Tag: sound healing

Music for Difficult Days

Posted on February 28, 2014 by - Columns

Plot Twist
It seems like Mother Nature is on a tear this winter, what with polar vortexes, thundersnow, drought, flood, fire—you name it. And it’s still February! Piled on top of weather drama, it seems like a lot of people—at least those in my various spheres of life—are getting unusually hammered by personal trials and tribulations of assorted shapes and sizes.

Turning to music for comfort and solace is not a subject that is talked about much—not out loud, at any rate—in our community, even though it is a perfectly natural inclination, and something that many of us engage in regularly. One’s listening choices can radically transform in the face of extreme stress, anger, grief, or whatever the dominant emotion of the moment might be. I know that for myself, music that I normally adore can become intolerable under such circumstances, and that every situation begs a slightly different soundtrack. Sometimes no soundtrack at all, but rather focused attention to the sounds around me, is what is most needed to promote a sense of peace and balance.

I’ve seen and heard some serious scorn from the new music community directed at the tendency for listeners to gravitate towards music that is familiar, rather than music that is new. An understandable bother, given that we are usually focused on whatever music is new and shiny, and we want to share the energy around that! However, I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t have sounds they gravitate towards again and again in general and, when life is under a strain, it’s pretty normal to reach for a familiar anchor. As it turns out, nostalgia like this can even serve to facilitate creativity. That is one of the magical things about music—it is basically just vibrations of air that can affect us at a very deep level. Whether it’s your selection of “desert island music,” sounds to provide counterpoint against a tough day, or to blow off steam to, or to facilitate crying in your beer, it has an impact.
This is not at all to say that new sounds—or the act of creating new sounds—can’t be comforting and/or rejuvenating. It’s that minds under emotional strain behave differently, and let’s face it: emotional strain is increasingly part of life on planet earth. I wonder what would happen if more composers held that in their awareness during their creative processes?
Here is some music I search out when life gets complicated. What about you?

Paul Rudy: Life Improvisations

Posted on December 19, 2013 by - Conversations, Spotlight


Composer Paul Rudy takes to heart the idea that “nature’s wisdom follows the path of least resistance.” Although he knew this intuitively in his early “pre-composer” days as a self-described “mountaineer, carpenter, and vagabond,” it took time and plenty of experimentation in order to integrate the concept into his artistic life. But despite what many may consider a very late start (he did not compose his first piece until he was 26 years old), once he found his stride, he has more than compensated for lost time with a large and ever-expanding catalog of electronic, electroacoustic, and instrumental works that have earned him numerous composer golden eggs such as the Rome Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He currently holds the position of Curator’s Professor at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, where he has taught since 1999.

After years of wrestling with his composing process, Rudy had a breakthrough with the piece Degrees of Separation, for amplified cactus. (Yes, you read that right—cactus.) Realizing the folly of attempting to notate musical directions for a cactus, he threw away his score paper and created a graphic text score that left ample room for improvisation, and he considers it one of his most successful pieces. Two years later, during a residency at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, he had a transformative experience composing In lake’ch, a long-form electronic composition, which took shape quickly and without the struggle he had become accustomed to, as a result of taking a fully improvisational approach to the composing process. He remembers, “All along I had this information that was whispering, ‘Do this. Try this. Work this way.’ And when I did that, it was being affirmed by the world… If I don’t hear something, it’s because I’m not listening, because I’m not paying attention. I’m not attending to what’s going on around me.”

A page from Seven Spiritual Laws of Life: Guided solo or group meditations for any instruments or voices and fixed media by Paul Rudy. Used with permission.

A page from Seven Spiritual Laws of Life: Guided solo or group meditations for any instruments or voices and fixed media by Paul Rudy. Used with permission.

And he is walking his talk; active listening and intuition play vital roles not only in his composing process, but also in his work as an educator and performer. One of the courses Rudy teaches at UMKC is a mandatory improvisation for composers class that emphasizes listening skills and hones the ability to perform spontaneously within a group setting. After sitting in on two sessions, I can say for a fact that the performances I heard—which were primarily by undergraduate students—were some of the most nuanced, and sonically compelling improvisations that I’ve heard by any musicians in a long time. Rudy is also passionate about exploring the healing power of sound, and his performances now incorporate his own overtone singing, as well as improvisational material that delves into the meditative and therapeutic qualities of sound.

Following intuition has served Rudy well, and he continues to follow those quiet whisperings. He has started a monthly sound healing circle in Kansas City. He is particularly excited about the new quartz singing bowls that he plans to include in those events and in his own performances. He is completing a film score that will be premiered in the spring of 2014. When he is not teaching composition and electronic arts at UMKC, he can be found on his farm outside Kansas City. He might be hunkered in his electronic music studio, or chopping wood outside, but regardless, he’s always committed to listening.