Our present technological way of thinking has caused our capability to experience music to decline considerably. Over centuries music was perceived as a bridge to the divine. 50 years ago a concert could still exhibit the power of transformation. It was possible to experience a revelation of the eternal beyond the transitory. Today such experiences have become rare. Today music no longer occupies the foreground. We are concerned more or less exclusively with the external requirements of the art of music, with technique, with perfection. This is in accord with our time. But does this perfection serve music well? What do we mean by music? A vague concept, an enthusiasm, a sensory world without commitment, a drug?
By music we mean the activation of individual musicality. Everyone is musical. How can musicality be developed in our time? The traditional methods are barely available to us any more. Every one of us is more than ever self-contained. We must therefore find the "divine spark" that opens the doors to musical reality unaided. This is possible through the individual experience of music as a phenomenon, as reality valid for everyone. A succession of notes played or sung perfectly is initially no more than a documentation of sound. It must be experienced in context, as a relationship between notes, unity in diversity. Every musically conscious person is able to carry out this process in a manner that will touch their fellow-being.
With this background I focus on the following main topics in my musical practise :
1. The individual musical experience, conditioned for each person by musical phenomena - listening with the heart,
2. The communal musical experience on the basis of giving and taking - listening to others,
3. The development of independence in the teaching process - each participant learning to become his or her own teacher.
Biographical details
Hans Erik Deckert (b. 1927, Hamburg), the son of German and Danish parents, grew up in Germany and moved to Denmark shortly after the war in order to study cello and conducting in Copenhagen. His career in these fields, and more generally as a passionate animator in the field of chamber music, has developed from posts held at academies in Germany, Denmark and Sweden to his present freelance activity throughout Europe. Hans Erik Deckert's roots in the German musical tradition have given him a depth of musicianship much in demand at solo and chamber masterclasses and seminars, which is mixed with a concern for the wider social responsibility of music, stemming from his Scandinavian environment. Also, Deckert's encounter with the phenomenology-based thinking of Sergiu Celibidache has been of particular importance for his increasing activity as lecturer and writer on many problematical aspects of our present musical life.
Presently Hans Erik Deckert is Honorary President of the Danish section of ESTA (which he also founded in 1978) and resident conductor with the Cello Academy (which embraces a professional 12-part cello ensemble as well as regular training courses for students). He also holds a visiting post at the Freie Musikschule in Hamburg. Hans Erik Deckert runs various music workshops such as: Cello Master Class in Steinfeld/Germany, Cello Children Camp at his home, Orchestra and Chamber Music in Alsbach-Hähnlein/Germany, Chamber Music at the Witten/Herdecke Hospital in Germany, Chamber Music in Jindrichuv-Hradec/Czech Republic and many others.
Animation projects have included lecturing on musical teamwork at DaimlerChrysler management headquarters in Stuttgart, and along conferences such as the 4th European Conference on Smart Materials and Structures organised by the University of Sheffield in Harrogate/UK or the 12th Internat. Symposium on Materials and Civilization organised by the Osaka City University in Osaka/Japan.
Hans Erik Deckert's most recent publication:
Music & Human Being; Articles and Essays
Musik og Menneskes Forlag 2006
174 pages, ISBN 87-991678-0-8
195 DKr + 50 DKr for mailing
(around 25 € + 6.50 € for mailing)
currently available in Danish only
Due to appear in German and English
Read some of his book in English,
German, French, Spanish, Italian in the downloads below
Get your copy ordered by sending an email to: ingesch@os.dk
Download some of Hans Erik Deckert's key publications:
If you think this initiative worth to be sponsored and the free downloads of some value, please feel free to sponsor Foreningen Musik og Menneske, a Danish charity which will help getting this initiative to be further spread through the world. Donations can be made onto the following account:
Our present technological way of thinking has caused our capability to experience music to decline considerably. Over centuries music was perceived as a bridge to the divine. 50 years ago a concert could still exhibit the power of transformation. It was possible to experience a revelation of the eternal beyond the transitory. Today such experiences have become rare. Today music no longer occupies the foreground. We are concerned more or less exclusively with the external requirements of the art of music, with technique, with perfection. This is in accord with our time. But does this perfection serve music well? What do we mean by music? A vague concept, an enthusiasm, a sensory world without commitment, a drug?
Music & Human Being; Articles and Essays
Musik og Menneskes Forlag 2006
174 pages, ISBN 87-991678-0-8
195 DKr + 50 DKr for mailing
(around 25 € + 6.50 € for mailing)
currently available in Danish only