Dense Music of Bruckner & Wakeman

Anton Bruckner (1824-96) was an Austrian Catholic composer whose music, including nine symphonies was known for dissonances, unprepared modulations & roving harmonies. They were also very dense in their orchestrations. His name is also curiously linked with Haydn & Mozart in this way. Haydn dedicated his Symphony No.48 to the Empress of Austria, Marie Therese, which carries her name. She also reportedly took the infant Mozart on her lap, after one of his virtuosic performances. Bruckner, after a successful rehearsal of his fourth symphony, in 1881, presented a "Marie Therese Thaler" (a commemorative coin bearing her effigy) to Hans Richter, the conductor.

Similarly dense is the music of Rick Wakeman, (1949-) a classical, rock & jazz fusion musician. He was classically trained in the Royal College of Music & later was a member of "Yes", a progressive rock band. After that he started his solo career with a bang, recording "The Six Wives of Henry the VIII",(1973) giving the musical piçtures of the six unfortunate ladies! A later LP named "Criminal Record" gave sonic pictures of famous criminals. These were followed by more than 100 albums. More than six feet tall & with enormous hands spanning the keyboards, he is a virtuoso on the synthesizer.

Universality of the Gita

"For the protection of the righteous,

For the destruction of the wicked,

And for the establishment of Dharma,

I manifest Myself in every age."

Lord Krishna declares in Gita (4.8)

This statement need not be restricted to Hinduism. In the early part of the twentieth century, in Portugal,  the monarchy was overthrown & a de facto Police State was established which was anti-religious & prohibited priests & nuns from wearing their customary habiliments. They were also embroiled in the first world war.

In this predicament, a divine apparition, identifying herself as "The Lady of the Rosary" appeared to three shepherd children & talked to them. Even the local pastor did not believe them & the administration persecuted them. Only after a public miracle, were the authorities convinced & allowed the churches to open & continue their religious activities. However, two of the children died young as predicted by the apparition named Fatima, (a pseudonym of the Virgin Mary), ostensibly because of the then raging influenza epidemic.

To buttress the words of the Gita, the basilica of St.Fatima, which has become a bustling pilgrimage centre, is called the "The Shrine of the World." (St.Fatima having come down to alleviate the anarchy & authoritarianism then prevalent.)

Films about Inspirational Teachers

"To Sir, With Love" (1967) with Sidney Poitier battling rowdy boys in London East End & winning over their hearts, was a hit & was followed one month later by the release of the similar "Up The Down Staircase".

"Up The Down Staircase" (1967) with Sandy Dennis as the visionary teacher, dealt of with the indiscipline in a New York High School, which was gradually brought under control, by the teacher using classic English literature ("The Best of times....The worst of times") to instil a sense of values to the students.

Maggie Smith in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1969) was undoubtedly inspirational, but preaching too much freedom to her Scottish girl students in Edinburgh, led to one of her favourite girls to rebel against her.

Julia Roberts, teaching Art History in a Women's college in "The Mona Lisa Smile" (2003) encouraged her students to look at Art with new eyes. However, though popular with her students, she was unconventional enough to be shunted out by the college administration.

Extraordinary History of Ravi Shankar's Sitar Concerto No.1

When Andre Previn, an admirer of Ravi Shankar's music, was appointed as the principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra in 1968, he invited Ravi Shankar to compose a concerto for Sitar & Orchestra.

It was composed in two & a half months in 1970 & essentially the orchestra was used to play Indian Music. There is minimal counterpoint & harmony. There are four movements based on ragas Khamach, Sindhi Bhairavi, Adana & Manj Khamach. On seeing the first draft of the score, Andre Previn, who in spite of originating the project, never formed much of a bond with Ravi Shankar (like the later Zubin Mehta), began to have some reservations, some of which were resolved.

The premiere took place at the Royal Festival Hall on 28th January 1971. The reviews were mostly positive. The album was recorded at the end of May, & released with arguably the most attractive jacket of all Ravi Shankar's albums. Capitol Records claimed that "It sold like a pop record."

In a cruel twist of fate, the Western detractors were led by Andre Previn himself, (whose idea it was & who conducted it), who later said "The recording is absolute, total, utter s--t. I knew it was nonsense."

In India, in an article published with "The Hindu", dated 29th December 1996, Ustad Vilayat Khan fumed "Your soul will abuse you if you indulge in fusion with Western Orchestras."

In a final astonishing twist of fate, Anupama Bhagawat, a leading sitarist belonging to Ustad Vilayat Khan's Gharana, played this concerto with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra on May, 2022 & described her experience as "fabulous & great"!

Is Extinction the End Of Perfection?

In the Hindu Philosophy, Moksha or Liberation is stated as the goal of life. It also implies escape from the cycle of birth, death & rebirth, assuming the belief in reincarnation. That means the goal of life is to live in such a way as to have no rebirth or no life again. So, to sum up in an (oversimplified?) way, the goal of life is to have no further lives.

On further examination, this paradoxical idea can be applied to other activities also. The perfect law enforcement machinery should be able to ensure that people are naturally law abiding, rendering itself (law enforcement machinery) redundant!

In a perfect healthcare system, the population should be totally healthy & disease-free, rendering hospitals & doctors unnecessary.

Nowadays, it can be observed that both the above mentioned institutions have made themselves so complex & convoluted that one suspects them of becoming self-perpetuating, losing sight that they were initiated primarily to serve the people.

The Biblical saying "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5) also emphasises the spiritual value of being self-effacing & not being pushful in obtaining worldly goods or honours. (In monastic orders, being singular is "superbia", a cardinal sin.)

The current emphasis on having a low Carbon footprint also underscores the importance of being mindful of the earth's resources & being frugal.

In the field of cinema also, the success of the film editing process is complete when the viewer is completely unaware of the editing.

So one is tempted to generalise that the goal of any system is to tend to make itself extinct in the quest for perfection.

Charulata, a film in Sonata Form

It is reported that Satyajit Ray, a connoisseur of Western Classical Music, was continuously thinking of Mozart, while making the film. It may be interesting to analyse the film's structure in Sonata Form.

As is well known, Sonata form consists of an exposition, stating the first & second subjects, development (of secondary material, connected with the subjects) & a recapitulation. Here, Charulata (in her loneliness) may be the first subject. Her husband, Bhupati, who walks past her, immersed in his book, is NOT the second subject. However, it is his cousin, Amal, who arriving symbolically during a storm, is the second subject. Charu's brother Umapada & his wife Manda make up the household (as development material.)

After Umapada & Manda decamp with the money, Amal realises that he himself may rob Bhupathi of Charu's affections & leaves abruptly.

In the recapitulation section, the indifference of Bhupathi towards Charu (shown in the  exposition section), now enhanced by suspicions of Charu's perfidy) is represented by the hands of the couple frozen apart.

Dark Night of the Soul

John Bunyan, in his "The Pilgrim's Progress", mentions the obstacles the Pilgrim has to face in his journey to "The Celestial City." These are appropriately called "The Slough of Despond", "Giant Despair" & "The Valley of Humiliation."

The Spanish Mystic St. John of the Cross also mentioned the "Dark Night of the Soul" when the illumination of God is experienced but His presence is not yet felt.

St. Therese of Lisieux also experienced this dark night when she wrote "God permitted this thickest darkness to invade my soul whence the thought of heaven, up to then a thought so sweet, suddenly became a struggle & torment."

During the last days of Sri Ramakrishna's fatal illness, Narendra (later known as Swami Vivekananda) told 'M', the author of "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, that "There is no God. Even if Sri Ramakrishna tells me there is, it may be his hallucination." It should be remembered that by this time, Narendra was well ahead in the spiritual path & was also vouchsafed many spiritual experiences by his Guru.

Alice & The Graphic Novel

"What is the use of a book" thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?" 

In the 1865 book "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll, this sentence appears in the very first paragraph. Alice would have been delighted to see the popularity of the graphic novels in the twenty-first century, which contain nothing else but pictures & (brief) conversations in bubbles!

These reader-friendly versions of even notoriously difficult "classic" literature like the books of Proust & Virgil, have brought them to a vast new readership. Some like "To Kill A Mockingbird" have added a new primarily visual dimension to the story. These may serve as introductions to the full original versions, if the readers have been gripped by the graphic version.

So instead of bemoaning them as aberrations of the original works, they can be welcomed as a new gateway to the enthralling works of great literature.

Vamanavatara, Dido & St. Brigid

The fifth of the ten avatars of Vishnu was the Vamana Avatara, a dwarf. When King Bali had become too powerful, Vamana visited him & asked him for land, which he could cover in 3 paces. King Bali, noting his small size, granted the request. Vamana grew to a giant size, placed the first two steps on the earth & heavens & asked for the third. Bali offered his head & Vamana pushed him into the netherworld.

In Virgil's "Aeneid", Dido, fleeing from tyranny, asked King Iarbas for land which could be encompassed by an oxhide. On being granted the request, she cut the oxhide into thin strips, which laid end to end, encircled a nearby hill. (This is called an isoperimetric problem of enclosing maximum area within fixed boundaries.) She & her followers settled there.

The only female patron saint of the Irish, St. Brigid, (6th Century), asked King of Leinster for land to her convent. On the king's refusal, she prayed to God & smilingly asked the king for land which her cloak could cover. The unsuspecting king agreed & four of her nuns each took a corner of her cloak & began running in four different directions, the cloak magically stretching to cover a large area. The now horrified king begged her to call back her running nuns & promised her adequate land for her convent!

Love of Learning, the "Sine Qua Non" of Human Existence

Dr. Zena Hitz's "Lost in Thought" celebrates the Love of Learning as the essentially human condition. She traces the Christian Love of Learning to Mary, Mother of God. Mary was deeply learned in the Hebrew scriptures, studied the law & daily meditated on the prophets. So she understood the angel's message that she would bear a son as part of  God's plan for salvation.

Next Dr. Hitz writes about William Herschel & his sister Caroline, amateur astronomers of the eighteenth century. William was working as a music teacher in Bath, England. He developed a passion for star-gazing & building telescopes. After five years, he brought over his sister Caroline from Germany to housekeep & assist him. She had acquired some education against the wishes of her family. She took to astronomy like a fish to water. The siblings, after hard work, built a telescope from scratch & discovered Uranus in 1781.

She also cites Jonathan Rose's "The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes", where numerous cases of the effect of reading on people living in poverty are listed. A shoemaker's daughter, Mary Smith (b.1822) says, "I could follow Shakespeare, Dryden & Goldsmith fully & with delight."

In India also, the former President Abdul Kalam envisioned a "Knowledge Society." But we have become a "Start-Up" society to get rich quick!

Science, Law & Religion - Commonality

In Science, an empirical view is adopted based only on sensory observation & logic. In Law also, only eye-witness & other evidence is allowed, disregarding heresy & opinions.

Thomas Paine, in his "The Age of Reason" also argued that much of the Bible is believed based on heresy & hence (legally) not acceptable. He extended it to all organised religions. Swami Vivekananda also argued that the same criteria used in science should be applied to religion to test & accept it. Whenever his guru, Sri Ramakrishna told any thing, Swami Vivekananda (then known as Naren), would ask "Where is the evidence?" & accept his teachings only after satisfying himself of their rationality.

So even in matters of religion, if one is lucky to be contemporary of an enlightened soul & has access to him/her, it is better to examine them first hand & then accept their teachings only if they meet the criteria of Science & Law, rather than blindly believe in the Scriptures & Rituals. The phrase "Unbeliever", instead of being a derogatory term, can be viewed as a desirable term for any progress in the spiritual path.

Work Ethics - A Pragmatic View

It may be sacrilegious to mention at the outset, (in these times!) that work is NOT a necessity of life like food, clothing & shelter. If sufficient money is available, most would not contemplate  employment or even education for that matter. In a novel set in Regency England, Jane Austen's "Persuasion", Sir Walter Elliot considered any man who had to work for a living as practically a beggar.

Most manual work is hard & unpleasant. Most people tend to avoid it or do as little of it as possible. The only reason for doing it is to earn money to keep body & soul together. Even intellectual labour is avoided by most as famously quoted by the famous Dr.Samuel Johnson "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money."

It should also NEVER be forgotten that in the early days of the industrial revolution, poor men, women & even children were made to work as much as 18 hours a day. George Bernard Shaw writes in his "The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism & Fascism" that the factory employers were using up nine generations of workers in one generation, due to premature deaths of workers.

Probably anticipating this brutal exploitation of the poor workers by the idle rich capitalistic employers, St.Paul had said "If any one does not work, let him not eat." (2 Thessalonians 3:10.) Later, the Protestant reformer, Martin Luther had prioritised a Work Ethic, as exemplified in Max Weber's work on the subject, linking it to Capitalism. The 12th Century social reformer & religious leader, Basaveshwara of pKarnataka also emphasised that "Work is worship."

But the 19th Century Welsh visionary industrialist Robert Owen first espoused the 8 hour workday, with "8 HOURS WORK, 8 HOURS RECREATION & 8 HOURS REST each day." Here 8 hours of RECREATION/ DAY is to engage in active sports & cultural activities, which are BASIC HUMAN NEEDS. This 8 hour day was implemented  by the auto manufacturer Henry Ford, who found it increased productivity.

It may be noted that the "serial" entrepreneur Capt. Gopinath, in his memoirs, recollects one of his Generals exhorting his men to "Work hard, play harder & party hardest!" All the Europeans are gradually decreasing their work week, without reducing their productivity. Denmark, the home of Larsen & Toubro, has a 37 hours work week. France has a 35 hour work week.

Despite this earlier emphasis on work, Karl Marx & Freidrich Engels primarily espoused the cause of the workers by saying "Workers of the World, Unite", in their "The Communist Manifesto" (1848), following which even the known hard-working modern Communist state of China has a legal 8 hour day, 40 hour week.

Bertrand Russell wrote an essay "In Praise of Idleness" where he propagated a 4 hour workday. Josef Pieper, appalled at the workaholic post-war Germany, wrote "Leisure, the basis of Culture." Bernard Shaw's contemporary & fellow Fabian, the noted designer William Morris wrote an Utopian novel "News from Nowhere" where he imagined a place where work is done purely for pleasure.

It is ironic that while the "coloured" slavery of USA & economic slavery of UK (in the early days of industrialisation) have been abolished & International Labour Laws prohibit more than 8 hours/day, some Indian captains of Industry are blithely advocating a return to the dark ages of exploitation of workers for 14 hours & more, as if it is a patriotic duty.

In view of the aforesaid arguments, the utmost that pragmatism can expect from young patriotic Indians is that they stay to  work (as per ILO guidelines) in India & not emigrate to the developed West. Working inhuman hours to "build the Nation" can safely be left to the politicians & captains of industry, whose catchword it is, instead of hoisting it on to the poor shoulders of blue collar & white collar workers, who work only to get a living.

To conclude, exceeding ILO mandate of maximum 48 hours/week IS NOT AN OPTION.

Bibliography:

1. Austen, Jane: Persuasion
2. Basaveshwara: Vachanas
3. Boswell, James:  Life of Dr.Johnson
4. Ford, Henry: Moving Forward.
5. Luther, Martin: Ninety-five Theses
6. Marx, Karl: The Communist Manifesto.
7. Morris, William: News from Nowhere
8. Owen, Robert: A New View of Society.
9. Pieper, Josef: Leisure, The Basis of Culture
10. Russel, Bertrand: In Praise of Idleness
11. Shaw, George Bernard: The Intelligent  Woman's Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism & Fascism."
12. St.Paul: 2 Thessalonians 3:10
13. Weber, Max: The Protestant Ethic & The Spirit of Capitalism.

Newton's Third Law & Theory of Karma

Newton's Third Law states that for every action there is an equal & opposite reaction. If this applies to the physical world, the Hindu Law of Karma, (which is gaining traction in the Western world also now), states that humans have to reap the consequences of their actions, whether good or bad. Some even believe that the karma of any action is embedded in the action itself. 

Buddhism also subscribes to this belief. A story goes that during the Buddha's life, an person was punished for a crime of which he was innocent. When the Thathagata was asked about it, he replied "It is his "Kamma" (Karma) because he had escaped punishment for a heinous crime in an earlier life, he is paying for it in this life, even though he is innocent in this life."

More recently also such a situation happened. A very popular spiritual leader, credited with saving many lives, was asked about it. He also said "Yes, I am also aware that he is innocent now, but he had escaped punishment for his bad deeds in a previous life, so he is paying for it now."

The rich & famous may hire clever unscrupulous lawyers to escape the human law, but the Divine law will inevitably catch up with them, sooner or later.

Two Curious Cases of Vanished Ladies

The first story is quite well known because it was filmed by Hitchcock in 1938 under the title "The Lady Vanishes." It was based on a novel called "The Wheel Spins" by Ethel Lina White. A young woman travelling in the Balkans becomes friendly with a middle aged English governess. During the train journey, the governess vanishes & the people who had seen her with the young woman all deny having seen her (for their own reasons). A young man helping the young woman finds out that the "governess" is an English spy returning home with vital information, who is kidnapped by the enemy powers & masqueraded as a patient with facial bandages. However she is unmasked & returns home safe.

The second story is not so well known. It is "The Room on the Fourth Floor" by Ralph Straus. A mother & daughter returning to England make a stopover in Paris. Because of the rush due to the Paris Expo of 1900, they are allotted two single rooms on different floors. The daughter sleeps for four hours due to tiredness & afterwards, finds her mother's room empty & she missing. Everyone, including the cab driver & hotel staff, insist that she arrived alone. Bewildered, she returns to England & has an attack of brain fever which proves fatal.

What really happened was that the mother rang for the maid soon after arrival, & the maid arrived & found her dead. The doctor when summoned, found she had died of Bubonic Plague. Any leak of such news would be catastrophic during the Expo. So the Government went into overdrive, destroyed all evidence of the mother's arrival & bribed all witnesses to deny her existence & successfully hushed up the matter.

Concept of "i" in Mathematics & God

The symbol "i" in mathematics is defined as the solution to the quadratic equation x squared +1=0. It is the "imaginary" number, square root of -1. Though it is imaginary, it is a necessary mathematical tool to extend the range of real numbers R to the complex numbers C, which contains both real & imaginary numbers, a simple example of C  being 2+3i. 

The concept of an "imaginary" quantity being deemed necessary is also the foundation of spirituality as God, for most people is intangible i.e., not normally perceived through the senses. But Saints of all religions say that human life (like complex numbers!) is incomplete without God. An additional dimension is that human ego instead of being capital "I" (as per grammar) should be diminished to "i" (small "i") to take one towards God & make him real, not imaginary!

So an ideal human life should be like a complex number, with a real (worldly) component + an imaginary (read spiritual) component).

Need for parental love & care even for adults

The immortal Jane Austen magisterially proclaimed that "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." An opposing viewpoint, typically Asian, has been triumphantly proclaimed by Sri. Ishwarachandra, the celebrated & award winning Kannada author, in one of his stories, later turned into an award winning film. 

The protagonist is a successful architect, who has lost both his parents at an early age. His mentor at work, a father-figure, also dies suddenly. The architect sinks into depression & is advised to adopt elderly parents from an old people's home as a therapy. He does so & recovers. Later he marries his friend's sister, after making sure that she is also happy to live with his adopted parents. When he is away on a business trip, she faints in the bathroom due to the onset of pregnancy & is rescued from mortal peril by the resident (adopted) parents-in-law. Later the baby arrives. Meanwhile the real son of the elderly man, who had abandoned him, accidentally meets him & invites him to come back to him. The father refuses, saying that the bonds of love are stronger than those of DNA.

This story & film successfully challenge the two stereotypes accepted as normal now. One the obsession with dating girlfriends being the top priority for young men, ignoring their duty to care for their parents & secondly the consequent proliferation of old age homes, which, the kind-hearted manager of one himself says are a shame on our society.

Minimalist Audio System Design in the 21st Century

When Vinyl LP records appeared in the middle of the twentieth century, hifi audio separates also followed soon after. The minimum requirements were a turntable with a magnetic cartridge (& diamond stylus), a pre-amplifier to boost the signal voltage of about 5mV of the magnetic cartridge to about 100 mV required by the audio amplifier & a pair of good loudspeakers.

But by the time the Vinyl revival took place in the twenty first century, technology had progressed. Now many turntables have a built-in pre-amplifier, so that their output can be plugged straight to a power amplifier, bypassing the earlier separate pre-amplifier.

Also Active Speakers have appeared, which have a built-in power amplifier to drive them. So even the power amplifier can be by-passed & in an application of minimalist design, a turntable with a built-in pre-amplifier can be hooked up straight to a pair of active speakers to enjoy hifi music.

Also earlier, speakers had to be large to deliver good sound quality. Just as micro-chips have miniaturised circuitry, labyrinths, bass ports & wave-guide technologies have made tiny loudspeakers deliver room-filling sound, covering most of the audio spectrum.

So all these have provided listeners in the twenty-first century, even those with limited spaces (& budgets), access to hifi music.