Infuse

“Relationship” with Clocks and Music Boxes continued 

But can something made of brass, aluminium and wood really accompany? If there is no consciousness there can be no awareness, no recognition and no accompaniment? Maybe we should rather speak of projected sentiment or symbols of status?

What would the alchemists say? Can’t we infuse matter with life? Place yourself in the shoes of the Reuge artisan standing at his work bench. Will we tell him that his energy is lost and wasted in thin air?

And Tinie our cabinet maker in the Holtzhausen workshop – isn’t his soul transported into that clock case when he spends 10 days bent over it?

Herman

Companions

A Mantelpiece clock on the fireplace mantel in the White House; a Floor clock next to the door inside the Oval Office.

Companions to power.

Herman

Mystery and Imagination

The day my grandfather died the watch he gave me stopped the minute he exhaled his last breath. I was cycling to tennis practice; he was back home. It was one sad day in 1978 at 15:42.

Since then i have heard similar stories many a time. I heard dozens of them at our stand at expos around the world, and again this morning on BBC Radio 2.

How do we explain this fascinating phenomenon?

Have a look at the Boegli musical wristwatch playing 4Seasons.

Herman

Clarity

I’ve been pre-occupied defending the castle folks. Fraudsters on ebay, Paypal and at an Expo in Johannesburg, all unrelated can you believe(!), trying to get their hands on what we hold dear. All in one week. Happy to say that they’re all driven out back to where they belong.

And this morning – Clarity, Lucidity, Purity stir in the shadows. Have a look at her – the Reuge Clara!!

“What if you slept
And what if
In your sleep
You dreamed
And what if
In your dream
You went to heaven
And there plucked a strange and beautiful flower
And what if
When you awoke
You had that flower in you hand
Ah, what then?”

~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge ~

Yours

Herman

Moment

Why a Bell?

The most exceptional clocks like the Holtzhausen Everest and many of the truly awe inspiring music boxes like the Reuge Roma and the Reuge Orient Express have clear striking bells.  

It announces That Moment. It alerts us to Now, doesn’t it?

But is it just a passing strike, an announcement or is there an invitation to enter the “Power of Now”?

I hold that a bell alerts, invites and if one pays attention to the ring, draws the curtain aside to the inside.

Follow the bell as it’s ring fades

Herman

Primitive

Its not the words we remember most – its the scents and sounds. Then the visuals. Then what was said. Then what was written. Primitive isn’t it?

Scents and sounds have the quickest and deepest access to our memories. In fact, they’re entwined. Recollect any fond memory and what do you find – “I can smell it!”

Words – like mine here, are a later development.

Is that why we wrap a gift? The anticipation enchanced by the smells and sounds surrounding the unwrapping leading to greater excitement and lasting memory?

Is that why a music box is a most treasured gift…

Have you seen the packaging a Reuge product comes with nowadays? Wow! Its sublime. And the crescendo doesn’t fall flat with an empty kernel. No, inside is the sacred scent of a meticulous creation, of sound and touch and delicacy that lingers.

Primitive, yes.

Is this sensuality?

Herman

Open Seas

Wouldn’t it just be the best thing sailing from Rio to Cape Town right now!

Three Winches are available for immediate order.

Herman

Clock Symphony

I listened to Haydn’s Clock Symphony (no101) recently.

It reminded me of some of the richest meditations i’ve ever enjoyed. That space between tick and tock – the silence in between. The fruit of discipline – the freedom within the parameters.

Maybe the economic downturn has this message too. The swing of the pendulum – Boom to Bust. Shed the need for extremes – find yourself in rest in the moment in between…

Why are clocks still treasured? I suggest the answer lies here and here.

Herman Holtzhausen

Evening Hymn

Imagine how attuned we would become with the daily ritual of an Evening Hymn!

Yes! After having dealt with whatever the day could throw at us, we sit down. A candle burning, phones off, we listen to an Evening Hymn.

A point of focus. A point of entry. A moment of surrender.

The hymn can be any of your favourite pieces of music. I will take the Reuge Ambiente Incense Holder AXA.36.5362 with Chostakovitch’s Waltz no.2 downstairs tonight.

I really do love that piece.

Herman Holtzhausen

Beauty

On Beauty.

We’re inundated with somber reports, aren’t we? I don’t have to repeat it here – i did and then i thought, no, we are all too aware of the abyss…

YET, here we are adoring the craftsmanship of Reuge music boxes. It reminds me of being on holiday with my parents at a sea side village. Pained by the angst of young adulthood i wondered around in the car park, perched on a cliff over looking the ocean. There i found my release – a Ferrari 400i! My mother could not believe that i spent my time in the car park staring at the Prancing Horse. Surely i was out there smoking something?!  But no, my simple focus was beauty. That holiday she visited me in the shape of a silver 1976 Ferrari 400i.

Similarly my senses are held by the Reuge Dolce Vita this morning. 5 Interchangeable cylinders making for 15 tunes on 72 notes. Have you felt the notes actually reverberating through your bones-because they do. I feel the weight of the box, the perfection of each cylinder, the solidity of the lid closing. The hand inlay.

Even now, beauty releases.