Page 1.

Welcome to "Atelje 42", the house where profound classical music can be heard and experienced.
It will be our endeavour to attempt to create within our small concert hall an atmosphere (Stimmung) that will appeal to serious and discerning classical music lovers. We wish to centre our efforts on creating  memberships (friends) so that they then have the knowledge that "Atelje 42" becomes their home so to say, an island where they will have the opportunity to meet musicians, create new friendships and be able to discuss and share musical experiences.

We are very keen to encourage young people to attend and to this end shall call upon members to make every effort to bring at least one young person with them be it from family, friends, friends of friends, school mates, neighbors, in fact from every far corner where they can be found.

As we are an entirely non-profit making organization. The success of our venture will depend on the number of visitors, hopefully who then become members (friends) who attend our concerts. We have no private funding.

We shall centre our efforts on contacting and inviting young, gifted and hard working musicians together with a spattering of mature established players who desire to perform for an audience within an intimate ´Salong´ style setting where they can feel at home knowing that they will always be welcome.

It is our defined desire to lead both musicians and audience to a point where there begins to grow a deeper knowledge and understanding of the true meaning of profound music and the role that it plays in our lives.

To this end  we welcome all those of you for whom music plays an important and central role in your lives and for whom the words of Zoltán Kodály have true meaning.

"There are regions of the human soul which can be illumed only through music."
Zoltán Kodály.

My writing here will consist of seemingly random words based on my musical experiences. These writings are personal and must be read as such.

"The composer translates into physical sounds the rhythms and harmonies which at night imprint themselves on his Astral body, (The feeling life). Unconsciously he takes his model from the spiritual invisibe world, he has in himself the harmonies which he translates into physical terms .
"A tone lies at the foundation of everything in the physical world. Music, it` s source lies not in the physical world of matter but purely in the invisible spiritual world, the true home of the human soul, thus the musician stands closer to the heart of the world than all other artists.
Rudolf Steiner

As I am an Admirable of Albert Einstein I take the liberty of writing the following words as spoken by the great man.
"It occurred to me by intuition, and the music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the result of musical perception."
Albert Einstein. When asked about his theory of relativity.

"The language of music" needs no literary explanation, indeed to attempt such an explanation leads one away from the musical world.
Gyspy Rey

"The notes I handle no better than many a pianist. But the pauses between the notes ............. ah, that is where the art resides."
Artur Schnabel
He might have added, "It is between the notes (the pregnant silences) wherein lies the true essence of music."
                                            

There has been a long pause since my last writing: perhaps it is because I wish to make clear to myself certain truth before putting pen to paper so to say. Anyway here goes!

In reality music does not exist that has as it `s source the world of matter, the mineral kingdom, nor the kingdom of nature, nor indeed the animal kingdom. These Kingdoms are full of sounds, tones yes but not music. Why is it then that there seems to be a persistant need in certain quarters to imitate, mimic, and thus attempt to illustrate and read into music elements that are simply not there? Why this sickness which in truth has absolutely nothing to do with music, which is actually a totally unmusical concept. Many composers themselves have been guilty of this error by giving their Creations illustrative titles thus helping to intensify the illusion. Music is a creation out of man himself, and the imitation of Nature is a false musical path. Music belong to Man, not to Nature.

Another great illusion that persistence in our time and one that actually takes us away from music is the accent placed upon recordings in their various Guises, what Igor Stravinsky referred to as "Mechanical means." I should like to quote in length from his autobiography what he has to say concerning this subject, and these observations were written in the year 1929 some eighty years ago.

In the domain of music the importance and influence of dissemination by mechanical means, such as the record and the radio-those redoutable triumphs of modern science which will probably undergo still further development make them worthy of the closest investigation. The facilities that they offer to composers and executants alike for reaching great numbers of listeners, and the opportunities that they give to those listeners of acquainting themselves with works that they have not heard, are obviously Indisputable advantages. But one must not overlook the fact that such advantages are attended by serious dangers. In JS Bach `s day it was necessary for him to walk ten miles to a neighboring town to hear Buxtehude play his works. Today anyone, living no matter where, has only to turn a knob or put on a record to hear what he likes. Indeed, it is precisely this incredible facility, this lack of necessity for any effort, that the evil of this so-called progress lies. For in music, more that in any other branch of art, understanding is given only to those who make an active effort. Passive receptivity is not enough. To listen to certain combinations of sound and automatically become accustomed to them does not necessarily imply that they have been heard and understood. For one can listen without hearing, just as one can look without seeing. The absence of active effort and the acquired liking for this facility makes for laziness. The radio has got rid of the necessity which existed in Bach `s day for getting one out of one's armchair. Nor are any listeners longer impelled to play themselves, or to spend time learning an instrument in order to acquire a knowledge of musical literature. the wireless and the Gramophone do all that. And thus the active faculties of listeners, without which one can not assimilate music, gradually become atrophied from lack of use. This Creeping Paralysis entails very serious consequences. Oversaturated with sounds, Blasé  even before combinations of the utmost variety, listeners fall into a kind of torpor which deprives them of all power of descrimination and makes them indifferent to the quality of the pieces presented. It is more than likely that such irrational overfeeding will make them lose all appetite and relish for music. There will, of course, always be exceptions, individuals who will know how to select from the mass those things that appeal to them. But for the majority of listeners there is every reason to fear that, far from developing a love and understanding of music, the modern methods of dissemination will have a diametrically opposite effect-that is to say, the production of indifference, inability to understand, to appreciate, or to undergo any worthy reaction.

In addition, there is the musical deception arising from the substitution for the actual playing of a reproduction, whether on record or film or by wireless transmission from a distance. It is the same difference as that between the ersatz (substitute) and the authentic.The danger lies in the very fact that there is always a far greater consumption of the ersatz;  which, it must be remembered is far from being identical with its model. The continuos habit of listening to changed and sometimes distorted, timbre spoiles the ear, so that it gradually resolves all capacity for enjoying natural musical sounds.

All these considerations may seem unexpected coming from one who has worked so much, and is still working, in this field. I think that I have sufficiently stressed the Instructional value that I unreservedly ascribe to this means of musical reproduction: but that does not prevent me from seing its negative sides, and I anxiously ask myself whether they are sufficiently outweighed by the positive advantages to enable one to face them with impunity.
Igor Stravinsky

Something tell me that Stravinsky would be appalled were he here today to witness the progress that has been made in the musical mechanical field, and that his anxiety has certainly tests to be fully justified.

I have this image in my minds eye of the conductor Herbert von Karajan who in his later years had built what looked like an enormous concrete bunker below ground, and there he could be found sitting at his console where digital re-mastering, etc,. took the place of many of his recordings. He was obsessed with the concept of his own immortality. however what he was actually doing in my eyes was creating a musical grave yard.

The great beauty of chamber music created in an intimate setting is the fact that the quality of playing is heard and experienced in conditions where the players are totally exposed as nothing escape the listener therefore the musicianship must be of the highest order. The combination of the musician and the audience and that which takes place and is experienced between them is for me a reality that constitute real and alive music making.

Fortunately music itself will live forever and remain pure despite the many attempt to manipulator and abuse it. sic itur ad astra.
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March 15th 2010.

There has been an enormous pause from my last writings above, this is due in the main to the fact that I have been otherwise occupied in dealings linked to atelje 42. 

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"Music is wholly form and content and lays claim to no other content than that inherent in it s own elements.
Goethe.

So, here we are on a wet 14th of June impatient for our next concert which will be on Saturday the 25th when Peter Friis will play the great Liszt sonata amongst other works.

I am somewhat intrigued as to how many people if any read the words that I write ............ Maybe the situation is that I write for myself just to clarify my thoughts ....... . anyway here I go again.

There has been a need it seems to attempt to utilize the INTELLECT for the purposes of deepening our understanding of music. Alas to no affect for intellectualism can only approach things having external objective form. So we find ourselves facing the singular fact that in all the numerous well-meaning introduction to a musical understanding there is nothing that the physiology of sight, can tell us about music. It is universally conceded that the physiology of sight, only deals with sounds, not with tones. With the customary means at our disposal today it is not possible to comprehend music. Therefore if we wish to speak about music we must refrain from calling upon the ordinary concepts which in other respects deal with our world.

Another false assertion is that I hear a tone or a melody with my ears.
This is quite wrong. The tone or melody or any kind of harmony is really experienced by the whole human being. And this experience comes to our consciousness by way of the ear in a very singular manner. As we know, tones use the air as their medium. Even if we use an instrument which is not a wind instrument, the element in which the tone lives is still the air. But what we experience in the tone has no longer anything to do with the air. The ear is the organ which separate the air elements from the tone before the tone is experienced, so that in experiencing the tone as such we receive it as a resonance, as a reflection. The ear is the organ which reflects back for us into our inner being the tone that lives in the air, but it does so in such a way that the air element is seperated from it. The ear is really there for the purpose of overcoming the resounding of the tone in the air and reflecting back into our inner being the pure experience of tone. The ear is a reflecting instrument for the perception of tone.

I freely use the words of Rudolf Steiner for the simple reason that for me he speaks from a deep knowledge and understanding of not only the visible material world but also from the invisible world which together with the visible world forms the universe in which we live.

More later.
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March 16th 2010.

There has been an enormous time gap between the above writings and the here and now due to a combination of laziness, uncertainty concerning atelje 42, my workings with musicians and life in general.
We have added the words "Kammarmusic Salong" to our heading which I consider apt as the general feeling taking our players, audience and the music itself into account forms a trinity within an intimate setting which recalls the eighteenth century musical scene to a marked degree and this is the form we wish to create albeit within a 21st century context. Of course in those days the level of knowledge and understanding of music was for sure far greater than at the present time so we have to educate ourselves and dive deeper into the very heart of our subject matter in order to experience anew the relationship between music and ourselves.

Slowly we are finding our niche which means that our focus is squarely centred on solo recitals, duos, trios and quartets with in the main music ranging from  J S Bach through to contemporary music of our time.

We are more than ever convinced that the decision to concentrate our efforts on finding young musicians to play for us was the right one. Working with these young people has been so very rewarding and they are so, so appreciative in having the opportunity to play here at "Atelje 42." Also they are very understanding and show great goodwill knowing that at the present moment in time their financial rewards will be and are very small: They are so to speak growing with us, play an essential role in our development, and thus a true creative partnership has been formed which bodes well for the future for all concerned.

Slowly we are becoming recognised by the musical establishment and this present year we have so far been awarded a total of Kr 45.000 from both the Landstinget and the Statliga Pengar. We now have 64 members and 70 piano keys have been purchased.

It would be truly wonderful to find a "Patron," benefactor, someone for whom profound music forms an essential part of their lives and who at the same time would be in a position to help us in a financial and practical way............wow now that would be something. We need to extend our hall so that a really decent sized and imposing entrance can be created.........we have the space but not the funds at present to make this a reality. I know that out there somewhere in this world such potential patrons exist.