http://youtu.be/IDX2Qlujg5g

Rooley’s monograph, Performance: Revealing the Orpheus Within, (Element Books, Shaftesbury, 1990), while venturing a bit into the realm of new-age vernacular, provides some interesting ideas of how to reach a modern audience – and why we bother:

“The true task of the performer is that of ‘soul-tickling’ – drawing the soul, via the means of the aural sense, out of the body, through the aperture of the ears, as though it were extended on subtle stalks,  A slightly odd image perhaps, but one which serves to illustrate the vast Renaissance literature on the need to unseat the soul trapped in the ‘muddy vesture of decay’ because otherwise the soul becomes locked in, and forgets its true home…”

The collision of a rich and nuanced historical aesthetic with the neobarbarism of the 21st century could produce a positive result if we are willing to turn off the gadgets and invest a little focused time in real and rewarding activities.  Learn to play the lute and you’ll begin to understand.

via mignarda.wordpress.com