Excerpt from the book:
VIBRATION AND HEALTH
| QUESTION | Mr. Fassbender, you are occupied with sound art, new forms of making music and conscious listening. What do you understand by conscious hearing? | |
The sense of hearing holds for us perhaps more than any other sense the possibility of a very intense encounter with the outside world. For example, if you look at me, your eyes will stick to the sweater – my outward appearance. But if you hear my voice and maybe do not pay much attention to what I say, but how my voice sounds, you penetrate much deeper. You can learn a lot about my inner, emotional and emotional nature – about my personality. Incidentally, the German word “person” comes from the Latin word “personare”, which translates to “sounding through” into German. Insofar not only with people but with everything, that does sound the inner constitution “sounds through”. Conscious listening is an activity that builds bridges between me and my outside world and establishes a deeper understanding. And since the outside world always reflects myself, this activity helps to recognize myself.
| QUESTION | What is the significance of making music for you? You associate it with the play of a child who can rediscover the world. | |
The adult world is strongly shaped by purpose. There is a spoon to eat, a chair to sit on, and so on. However, playing children know no bounds. Everything is possible and allowed. A spoon is not only good for eating, but can fulfill many different functions. When we play with everything that sounds as unprejudiced as possible, we get to know many facets of the sound source and can therefore explore them more thoroughly. A sound body, whether made of wood, glass or stone, which is hit, rubbed, brushed or blown in a variety of ways, can produce sound effects that we would not have thought of to be possible. An infinite spectrum of sound possibilities unfolds, triggered by a variety of materials, forms, resonances and the type of sound production. It is very exciting to go on an expedition. And that’s exactly where I see the task of contemporary music. Earlier, a Johann Sebastian Bach said, when he retired to his composing studio, he goes to a dialogue with God. So he had the gift of receiving music from spiritual spheres and bringing it to earth. I believe that this is no longer possible in our time, but that the opposite is true: In everything that sounds on this earth, we must listen attentively. And if we feel that we have heard something beautiful, something can be liberated – spiritualized.
| QUESTION | What role do vibration and resonance play in your life and the world? In your opinion, what is there for connections to health and salutary effects? |
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I would like to illustrate it with the help of a tonoscope. A tonoskope is in principle a sand-strewn drum. When you sing through a tube, the drum membrane resonates to the voice, letting the sand into beautiful, organic shapes. Again and again you can associate leaf or flower ornaments with the sand structures – parts of a skeleton or the wavy structures of a sandy beach. So we experience that sounds can create forms that are similar to plants, animals and other organisms. This quickly raises the question of whether the power behind everything is something related to the sound. That’s what the Bible says: In the beginning was the Word. Each tone carries in itself a creative as well as a destructive potential. It always depends on how and where it sounds – what resonances occur. Each space always resonates differently. Sometimes vibrations are amplified, sometimes suppressed. In every listener there is also a room, – a soul room in which sounds and noisess can unfold in very different ways.A right sound in the right place can do wonders. So it is always impressive for me to experience what a powerful effect it can have on people, for example, when they place themselves on the resonance cradle – an instrument in which rising and falling sounds are also perceptible via the sense of touch. Once I witnessed a coma patient waking up over the sounds of a copper tube glockenspiel. That was a very moving moment for me. The tube glockenspiel has a very long echo. In my courses, I find that the sounds of this instrument have a very relaxing effect on both children and adults. The audience often gets tired, yawns and feels in a dreamlike state. Through the coma patient, I learned that it is also possible to pick someone up from dream states the other way round.
Read more in: “Vibration and Health”
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Vibration and Health
New impulses for a healing culture of music, art and science
Various authors, 393 pages, Hardcover
Dreamtime publishing house, 2007
ISBN: 978-3933825698