Michael Parloff: Lecture about Music and Spirituality

Michael Parloff’s lecture on music and spirituality is the first part of a two-hour Encounter entitled “Expressing the Inexpressible.”

Part 1 was recorded on August 2, 2012 at Music@Menlo, David Finckel and Wu Han, co-Artistic Directors. It includes a discussion and performance excerpts* from composer Andrea Clearfield’s "Tse Go La" ("At the threshold of this life"). The cantata was inspired by Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and music that Ms. Clearfield recorded and transcribed during her 2008 and 2010 treks to the remote Himalayan region of Lo Monthang in the Mustang District of Nepal.

What is Spiritual Music?: 00:00
Clarinetist David Krakauer discusses and demonstrates Jewish Klezmer Music: 09:27
Introduction to Andrea Clearfield’s "Tse Go La": 16:34
About Drones: 26:45
Continued discussion of "Tse Go La": 34:03
Full performance of the final movement of “Tse Go La”: 50:45

*This video includes excerpts from the premiere performance of "Tse Go La," which took place on April 29, 2012 at Holy Trinity Church on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. The choral performers were the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, Alan Harler, Artistic Director and the Pennsylvania Girlchoir. They collaborated with the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra.

The Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia posted the following 3'20" video about Andrea Clearfield, her collaborators on her Himalayan treks, and the musical/philosophical inspiration that informed her cantata "Tse Go La":    • Composer Andrea Clearfield Talks about Her...  

Part 2: Michael Parloff presented an undated version of his lecture on Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ at the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society on March 31, 2019. That lecture can be viewed at    • Michael Parloff: Lecture on Haydn’s Seven ...