InThe View from the Studio Door, Ted Orland made the following
observation about the classic role of art in human culture: Most
historical artwork played a role in society or religion or both.
There’s pretty good evidence that Bach himself understood that
to make work that mattered meant addressing art at every level –
from the purely technical to the completely profound –
simultaneously. He once composed a set of training pieces whose
purpose, he said, was “to glorify God, to edify my neighbor, and
to develop a cantabile style of playing in both hands.” In other
words, from the earliest times art has had many simultaneous
functions that encompassed the spiritual, educational, and
practical areas of life – and nowhere more so than among our
regional Coastal Salish communities. Art is so interwoven into
their lives that there is not a word for ‘art’ in the language,
no identifying word that separates the decorative from the
practical, the beautiful from the spiritual. It is all one,
which is reflected in their