Mar 27, 2019
The quest for freedom in structure is fundamental to Catholic
spiritual life (particularly during this season of Lent). It’s also
fundamental to musical improvisation. How can you be free and
spontaneous without giving way to anarchy and sin, which lead to
death? How can you be organized and disciplined without
succumbing to the living death of rigidity? How can you make new
music in the moment, with no predetermined composition, that
nonetheless has order and beauty? And how can you do all this
without taking yourself too seriously? Only the Holy Spirit makes
these things possible.
My friend Mark Christopher Brandt—improvising pianist, composer
and spiritual writer—has spent his life pursuing these paradoxes in
the confluence of life as a musician and life in Christ. We discuss
his ongoing series of fully improvised albums, most recently the
DVD Structure and Freedomas well as his books of
meditations for the Stations of the Cross and the Rosary.
Links
Mark’s website http://www.markchristopherbrandt.com
Structure and Freedom DVD https://markchristopherbrandt.com/structure-and-freedom-dvd.html
Sunflowers and Roses (soundtrack album to Structure
and Freedom)
https://markchristopherbrandt.com/sunflowers-and-roses-album.html
Mark’s spiritual books https://markchristopherbrandt.com/spiritual-books.html
2017 interview about Mark’s album The Nightingale
https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-0-nightingale-mark-christopher-brandt/