“Σιωπή και προσευχή στο άυλο πνεύμα της μουσικής. Μια selfie και μια playlist από τον Φιώργο Κουμεντάκη”
“You are not alone: Silence and Prayer in the Intangible Spirit of Music. A selfie and a playlist by Giorgos Koumentakis.”
Translated by Amanda Kubic
Collaborators and friends of LIFO send responses from their homes.
Giorgos Koumentakis, April 5th 2020, 16:00
(Photo caption: The Artistic Director of the Greek National Opera, Giorgos Koumentakis, with Marigold)
“And all of these plans we made will go to waste?” asked my colleague, who does not excel in sensitivity; and I was frightened because the reality of the situation came to visit me through the back door.
In seconds, it all vanished: the arrogance of strategic plans, of designs, of the certainty that with hard work even those that were not able to fly would eventually take off.
This unpredictable virus brings a new balance to the realm of our personal cores, but also to the realm of planet Earth, which we exploited with so much madness that now we say we are going to “go mad” in the silence of our homes.
And we will keep “going mad” thinking that we are discovering ways of cooking that we did not know, reading because we did not have the time, knitting because it reveals our creativity, the guitar because it was forgotten in the attic, our children, our husbands, our wives, ourselves.
Our small house becomes our new planet and our imposition upon nature is forcefully reversed, with an illusion that the universe inside is safer.
But nevertheless, the fear of nature has come and will remain.
So then, silence and prayer:
in the pollution of the water
in the nitrogen dioxide
in the wildfires
in the climate
in the polluted air
in the bats
in the airplanes
in the meat that we eat
in the seeds that were burned
in the seasons that were confounded
in Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
in George Frideric Handel’s Water Music
in Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, with his godfather Ludwig Rellstab
in Gustav Mahler’s The Song of the Earth
in Richard Strauss’s Alpine Symphony
in Franz Schubert’s The Trout
in Claude Debussy’s The Sea
in the intangible spirit of music that is somewhat able to placate the vindictive impulses of nature.