Consonance & dissonance

Today we met CAD and they drove us to a show room with fancy cars and tempting models. Why is it that some people are afraid of driving? Can this fear be overcome? Or is it a hopeless mental attitude?...Yesterday I just mentioned a car accident (slippery road, inexperienced driver, other unknown reasons) that occurred last year: a former student of mine was driving a car and crashed into a tree. The driver was also one of MM’s best friends. Sudden and violent deaths have always left me speechless.

We listened to some recent compositions by Adrian Enescu and are looking forward to listening them on a CD later this year. I talked to him quite a lot today (on the phone). Consonant music vs. dissonant music, the role of the artist/creator: a "filter" who sort of remixes old themes and rearranges old patterns under a new shape, parallel stories behind the scenes, tolerance as a necessary condition for the survival of mankind – were all among our topics today…I remember meeting him for the first time, twenty years ago. It was just days before I joined the army and was ecstatic to meet the man who paved my way to Music. Not pestering me, not preaching and not forcing me into it. I had just listened to his soundtracks, to his pop & jazz tunes, and - last but not least - to his electronic music and was fascinated to discover the universe of sounds he created. We’ve been in touch for twenty years now and still enjoy sharing thoughts. Looking back to the interviews he gave in some magazines I can’t help remembering one sentence of his I'll always cherish: he said there that he considered Tarkovsky’s movies of crucial importance as far as the soundtrack was concerned. Of course, there have been many brilliant soundtracks, tunes, albums, films, artists, etc. Yet, there is one alone that can be called crucial. Among many important and meaningful artists, he chose the one who was to become The One for me as well. Tarkovsky’s consistence and nostalghia for values which seem to have been lost and forgotten has been the axis mundi that helps me understand better – through the cinematic language – who I want to be.