DeutschThe Incense of Music No. 1
A multisensory concert at Circle1 – Friday, 5 June 2015, 7 pm
Maria Magdalena Wiesmaier: violoncello / campanula — music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Marin Marais, improvisation
Incense: Artemisia Vulgaris (Hungary), Boswellia Sacra (Oman)
Circle 1 Berlin – Platform for Art and Culture, Mittenwalderstrasse 47, 10961 Berlin Kreuzberg — circle1berlin.com
Incense is used for a variety of purposes, including ceremonies in all the major religions, spirituality, aromatherapy, meditation and for simple pleasure. Fragrances appeal to the most neglected sense of modern times: the olfactory. Fragrances affect the human spirit, influence its perception, open new experiences. These qualities suggest combining this ancient art, present in any culture, with music in a synesthetic project between listening and smelling, enhancing the sense experience created from the convergence of scents and sounds in the brain.
In this very first concert of a series we present the music of Bach, Marais and improvisations by Maria Magdalena Wiesmaier (violoncello / campanula) together with two fragrances burnt in different sets.
Artists
Maria Magdalena Wiesmaier — violoncello / campanula
The cellist Maria Magdalena Wiesmaier regularly performs as a soloist and chamber musician. She develops her own projects and works in cooperation with architects, actors and lighting designers. Maria Magdalena Wiesmaier was born in Augsburg, Germany, and received her first cello tuition at the age of six. She was a junior student at the Leopold Mozart Conservatory, Augsburg before continuing her studies at the Franz Liszt Academy in Weimar. In addition to her musical education she studied architecture at the Bauhaus University Weimar for two years. In London she studied with Christopher Bunting, Raphael Wallfisch and Amaryllis Fleming and received an ARCM Performing Diploma at the Royal College of Music, London. Maria Wiesmaier was principal cellist of the London Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and founder member of the Samuel Piano Trio. As well as playing at many international festivals, she has given cello recitals in Japan, the UK and Germany. In 2001 she performed the "Six Suites for Violoncello Solo" by J.S. Bach. These concerts, planned in partnership with a Berlin architect, took place in architecturally interesting buildings throughout Berlin, with the aim of linking two art forms: music and architecture. The project was repeated at the international festival of the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk in Leipzig. Maria also took part in "Erste Architekturwoche München" (First Architecture Week Munich) and the Siemens Arts Program. She regularly accompanies the actor Klaus Maria Brandauer on solo tours, performing at the Wiener Burgtheater, Konzerthaus Berlin, Alte Oper Frankfurt and several festivals.
Photo by Fabio Dondero
Incense
Artemisia Vulgaris (commonly known as mugwort, felon herb, chrysanthemum weed, wild wormwood, Old Uncle Henry, sailor's tobacco, naughty man, old man or St. John's plant) is a tall herbaceous perennial plant growing 1–2 m tall, with a woody root, native to temperate Europe, Asia, northern Africa and Alaska. Mugwort is known to enhance dreaming, both in sleep and in Shamanic Journeying, and it's also used as a warding herb to banish negative energies. This member of the powerful Artemis family is used widely both in western and eastern herbal tradition.
Boswellia sacra (commonly known as frankincense or olibanum-tree) is a tree in the Burseraceae family, from which frankincense, a resinous dried sap, is harvested. It is native to the Arabian Peninsula (Oman, Yemen), and northeastern Africa (Somalia). This species of Boswellia is a small deciduous tree, which reaches a height of 2 to 8 m, with one or more trunks, tolerates the most critical situations and is often found on rocky slopes and ravines, up to an altitude of 1,200 m, mostly in calcareous soil.
Frankincense is mentioned as one of the three types of gifts the wise men gave to the young baby Jesus of Nazareth, and has been traded on the Arabian Peninsula and in North Africa for more than 5000 years. It is often used as an overall health tonic, as it offers benefits to all of the body's systems. It promotes relaxation by helping to open airways and is connected to feelings of mental tranquility, making it an excellent fragrance to use for meditation and spiritual activities.