20th Pipe Organ Anniversary

On May 26, 1987, Sri Chinmoy opened a new musical chapter with his first pipe organ performance in a church in the centre of Zurich, Switzerland. It was one day before he gave his first big 7-hour concert in the Swiss mountain village of Davos. Sri Chinmoy does not play the pipe organ as you would expect. He creates spontaneous and powerful improvisations seemingly connected to another world. He does not prepare any written music nor did he study at a music school. His approach is purely from his heart; you would say these are expressions of his feelings. The result is unforgettable and it was the first of many more improvisations on famous and less famous pipe organs in churches and music halls all over the world that followed in the last 20 years.

The performance in Zurich was one the longest ever. It lasted more than half an hour and was later titled as “The Summit-Song of Self-Transcendence”. This video has only a length of 14 min because there was an unhandiness involved in the recording. In fact it was my first shooting with a video camera and it was only a rented one. So part of the tape got erased afterwards. The result is technically not perfect and the sound is not fully synchronised but still it is a historic document that we would like to present.

Hear more of Sri Chinmoy’s music on Radio Sri Chinmoy

CREDITS

Edit & Camera: Kedar Misani

Acknowledgements: Sri Chinmoy

Copyright: © 2007 Sri Chinmoy