When you do an image search in google for the word “VOID” you get a plethora of black holes and nasty vortices . “The Void in Art” is even more apocalyptic. It seems to indicate that the idea of “ nothingness” is a scary place to go- that “the space” always needs to be filled…
In Art we call it negative space and in music it’s referred to as silence or the pause or the absence of noise.
In Meditation its called antar mouna – The stillness of a calm mind.
This months’s composer’s choice ‘Sapphire’ is all about the void. Its like musical facets of light and reflections appearing out of white space or silence.
I’ve imagined a misty world with nature emerging from the whiteness, much like a chinese calligraphic landscape.
In the East – the white background is the negative space or VOID. It is a representation of nothingness or the place from which all forms emerge.
Its a way of illustrating a cosmological point of view- as well as simply making a beautiful picture.
There is also a rhythm in this composition that refers to a Shishi Odoshi – a Japanese bamboo garden feature which when fills with water tips over and makes a percussive sound. The Shishi-odoshi has both a practical and a cosmic function : The practical serves to frighten away herbivores- the sudden sound being a passive way to shoo-away animals that want to eat your garden. The cosmic aspect is to remind you of the passage of time and impermanence.
This piece of music is very soothing and all the sounds drift in and out of view not lasting long enough to really grasp. Just passing, nothing solid, nothing fixed. Forms emerging from whiteness. Forms returning to whiteness.
Stephen Fearnley is an award-winning filmmaker, artist and composer. He composes transformational soundscapes for the meditation journeys guided by Naomi Carling and facilitated by Naomi Janzen for One Mind Live – a unique worldwide online group meditation community. To sample One Mind Live, go HERE