THE VINE & THE FIG TREE, a peace & climate protest song circle

Few things embody the elevated spirit of nonviolent protest more than that of song, especially the primal movement of CALL & RESPONSE of the ANTIPHON. The universality of song transcends for a moment all the arbitrary borders of the world. It heals the wounded heart that would otherwise have us hate. The harmony of the piece is generated not from what we normally think of chord changes, but rather from what I call the QUALITATIVE SPATIAL / TEMPORAL GROUND. Much like pushing down the sustaining pedal of a piano, individual voices simply hold onto selected individual notes of the melody and sustain them in a kind of floating collective harmonic cloud. It makes it very enchanting to sing, because you’re both listening to the sound change and actually creating the sound as it flows along, all at the same time… IMAGE: Native April Spring Crocuses (Crocus alba), appearing directly after snowmelt, THE ALPS. A flower that celebrates the great Circle of Life & Peace.