As many of you know, I love writing about philosophy and spirituality–it permeates my work as a novelist and essayist.   My graduate education and career choices also bear out my stubborn penchant for the Big Questions.   But  you might not know that before all this romance with philosophy, I was a saxophonist–a serious one.  I majored in music performance in college and even played a concerto with the symphony.  Such memories of stage fright! 

Recently, I discovered an award-winning Australian composer who teaches in Malaysia–and who happens to also possess a passion for philosophy, so much so that he wrote an entire dissertation on how  A.N. Whitehead inspired his foray into composing with birdsong. I think of Dr. Robert Burrell as an eco-artist, a philosophical musician, a Whiteheadian who tries to capture the feel of a “becoming” universe  with his music.  If you click on the link below, you can read what I have to say, what Emily Dickinson has to say, what Whitehead has to say, and most importantly, what Robert Burrell has to say.   And if you don’t like reading, try doing away with the words and just listen to the beauty of the Grey Butcherbird co-mingle with human instruments. It  will make you a philosopher. . . . .

http://www.jesusjazzbuddhism.org/birdsong-in-e-flat-major-the-music-of-robert-burrell.html

Peace,

Patricia