The Human Inscape
Today after work Tony is whisking me away to a matinee of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. I am all tingled souled just thinking about it. It is a piece of music that allows me to have a genuine inscape of Ludwig’s heart, all guards down. When that happens, with any human being, it is a thing of exquisite beauty.
You cannot inscape people the way you inscape flowers or trees. People need to open the door for you and you need to wait for an invitation. God is revealed to you, as in any inscape, but through the free will gift of a person’s transparency. Most people are not transparent – the door is firmly locked. But artists have found a way to be brave enough to throw the door open in love. Through their true art – their music, poetry, writing, acting – their particular humanity disappears completely into thin air and you see – God. It is an Apocalypse – a lifting of the veil. Art does that.
In an interview with our local classical radio station, Stephane Deneve – SLSO’s conductor and music director revealed this to me in a new way. I am not ashamed to say that I am a major fan girl of Stephane Deneve. All his unaffected exuberance, his flying curls in the midst of conducting, his joy in life, and his very lovely French accent that makes me want to say aloud to the radio, “Can you just keep talking…sigh” But I digress.
When asked “So, playing a piece like Beethoven’s 5th – does it make you nervous since it is so famous? Do you try to make it more relevant, more fresh. And Stephane merely says, “I try to play it exactly the way Beethoven said to. This is enough. I would not want to get in the way”. I found that so incredible. This piece of music was written by one particular man, all flawed and filled with human angst and questions to be sure. A very complex soul that in real life barred his door to most people. This man was used by God to reveal his power, his beauty, his tenderness, his otherness…. to the likes of us. Beethoven as a man evaporates into his music and the veil is lifted for the space of 40 minutes. His veil. Not Stephane Deneve’s veil. Stephane recognized this in his humility as a musician and as a conductor. This is Beethoven’s inscape and the missive is from God to us in His unique way. It must be played the way Beethoven wrote it, or the message will be lost.
When you are allowed beyond the door, the human inscape to God is incredible. Saints who are completely selfless and evaporated into his will reveal Him. Conductor’s who get out of the way. Musicians who strive mightily on a stage to play it exactly the way it was intended – reveal in their faces that joy is seeping from their fingers and their souls. Poets, who give over their heart to words just flowing somehow. They are all human inscapes. You need to be as attentive as you are with flowers, because the veil swishes closed so easily and the door is locked again.
Without art, we would miss all these messages from the other side of the veil. The things God wants us to know through each other. We have to find the secret of getting out of the way. Artists do it. The art that evaporate our human flaws and tells us who we are truly. We must play Him exactly the way He wants to be played through us.
May Art Thrive. May we preserve it and love it and look for God through it. He is waiting on the other side of the veil.