Funny, I've been listening to teachings on spaciousness, realizing how breathing all the way down into my own deep spaciousness begins to open me up to the Real in me, discussing spaciousness as the starting place with a friend who is facing an enormous task. . . and then this afternoon when I decided to take a break and look around on YouTube for some of my favorite singers, there it was again: Spaciousness.
I listen mainly to classical music, and few things thrill me more than hearing a glorious voice with gorgeous execution, brilliant use of technique, causing music and singer to appear as one. Having studied singing myself, I marvel at the melding of a performer's voice, conditioned breathing apparatus, finely honed muscular support, interpretive skill, and deep artistic feeling with wonderful music and lyrics. I looked up Schubert's Ave Maria and listened to performances by Luciano Pavarotti, Barbara Bonney, and Susan Graham, each causing my eyes to well with tears, before going on to some favorite arias, just as powerful, and then clips of famous singers coaching young musicians.
In a masterclass at Boston University, mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves worked first with an Asian-American bass-baritone. She listened to his aria and decreed that he had a lovely voice, well placed, but was not giving it the space it needed to soar freely. Using images and exercises, she helped him to create spaciousness, relaxing the voice and opening it metaphorically to a tall, wide cylinder of breath, no longer squeezed or limited.
I imagined the cylinder for myself, with the spaciousness of the universe inside it, molecules roaming there or doing whatever molecules do without any sense of being compacted, riding on the breath of Being, able to be all that they are just as they are. I believe I heard Spirit singing.
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