Studying in our Spiritist Philosophy Blog, you may ask why we put several links of classical music, among others; it is not by chance.
Each composer – especially those born between the 18th and the19th centuries – has brought the mark, if we can call it that, of true pioneers of Spiritist Philosophy in the field of Arts, helping to “prepare” the sensitivity of men and women born and to be born in the centuries to come, because their music is timeless and expresses beauty and harmony. Many of them were born in the Romantic Period – in Philosophy, this period originated the Absolute Idealism with Kant and Hegel – in the late 18th century, which spread to all Western civilization.
After Romanticism, the world was never the same, in poetry and literature with Goethe, Schiller (since the Movement started in Germany), music with Beethoven and Brahms, in Philosophy, add Schelling to those already mentioned above. In the beginning of the 19th century, all Europe was involved with the feeling of melancholy; in Brazil, Castro Alves died of tuberculosis and, incredible as it may seem, die of this disease was the aspiration of every great artist in order to perpetuate their holocaust to Art. Giuseppe Verdi depicts this time in the dramatic opera “La Traviata,” whose libretto was inspired by the story of the Lady of the Camellias by Dumas.
But, aspirations aside, unfortunately the Bacillus of Koch broke out a pandemic all over the world, bringing other important names like Frédéric Chopin, who died early at the age of 39. It was celebrated 200 years of his birth in 2010. Eduardo Rincón said: Chopin was a single force, a unique composer, who never had to fight to be recognized. A Brazilian medium, Yvonne do Amaral Pereira had the opportunity to talk to Chopin’s Spirit on several occasions. These meetings are reported in detail in her book “Probed the Invisible.”
But Romanticism – the beginning of Spiritist Doctrine built as Philosophy – in fact, leads the human being to think he was not only reason, as the Enlightenment Period had made him believe. He was a being composed of passion, feelings, emotions, reflection, introspection, bringing a mystical religion that is part of his true nature of immortal Spirit, an infinite traveler, in the words of Plotinus.
Romanticism rediscovered the importance of sensitivity inspired by the Arts, in the process of the human growth. If you want a practical example, since we mentioned Chopin, listen to the 2.º Larghetto Movement of his Concerto No. 1, Opus 11, played alongside: close your eyes and let yourself be carried away by its soft chords …
Another example is the part Lacrimosa of the Requiem by Mozart (listen to it with Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado). Many people will say he is melancholic and that it shows a big pain. In fact, it portrays the pain of Mary and Jesus when they are in the Calvary. But we realize that it also shows the immense sadness of this great composer, because on those chords he gave up life (it was the last Movement he composed on his deathbed), but the extreme beauty and musicality that contained in this Movement, on the contrary, leads us to thank the perfect personality of his Spirit by the great legacy bequeathed to humanity (read his interview with Allan Kardec in the Spiritist Magazine in 1858, with psycographed reproduction of his home in Jupiter, by the medium Bernard Palissy). And yet I dare to say that Lacrimosa was a direct message of the High Spirits to Earth in the form of music, and – without words that describe it – “talking” to our souls with sublime images of other landscapes, perhaps the ones of a Regeneration plan, where the Good and the Beautiful prevail …
Unfortunately there is not space here to talk about everyone: Beethoven, Brahms, Haydn, Haendel, Massenet … But as you know, Music Therapy adopts excerpts of sonatas, symphonies, concertina, concert for effective treatment of psychosomatic illnesses.
You should also know that when you’re studying, or reading, or simply want to rest of a stressed day Johann Sebastian Bach (Baroque period, which went before the Romantic period) is highly recommended.
When you want to be happy, the orchestrations for piano by Mozart, for example Concerto No. 9 in its first Movement presented here by Mitsuko Uchida; when you just want to admire the sunset, or think about life, listen to Nocturne by Chopin.
But in the midst of such wonders, the tragedy took place. Many of these Spirits, who were endowed with extreme sensitivity, ‘got lost’ in the melancholy (about this phenomenon, see item 25 of Chapter V of The Gospel According to Spiritism), and falling into a deep depression, killing themselves, as Tchaikovsky and Robert Schumann. We have a deep affection for them because they delighted (and still delight) our existence with the beauty of their Art.
So, now you understand why is the music present here? And in order not to forget that the good musical art expresses itself constantly in its timelessness, you will also find contemporary Vangelis, Josh Gobran, M. Jackson, Milton Nascimento, Mercedes Sosa, Bach revisited by excellent Bob Mc Ferrin , and many others yet to come, also representing the major cultural periods to Philosophy, because whether we admit it or not, they influenced the thinkers and philosophers of all time; delighting our way to the Spiritist Philosophy!
Author: Sonia Theodoro da Silva
Translation: Salete Herance
