SALT OF THE EARTH – LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Easter is the time of contemplation, reflection, and peacefulness. In the face of the recent social and eco-political collapses, the global effects of calamities happening around the world, the devastations caused by nature and man, the ongoing and still astounding upheavals on the world-wide financial markets, as well as the rebellions and war-like conflicts in the Arab countries, it seems to become more and more of an urgent matter to ask ourselves about the consequences and necessary responses.

IMAGO DEI 2012 revolves around the message of the Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel according to Matthew. The radical nature of this speech has repeatedly inspired writers, philosophers and revolutionaries, and prompted them to correlate their work with the changes and transitions happening to mankind at the time.

Martin Luther King Jr. advanced the concept of non-violence and love of one’s enemies in reply to racist violence. The Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Third Reich partisan, wrote in 1936 that this “Love Your Enemies!” would open the follower’s eyes to have him recognize the enemy as his brother. Mahatma Gandhi strictly followed the violence ban in the fight for India’s independence. During the non-violent fight against the communist GDR system, Father Christian Führer of the Saint Nicholas Church in Leipzig referred to the speech of “True Righteousness”. A rabbinic saying goes “The salt of money is charity”: money becomes more enjoyable when charitably and equitably distributed—a complete opposite to the avarice, greed, and egomania of today’s neo-capitalism and social divergences.

The allegory of salt and light stands for the refinement and enlightenment of the world. Man himself is responsible for his living space on Earth, for commonly taking the responsibility for the present and the future and for the development and shaping of a good life and moral behavior. It is a call for more humanity and dignity, and an appeal to face the responsibilities for life. The universality of this exegesis about man’s responsibility can be found in many denominations. The Persian legal scholar and mystic Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali (1058-1111) referred to the Sermon on the Mount in order to proclaim his message of indulgence. With the teaching of the restraint of means and energy, even the three far-east doctrines of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism are reflected in the Sermon on the Mount.

Despite all the differences between the world religions, they share essential aspects: their instructions and concepts for life, their practical conduct, their morality, their ethics. Imago Dei is trying to put these common grounds across through music.

This is not about specific credos or set dogmas, yet about practical humanity and mutuality forming the spiritual basis of each of the festival program’s items.

Sound and word, sound and language take you to the most diverse denominations and world regions: from Europe to North Africa and the Far East, from the deeply spiritual and contemplative choir chants of Egypt’s rock churches to meditative improvisation on the tracks of Kurdish and Persian Sufi poets, from the epic chants of the Korean Pansori to transformed image-sound-structures by Renald Deppe and Michael Bruckner-Weinhuber entering a dialogue with Korean musicians.

Klaus Huber and Younghi Pagh-Paan’s compositions also draw from strong visions of a high ethical endeavor. From amidst the cycle of violence and inhumanity the two musicians send out sounds of reconciliation and peace, yet also of resistance against injustices. The spiritual music of the Russians Galina Uswolskaja and Sofia Gubaidulina addresses the dualism of the dark temporal world and God’s distant transcendent realm of light. The human voices of the Latvian Radio Choir create the brightness of being, and in the Easter Monday concert, Accordone and La Reverdie close the festival with the beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount as sounding tidings. All these artists share the intention of bringing to mind the great values and standards of human existence: non-violence, justice, truthfulness, partnership, social responsibility.

A hearty welcome!
Jo Aichinger