The festival programme revolves around the themes of «Music as ritual» and «Rituals and music».
The history of music is full of music written for special occasions. Births, birthdays, weddings, funerals, peace treaties, friendships, arrivals, farewells – the music written on these occasions is part of the encompassing rituals.
Making music is a ritual: a concert involves many small rituals, from practising and rehearsing, entering the concert hall, going on stage, taking a bow, playing music and applauding, to sharing what one has heard. Overall, every concert is a ritual that can create a sense of community and identity. Music changes our perception of space and time, centres us in the moment and enables us to experience transcendence. Music carries meaning that goes far beyond the act of making music.
Rituals build community, stimulate cooperation and strengthen identities. They provide safety, facilitate learning and enable self-control. They create structure and help us to cope with everyday life. They open up frames in time and space – they increase our conscious presence or enable us to experience transcendence. Rituals are sometimes problems, sometimes solutions to them. Sometimes meaningless and incomprehensible, sometimes full of significance. Sometimes they get lost in our everyday lives, sometimes they trigger profound changes. Rituals are the rhythm of our lives.
