Playful infinity

There are a few snippets of the Meredith Monk interview that I want to share with you:

I always think of the relationship between the audience and the performer as a kind of infinity sign or a figure eight of energy that goes from the performer to the audience and then back from the audience back to the performer, and it's just this constant flow of energy between these two bodies of people. But the beauty of a live performance is that we're all in the same space at the same time, and I don't think we have that many situations in the world like that . . . I think that there is something about it that's so unique and it's so necessary to remember again.

Ms. Tippett: I always see you also insisting that music is about waking up. I mean, I don't know if those two things have to be in tension, but I sense that, if you had to choose between transcendence and waking up and being right there in that moment, you would choose the latter. Just saying, I mean, live performance is as direct and awake and experience one hopes as anything we do.

Ms. Monk: That's also, again, so interesting because actually I don't see those two things as opposites. I actually think that, when you are that present and you are that awake and the audience actually experiences themselves, you know, the deepest part of themselves, then the whole situation becomes transcendent because we're not — the way we live our lives is not necessarily with that level of presence. . .

I think that sense of playfulness is the sense of being alive; that's another aspect of being awake and the fluidity. It's really about fluidity, about being so in the moment that you are in pinpoint focus, but at the same time, you're completely open to what the moment has to give you or to tell you. And I think that has to do with the playfulness and people can feel that. You know, I think that that's what you're giving an audience is that spirit of the give and take that playfulness implies.

. . . I lost my partner of 22 years, so that was a very — in a sense, that was the biggest wake-up call that I ever had in my life up to that point and probably from that point on because I think that, when you have that kind of loss, nothing can ever be the same. . . . [T]hat . . . is the beauty of knowing that we will be here and gone. You know, the light goes on and the little light bulb goes off, but you leave love behind. I mean, really when it comes down to it, you just leave love behind.

If you'd like to read/hear the entire interview and/or some of Ms. Monk's music, they are available here.