He is revered in Venezuela - like a priest by the children of El
sistema, like a father by his protégé GUSTAVO
DUDAMEL. A deep commitment to music and a faith in
a divine force that impels the human spirit to aspire to higher things
underlie his vision for Venezuela and have made El sistema
the beacon to the world that it is today.
None can tell us more about
the man, his faith, and his vision than the words he himself has spoken.
THE WISDOM THAT
MAESTRO ABREU BRINGS TO EL SISTEMA:
Harmony
Whoever creates beauty by playing an instrument and generating musical
harmony begins to understand from within what essential harmony is...
human harmony.
What is an orchestra?
An orchestra is a community where the essential and exclusive feature
is that it is the only community that comes together with the fundamental
objective of agreeing with itself. Therefore the person who plays
in an orchestra begins to live the experience of agreement.
And what does the experience of agreement mean? Team practice - the
practice of the group that recognizes itself as interdependent, where
everyone is responsible for others and the others are responsible for
oneself. Agree on what? To create beauty.
Rhythm: the pulse of the soul
Is rhythm a musical phenomenon? No. Rhythm is a spiritual phenomenon.
Rhythm is the internal pulse of the soul. Music sublimates the
internal pulse of the soul and expresses it in a harmonious way - subtly,
invisibly, and transmitted, without words, to other human beings.
It is the art of making the will, soul and spirit agree to generate
a message and to generate values that profoundly transform the spirit
of the child who values the orchestra.
|
Art
as revelation
What do people feel? A revelation. God reveals something,
something ineffable, something that cannot be penetrated by rationality,
that is only penetrable by intuition. It is that young person
who, penetrated by music, challenged by the musical impulse of the
tasks of the orchestra, begins a psychological transformation.
We must let ourselves be moved by that art that brings us together
- through music, plastic arts, literature, cinema - and begin to
recognize ourselves in our essences, our identity - through art,
which is the only world where we can find the true revelation of
our being. The authentic being is revealed through art as
a bearer of beauty, goodness, and truth. |
Art implies...
... a sense of perfection, therefore of excellence - a road to excellence.
What is it that the orchestra has planted in the souls of its members?
A sense of harmony, a sense of order implicit in the rhythm, a sense
of the aesthetic, the beautiful and the universal, and the language
of the invisible, of the invisible transmitted unseen through music.
Why music is an effective
agent of social development
It is evident that music has to be recognized as an element of socialization,
as an agent of social development in the highest sense, because it transmits
the highest values - solidarity, harmony, mutual compassion. And it
has the ability to unite an entire community and to express sublime
feelings.
A moment of doubt...
and resolve
Among the most beautiful memories I keep close to my heart is that night
when I saw only 11 people there, and there were 25 musical stands. I
remember saying "Wait, maybe this did not work." I had
a moment of doubt, an instant; but then a boy came in with his violin,
as if nothing was happening, and he opened his case and sat down.
And I said, "No, I have to do it."
The impact of El sistema
We are witness to a profound transformation of the social history of
our continent. It is artistic culture, it is literature, it is
superior philosophical thought. And it is spirituality through
religion and art that, in synthesis, can really turn the masses into
a nation.
|
Therefore we are faced with an enterprise of uncommon proportions.
This not an artistic development planned with the goal of offering
a few concerts. The orchestra not only transforms the public
that hears it. Before transforming the public that is listening,
it has already transformed itself. Originally, art was
by a minority for the minority, then it became art by the minority
for the majority. And we are beginning a new era where art
is an enterprise by the majority for the majority. |
Past, present and
future
Heidegger says that life must be conceived as someone who swims in a
sea, a sea of nothingness... and not to drown. One must always
paddle towards the future. This way, the present is a future already
past, a future that has been.
The vision for Venezuela
A Venezuela where every town, regardless of how small, will have its
choir and its orchestra. It is an unimaginable, avant-garde culture.
CLICK
HERE to join a FanFaire-DGG GIVEAWAY of the CD
"Mahler: Symphony No. 5" with Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon
Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela.
Source of quotes:
The award-winning film by Alberto Alvero, Tocar
y Luchar (To Play and To Fight), available on DVD,
that tells the phenomenal story of EL
SISTEMA.
Credit: Images and video clip courtesy of and with
permission of Deutsche Grammophon.
SUPER
CONDUCTOR
SIMON BOLIVAR YOUTH ORCHESTRA
MAHLER 5th
EL
SISTEMA according to:
THE FOUNDER
THE ADVOCATES
THE BENEFICIARIES |