Response Journal Encounter with Tibet Louise Harvilla

Journals

The Southern Alleghenies Museum Of Art hosted a teleconference on Tibetan Art for the participants of the teachers conference and the Governors School. This provided an opportunity for both groups to encounter a different aesthetic, and discuss it's implications. Participants in the Governor's Institute, both teachers and students along with guests from the community were invited to a concert featuring the Tibetan Monks. The concert included music using native instruments, chanting, and colorful,detailed costumes. I came away from the experience with a feeling of being in the presence of that which is spiritual and earth transcending. I tried to put this experience and a description of the music onto paper. The deeply resonating,repetitive chanting of the Monks produced an undulating rhythm. This calms but at the same time embodies a sense of deep concentration that blocks out the world and extraneous thoughts. The form of the chant seems to vocalize the prayer of the Mandala as if you were tracing over the colors and shapes in a spiraling fashion. The voices are deep and flow from a soft to an increasing volume, taking one on an invisible journey. The music produces powerful images of prayers bellowing from deep within the soul, then passing through the layers of earth and life floating finally up to heaven. Different sections of the chant repeat, build and grow like the concentric rings on the water when a stone is dropped in. If comparing this chant to a work of art the colors at the base would be dark and deep, flowing upward blending one into another, but not always with the smoothness you might expect. A cymbal type instrument clangs, the drums beat, horns sound a little like exotic baggpipes. The piece is story-like or much like a mysterious journey with introduction, progression and final act. It is this variety of trance-like hums and throaty sounds which gives the music its magic, its spiritual essence and the power to lift you from this world.