ECHOES OF THE WIND

The classical pianist Daniel Levy is world-renowned both as a live performer and a recording artist, with a vast repertoire ranging from Bach through to contemporary music. He has performed within the world's most celebrated music venues and concert halls, alongside major symphony orchestras. Levy has recorded over 60 CDs for music labels including Edelweiss Emission, Syntony and Nimbus Records and has been critically acclaimed as ‘one of the leading pianists of our time’. During a successful career he has coupled a busy schedule of musical activity with a leading role as a researcher and educator, delivering workshops, seminars and conferences, dedicated to the development of techniques derived from studies and experiences regarding the effect of sound and music (as a Science/Art) on the environment and the human psyche. Levy worked alongside esteemed musicologists including Alain Daniélou and Marius Schneider. He has organised three international exhibitions of ancient musical instruments, a series of Indian and Asian classical music concerts and chamber music concert cycles within important European cities. He is the author of a broad range of articles on the subject of Euphony and his books “Eternal Beauty”, “Echoes of the Wind – The story of a journey towards the centre of Sound” and “The Teachings of Pythagoras” have been published in various languages. Levy has been the Main Tutor of the project “Euphony – Implementing Teacher Knowledge” which is part of the European Union’s Socrates Grundtvig I project, where ‘Euphony – The Sound of Life’ has been chosen as the main teaching resource for the project. He is the co-founder of the International Academy of Euphony which is a Swiss cultural association dedicated to the education and training of Euphony professors and the dissemination of innovative educational projects apt for developing creativity and intuition.

A dream, possibly a premonition, amplified during that hot and humid night so inconveniently combined, that silent voice both present and moving. I was in a deserted place, I believe it was somewhere in Central Asia. It was night, without any visible stars in the concavity of the sky. In front of me was a Gong that I had never seen before, of an enormous dimension, around seventy metres in diameter, apparently composed of bright golden metals fused into unknown proportions. Its form resembled that type of metallophone used in the orchestra of the Javanese Gamelan, although it did not rely on any support. It was suspended in space, at a height that made it impossible to touch. The centre seemed to be constituted, according to my perception, of another metal, perfectly melted, although it stood out from the bulk of the disk like a nipple on a chest. Two currents of the same wind blew in opposed directions. One behind the Gong, the other in front - both very powerful. This extremely rare phenomenon created a limit between the gusts of wind, in the exact area of the Gong.

The predominance or coexistence of the opposing directions caused the emission of an aeolian sound from the instrument, a combination of wind and vibrant metal. There was no doubt that the sound stemmed from the Gong and that I was also hearing the thunder of other sounds beating (if I am allowed to use such an inadequate term) within it.

Impulsively, I was catapulted into a Sonorous Wind that filled and covered everything; perfect, plenteous, made of diamond. Nourished by interstellar space, the night was illuminated by magnificent bright stars. A plenitude of stars shone because of the Sound. With the prolongation of the constant vibration, soft lines united the bright stars, and a sky-blue filigree flooded the space, both geometrically and asymmetrically. The web, superior to any idea of a network, created a pure exaltation.

Once I had returned to the desert, when the sonorous clamour had ceased, I saw written in the sand or whitish dust of that ground, three separate syllables of a single word:

CON
COR
DIA

Waking up the heat and the humidity persisted undaunted. My sleep would not be the same after the dream of the Gong.