Questions... (2007)
(version for male soloists and string orchestra)

Questions... for 4 voices and strings is based on fragments of interview with quantum physicist and thinker David Bohm. Although my main output has been orchestral music, I have some vocal scores and most often I have used latin texts – from Roman Catholic liturgy or some old contemplative text like Anselm of Canterbury’s „Proslogion“ – or poetry by the pen of Estonian poets (Ernst Enno, Tõnu Õnnepalu).

This time I had an urgent need to take a different approach. I was longing for more contemporary idiom. I did not want to use liturgical or highly poetical text but something which on the first sight could be perhaps prosy yet on deeper level significant and visionary.

And then I recalled the book – „On Creativity“ by David Bohm – which contains also the interview. Also the idea of questions – answers offered me a bit of operatic approach to the musical form. All the rest is there in the text – utopian or not, but we have to deal with these questions. 

Text:

Q: What would you desire for the future of science?

D.B.: I would like to see it focusing more on quality than on precise quantitative mathematical concepts. I see the move towards the notion of participation as fundamental, rather than the atomistic analytic approach.

Q: What would you desire for the future of mankind?

D.B.: I would like to see mankind establish itself as one whole, with freedom for each of the parts, but with mutual participation; to come into a coherent whole, which would be creative.

Q: What does the word „culture“ mean to you?

D.B.: Culture implies shared meaning, in which everybody participates. Culture is inherently a participatory thing. Our present culture is not at all coherent. It is highly incoherent all over the world and in each country. We need a coherent culture. In fact, we could say that one of the reasons why we have to enter into dialogue is to establish this coherent culture.

At present people cannot really talk with each other freely. For example, in the United Nations they talk only about a few small points which are negotiable, but most of the basic issues are not negotiable. Therefore they cannot really talk about the real problems.

We need to look at all our problems as negotiable and in that way create a common culture.

Q: What does it mean to you to bring art, science and spirituality together?

D.B.: I think it is a step towards establishing a common culture. Science, art, and spirituality have been the basic features of culture all through the ages. We could also add technology as a development from science. If you put those three together you could say there is not a lot of culture that is not included in these three. It would be a big step to be able to have a coherent culture involving these three.

Q: Do you believe that mankind will come that far, that we will establish a common coherent culture together?

D.B.: I think it is essential. If we can’t, then I don’t think the human race is viable more than the level of the Stone Age. With the arrival of modern technology we have to take this step, or we can’t go on.

What we need is to be able to talk, to communicate. At present there are great differences and many of these are not negotiable. What is needed is a dialogue in the real sense of the word „dialogue,“ which means „flowing through,“ amongst people, rather than an exchange like a game of pingpong. The word „discussion“ really means „to break up everything,“ to analyze and have an exchange, like a game. Therefore, we need this dialogue; the spirit of the dialogue is not competition, but it means that if we find something new, then everybody wins.

The basic idea of this dialogue is to be able to talk while suspending your opinions, holding them in front of you, while neither suppressing them nor insisting upon them. Not trying to convince, but simply to understand. The first thing is that we must perceive all the meanings of everybody together, without having to make any decisions or saying who’s right and who’s wrong. It is more important that we all see the same thing. That will create a new frame of mind in which there is a common consciousness. It is a kind of implicate order, where each one enfolds the whole consciousness. With the common consciousness we then have something new – a new kind of intelligence.

What would you desire for the future of science? ....

What would you desire for the future of mankind? .....

Do you believe that mankind will come that far ..... ? .....