughts that she imagines. She is rich enough to
supply us all. And where else should we turn but to the one true source?
— JEAN-FRANCOIS MILLET
When you feel the impulse to make something, do it no matter what the cost...
you can be sure of reward. So rare a thing is it to have a desire that it is one's duty to act on it,
and at once, for desire evaporates if one delays. Forward, go to it! Be advised, act!
That is the most practical course one can take.
— CAMILLE PISSARRO
When we look at an orange tree we see that season after season it spends
its life producing beautiful green leaves, fragrant blossoms, and sweet oranges.
These are the best things an orange tree can create and offer to the world.
Human beings also make offerings to the world every moment of our daily lives,
in the form of our thoughts, our speech, and our actions. We may want to
offer the world the best kinds of thoughts, speech and action that we can —
because they are our continuation, whether we want it to be so or not.
We can use our time wisely, generate the energies of love, compassion, and
understanding, say beautiful things, inspire, forgive, and act to protect and help
the Earth and each other. In this way, we can ensure a beautiful continuation.
— THICH NHAT HANH
The universe is our greatest teacher, our greatest friend.
It is always teaching us the Art of Peace.
Study how water flows in a valley stream,
smoothly and freely between the rocks.
Everything—mountains, rivers, plants, and trees—should be your teacher.
— MORIHEI UESHIBA
If we look at the world we see arts for sale.
Men use equipment to sell their own selves.
As if with the nut and the flower,
the nut has become less than the flower.
In this kind of Way of strategy,
both those teaching and those learning the way
are concerned with colouring and showing off their technique,
trying to hasten the bloom of the flower.
They speak of "This Dojo" and "That Dojo."
They are looking for profit.
Someone once said "Immature strategy is the cause of grief."
That was a true saying.
