> Are there traditions of "religious" music (quotes
> because the extent
> to which zen is a religion is an open question) that
> deliberately
> don't involve any opportunity for an audience?
Hi BJ
In the Tibetan tradition, many of the rituals are
accompanied by music. I don't think we can say that
they DELIBERATELY don't involve any opportunity for an
audience. Of course the laity can often hear the
rituals, and some of them are specifically attended by
laity. Whether they are an "audience? Not in the
ordinary sense perhaps. But their presence may have
affected the development of the music.
However, I find the "music", if we can cal it that,
not like usual music. Not entertainment. It has a
different function I feel. And I feel it is
inseperable from the ritual itself. That is,
inseperable from the text being read, which in turn is
often the explanation of the visualization which the
practitioners (monks nuns or lay practitioners) are
carrying out. And the motivations and mental movements
they are going through. So the music seems to
facilitate that. The booming bass of the big drum, or
the sudden clash of the symbols dispersing all
discursive thought. Or the somewhat abstract melodies
of the oboes, with their other-worldly patterns. They
don't have worldly aims, that's the thing. They are
guiding the mind in somehow non-mundane ways. I feel.
And, that's why it'sd so difficult to "translate". In
the west, we don't need to copy the Tibetan music! We
don't need to use the Tibetan instruments! For our
religious practise I mean. The Tibetans didn't copy
the Indian! They developed their own stuff! However,
not so simple. We could try to make our own of course,
but it is so delicate. Use our egos, and we make
ego-music. That's the diffculty. So, maybe you need an
enlightened composer to really accomplish that task.
In the meantime, people generally just go with what
the Tibetan's already developed. Seems fair enough.
I could think of paralells with this and Honkyoku
perhaps.
> Even given the meditation aspects of suizen, can one
> play without a
> sense of "audience"? That is, without taking into
> consideration all
> of the surrounding environment?
My thought would be that audience could indeed
disappear. Does that mean not taking into
consideration all of the surrounding environment? I
think a panoramic awareness could be nice, no? But
maybe that kind of open awareness, which might finally
allow for both awareness of the "other", but not
necessarily in terms of "other". That is, that the
distinction might be allowed to drop away. In that
sense, I think there is no "audience". No "gap". So I
think that that becomes different from a performance
as such. Would that be when "sui" and "zen" are one?
Justin.
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