As a musician, I am touched by Steiner’s statement that what is musical is genuinely anthroposophical: the musical, experienced consciously, is experienced anthroposophically.1 The “musical” means the essence of music, in contrast to the materialistic nature of our times. If musical content is forced too rigidly into earthly, materialistic conditions, it loses its essence. Conversely, singing or making music means that the musical is embodied in a sound form: it needs an earthly body in order to be experienced in the present. How do I proceed as a musician in order to give a musical tone an earthly garment that can be reconnected to its supersensible essence?
Before I receive the tone, I begin listening. I open up my hearing attentiveness and experience silence, expanded attention. Like an encounter, the musical tone approaches me and I draw closer to it—we approach each other. Listening to it, I harken to what it wants to express in sound: initially from a remote, spiritual distance, then as a pulsing, soulful touch that reaches my physical body in music-making and then, in interaction with the body of the instrument, materializes the tone. The audible musical experience is created when the bow is pulled across the strings of the instrument. Listening ensures that the essence of the musical sound is not lost in the process of sound embodiment. Listening knows the source of the musical, its inaudible essence, and watches over the boundaries of its creation and passing away.
The experience of the musical is open to everyone. It is a living gateway to anthroposophy.
Photo Peter Dammann / Fotostiftung Schweiz
