The Classically-Tuned Chorus as a Moral Institution
A Declaration of War on the Stupidity and Banality of Popular "Culture"
July 2015
The Schiller Institute is circulating the following leaflet, calling on people: "Learn to Sing! Join the Schiller Institute Community Chorus."
Download Leaflet in PDF format
The Schiller Institute, along with its founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche and her husband Lyndon LaRouche, has embarked on a Manhattan-centered project to rekindle the spirit of creative optimism which has all but vanished since the death of Johannes Brahms and the onset of the cultural wasteland known as the Twentieth Century (let's not even talk about the 21st).
Not only in art, but also in scientific endeavor, shining exceptions aside, humanity has been "dumbed down" and brutalized in the course of two world wars instigated by a network of degenerate misanthropes known as the British Empire, dead-set on eliminating the majority of humanity and keeping the remainder in a state of largely self-imposed slavery.
It is high time to reverse that course, and open the floodgates of creativity which uniquely define what our Declaration of Independence terms "the pursuit of Happiness." And what better and more joyous way to do that, than to build a mighty Chorus of souls dedicated to rediscovering the almost-lost principles of Classical composition embodied in the greatest works of J.S. Bach, of Mozart, of Beethoven, of Schubert, Schumann and Brahms?
What is necessary, is not to just sing the notes set down on paper by these great composers, nor even to make the sounds as the composer might have imagined them. Music is not notes, and it is not sounds! It is what our last truly great conductor, Wilhelm Furtwängler, described as what is "behind the notes" or "between the notes." And it is what Lyndon LaRouche terms "placement"--not placement of the voice, but placement of the mind! For it is only when the mind is "tuned" to the soundless idea lurking behind the sounds of a great work of Classical art, that the singer can find a scientifically and morally valid basis for training his or her voice to obey the mind's command.
In order for both The Chorus and its audience to develop, all obstacles to that process of tuning and placement must be cleared away! And the first obstacle to go, is the array of arbitrarily high, and arbitrarily low tuning-pitches which are in use today. Already over a quarter-century ago, the Schiller Institute joined with the greatest Classical singers of the day--from Pavarotti to Caballé to Sutherland, Bergonzi, and Cappuccilli to demand that either we return to the natural pitch of approximately C=256 Hz as demanded by Verdi, or else face a wasteland of singing voices unable to reach their full potential.
Another obstacle is the delusion that there exists an unbridgeable gap between Classical art and physical science. Already back in the 15th Century, Nicholas of Cusa proved that to be untrue, and it was beautifully elaborated by the discoverer of the harmonics of the Solar System, Johannes Kepler. These were the principles that made Albert Einstein smile as he played his violin, pondering over how to rescue physics from the nightmare of quantum mechanics which still plagues science today.
Finally, unlike a pack of animals, the Chorus is comprised of human beings capable of infinite development of ourselves and of the universe we occupy. There is no "limit to growth," nor is there any inherent limit to our ability to discover and master the principles by which our Earth, our Solar System, and our Galaxy develop and evolve into ever higher states of organization.
The actual nature of mankind means that every single human being has both the capability and the right to participate in beautiful, classical culture. No one is too out-of-tune, too inexperienced, or too unknowledgeable to partake. In fact, everyone can sing.
It's time to create a truly unified choral nation as Alexander Hamilton intended, from Manhattan. We must replace the banality and small-minded ugliness with the most beautiful discoveries and inventions of mankind.
You are hereby invited, encouraged, and exhorted, "Join the chorus!"
Schiller Institute NYC Community Chorus on Facebook: Facebook.com/schillerchorusnyc