the mind open with the inner ear « neo bohemia
Poetry is not something you can order up – the beginnings of poems come unbidden and then one goes to work on them, always keeping a huge space of mind open around it. The trick is to listen with the inner ear. This is maybe the most rewarding sort of artistic work, but it would be greedy to expect to be able to do it all the time.
– Gary Snyder

The same is true for music!

And check out this interesting post. Any correlation to the divorce-rate? What about the genetic health of children? Any correlation to genetic problems?

We are getting rid of ownership, substituting use. Beginning with ideas. Which ones can we take? Which ones can we take?

from John Cage’s 1965 (((!!!))) diary, included in his book A Year from Monday: New Lectures and Writings

Must re-read that book, which I bought 27 years ago! (The reason I picked it up today will become apparent soon.)

A little more about the album Under the Rose:

The four of us came up with the song titles in my kitchen. One of my suggestions was Under the Rose. It is a Sufi expression. As I understand it, Sufi masters usually taught out of their home. Most traditional Sufi masters held down jobs, often masonry, since they did not ask for alms or taught for money. The only sign that would give away that a Sufi master lived in a particular house was that a rose would be fastened above the entrance. Apparently Sufis did not proselytize. If someone was looking for them, they could be found.
01 Under the Rose – Under the Rose webpage

Barrett came up with the title Spirit of Saladin. I had heard the name, but didn’t know much about him. Here is Saladin on wikipedia:

His chivalrous behavior was noted by Christian chroniclers, especially in the accounts of the siege of Kerak in Moab, and despite being the nemesis of the Crusaders he won the respect of many of them, including Richard the Lionheart; rather than becoming a hated figure in Europe, he became a celebrated example of the principles of chivalry, a rare distinction for a non-Christian.

10 Spirit of Saladin – Under the Rose webpage

The webpage for the album: http://ottmarliebert.com/rose should become available on or around September 15th – nothing there now. I hope at that time you will help me spread the word about the album. It is very easy to embed the music anywhere using the SoundCloud widget. Just go to the album, or click on any of the individual track and then click on Share and this comes up:

You can customize the player, I used red for the ones I embedded above, and there are shortcuts for many sites.

Once our webpage is up next week you are free to embed the music on your weblogs (((totally easy!))) and email the links to your heart’s content – and please link to the special ottmarliebert.com/rose page. Only a week to go.