Sunday, July 23, 2006
Was bouncing back and forth between reading a collection of Quaker essays and correspondence called The Lamb's War (which does not include James Naylor's essay of the same name) and a book by jazz piano phenom Kenny Werner -- Effortless Mastery. I re-read bits of Werner's book on a regular basis, and it is an inspiration and an excellent guide to any improvisational musician who wants to set aside their intellectual baggage and play emotively in the moment. Players who can do this can actually leave the listener in a state of spiritual elation and uplift, according to Werner, and this should be the ultimate goal of a true musician.
Werner stresses that in order to do this, we must draw from a deep spiritual well, and must restrict our playing to that which we have absolute physical mastery of. Playing the notes or patterns of notes become autonomous activities, and we can focus our minds on listening to the other players around us and interacting with them. A certain amount of spiritual strength is necessary to believe that the limited amount of skill we have allows us to play the "right stuff," and not second-guess ourselves, robbing our music of the power that confidence brings. The ability to move people with music comes not from the intellect, according to Werner, but from our ability to step aside and allow the music to channel itself through us.
The Lamb's War, frankly, is growing on me slowly, as its format is a bit disjointed and like an hors d'oeuvre, is meant to be nibbled instead of consumed in a single sitting. But there is an excellent essay on the early spiritual life of George Fox. In "The Pre Pendle-Hill Spirituality of George Fox," Alan L. Kolp culls Fox's Journal for insight on Fox's keen early awareness of his spiritual need. This innate hunger for meaning and for God -- that inward Light -- let Fox see that others around him were deadening and distracting themselves with other things when they should be opening their condition to Christ, the Inward Free Teacher. Christ had come to teach his people himself! We could have the same relationship with Him as did the disciples -- a true return to early Christianity.
So what is the connection between these two texts? Why are they thus lumped together? I suspect there might be a point here, let's see ...
Fox saw the Lord not in those who studied at seminary, or those who "professed" religion but did not practice it in their hearts. Werner stresses that it is not an intellectual study of great players and that allows us to communicate spiritual truth with music, but the ability to limit ourselves -- to build our skill up and strip our playing down to the point where we need not think about it. There are certainly well-educated players with advanced degrees whose playing has no impact on an audience. Sometimes in the moment, self-doubt and intellect even interrupts the performance and sabotages the academic player's performance even on a technical level. The mind must yield, the body must surrender, to the beatific heart which shines out over all.
There are also many individuals who have advanced seminary degrees, can quote scripture ad nauseum and are called pastor or minister or reverend. They wear fancy robes and collars, and address their Followers each week in a church not of the Lord but a church made with human hands. But do they move the spirit? Do they direct people to the well of Eternal Life, or are they just moving air with their lungs, loosing meaningless words into a cavernous space?
Fox, on the other hand, came to ministry not by vocation but by a calling, and felt moved by God to share his revelations on the world. Fox's revelations were certainly not intellectual, and his physical self had to be internally crucified to allow himself to become a vessel for the Lord. In George Fox's Journal, we repeatedly see situations where the "priests" challenge him, but fail in their confidence in the moment. Sometimes they do not show up at the venue of the planned debate, and other times they simply do not rise to the occasion with a credible front as Fox uses scripture to prove that hireling ministry and institutions are against the spirit and letter of the scriptures, and that the Kingdom of God has come and is coming!
Whether we are reading the scriptures, delivering vocal ministry, or playing an instrument it is this shining soul drenched with Christ that must reign supreme. Werner outlines that it is not important for a jazz trumpeter to play like Dizzy Gillespie -- or a piano player to play like Thelonius Monk did (how could anyone get away with playing the dissonant stuff that Monk did -- THAT takes confidence) -- rather it is important to FEEL like Gillespie FELT -- TO FEEL like Monk FELT. Talking about the Kingdom or pronouncing words about the Kingdom is not the same as living in the Kingdom.
It is not important that we know every bit of scripture -- but it is critical that we consume and digest the scriptures necessary to sustain us, and incorporate them in our lives the way a musician incorporates a scale or arpeggio in their playing. It is not important that we believe as the Disciples believed. But it is crucial that we feel the way the disciples felt, that we open ourselves to the Lord as did the prophets and allow God to make us his Instruments on earth.
We must play skillfully with a joyful noise until the Lord!
http://www.carm.org/kjv/Psalms/Psalm_98.htm
Werner stresses that in order to do this, we must draw from a deep spiritual well, and must restrict our playing to that which we have absolute physical mastery of. Playing the notes or patterns of notes become autonomous activities, and we can focus our minds on listening to the other players around us and interacting with them. A certain amount of spiritual strength is necessary to believe that the limited amount of skill we have allows us to play the "right stuff," and not second-guess ourselves, robbing our music of the power that confidence brings. The ability to move people with music comes not from the intellect, according to Werner, but from our ability to step aside and allow the music to channel itself through us.
The Lamb's War, frankly, is growing on me slowly, as its format is a bit disjointed and like an hors d'oeuvre, is meant to be nibbled instead of consumed in a single sitting. But there is an excellent essay on the early spiritual life of George Fox. In "The Pre Pendle-Hill Spirituality of George Fox," Alan L. Kolp culls Fox's Journal for insight on Fox's keen early awareness of his spiritual need. This innate hunger for meaning and for God -- that inward Light -- let Fox see that others around him were deadening and distracting themselves with other things when they should be opening their condition to Christ, the Inward Free Teacher. Christ had come to teach his people himself! We could have the same relationship with Him as did the disciples -- a true return to early Christianity.
So what is the connection between these two texts? Why are they thus lumped together? I suspect there might be a point here, let's see ...
Fox saw the Lord not in those who studied at seminary, or those who "professed" religion but did not practice it in their hearts. Werner stresses that it is not an intellectual study of great players and that allows us to communicate spiritual truth with music, but the ability to limit ourselves -- to build our skill up and strip our playing down to the point where we need not think about it. There are certainly well-educated players with advanced degrees whose playing has no impact on an audience. Sometimes in the moment, self-doubt and intellect even interrupts the performance and sabotages the academic player's performance even on a technical level. The mind must yield, the body must surrender, to the beatific heart which shines out over all.
There are also many individuals who have advanced seminary degrees, can quote scripture ad nauseum and are called pastor or minister or reverend. They wear fancy robes and collars, and address their Followers each week in a church not of the Lord but a church made with human hands. But do they move the spirit? Do they direct people to the well of Eternal Life, or are they just moving air with their lungs, loosing meaningless words into a cavernous space?
Fox, on the other hand, came to ministry not by vocation but by a calling, and felt moved by God to share his revelations on the world. Fox's revelations were certainly not intellectual, and his physical self had to be internally crucified to allow himself to become a vessel for the Lord. In George Fox's Journal, we repeatedly see situations where the "priests" challenge him, but fail in their confidence in the moment. Sometimes they do not show up at the venue of the planned debate, and other times they simply do not rise to the occasion with a credible front as Fox uses scripture to prove that hireling ministry and institutions are against the spirit and letter of the scriptures, and that the Kingdom of God has come and is coming!
Whether we are reading the scriptures, delivering vocal ministry, or playing an instrument it is this shining soul drenched with Christ that must reign supreme. Werner outlines that it is not important for a jazz trumpeter to play like Dizzy Gillespie -- or a piano player to play like Thelonius Monk did (how could anyone get away with playing the dissonant stuff that Monk did -- THAT takes confidence) -- rather it is important to FEEL like Gillespie FELT -- TO FEEL like Monk FELT. Talking about the Kingdom or pronouncing words about the Kingdom is not the same as living in the Kingdom.
It is not important that we know every bit of scripture -- but it is critical that we consume and digest the scriptures necessary to sustain us, and incorporate them in our lives the way a musician incorporates a scale or arpeggio in their playing. It is not important that we believe as the Disciples believed. But it is crucial that we feel the way the disciples felt, that we open ourselves to the Lord as did the prophets and allow God to make us his Instruments on earth.
We must play skillfully with a joyful noise until the Lord!
http://www.carm.org/kjv/Psalms/Psalm_98.htm
