Hello and Happy May to all! It is so nice to see the trees and flowers and life in bloom again. All of this and Covid on the wane. I went to play at a nursing home yesterday and the sign on the door said, "Masks optional." That's a first in 2.5 years! I hope this trend continues. We still need to be cautious though but have good reason to be optimistic.
Last month I did some studying for my CEUs - continuing education to maintain my Certified Music Practitioner requirements. I took a class to learn more about Hildegard Von Bingen who was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and medical healer.
We learned to read some of her Medieval notation in neumes and learned about how she used musical intervals (notes of scales) to give a certain effect on the listener for healing. For example, we can find musical tones in our own music that brings a strong reaction. Composers like Hildegard knew this and composed music with a desired effect in mind.
Some tones would be energizing, some melancholy, some contemplative, restorative, resolving, anticipatory, etc. Some of her favorite intervals was the perfect 5th. You can feel the power of this tone by remembering the closing measures of the piece "Gates of Kiev" from Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky. (a favorite piece of mine). The closing notes give a feeling of power, expansion, transcendence. Surely listening to music with such tones would uplift anyone.
There's so much more about her I could say but I'll talk about other things I'm doing :)
I have been really enjoying my work playing for nursing home residents and hospital patients. I enjoy expanding my repertoire and making up lesson plans for my patients. In the nursing home, most of them sing with me but for those who do not sing, I play "Name that Tune" and other musical games.
Always so much to learn and do in my work and in life. I hope this finds you all growing and blooming like the springtime.
