Overcoming paralysis and silence through music

In Christian culture, Easter conveys ways of dealing with and overcoming suffering – through grace and compassion. In his epic poem Parzival, Wolfram von Eschenbach described a path of development. Contemporary musical compositions facilitate a soul experience of these qualities that can contribute to self-healing.

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Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival brings to light two aspects of the Grail Mystery: the Grail procession and the healing question. Parzival’s first experience of the Grail can be understood as a form of grace, whereas learning how to ask a question that will liberate the suffering of another requires inner activity - acquired wisdom. Not just Parzival, but most of us require years, if not a life time, to learn how to ask the right question, at the right time, for the right reason.

Silence may be wiser than asking a question that can further burden or re-traumatize an individual. Asking a question that validates and integrates human suffering as potential wisdom can lead to freedom. But the process will require sensitivity, insight and compassion, coupled with unconditional acceptance of the other.

Bringing the Grail to life

Rudolf Steiner explains how the arts can give us greater understanding and access to the mysteries in spiritual science. For three Grail conferences, music was composed for the art of eurythmy to reveal how the two arts complement each other. Composer Nigel Osborne acknowledges, “New music often requires many performances before the music can develop a fullness of being, but one performance of the same piece in eurythmy can bring the work to life immediately.”

Two examples of compositions for solo piano enact the marvel of the Grail Castle and the wisdom of the healing question in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival. Composer of Gralsstimmung (2010) [Grail mood] Howard Skempton explains: “Composers give form to emotions and the imagined circularity of a physical Grail is conveyed in the character and structure of the piece. Gralsstimmung reaches for light and space, also acknowledging the reality and completeness of the Grail itself.”

The composer imagines the Grail as a ‘universal concept’: “If I am excited by the ‘reality’ of the Grail, it is because I am excited by the challenge of ‘making it real’, by imagining even the most abstract concept as palpable.”

The soul reclaims her voice

Composed for a conference dedicated to life after genocide, Unfinished Memoirs (2012) by Nigel Osborne explores how music can speak to trauma and injustice - in the hope of redressing insufferable adversity. Nigel Osborne captures the spirit of the Grail for our time: his musical composition enacts how moments of compassion can restore wholeness of spirit. Parzival’s conscious ability to ask the healing question, “What ails thee?” is also present in the composer’s consciousness.

Nigel Osborne acknowledges how the act of trying to understand the feelings of the ‘other’ in music can contribute to the process of healing. In the composition, paralysis and silence are transformed into conscious healing. Unfinished Memoirs is not the voice of the composer, but what is concealed in each person he is listening to and listening for.

The music enacts how the soul can reclaim her voice from a place of paralysis and silence to conscious healing.

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