The Whole Music Experience

Conversation with German Early Music Specialist Klaus Miehling After I posted an announcement for music awareness interviews on the Linked In group Music and Emotions, German composer/musicologist/musician (harpsichord and vocals), Klaus Miehling contacted me. I know Klaus briefly from my interaction with this fascinating group where musicians discuss how music affects the brain, nervous system, and ignites our emotions. Klaus comes from the realm of Early Music, but he also composes music for modern instruments (as well as early music instruments). He did his undergraduate studies at Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in the 1980s and he earned his Doctorate (musicology and art history) at the University of Freiburg, where he currently resides. He is the author of several books and 250 compositions for historic and modern instruments. Whole Music Experience : With so much awareness now with brain science and music or musical effects on our physical, mental, and emotional ...

Around 2003, I turned away from my freelance gig as a movie reviewer/journalist and I experienced world music pulling me into greater consciousness. And while I was awakening, scientists were exploring music consciousness, musicians explored the music connection with non-humans, and music therapy grew by leaps and bounds bringing healing to prisons, hospitals, hospices, and other situations to heal despair. Let's revisit some of the profound awakenings we experience in previous years and decades revolving around the healing power of music. Around 2005, we discovered Masaru Emoto's work with water crystals and human consciousness via music. And around the same time various well-known sound healers were exploring the ancient practices with sound and music. Meanwhile, the connection between quantum physics and music fused with the work of metaphysical teachers and authors such as Greg Braden. I launched this blog in 2007 and mostly reviewed recordings that I felt played ...

World   Newpoli   Tempo Antico   Beartones     My first impressions of the Italian Tarantata folkloric tradition came from grainy video footage of Italian women spinning in a trance caused by the bite of a tarantula spider. I experienced my second impression of Tarantata when Alessandra Belloni’s Dance of the Ancient Spider (Sounds True) showed up in my mailbox in 2006.   At that point, I gleaned the wisdom of the true purpose of this ancient ritualistic dance and the rousing songs that accompanied the frenzied dance (to heal women’s sexual issues and repression).   While the dance and songs explore healing components, you can also find the tradition presented as folkloric music in concerts and on recordings.   The founding members of Newpoli explored their Italian culture after arriving in the US to study jazz at Berklee College of Music.   On their third recording Tempo Antico , the musicians travel as far ba...

World   The Ultimate Guide to Spanish Folk   Compilation Arc Music I have known for several years about the diverse folk music traditions coming from the provinces of Spain.   From the haunting strains of Galician Celtic fare to the fiery strums of Andalusian flamenco to early music traditions, and the music of the Jewish and Moor populations, we could spend a lifetime discovering Spanish folk traditions.   While hardly an exhaustive compilation, The Ultimate Guide to Spanish Folk Music whets our appetites, though some of the tracks sound too modern too my ears, while others such as Doa’s revisit to the early music song, Levou-se a fremosa has me swooning a bit from its enchanting vocals and hurdy-gurdy. Compiled by radio hosts, Juan Antonio Vásquez and Araceli Tzigane (for Mundofoniás--national radio of Spain), we hear music from Majorca, Barcelona, the Canary Islands (which is new for me), Galicia, Extremadura, Asturias, Valencia and accor...

The Byrd Ensemble   Markdavin Obenza   In the Company of William Byrd   Scribe Records Seattle has for several decades acted as a hotbed for music communities, including an early music community that began in the 1970s.   These days, Seattle’s early music community features a few of the founders of the early music scene as well as, newcomers such the Tudor Choir, Renaissance Singers and The Byrd Ensemble, named after renaissance church music composer William Byrd.   On the ensemble’s latest recording, In the Company of William Byrd the singers explore the music of Byrd’s contemporaries and mentors who hail mostly from the European mainland. Here we have a lush recording of renaissance polyphonic singing exploring the sacred works of Philip van Wilder, a Flemish lutenist, Alfonso Ferrabosco, an Italian composer, Clemens non Papa (also covered by the Tudor Choir in a 2006 recording), Thomas Morley (English composer), and rounding off ...