The power of music | Michael Heupel | TEDxAcademy

The power of music

Soloist and chamber musician, performed in many renowned music halls all over Europe. He has won numerous prizes in music competitions and has been invited in important international music festivals.

[michaelheupel]

Translation in English:

Good evening! We have heard a lot of useful stuff here today and I am sure we will hear much more later. I would like to talk to you about something useless, about music. Music does not fill our bellies, it doesn’t quench our thirst, it doesn't keep us warm in the winter or cool in the summer.

And yet it is everywhere! It helps us fall in love, it stands by us when we break up, it gives us courage when we have to fight and calms us down when we need it. Music speaks not only to our feelings, but also to our mind, our spirit and our body. Music can be addressed to a whole crowd and still manage to touch everyone separately and differently.

And that is because, when music is done right, it is practical philosophy: it obtains its material from the depths of the human soul and it transforms it into tears, laughter or goosebumps.

Music overcomes social class and political belief. It even has the power to redeem whole nations in their darkest hours. What would Germany be after World War II if it hadn't had Bach, Beethoven, Schumann or Brahms in its past?

Still, music remains useless for our survival. Man was able to create music and art, when he recognised for the first time the necessity of useless things like that. And this recognition was probably one of the most important for his evolution. So if we want a better future, we might have to start investing in this kind of useless stuff!

But how does one invest in music? The truth is music doesn't need much. In my case four strings, five fingers and a bow are enough to create a whole universe, to return to Mr. Nanopoulos (theoretical physicist who gave a speech about “our cosmos” earlier) and discover a direct way of communicating with others without a lot of words.

The real investment in music is our personal search. That means, not accepting everything that happens to be on the radio effortlessly, to look for things with more quality that are rare and above all it means listening to music consciously in order to feel and understand its deeper and timeless meaning.

I would like to leave you by playing a work of music that for me represents transcendence and change. It is the work that inspired me to start playing the cello: the prelude of the 6th suite for solo cello by Johann Sebastian Bach.

[galliard]

Πολυ ευχτοχες τοποθετησεις και ευφυιεστατη ρητορικη προσεγγιση

[nenamouratoglou]

Αξίζει μία τρυφερή ματιά ο κόσμος? Είναι μήπως άχρηστη? Η ανθρώπινη ευαισθησία είναι αναγκαία ή παράπτωμα? Ποιός έχει το θάρρος να μας υπενθυμίσει αυτό το ερώτημα? Μόνο κάποιοι σπάνιοι, σπουδαίοι μαχητές τολμούν, όπως αυτός ο υπέροχος μουσικός, απλά με το τσέλο, την καρδιά του και μόλις 28 χρονών! Και τότε, η αίθουσα γέμισε μουσική, γέμισε ελπίδες για το μέλλον!