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He describes his philosophy thus:

'L'amour et l'humour are simply indispensable, inseparable and irreplaceable to me.'

I think the nearest one can get to this in English is 'love and laughter', although alliteration is a poor substitute for almost twin words and cadences.

'I don't want to demystify music, but unfortunately too many politicians and religious leaders have misused it over the course of history, claiming inspiration from some divinity, myth or other. Music has also been used to indoctrinate youth with martial songs. That is despicable.

'I remember hearing a singer I had just accompanied replying to a comment about how she should give thanks for the 'divine' gift with which she had been bestowed. "No Ma'am, it's not a gift from any god: it's thanks to very long and hard work that I can sing." I agree 200%.

'Most lay people are totally unaware of this reality. Even if you're born a musician it's a question of tough, long and almost continuous work to become a good performer and/or composer.

'Music is a pure product of the human mind. That's one of the things that differentiates us from other species. Birds do sing but they don't compose and even though we find it joyful to listen to them in the morning, it doesn't mean they're singing for enjoyment. Their purpose in singing is to locate other family members or search for a mate. We perceive this as music but in reality it's language. Our music is a kind of language and languages are also made of sounds. Hence they're all interconnected.

'I even think that actual sound -- by that I mean vibration/energy -- is the source of everything.

'"In the beginning there was the Word", for me means -- "In the beginning there was the vibration (energy/logos)".

'Through the fundamental law of the conservation of mass-energy, this vibration became everything we can see today from the macrocosms to the microcosms. Hence my intense personal reassurance when I discovered that the "Superstring Theory" actually confirms that the very realm of all matter is a small vibrating "string".

'To be an organist in a church, a pianist in a bar or to sit playing in a theatre pit, is a job. To be a musician is a state of mind, a way of life: a modus vivendi. You're born a musician, you don't become one.'

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Copyright © 13 January 2008 Jennifer I Paull, Vouvry, Switzerland

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