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The Positive Music Movement
We are a
group of artists, composers, educators and musicians who have
joined together to help usher in a renaissance of the arts. We hail from many cultures and
traditions, and we are
united in our effort.
The purpose
of the Positive Music Movement is the promotion, education,
support and performance of inspired, heartfelt, beautiful and
uplifting music.
In April, 2004, the following manifesto
was drawn up and approved by the members of the group.
We maintain a news group on the
internet available by invitation at: Positive_Music@yahoogroups.com
Click here for
announcement of concert at the United Nations
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The
Positive Music Manifesto Spanish
version
”Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast,
To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.”
William Congreve
The Mourning Bride
Act 1
We, the members of the Positive Music Movement, proclaim
the emergence of a new artistic movement for the 21st
Century based on the highest purpose of art and
music, the expression of healing, upliftment,
spirituality and love.
The benefits of music have long been
recognized in therapy, and the ability that some music
and songs have to bring about tears, laughter, and
even grief has long been realized. A more complete knowledge of the effects that music can have on our lives
has been little understood.
Ancient cultures knew about these
effects, however.
The Chinese knew that altering any single note of their
five-note scale would
cause a major change in the effect that music would have on society. Plato wrote about the effects that various scales
produced. The musicians of ancient India recognized the effects
of particular scales and music was composed with a specific
emotional, mental or physical outcome in mind. In ancient Persia, scholars such as Farabi, Ormavi, Maraghi, Razi and
Abu Ali Sina were well versed in the effect of music and its
application in music therapy and discussed these topics in
their writings.
The members
of the Positive Music Movement believe that the time has
arrived for a new direction in the evolution of music, a
direction not associated with specific stylistic changes, as we
have seen in movements in the past, but associated
with the acceptance of what we have learned and appreciated from
great art of all ages
and cultures.
Great
works of art have always come from a
combination of talent/genius and spiritual development. In order for greatness to express itself in
the 21st Century, the artificial confines of conformity
to a particular style and to the concept of an avant garde
must be removed. Then music and art will be free to be accepted for its ability to express that which
all great art expresses instead of being measured by
conformance to, or originality of, a
particular style.
We live in a world that has become
inter-connected by an
amazing computer network through which we have access to information
undreamed of in previous generations. Great
artistic advances can be enabled using internet and
computer technology. The
old ways of creation and distribution of music and art
are breaking down now as the greater technology of the
Internet develops, providing a means for distribution
that was never available in times past. The Internet
provides the means for great music to be disseminated to
any place in the world without
overhead and distribution costs associated with
traditional media.
Additionally, we recognize that during the previous century, a great deal of
music of a negative nature was created in the popular, classical, and
sacred genres and this music has managed to hold sway.
But the trend toward discord, abnegation
of melody, ugliness, and anger has reached its peak, we feel,
and many people are now looking for some- thing more
substantial, allowing
voices, both new and ancient, to now be heard. The members of this movement do not support banning or
con- demning this music, or music of any kind, nor will we act in opposition to
any type of music. It is not by working against old
artistic trends that new ones are created, but by
introducing something so great and so powerful, that its
very existence will attract peoples naturally.
We support bringing beautiful and heartfelt masterpieces of music to the concert halls and into people's homes and places of
work. We support the
distribution and performance of inspired works of music from
cultures the world over, both current and past, both classical
and popular. We support education to bring the knowledge of
great music from all cultures and times to people of all
ages, throughout the world.
We
hold that as the highest purpose of art is given its
rightful place, a
greatness in artistic expression will
flourish.
Signed
by the Members of the Positive Music Movement
April,
2004
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Members of the Positive Music Group
Don
Robertson.
Don Robertson is a composer
and writer living in Nashville. He has composed over fifteen
albums of instrumental music as well as an orchestral work, a
half-dozen short choral works, a string quartet, and has
written or co-written over a half-dozen books. He
attended Julliard School of music among other schools and
has studied with Ali Akbar Khan, Swapan Chaudhuri, and the late
Morton Feldman. He began speaking and writing about positive
music in 1968 and is currently writing a book on positive music, to
be completed in 2005.
Website: www.risingworld.tv
Sound File: Romance
from Keys
Richard
Shulman. Richard Shulman is
a composer, keyboardist, and recording artist who has since 1984
dedicated his music to the expression of love and the awakening
of
inner
joy. A former
student of Chuck Mangione and Marian McPartland at the Eastman
School of Music, and Frank Foster at the University of Buffalo, Shulman
uses his skills as a jazz, classical, and healing-music
keyboardist to
create music to assist groups and individuals in embodying their
own spiritual
essence. Richard
tours doing solo and group concerts. His recent orchestral
recording "Camelot Reawakened" is a new "program
music" composition based on the
fulfillment of dreams of the heart.
Website: www.richheartmusic.com
Sound File:
First Movement from Camelot
Charles
Berry. Charles
Roland Berry is a composer born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1957.
After
formal
composition study at the University of California, Santa
Barbara, Mr.
Berry studied privately with American symphonist, Paul Creston. An
exchange of letters between Mr. Berry and John Cage was
published in David Cop's New Directions in Music, 4th edition. In 2003,
the Olympic
Mountains Overture
and the Quileute Overture were recorded by the Moravian Philharmonic
Orchestra,
in Olomouc, Czech Republic. In 2004, the MSO will record Berry's
Cello
Concerto and Symphony No.3.
Sound
File: Excerpt
from the Olympic Mountain Overture
The
Nasehpoor Family.
Nasrollah Nasehpoor was born
in 1940. He is a vocalist and a master of vocal radif
repertoire of Persian art music. He and his three sons
constitute the Nasehpoor Ensemble in Tehran/IRAN. Peyman
Nasehpour, born in 1974, is the hand-drummer (tonbak, ghaval
and daf). Pooyan Nassehpoor, born in 1975, is the santoor
player and researcher of Old musicians and Old music of
Persia. Parham Nassehpoor, born in 1976, is the Persian tar
and kamancheh player.
Beth
Anderson. Beth Anderson (M.F.A./M.A.) is a composer of new romantic music,
text-sound
works,
and musical theater. Born in Kentucky, she studied primarily in California,
but now resides in New York City where she produces Women's Work, a
concert series for Greenwich House Arts, and the New York Women Composers,
Inc.
Web sites: users.rcn.com/beand/index.html
www.beand.com
Sound
File: Pennyroyal
Swale
Nancy
Bloomer Deussen. Nancy Bloomer Deussen is a prominent
San Francisco Bay Area composer and co-founder of the Bay Area
chapter of The National Association of Composers, USA. She has
been a dedicated champion of more accessible contemporary music,
a viewpoint amply demonstrated in all of her works. A composer
who is well-loved by audiences, Bloomer Deussen has received
numerous commissions. Her works encompass a wide spectrum of
performers and include works for band, chorus, orchestra (full,
string and chamber), many chamber music combinations, recorder
consort, flute, clarinet and violin solo, piano solo, brass
ensemble and solo voice and piano. She has received performances
by numerous orchestras and has also had numerous performances by
chamber ensembles, brass ensembles, bands and soloists across
the country.
Web
site: www.nancybloomerdeussen.com
Sound File: Carmel
Barbara
Hero. Barbara
Hero is an artist, composer, musician and mathematician who has
devoted
many years to the understanding of and applications of the
secrets hidden
within the wisdom of the ancient Lambdoma Matrix.
Web Site: www.lambdoma.com
Daveed Korup. Daveed Korup hails from Charlotte,
NC and is a 45-year old percussionist/composer. His primary focus
has been the music of North Africa, the Middle East, and Central
Asia.
Since 1997 he has been the percussionist for the Eurasian
folk ensemble, Turku. Most recently he has been writing for dance and
children's
groups.
Web sites: www.drumfest.com
www.turkumusic.com
Eliana
Gilad. Eliana
Gilad is the founder of Voices of Eden, and is an acknowledged
international expert
in the field of conscious use of voice.
She performs, teaches and
lectures for international conventions and events and lives in
Israel. Voices
of Eden is the conscious use of voice and rhythm as a natural
healer,
such was used in ancient times.
It is used to release tension, improve
sleep and relax the listener. Eastern percussion and rhythm ground the body, voice releases tension. The
musicians of the Voices of Eden ensemble are Jewish, Arab and
Christian. They are a living example of peace in the Middle East.
Web Site: www.voicesofeden.com
Kobi
Hagoel, Kobi Hagoel is a
musician and actor born in 1962 living in Israel. He composes world
music, sings and plays Middle Eastern percussion, and is a
researcher as well as teacher of different styles of Middle Eastern percussion.
Web Site: http://www.pentagramweb.com
www.kavhatefer.com
Sanjeeb
Sircar - Sanjeeb is a 48-year old New Delhi-based sitar player, composer, and singer
of Indian classical, Christian, and jazz-fusion music.
Web Site: www.sanjeebsircar.com
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