"What is obvious to some is improbable to others."
The author
Dear friends:
I want to write a little about what urged me to create my own site and place on it my works, mainly in digital format.
Also, I would like to offer some information about me as a musician.
Fortunately, today we are blessed not only with concert halls, but also with the Internet and a variety of remarkable software for composers. This software, as time goes by, becomes better and more perfect. A mere decade ago I wouldn't have risked placing my music for listening in the Internet. Now, however, one can find in the 'net Sibelius 5 (plus a lot more), whose instruments sound quite well, adequately conveying the music, without jarring to the ear.
We hear very little, if at all, of modern composers' music and we don't know their names for reasons I don't wish to dwell on since this is sufficiently covered both by the mass media and the Internet.
Nor will I mention the culture level of the population geographically scattered across our country. This, I believe,
is the prime reason of the current state of things and I have a firm opinion about that, presuming it to be still somewhat higher than on the Polynesian islands before their colonization by the Brits. For all that we shouldn't plunge into depression but should try to improve ourselves.
Down to the basics. I imagine, I have loved music since my birth and as long as I remember myself. At least, my parents and the communal apartment neighbors assert so.
Music played in me all the time, be it music I heard in the outer world, or the music I memorized, or the music on my mind. Simultaneously, I was irresistibly enthralled by the mystery of those wondrous moments when it occurred within me. Over time, this mystery merged with two others, that also intrigued me, the mysteries of life and death. These three mysteries have led me, a prodigal son of forty years, to churching.
Christ's church helped me decode or explain the emotions that racked my weak soul and tormented my mind all through my lifetime. It also defined music for me as a creative effort closest to prayer.
I want to warn from the outset that I judge as a practicing churchgoer, which is why – if you don't understand something – you can write me a letter with your inquiries and send it to the address I supply. I’ll do my best to answer them as well as I can.
Of course, the creation of music in a man is different from a prayer in that this process is not as deep as silent praying. A prayer seeks to address the Lord and its completion is unification with Him (which happens through the agency of the Holy Spirit). As this occurs the prayer leaves no images for the worshipper and rules over time. It snatches the worshipper out of time and leads him out of еру created space, turning the man by its action into an eternal companion to the Lord, which is why this is a pure, spiritual and religious ("religare" means to link, to establish connection) event that belongs only to one person and cannot be relayed to another.
Music, as a given of virtue, is born beyond time and in silence. It bears its imprint, which relates it (music) to the prayer in terms of image-bearing expression, and converts into a complete piece of work. It operates in time and is handed over to other people, in which case it occasionally can, be it even in a small measure, bring this spark of the Lord to those able to accept it. Thus, acting via an image, it belongs to culture ("culture" means to bring up, to rear) or to the sphere of sensual perception.
Simply put, a creative image is a grant of God's touch, a keepsake of His love and proximity, whereas the prayer turns the man himself into the image. Or, if you please, the prayer, as an act of "religion" leads directly to a face-to-face contact whereas music, as an act of culture, works as a mediator and educator, gradually preparing a person for "religion", bringing to it, and then going together with it.
Heaven indefatigably toils over the hard earthly mass, trying to raise the man to another original celestial arrangement lost by Adam. It incessantly reminds him of his destiny contained in the meaning of this word itself – man (ávθpωπoς – arthrop). Not without their involvement the religion emerged, as a product of man's long search for the lost link with the Creator. Also with their help, and by virtue of human weakness, the culture arose, stemming from religion and operating by means of symbols or, as we say, via artistic images as a conductor of spiritual enlightenment and cultivation.
Of course, artistic images (musical ones in my case) do not produce an effect of the prayer and are presented as "a more digestible food", which gradually raises the man to the world's supreme creative endeavor, i.e. the prayer.
A prayer never asks for somebody's attention for itself. On the contrary, it calls for solitude and quiet which can't be said of culture actions pointed at the public at large for which purpose it is, actually, designed. This is what makes the difference between culture and "religion", between life in prayer and life in artistic creations. In no way do I wish to belittle here the importance of culture. Like any other person I am in a way raised by and belong to it. I only wish to remind that a man, as a holder of this high title, can't live exclusively off the culture interests for once he gets enough of them, he invariably continues the search for deeper "realities" beyond the bounds of art and culture, i.e. he starts to live a real life. Therefore we must impartially estimate the extent and place of a specific message given to this sinful world of ascending steps and keep in mind that nothing in the world has been, is, or will be above God.
But let's return to the music we spoke about. Back to the affinity with prayer.
The language is music is incorporeal and non-verbal, unlike, for instance, that of poetry which features the signs of music, but is still closely linked to words. As for music, it is not linked to any specific notion, which makes it into pure abstraction. This is the world's most abstract of languages. True, there's another very abstract language, mathematics, but it operates through the mind, is accessible not to all, and cannot reach the heart as music does. It can instantly embrace practically every more or less sensually susceptible person, enfolding him so tightly, so enthralling his mind and soul and through their agency captivating the body, converting them all into one, that this virtually equates to a sincere and heart-felt prayer.
To be sure, not all music can produce this effect and the message it conveys will, of course, vary. Its depth and strength stem from the author's talent and abilities, but if this is divine music from above, it will, in all its glittering fashion, penetrate, captivate, amaze, cleanse and remind of areas pretty far from things practical and mundane…
In this, I believe, is the essence of any art, music in particular.
In art I have always been attracted to people who love life. And life is "MY BEING" and My Lord along with people who build personal relationship with Him and gain experience in doing so which they may express in artistic endeavors. This experience of their mutual love, afforded by the Maker, generated by and attractively leading to Him, will always find people who can understand and accept it.
Sometimes, this experience may have nothing to do with church. However, as a reflection of Divine beauty and harmony, i.e. celestial and mundane phenomena, it contributes, if only indirectly, to attraction, purification and soul's communion with the spiritual spheres. The samples of such experience are, of course, the best works of Bach, Sweelinck, Vivaldi, Bruckner and many other composers of different times, including Russian ones. Of the modern authors, I can only mention Arvo Pärt.
Also, it should be noted that such samples (as well as their authors) are once-off products, few and far between, and not encountered frequently in a given work where they can, crop up just sporadically, which, against all odds, makes them particularly dear to a thankful listener.
In this brief deliberation I touched upon, in passing, the religious aspect of my works. I think, however, that expressly this aspect is what gives birth to all genuine arts, including music.
Concluding our conversation, I address myself to the listeners and co-thinkers among producers, performing teams and foundations. I will be happy to meet interested people who enjoy my works and who are prepared for serious cooperation.
Composer Alexander Neduev.