Look to Minnesota in the New Year

When Wolfgang Mozart wrote his last major opera, The Magic Flute, in 1791 he had no knowledge of a place called “Minnesota”. In fact, at that time there was no such place in any formal way, as Minnesota did not become a state until 1859. However, this opera may have turned out to be more than a delightful and exquisite singspiel — it also may contain a prophecy…

Mozart describes a minor character who is simply a blackguard who tries to torture, etc, Pamina. His name is “Monostatos”. Hmm…odd coincidence? It happens to sound not unlike “Minnesota”. Well, in the opera, Monostatos is a rogue to tries to interfere in Pamina’s relationship with her stepfather, Sarastro. Monostatos also ends up trying to assist her wicked mother, the Queen of the Night. A nasty character indeed!

Now let’s turn to another odd coincidence. The Minneapolis Symphony changed its name some time past to be called the Minnesota Orchestra. They did not have to do that. In fact, that seems a rather odd thing to do. But they did.

Then, into the orchestra walks someone who has had a significant influence on the life of my children and me. Someone who, almost literally, crawled out of the woodwork at Orchestra Hall. This person did everything in their power to control our lives. Fortunately this situation did not last forever. It did, however, last 666 days. Needless to say, the effect on all of us — especially my three children — has been traumatic.

What I call the lockout of me by the players occurred at that time. And this person, to my thinking, whose behavior qualifies them in the ranks of “the lowest of the low” can only be called “Monostatos.”

During the 18-month lockout of the MO players I attempted to bring this ironic situation to light, but to no avail.  But an inexorable process still seems to be in place. “Monostatos” is apparently still embedded in their midst. But what may have been intended for ill might instead be working for good…

And all that goodness will take place in Minnesota…:-)

“Minnegeddon”, and what it might mean to you…M4B*

As the locked-out Other Mozart I have a unique perspective. In fact, I sincerely doubt that anyone who knows me — be they friend or foe — would disagree with that statement. I see things, as it were, from inside an opera — things are either blissfully wonderful or truly horrible. I even saw what I call a ‘dark angel’ long ago, whom I came to believe goes out of its way to try to cause trouble for me and my family, so I have no doubt that there is an adversary I have to deal with every day…

If my thesis is correct — that Wolf was given an unusual gift of shalom — of the Holy Spirit — that those around him tried to steal from him and refused to confirm — then it follows logically that his death, whatever the technical cause, was an assassination. In fact, looking from my perspective, it seems a miracle that he was able to live as long as he did and succeed in giving us such a prodigious output of masterpieces that have held their own and are beloved over two hundred years later.

And, if it is the case that Wolf was assassinated because of a gift of the Holy Spirit, there is enormous support in the Word that God will not let that go unpunished. In fact, we learn from Annanias and Sephira, that anyone who deliberately tries to steal from God can drop dead on the spot. We can, in fact, see after Wolf’s death, that some rather strange things happened to those around him, including Salieri, who went mad, Puchberg, who died broke, and Constanze, who turned into a money-mongering hypocrite, pretending to further Wolf’s work but really just wanting to make money.

But I doubt that the saga ends there. I think, throughout history, that those who produce and perform Wolf’s music, while having contempt for him and his Gift (the movie “Amadeus” is a litany of that contempt, imo), run the same risk those who knew him did. They too are forever affected by his music, as this Gift is carried with it, wherever Wolf’s music goes.

And so, I believe, a Minnegeddon has begun. All that has been hidden about Wolf is coming out into the open. All the money stolen from this Gift is returning to God. And those who act in deliberate contempt can face dire consequences. In fact, from what I see, people stumble into what I call the Kingdom of the Night. It is a kingdom with a heirarchy. At its head, pretending to be a gentle Christ, is the dark angel I call The Night Magician. The actual heavens are closed, and these unfortunate souls seem stuck in this ultimately frightening place, until they come to the real God with real repentance. This kingdom has its own churches and schools, so many do not realize they have been deceived. The lucky ones are those who do not fit, and who are ‘chastised’. They may encounter imbalance in their life, they may even hear this dark angel attacking them. Such happened, in fact, to the player I call “Monostatos”, who kept hearing what they said was a ‘riding-crop voice’.

If I am correct, as events play out, everything having any connection to Wolf will, in fact, end up being turned inside-out. And, if you have anything to do with Wolf or his music, or me and die zauberflote, the same may be true for you…

*M4B=Mozart For Believers

Listen to die zauberflote…

The best way for you to understand die zauberflote is, of course, to hear it. It has a peculiar energy and resonance. It causes some to lock their jaws and grit their teeth, and others to weep tears of joy. Those who hold a gentle heart are greatly blessed. Any ill-intent will be stopped in its tracks. Surely you will find that these characteristics are consistent with those Wolf described in his last major opera? And then you will perhaps come to understand that the opera is, in fact, a prophecy that is now being fulfilled…

Though locked out by a so-called ‘major’ orchestra, where the music director is refusing to hear me and grant me my credentials, even though I was enticed to practice regularly during the day on that darkened stage by the players I call “Monostatos”, while the exquisite sounds of die zauberflote soared throughout orchestra hall. At the insistence of Mr. Schrickel, I was even recorded one night in that empty hall. I ask you to listen and decide for yourself what to think…

Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/user/pamina58

Soundcloud

The ‘big secret’ that wasn’t….M4B*

If any of the countless people who have tried to destroy die zauberflote, and me in the process (Mr. Schrickel, for one), had bothered to ask me if I had any understanding that there was a good possibility I had been systematically poisoned as a child by my Mother so that she could ‘control’ me and, of course the position associated with being the heir of Wolf’s legacy, and try to use substance connected to die zauberflote for herself, I would have said, ‘well, of course I did.’

What sort of happy, carefree child, healthy as a horse, who finds themself suddenly sick as a dog, while their usually hostile Mother, suddenly switches into helpful-nurse mode — serving up ginger ale with shaved ice and saltines — wouldn’t, after a few such episodes start to ask, ‘what is really going on here?’

And so, yes, I was aware of what was taking place. Being able to get out of the situation in one piece was another matter entirely. To complicate matters even more, I was forced to attend and participate in a church I can, in retrospect, only call apostate. What I was apparently supposed to ‘learn’ by this false church is that God was unable to help me and did not favor me so would not help me either.

My hope was to escape to New York City and find help there. But rather than going to a conservatory, I ended up being kicked out of the Fairfield house by my Mother with $30 to my name (while she withheld my childhood savings account which had a significant amount of money) after I had managed to find a job outside of music in New York. She demanded I quit. I refused.

My Father almost died by his own hand in that house. He took rat poison in the basement. Did he realize what she was doing? Was he a part of it? I will never know for certain from their lips because neither of them talked, and they are both now gone.

The behavior of the one surviving birth family member, on the other hand, speaks volumes to me. The fact that I outlived our Mother seems to have stunned this person, who quickly moved to a small West-African country without extradition to the US (where, in the state of Connecticut, attempted murder has no statute of limitations) this person darts around the US during the summer, hiding at times even in the homes of some of my family members. This person claims to be a Christian surrounded with a ‘cloud of witnesses’. Needless to say, this is lawless behavior. Is this person,as a CT States Attorney cautioned me, looking for an accomplice to finish what my Mother began? I hope not, but I do not know. Will this person repent of their involvement in this murderous agenda? I certainly hope so…

I do know that I have been healed and delivered of all the damage inflicted on me in that house by the power and grace of the gift of Holy Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ that is die zauberflote!

*M4B=Mozart For Believers

Why not Mahler, Norman? (part one)

A while back music critic and arts lover Norman Lebrecht wrote a somewhat impudent and controversial book about Gustav Mahler, called ‘Why Mahler?’ Even though Mahler’s music was at last standard fare with most symphonies, his stated intent was to bring additional attention to the symphonies and lieder of Mahler. The central focus of the book was apparently to ask and answer the question of what value Maher and his music have for us today.

As curious as this book is, there may be wider and even more significant implications to Mahler and his life than anything Mr. Lebrecht has posited. In fact, Mr. Lebrecht might have deliberately slanted or eliminated significant facets of Mahler’s life, possibly even for some mysterious agenda of his own. Some of these significant issues may, in fact, have something to do with me and the Zauberflote.  And Mozart. And New York City.

Let me explain…

If I am correct, when Wolfgang Mozart died some sort of vortex of energy was created.  It was centered at the house where he died, on Rauhensteingasse, in Vienna.  It may have been created from the energy of the unusual and additional gift in Mozart’s music — something I call a ‘gift of shalom’. It is also the ‘Zauber’ in the Zauberflote. Something unique. Something overwhelmingly controversial. Something sublime. It has also been labeled “The Mozart Effect.” Exactly what happened to Wolf is another story, and one that I won’t go into now, but let me just say that it seems to me there is still a great mystery around Wolf and his death, and the existence of such a vortex just might be part of the explanation.

Mahler found his passion for composing in Vienna and spent much of his life there.  Did he sense the vortex connected to Mozart and his music?  Did he step into the mystery of what happened to Mozart and why, as, for example, I think Beethoven did? Or could he have been unsuspectedly pulled into this vortex of powerful energy?  I ask this question because of what he decided to do at a critical point in his life.

When working with the Vienna Opera became unbearably painful, Gustav Mahler set his sights on America.  New York City, to be specific.  He became the first globe-trotting conductor of great stature.  In fact, for the last five years of his life he traveled back and forth between Europe and America, conducting with the newly-funded New York Philharmonic.

All right, you might say.  A couple of interesting coincidences…

But there is more.  Mr. Lebrecht fails to include any mention of what Gustav’s wife, Alma, said about her husband’s last words.  What were they?

“Mozart!  Mozart!  Mozart!”

I boldly proclaim that this exhortation puts dear Mahler in the center of the Mozart vortex.  Not only that, but Alma actually moved to New York City after his death, living at 120 E. 72nd street.  She died there in 1964.  So was she aware of his possible connection to the vortex?

Mr. Lebrecht knows of me from my posting on his popular Slipped Disc blog during the lockout of the Minnesota Orchestra players.  I hoped, as a fellow Mahlerian (for I am indeed also obsessed with Mahler and his music) that he might listen to what I had to say.  I explained that I felt I  had an unusual and tangential connection to the lockout, in that previously some of the players, whom I have no choice but to call “Monostatos” used the stage at Orchestra Hall as a device to threaten and discourage me and, in effect, lock me out.  I had hoped for at least a sympathetic ear.  But, instead, Mr. Lebrecht allowed a music critic from Chicago (where I was born, incidentally) to attempt to slander me on that blog. That attempt was not successful and, ironically, Andrew Patner collapsed and died unexpectedly a few months later.  So it was at this point I accepted that I had not won over Mr. Lebrecht, who boasts of 1 million viewers a month on his blog.

Let me finish by stating that because of my Father’s job as a metallurgical engineer, our family moved from Chicago to the New York City metro area when I was three and I grew up in a nearby town in Connecticut.  Later I moved to New York City, living not far from where Alma had lived.  My dear husband Donner, who passed away tragically and unexpectedly this spring, grew up in the same neighborhood.

And so I ask you, and Mr. Lebrecht, to consider the possibility that the importance of Gustav Mahler has yet another dimension, one certainly mysterious but perhaps even more profound than of those we already know.

Did Mahler bring the Mozart vortex from Vienna to New York City? And, if so, what are the implications?

Die Zauberflote, the opera as prophecy…when characters molt…

I knew his music long before I knew his name.  When I learned who Mozart was I became very distressed, as it seemed he had left everything in a terrible mess for me…I did not understand why I had been put into a family that seemed incredibly immature and superficial.  I had no idea the ill-intent that was being masked.

I wanted nothing to do with the opera Die Zauberflote for a long time.  I refused to visit Germany or Austria when I spent a year abroad.  It wasn’t until my children were small when “Monostatos” insisted we view the Bergman movie of the opera.  A door opened, of course.  At the time I felt relieved; if the opera was prophecy I knew all would turn out well. I had only to do my best…

My children, the loves of my life, fit closely into the Drie Knabchen envisioned by Wolf. Their kindness and patience gave me the courage to forge ahead, knowing by that time that my Mother and her accomplices would try to destroy me at every turn.  Before long a real-life Papageno had become part of our extended family.  I knew I was blessed with a friend who would support me in the trials ahead.  And then came a real-life Tamino– or so I wanted to believe…

However, without my realizing, the characters had begun to molt.  I had not taken into account human nature.  Those who were my greatest source of support became my worst adversaries.  My darling children had been bewitched by my Mother, and by their wicked ex-stepfather “Monostatos”.

And so I began a journey to find answers that led me into uncharted territory, and into places I would never have wanted to go.  That betrayal was almost more than I could bear, but the flute kept me going, as it always has, and told me the truth about everything I needed to know.

And that is the message of die zauberflote…the flute itself, not the opera…:-)

 

Are you a ‘sheeple’ about Mozart?

Are you the kind of person who is comfortable being influenced by others or do you like to think for yourself? If you were to come to realize that some people with influence were intentionally leading you astray with false information would that bother you at all? Or do you prefer to be on the inside, seeing possible charlatans from afar so that you can plan a strategy not to be outsmarted by them?

What if much of what you knew about Wolfgang Mozart was either incorrect or incomplete? Would that be of any interest to you? Have you ever taken the time to sincerely wonder why he died when he did and why he seemed to be surrounded by a great deal of slander and controversy?

What if there are aspects of Mozart’s life and death that were literally matters of life-and-death, both to Mozart himself and to his adversaries? Would you want to know more?

What if there is a secret and perhaps even a ‘code’ of sorts in the movie “Amadeus”, which is a sophisticated satire of the end of his life? Would you be interested in seeing this more clearly?

If you are interested in any of these things, perhaps I can be of help to you….:-)

When you listen to die zauberflote…:-0 M4B*

Once I understood the overwhelming consequences, I became convinced that I have no alternative but to describe a worst-case-scenario in regards to listening to die zauberflote…(the real magic flute, not the opera by Mozart written about it)…

This conviction is due to the fact that, when I was a child, one family member died by their own hand and another almost succeeded in doing so, while trying to cause me and die zauberflote harm. I say that ‘the aisles of Orchestra Hall are already full of the corpses of those who thought they could block die zauberflote — why would I wish there to be any more?’ Of course, a statement such as that tends to elicit a curious sort of response; sometimes a ‘deer-in-the-headlights’ look, though at others, a pursing of the lips, a setting of the jaw, that give me a tendency to think they might have already made up their minds to try.

At that point I am tempted sometimes to chastise myself for speaking up at all. “Let the chips fall,” I say to myself. But then I recall the deceased members of the cadre of players at the MO, that I have had no alternative but to call “Monostatos”. I remember with agony the efforts I made to keep my teacher, the then Principal Flute, from suffering the consequences of trying to block me, through outright lies and sending me on useless rabbit trails. At one point I even called the conductor who was trying to have him fired to plead for his job on his behalf. I recall another who slipped away very painfully through brain cancer. And then I return to my conviction that I must speak what I know, and then I will have done my best.

I also ask everyone to simply keep an open mind about die zauberflote, and a gentle heart toward Gd. Those who are able to do this just roll with everything that happens. Then I find that people are greatly blessed, with health and with abundance of every sort, emanating from its Source.

And so, as I will be posting some mp3 clips shortly, I will ask the same of you, and hope that you have ears to hear me…

M4B*=Mozart For Believers

Minnegeddon and the awesome burden of Die Zauberflote…M4B*

When I was a child, playing the flute, I had no idea of the chaos that was occurring around me.  It seemed to me that most that heard its lovely sound were taciturn. I later learned that was the spiritual equivalent of gnashing their teeth.  Others simply wept with tears of joy — my Grandpa Gardner, for one.  At the time, I thought he was simply pleased that I was given a gift of music.  Now I realize it was much more, even, than that…

Now I realize with sadness and even dread that there is a terrible burden connected with playing die zauberflote.  Its sound and presence causes many to stumble and behave badly.  Even my most precious loved ones have fallen prey to this devastating reality.

There seems to be a mystery attached to this — again, something I was not able to put together in a coherent manner as a child.  Apparently, I am supposed to be conditioned to allow people to use die zauberflote against Gd’s will.  I perceive this conclusion (though it is false) as the expected consequence of the persecution and even torture that included poisoning on the part of my birth family.  I was also conditioned by them to ‘believe’ a false gospel. Later I learned that my Mother, at least,  was very possibly an apostate “Christian”.  I was apparently supposed to be a helpless fool — someone who was not ‘good with money’ and so ‘needed to be taken care of’.  A sort of Man-Can whom the underworld of music could use at will.

After countless interactions with supposed ‘professional’ musicians I have little doubt that it is this misconception that fuels their disrespect and even at times palpable contempt of me and their attempts to sandbag and dead-end me at every turn.  From the moment I met the person at the hub of what I call “Monostatos” — a bass player (the lowest of the low!) I had the distinct impression that, for some reason, it was ‘either me or him.’  The two energies — that of die zauberflote (a gift of shalom) — and that of worldly players — could not exist together.  I gradually came to understand that Gd was asking me to start over, and to find players who were comfortable with me and die zauberflote.  That has not been an easy task, and I can recount a series of episodes, either comical or sad, depending on one’s viewpoint, to attest to this difficulty.

So as I move forward with what I call Minnegeddon it is with sorrow and awe, for the warm reception that I once anticipated for someone having a direct connection to Wolfgang Mozart has been tempered and refined by the knowledge that during his lifetime most not only wished him dead, but a handful may have acted upon that ill-intent. So what I once envisioned as a rapturous revival is now revealing itself to be a stark and even morbid reality that die zauberflote and I will face no more love and grace in the future than we have in the past.  The thought of almost everyone stumbling over it is almost more than I can bear.  But I came across this Bible verse, that speaks to the heart of what is happening — “I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.”
http://biblehub.com/romans/11-11.htm I have read it many times, but did not understand before that it does, in fact, contain an alternative to simply stumbling and falling.  It contains the boundless gift of love that is our Gd, that will go to the ends of the earth and back again to bring us close to Him.  I have seen that in my own family, even with my own precious children.  I know this to be true.  And that gives me confidence to move forward…

M4B*= Mozart For Believers

 

 

Minnegeddon and Luke 6:22…M4B*

In my morning Bible reading I came across a passage that I had read many times without understanding that it might have a deeper meaning for my situation in being locked-out by Monostatos’ Orchestra.  It is the passage from the Beatitudes that reads, “Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man.” (NIV)

I cannot think of a statement that better describes my experience with the Monostatos Orchestra and those players who enticed me to ‘practice’ on the darkened stage at Orchestra Hall in order to exclude me, even target my home and my children, and silence me once and for all.  It is a very odd experience to be excluded.  You may be standing in the midst of people who are, in fact, excluding you.  They refuse to give you a voice.  They look past you and ignore you.  They may band with others to do the same thing. There is nothing to do but accept this apparent indignity and acknowledge the disrespect that accompanies it.

However, for Believers, we have a higher goal.  For every gift of the Holy Spirit will, by its very nature, be excluded by the world, or in the case of music, by what I call the Kingdom of the Night.  When that happens I must gracefully let go and move on.  We are not called to cast our pearls before swine.  We are to wipe the dust off our feet and keep going.  We are to give thanks to Him who went before us, jumping for joy. 🙂

*M4B=Mozart For Believers