The Music of David Salminen

Posts tagged ‘Cosmos’

a thought exercise…

Wm. Blake painting – Glad Day

Something I discovered while reading literary commentaries by A.R. Orage: “One of the exercises in the [right] use of imagination is that of the frequent shift from the personal to the universal, and vice versa.” How nice to see this particular idea presented so clearly! It jives with the context I’ve referenced for my personal/universal cosmic metaphor piano concerts for years & years. And it’s a useful shock indeed to find that others may actually understand what you are aiming for, in your work, better than you do!

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Portland, Oregon concert, Sunday 3 pm March 12, 2017

“The Call of the Cosmos” …come join me for the unveiling of new piano improvisations linking spontaneity with classical impulses… a relaxing tribute to  multi-sensory imagination… learn how to listen to the Cosmos with X-ray vision!

David Salminen in concert, 3 pm Sunday, March 12, 2017 (Please remember that our clocks “spring forward” at 2 a.m. that Sunday morning.)

open to the public – supported by donations

CLASSIC PIANOS Recital Hall (503) 239-9969

3003 SE Milwaukie Ave, Portland, OR 97202

Website & map: http://portland.classicpianos.net/contact

for more information please email: david@wholeworks.netngc6357-winter-wonderland

NGC 6357 – located in our galaxy – about 5,500 light years from Earth – Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/PSU/L. Townsley et al; Optical: UKIRT;  Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/cosmic-winter-wonderland.html

The Jan 15, 2017 “Cosmos” concert has been cancelled

outer-space-stars-galaxies-nasa-hubble_www-wall321-com_31

image: NASA – Hubble telescope – outer space… stars & galaxies

DUE TO PROBLEMATIC CONTINUING WEATHER CONDITIONS IN PORTLAND AND THE SURROUNDING AREAS, THE  JANUARY 15, 2017 CONCERT HAS BEEN CANCELLED – IT WILL BE RE-SCHEDULED, BUT WE DON’T HAVE A NEW DATE, AS OF YET.

David Salminen’s improvisational concerts, in addition to being live demonstrations of the pleasures and surprises of the spontaneous moment, are vehicles for communicating ways in which listening to music can foster creativity in anyone, in any area a person has a need for it… these events are not simply about music. Really, so much in our lives could be improved, made better, etc. with a little bit more creativity, and we all possess unlimited potential for it – fresh ideas & new ways of seeing, hearing, and doing things. Dedication: In appreciation of Pauline Oliveros 1932-2016, an American composer and the champion of “deep listening”.

At David’s concerts “We, the listeners, become the music.”                  Cheryl Kolander – Aurora Silk

For more information: https://davidsalminen.com
Email: david@wholeworks.net
Phone: 503-762-6387

David’s summer concert – Portland, Oregon

earth by NASA

(photo credit – NASA image – public domain)

“Earth – You Are Here” 

David Salminen, piano improvisations

July 10, 2016, 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Portland Piano Company, 711 SW 14th Ave, Portland, OR 97205 – phone 503.775.2480

free admission and open to the public – donations welcome

The idea behind this “Earth – You Are Here” concert is suggested by the NASA images of Earth from space, beginning from the time of the Apollo missions of the late 1960’s and continuing. These images remind us of the unity of humanity and the wholeness of life as we know it – from a cosmic perspective. David’s improvisations build intuitively and spontaneously on the extraordinary resonances that are possible with the modern grand piano, via the 88 keys as entry points, in activating the sounding board as a vehicle for a holistic experience of endlessly evolving complexes of harmony and harmonics.

BY THE WAY – If you can’t attend in person – please check this out, for the fun of it:

musing along…

It is a whim of mine to imagine the possibility of greater “in sync” feelings for the cosmos, available – in reality – for each one & every one of us on this extraordinary planetary home we call Earth… a planet which has been described by our astronauts in space, a little ways out from their home, as a beautiful “blue marble”.

announcement: the Portland “Synchronicity” concert 3/30/2014

The Second Law of Synchronicity – David Salminen – live in concert – exploratory piano improvisations

Sunday, March 30, 2014, 3 pm
Portland Piano Company, 711 SW 14th Ave. Portland, OR 97205 http://www.portlandpianocompany.com

This concert is a chance to listen to music under special conditions which may facilitate the perception of synchronicities (before, during, and after the event). There is little needed in the way of explanation, but some explanation is in order:

The First Law of Synchronicity is the principle of Common Presence – the feeling of simply being here together in this moment, not somewhere else, and not later than… this moment! Being is the operative word.

The Second Law of Synchronicity is the phenomenon of Mutual Adjustment – without the necessity of a before and after process in time. We’ve all seen or heard this kind of thing somewhere, as in the synchronized flight of a flock of birds (especially murmuration) and in really “tight” performances by musical groups.

With a little bit of luck, this unique concert will facilitate special individual experiences within the heart-mind – one’s own personal meaning factory – of what is going on both within us and around us, synchronistically. Connections and insights arise out of music spontaneously, when time & space have been set aside for such experiences.

Diving into the sound stream, as in a concert of this kind, and catching and releasing various things along the way, is done by way of analogy to the cosmic process. This process, like the famous I Ching of the Chinese people, is a “book of changes” – gradual, sudden, recurrent, unique, and so on – and all of it merely part of the flow. The ideas inspiring this concert come in part out of the Wilhelm/Baynes translation of the I Ching, a book which has been a friend of the performer’s for over forty years. The 1949 forward to the book, by C. G. Jung, aptly describes the mystery of synchronicity in contemporary terms, as in the following on page xxiv. “The ancient Chinese mind contemplates the cosmos in a way comparable to that of the modern physicist, who cannot deny that his model of the world is a decidedly psychophysical structure.”

My brief notes re “The Laws of Synchronicity” (actually six in number) are adapted from The Dramatic Universe, a four-volume work by J. G. Bennett, section 10.26.3. He cites Jung’s I Ching forward, in this choice bit clarifying synchronicity as denoting:  “a peculiar interdependence of objective events among themselves, as well as with the subjective (psychic) state of the observer or observers.”

Donations to help make additional events like this more feasible are gratefully accepted. For more information, please call 503.762.6387 or visit https://davidsalminen.com/

the idea of transcending “geocentric philosophies”

“Science has widened man’s horizons far beyond his earthly existence, and yet scientists do not notice that they have made possible a new way of thinking about the world, that would take account of the changes of scale that have put geocentric philosophies, once and for all, out of serious consideration.”  J.G. Bennett, p. 187 of his 1973 book “Gurdjieff – Making a New World”

J.G. Bennett – who I met in 1971 and subsequently studied music with, at his International Academy for Continuous Education at Sherborne near Cheltenham, England – was a major influence on the development of my thinking. An interest in not only modern concepts, but also modern feelings – for the Cosmos we are all a part of – has been a major inspiration for my music.

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