This past Thursday night John and I went to the NYC Philharmonic performance of Missa Solemnis by Beethoven. I believe it was seventy minutes long with three one minute breaks. There really are no words to describe hundreds of people completely coordinated, playing classical music together while several different harmonies sing "Lord have Mercy on Us." The reality of the music and its capabilities to effect the soul, person, and the community was overwhelming. The most incredible part to me is the beginning before the piece begins. All the musicians are practicing specific parts and tuning. This sounds utterly chaotic (but beautiful in itself), and then the assistant conductor stands up to tune and they all snap to attention and come together in tune within 5 seconds. Instantly the atmosphere changes from individual sounds bouncing all over the place into one wave/wall of the same note. It appears that the most important aspect of this coming together for the musicians is the present of a leader. The conductor and assistant conductors are bold enough and experienced enough to just pop up in front of 100 plus colleagues and represent uniformity with their presence for the sake of something beautiful.
The Philharmonic offers such a simple image of the importance of leadership and following leadership; no beautiful symphonies could be made without the woman or man who stands up to signal the coming together of each instrument and musician. At the same time each musician has their part, their music, and their job, which is to read their part and play their instrument, which is their individual offering to the greater piece. And, of course, without the conductor whose wand moves up and down keeping rhythm like a metronome, it would be impossible for them to all stay together, literally, because they can't see or hear the entire orchestra, especially in the Philharmonic because there are so many instruments.
Why are we such beings that we have to work together in order to accomplish great things? In the past people have described this era as one of individuality, but presently it seems that we are attempting to recover a more communal approach to life, tasks, and even ideology. There is the desire to be able to come together to play our one part in a greater scheme. Community is a movement. Communes are everywhere and intentional communities are being built in urban, suburban, and rural areas.
Communities can be powerful, but are we willing to trust that large community with an agenda can accomplish something good? What if someone had the talent to orchestrate a world wide movement against the manufacture and marketing of any kind of weapons designed to kill human beings. Maybe it would require each individual to stick very specifically to their one talent over several years as this resistance and movement grew and acted. I noticed in the Philharmonic that few musicians were very young, all had have decades of practice at the same instrument. I can imagine that it may become boring, but when you see their faces playing a sacred and beautiful peice like the Missa Solemnis you know that it is this moment of action and performance where they are able to know that their music makes an impact on others for good....this is why, it has to be. Maybe money can persuade people to be passionate about music, but it appears to be much deeper than that.
My question is with-in our new technologically inter-connected global climate, can we orchestrate and organize ourselves to accomplish a movement of peace that could effect the entire world even with our strong sense of individuality? What kind of leader/s would we need? We are afraid of individuals with too much power because of what our grandparents have experienced with the wars and hitler. There just seems to be too much at stake when a large large group of people trust one leader. We have no trust for "one man" (certainly not one 'woman').
Christians trust Jesus, and until his return mostly believe that he is the only entity that can truly usher in a world of peace without destruction and killing. I do believe though, that there will be some sort of mass global movement to end the destruction of lives, and if it is to be coordinated, it will be by the orchestration of one individual or one institution acting as a sole conductor. The intention will be to save human lives. in the mean time, it may jerk the world to attention getting us all in tune, but will the person or institution lead us through the right song? and will the church follow or resist.
The end of my futuristic musings
Sunday, June 27, 2010
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