Theosophy and the Society in the Public Eye

The ELEGANCE of MUSIC

The ELEGANCE of MUSIC

A photo series by David M. Grossman

Some things you can do with music:

YOU CAN … compose it – play it – direct it – perform it – sing it – rehearse it – listen to it – watch it – look at it – study it – and most importantly …

 … it’s all interwoven with elegance:

“the quality of being graceful and stylish in appearance or manner; style, vibration or refined energy” 

Public Eye b

“A painting is music you can see and music is a painting you can hear” – Miles Davis

Public Eye c

“I think in music there is just something inherently spiritual in singing together and harmonizing, and gospel is the truest form of that.” –  Luke Pritchard

Public Eye d

“There is a man, playing a violin, and the strings are the nerves in his own arm.” –  James O’Barr

Public Eye e

“Music creates order out of chaos: for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous.”  – Yehudi Menuhin

Public Eye f

“Good conductors know when to let an orchestra lead itself. Ninety percent of what a conductor does comes in the rehearsal – the vision, the structure, the architecture.” – Joshua Bell

Public Eye g  

“I love to hear a choir. I love the humanity... to see the faces of real people devoting themselves to a piece of music. I like the teamwork. It makes me feel optimistic about the human race when I see them cooperating like that.” –  Paul McCartney

Public Eye h

“The conductor of an orchestra doesn’t make a sound. He depends, for his power, on his ability to make other people powerful.” – Benjamin Zander

Public Eye i

You can’t play a symphony alone, it takes an orchestra to play it.” – Navjot Singh Sidhu

Public Eye j

“The only thing better than singing is more singing.” – Ella Fitzgerald

 Public Eye k

“I started studying music at the age of five and a half. My older sister was taking piano lessons. When her teacher left our apartment, I would get up on the piano bench and start picking out the notes that were part of my sister’s lessons” – Marvin Hamlisch

 

All photos © David M. Grossman         

David M. Grossman is a regular contributor to Theosophy Forward, a lifelong student of Theosophy, a professional photographer and lives with his wife, daughter and his dog Pluto, in New York.