00:01I wanted to talk about the Magic Flute because it was the first opera I ever listened to when I was 16 or 17 and I was going through a lot of existential identity searches, you know, like you do as a teenager.
00:23And also the thing that really got me listening to opera was the fact that I read somewhere that if you're doing exams and you're nervous, Mozart and Vivaldi can stimulate your mind.
00:42I listened to the Magic Flute and it was Chinese to me. It was so foreign.
00:47However, I listened to it. It was like a different language. It really was.
00:53And then I actually started to like, oh, it's always this Undozeris, the bass thing.
01:01And I think for me it was a revelation because it was sort of like the most sort of like traumatic and heavy, like the most heavy sort of burdened sort of thing.
01:17And I think at the time I was going through a lot of stresses and I was afraid of the exams and I was going through a lot of existential stuff.
01:25I wasn't even in the subject I wanted to do at school and I had to do my baccalaureate.
01:29So a lot of things were going on and I was going through this burden something and this language, this heavy, I was into that heavy bastard Sarastro describing the pain and the tribulations of his people in which reaching out for a higher source.
01:53And he was being the perfect priest because he was actually quite moldable as a person, as a character.
02:01Because here he's starting out.
02:03So it's very strong, great monotone of stuff.
02:17And then there's a response from those tenors, the priest is slightly lighter and younger voices and phrases.
02:26And all of a sudden he's rising and elaborating his phrases and doing a different phrasing altogether, a difference of sentence, a difference of existential path.
02:38And he's carrying those needs to those people, to those gods, from the people he's representing.
02:48I mean those are priests, but if you think of a cabinet minister and you have the PM, the prime minister, the president at the head.
02:58This is the guy who carries what the other guys, the local MPs told him in parliament.
03:04And he changes his bulk, his luggage, his message according to what the people told the chorus of priests or MPs, the local representatives.
03:18Tell him what people want and he changes his message altogether.
03:24His sentences are changing, his character is really rising and of course he's doubly motivated in strength and it's really good in passion and expressing himself.
03:38But he's also more sentimental in a way, he's more sensitive and it's higher in pitch.
03:46But it's a complete, complete different sarastro and it's more reachable, it's more in touch.
03:58This is the political staging we have here in the Magic Foot.
04:04And I was very always touched by this and I keep saying this, but there is always this universal character to music
04:14because it's so tangible, it's so plastic-like, you can identify to those phrases whether you're Catholic or Muslim or pagan or you name it, atheist.
04:32This is the stuff for mankind.
04:38And this is Freemasonry, but it's not a message in the music, it's not a message of Freemasonry.
04:46You have this relating father figure, huge, massive piece, father figure, Sarastro, who's relating because he decides to relate, because it's his role,
05:00but because he is actually flexible in his approach and he's relating and translating this to the gods.
05:10What instrument could this be in a context of therapy session?
05:16You know, like music therapy, you have a workshop of people and you have various people who perhaps had a problem with their family
05:26and don't have a role model, masculine-wise, masculinity-wise.
05:36And, you know, a masculine role model.
05:38I don't mean, you know, I don't want to go into sexual orientation, and that's not what I mean.
05:44I'm talking about why are people not using that piece and asking people to analyze and relate to what Sarastro is saying really
05:54and how much is lifting the other guys up and sensing their pain and their crying out.
06:01This is a perfect workshop opportunity.
06:05I've never heard of somebody doing that in music therapy, and that disturbs me.
06:09Actually, I don't like people going, you know, like xylophone, just because you've got depression doesn't mean that you become thick
06:18and you just want to play a freaking xylophone.
06:21That's terrible.
06:23And the great thing about it, you don't need funding.
06:26You might pay a couple of royalties, but you might not.
06:29You just play the tune, you look at the score, maybe you isolate the voices, you can get that from many libraries,
06:35and you listen to the reactions between the male, the dominant figure.
06:45So once you have this powerful figure interacting with the smaller figures,
06:50and they actually sound much weaker because they've got this sort of adolescent and juvenile sort of approach to life.
06:57They're dragging on and hesitant and very sort of like almost not opening your mouth to, you know, sort of mouthing and chewing on the sentences.
07:09Those are people who don't know life that much.
07:13If you have that and you compare it and you ask people to workshop what emotion or impressions they got from one voice in the chorus to another,
07:23from one dynamic in the score to the other, movement can be used as well to express your music.
07:31Basic movements and theatre, workshopping, sort of eye contact and occupying the space, sort of basic theatre workshop type can be used for this.
07:45To explore the emotional context, to putting patients into this context.
07:53I don't see why it's difficult. It doesn't cost money.
07:57And it's not, even if it doesn't work, it doesn't damage anyone.
08:01It can't, possibly.
08:03You know, people are exposed to beautiful, positive messages.
08:07Because it's not drowning, it's not a drowning song.
08:11It lifts you up, it pains the drowning, but it lifts you up.
08:16This is what music by Mozart does.
08:19And that's a subject for an auto-analysis, but you know, actually I've got a video on YouTube about this.
08:27People can be asked to depict and write about what they feel about every single emotion
08:36and how they relate in their lifetime, their life experience to that.
08:41That is very healing.
08:43If nothing else, that's an opportunity for people to express themselves.
08:47I don't know why people don't use this in music therapy.
08:51Time for a new era in music therapy.
08:57This is my humble little input into the bass thing.
09:05And it's in German, so, well, I always get mangled.
09:08But, you know, that's what I mean by the music is above all that.
09:12The gods, I don't care about is this an old series.
09:15I don't care.
09:16I'm just caring about what the bass is carrying and what the other people are carrying.
09:21And I, as a woman in 2015, I relate to these guys.
09:27Didn't I say no?
09:30My website is midnightnotebook.com
09:34I've got a blog where I put my videos, most of my videos, midnightnotebook.tumblr.com
