The Whole Music Experience

By Patricia Herlevi Have you ever found yourself in a funk and didn't know how to transform or shift your mood? Finding the right music helps us to release a "negative" mood or shift it. After all, moods and music share vibrations in common. Here are a few suggestions to help you apply music to cathartic experiences. First thing you must know is to not suppress a mood or layer another mood on top of it. This reminds me of putting a band aid on a gaping wound. Second, know that moods pass and that all humans experience the spectrum of moods. Third, even though a mood doesn't feel good, it serves a purpose and has you tune into your mind-body-spirit so you can see what thoughts, feelings, or behaviors require a shift in consciousness. I have covered this topic previously on Whole Music Experience so some of these tips and music selections will sound repetitive to some of you. And I would never tell someone not to feel their sadness or anger because some times we...

San Francisco Symphony Michael Tilson Thomas Emanuel Ax (piano) Beethoven Symphony No. 5 and Piano Concerto No. 4 SFS Media/Harmonia Mundi If I had the chance to interview the late Joseph Campbell, I would have asked him about Beethoven’s 5th Symphony . After all, fate knocking at the door followed by a quest into darkness with the eventual emergence into triumph is what Campbell would have labeled, “a hero’s journey.” For Beethoven fate came knocking at the door alright. During the four years it took to write this short and powerful symphony, his hearing deteriorated, he suffered from a finger infection that could have destroyed his career (antibiotics weren’t discovered yet, infections could turn into gangrene…), the woman he loved married another man, and Napoleon occupied Vienna. And yet, the first movement that swayed under the weight of its anger and frustration, also supplies listeners with a few angelic interludes. But the strings burst in anger, the horns rant, a...

Gustavo Dudamel & Simòn Bolìvar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela Beethoven 5 & 7 Deusche Grammophon The connection between Venezuelan youth and Beethoven might not seem an obvious one at first. Imagine, a youth orchestra comprised of children once at-risk, but now leaving an impression on international classical music lovers. Conductor Gustavo Dudamel (25 years old at the time of this recording), revealed his connection to the Great German composer Ludwig van Beethoven in the liner notes. "As a six-year old, Gustavo Dudamel's favorite game was to line up his toy soldiers in orchestral formation to conduct them in an imaginary performance of Beethoven's 5th Symphony . By the time he was twelve, he was conducting his local youth orchestra. Two years later he had his own chamber orchestra. At 17, he became chief conductor of the Simòn Bolìvar Youth Orchestra…" According to the liner notes, Dudamel grew up in Barquisimeto, the capital of the state of Lara....