A principle is universal, a rule is inflexible, a law is invariable

Music so wishes to be heard that sometimes it calls on unlikely characters to give it voice, and to give it ears. This wishing-to-be-heard calls into existence the Performance Event; where music, musician, and audience may come together as one, in Communion.

This Communion has six different forms of being and experiencing itself (plus an invisible seventh); and these forms, or principles, are simultaneously present within the Performance.

I
When people get together with music, something happens.

When people get together, something happens.
When people get together with music, something remarkable happens.

When musician, audience, and music come together in a performance, this something remarkable has a quality of its own.
The something remarkable is Music taking on a life of its own.

The Creation continues being created.

II
In a performance, things come together, mysteriously; and go better than we might anticipate; and better than we deserve.

In a performance event, the Benevolence that gives rise to Music brings together musicians and audience.

Things come together, mysteriously; and go better than we deserve, or might expect them to.

III
A performance can take on a life and character of its own.

Any particular performance event – with these people, in this place, at this time – defines the conditions of the performance: the where, when, and what of the event.

This is on the outside.

The conditions of time, place, and persons do not govern the quality of our experiencing of this performance.
Our experiencing is on the inside.

That the event happens is a given.
How we participate, listen, respond, is open and available.

What happens within the performance, that is, whether the performance comes to life or not, is to be created and discovered.

If this is so, the performance can take on a life and character of its own.
It is unique.

IV
Any one performance is a multiplicity of performances.

The degree to which we act as one, as a whole person, is a measure of our integration; that is, a measure of our Being.

The degree to which the performance is a whole event, depends upon the extent to which Musician and Audience and Music are able to enter into Communion as One.

Until this point, the performance event is as many performances as participants.
Beyond this point, the Whole Performance is every Performance: it is eternal.

The distinction between both is less than we might believe it to be.

So, any one performance is a multiplicity of performances.

V
The possible is possible.

We are able to be with others only to the degree that we are able to be ourselves.

This being so, we can only be in the performance to the degree that we can be ourselves: to be who-we-are.

It is possible to be who-we-are.
So, the possible is possible.

We begin with the possible, and move gradually towards the impossible.

VI
The impossible is possible.

Normality is what we might achieve, given who-we-are, what-we-are, the conditions and limitations of the world we work within.

Our ‘norm’ is what we ‘ought’ to be.

This is what is asked of us: to be who we were born to be, and to do what we were born to do.
This is already asking too much: it is impossible.

Nevertheless, we begin with the possible, and move gradually towards the impossible; trusting that the Benevolence which gives rise to Music is never far away.

So, the impossible is possible.

The Seventh Principle resides within Silence.

The Six Principles assume a common aim, goodwill, and a willingness to participate in good spirit within the event, and the capacity to do so.

In a sense the Six Principles are available when the highest in us comes together; in the knowledge that, essentially, we are the same person.

When the lowest takes charge, the performance event downgrades; and the possible becomes increasingly restricted.
The impossible becomes impossible.
The best is then, that the possible remains possible.

The worst is, that the possible becomes impossible.
This is the Null Event: nothing happens.

A Null Event has no life span, no persistence, no present moment of its own.
The event disappears, as if it never was; and, really, it wasn’t.
The Null Event is a complete waste of time and energy.
Something is lost.

But, it doesn’t have to be like that.

May we trust the inexpressible Benevolence of the Creative Impulse.

Robert Fripp
Tuesday 21st. July, 2009
Monasterio Nuestra Señora De Los Ángeles / Monjas Dominicas
Sant Cugat, Barcelona, Spain