Healing music : The perceived and actual effects of vibration through music on the human condition.
Abstract
"The Sound is inside us. It is invisible. Wherever I look I find it." -Guru Nanak[T1]
Guru Nanak explains to us that the most significant aspect of music [T2] is sound itself. Through intense concentration the sound of a single note can be internalized , and through this process can be used to bring a deeper insight of the self. [T3]
It is in the individual consciousness that the sound really exists. Individuality is like island in the sea. Human are all connected under the sea and people share one consciousness.
Exploring into microtone, timbre, spectral, tonality, and intension to search vibration that effects in human body and be ‘tuned’ to the very nature of music.
Introduction[T4]
Tuned
There are many scale modes in music. Lydian scale sounds happy. Melodic minor or Dorian mode sounds sad. Major pentatonic scale has authenticity in it.[T5] But imagine if there are more notes between the notes. It would give whole different meaning to musical mood. The composers are exploring to infinite possibilities of the moods in the microtonal world ever since composer Harry Partch[T6] build 43 tone unique instruments during the depression. [T7] The revolution of the microtone is significant.[T8] Musician can now divide octaves into 90 different notes.[T9] In term of talking about microtonal music as untuned, there are no tuned music exists because if equal temperament became popular for the modulation reason and omitting the differences of notes, equal temperament isn’t really in tune either.[T10]
Most of ethnic instruments were not tuned with equal temperament until recently.[T11] Those instruments are built to sound good at in its original climate and its envelopment (environment?). Ethnic musical instruments are all tuned different throughout the world. It is because the instruments are tuned according to the surrounding condition. It is natural to tune own voice and the instruments with nature and envelopment. [T12]
In early 2008, I was at Annaikati, rural area in Tamil Nadu, India. I discovered that the birds and cows are all in tuned. I had electric tempura machine to sample the tuning correctly. The tempura machine showed that cow was crying at somewhere one octave below middle Eb. Birds were singing at one octave above middle Eb, followed by B and Gb. More interestingly people were speaking at Eb. Especially when they want to enfaces (emphasize?) the phrase, the voice most likely stayed at Eb. Everything was in tuned and whole sound in the area made one great musical piece. It cannot be done if sounds were not in tuned.[T13]
Frequency and environment
Nature is in tuned. In the nature, there is ‘Shruti’ or note that tunes the environment such as Eb in Annaikati[T14] . Shruti is the Hindustani word for microtone, the smallest interval of pitch the ear can detect, according to Indian music theory. However there is ‘Shruti’ in even crowded city.[T15] It is possible to be tuned with city.[T16] There are a lot of noises at different notes in the city. And when a listener focuses on one particular note or frequency, graduate all the sounds starts to emphasis on that particular note. The listener only needs to repeat that note in the head and try to be with the note. [T17]
This is the law of the vibration. Similar frequency of vibration would tend to vibrate together. People experience this law of vibration in the everyday life. People tend to meet same minded people while there are a lot more people out there. Similar vibration tends to attract each other.[T18]
It is easy to create harmony among same minded people. They can share idea and be influenced with each other. It is same with environment. If a parson focus on similar vibration with ourselves and the environment, he/she can create harmony and he can be tuned to the environment.[T19]
In the other word, a parson can be tuned to the world by cultivating to see similar vibration in any material and non material things.[T20]
Red color gives people impression of rage, passion and energy.[T21] Green color gives them sense of peace and the nature. Blue gives them sense of relaxation and coolness.[T22] People living in the mountain tend to wear earthy color like brown and green because the mountain is made out of trees of green and earth of brown[T23] . People in the sea side prefer bright color because that is how color looks like when strong Sun reflects on the white sand. [T24] People in the Sahara desert wear strong blue and black color combination and nothing else because there are no colors in the desert. Likewise, it is the human’s nature to be harmonize with the nature. Human like to wear the colors that their milieu offers to them.
It is same as the sound.[T25] Human tend to harmonize with the nature and environment. People like to make sound that is around the environment. Sometimes they imitate sound that is in their background. It is to add human element into the music that is already exists in the surroundings as a part of nature. The music of the nature is already perfect and whole. The nature is constantly presenting beautiful music with or without the audience. Music from people can only add ornaments to pre-existing song of the nature.[T26]
A Jazz musician and a composer Fabien Maman said
"I have a personal dream of tuning an entire city to A. What if, for 20 minutes, TV, radio stations and hospital intercoms played pieces in the key of A?
What if children sang songs, mothers hummed to their babies, all in the key of A!
Perhaps for 20 minutes at least, the city would be harmonized."—(Fabien Maman,2005 )[1][T27]
Maman, discovered how a particular frequency of the note affects to human cell by biology experimentation at University of Jussieu in Paris in early 80s.
In the theory, the vibration of the sound can bring Universe together. Harmony in the society comes from seeing the self in the big picture. When people’s intention comes together by listening to a particular frequency of the note, it would create peace in people’s mind as well as among the people and the nature.[T28]
Chapter 1. Self Identity[T29]
With the philosophy of ‘self identity’, the self doesn’t stop at its own skin and the fresh. The size of self is as big as a human’s consciousness. Yet people tend to identify self smaller because they see differences in them and in the other people in the human relationship. They often try to be ‘Unique’ so that they can distinguish the self comparing to other parson. The tendency of ‘Uniqueness’ started long ago when people start to posses own materials instead of using them on the sharing bases.
"A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." -Albert Einstein
When people think about ‘who am I’, they tend to find answers by asking ‘what am I different from other people’. The question of ‘who am I’ does not exist without other people.
Indentifying the self by comparison to other people tends to in balance the self. The self needs to be in balance with the nature and the other human being in order to keep the balance in them. The harmony in the self and with the surroundings is essential for the balanced life. And the balanced life come from the self identifying in the bigger picture which is no longer the comparison to other parson but harmonizing with other people. And to be tuned with environment.
“The levels or layers of person are divided typically into at least two facets. There is a private subject and a public person, a self known to self and the person known to and identified by others. Despite various schemes and labels promoted by contesting schools of thought, the principle is the same: inner and outer; secret and shared; individual and social; subjective and objective. While separable heuristically (and in some way separate actually), these layers must overlap to some extent. When they do not, the individual is likely to experience the "radical estrangement" or "hyperalienation" (Kovel 1987, p. 334) of self so characteristic of schizophrenia.” (Sue E. Estroff,[2])
Identity as a whole
“The goal of life is to realize the self. The self is an archetype that represents the transcendence of all opposites, so that every aspect of your personality is expressed equally. You are then neither and both male and female, neither and both ego and shadow, neither and both good and bad, neither and both conscious and unconscious, neither and both an individual and the whole of creation. And yet, with no oppositions, there is no energy, and you cease to act. Of course, you no longer need to act.” (Dr. C. George Boeree, 2006, CARL JUNG)
All activities of human being are coming out from the desperate thirst of the self seeking. It is human’s instinct to know the self. It is only reason why human live life on the earth. Human do not live life to find shelter and food to keep the chain of human DNA going. Human use their life to seek the self.
But how to realize the self. Each parson has their own way to learn the self. There is way to learn self through music too. As Zimbabwe’s Shona people say “Mbira is the bible”. They would play Mbira for hours for their spiritual contacts. By playing the Mbira, the musician would gain the insight to the self and eventually would become a Sharman to guide their society.
“Music acts on the universe, heaven, and earth, and on all the beings contained therein.”(Paradis),[3]
“Being the expression of natural harmonies, music is a translation of the moral forces that are also a part of the universe; it arises from it but regulates it in turn. This aspect of the world’s system has been profoundly analyzed and minutely exposed first by the classical books, then later, by philosophers and historians. The Yue ji studies these questions from every point of view. It points out, on the one hand, similarities and essential relations between psychological, social, or political facts, and on the other, notes, instruments, melodies, songs, etc.”[4]
“Music expresses the accord of heaven and earth…produces harmony between men and spirits.”[5](Preau,1932)
And when one finds the ‘self’, one note would be enough to talk about the whole world, whereas seeker of 1000 notes would still not be able to find anything. In this way, one can say that the music doesn’t start when the sound comes. “The music starts with in the intension”(Adrian Sheriff, 2008)[6]. So the music reflects exactly what one is. The music shows how much one has realized the ‘self’.
"The sound is round like a sphere, yet when one hears it; it seems to have only two dimensions: register and duration-of the third [dimension] we know that it exists, but it escapes us in some way. The high and low overtones sometimes give the impression of a more comprehensive, manifold sound beyond duration and register, but it is difficult to comprehend its complexity”.[7]-(Scelsi,1950’s)
Mbira
Zimbabwe’s Mbira functions as mediator between the two worlds. Mbira is played by Shona tribe people for thousand years.
“Mbira pervades all aspects of Shona culture, both sacred and secular. Its most important function is as a "telephone to the spirits", used to contact both deceased ancestors and tribal guardians, at all-night bira (pl. mapira) ceremonies. At these ceremonies, vadzimu (spirits of family ancestors), mhondoro (spirits of deceased chiefs) and makombwe (the most powerful guardian spirits of the Shona) give guidance on family and community matters and exert power over weather and health.”[8]- (Erica Azim)
In Zimbabwe, contacting with the ancestors helps people to be in the balanced life. The Shona people believe in Shave and Vadzimu spirits. Shave spirits are wandering spirits and vadzimu spirits are ancestor spirits. Shave spirits are connected to people who live around Shona people’s territory. Shave spirits can inspire the talent in music, healing, and art though bad spirits can disturb people. Vadzimu represent all that is ideal and moral about a Shona way of life. Vadzimu spirits are ancestors of Shona people especially in the recent decent. They protect Shona society as long as people pay good respect to them.
By using Mbira, Shona people keep connection to ancestors. By playing the Mbira, they pay respect and ask for the protection for the society. Mbira is not played for the personal pleasure. Individuals are function in the society therefore the well being of the society brings joy to individual. There is more research on tribal people that they identify self as a whole society.
In Brazilian tribe in Amazon, they do not have a word ‘Happy’ in their own language. The closest word they have is ‘Everyone is happy’.
In traditional culture of Africa, a person is born to belong to their own society. Their job is to create peace among them. There is no happiness without happiness around them. By living in the nature, they know that they cannot live alone. They do not identify their self only inside their body. Their self is much bigger than their own body.
Synchronicity
In Hindu view of world, each ego is like islands in the sea. People are actually connected deeply inside the sea.
There is a phenomenon called “Hundredth Monkey Effect” which was study of Japanese monkey in Koshima Island in 1952. The scientists discovered that the discovery of washing sweet potatoes among monkeys spread beyond the island suddenly when the number of monkeys increased up to certain number. Monkeys in distant place somehow knew the practice and they also started to wash sweet potatoes. This study proves that monkeys are unconsciously connected under the sea. Human could also be connected with each other under the sea.
Time and space
“A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive. ”[9]
-(Albert Einstein,1954)
Music represents time and space. And it seeks freedom within the time and spaces. The time and spaces are illusion. But until each human becomes the absolute reality, the time and space is a tool for the self seeking. Ego is a tool to come in to this world and experience this world. Emotions also, if a parson use it as a tool, it can help to experience this world. If a parson is not caught in the illusion of time, space and emotion and not attached to it, it is a good instrument to play whole experience. It could be used as a tool to liberate self from the prejudice and the perception of the self identification.
What separates me from most so-called atheists is a feeling of utter humility toward the unattainable secrets of the harmony of the cosmos. –( Albert Einstein,1953) [10]
Chapter 2. Healing
Drum Healing
In Minianka tribe of Mali, North Africa the drum serves healing function for the society and the individuals. It is played at every moment in the life, for occasion of work, celebration of the events, communication with ancestors, herbal medicine, and for the funerals occasionally followed by dances, singing and poetry.
It is the example of tuning the self with other parson and making harmony with it by using the drum. In the village, the drum player is a doctor for curing patients. According to West-African wisdom teachings, “emotional disturbance manifests as an irregular rhythm that blocks the vital physical energy flow.”[11][T30]
A drum player would find particular rhythm that suits the ill patient. The player would go into the patient mind by tuning himself with the patient through playing the drum. And the player would slowly provide the balance to the patience’s mind by guidance with the rhythm.
Layne Redmond said "The frame drum have been used for thousands of years in the act of worship in the Mediterranean world. Ancient sources say that the frame drum was not just a powerful symbol of spiritual presence, it was an important tool for many spiritual experiences."[12]
“Beauty is born of harmony. (…) Harmony is right proportion, in other words, right rhythm. And what is life? Life is the outcome of harmony. At the back of the whole creation is harmony, and the whole secret of creation is harmony. (…) What man calls happiness, comfort, profit or gain, all he longs for and wishes to attain is harmony, and the whole secret of creation is harmony.” (Hazrat Inayat Khan 1988)
Hazrat Inayat Khan says that the whole secret of healing is the harmony. When the object is in the balance or in the harmony, people pursue it as beauty. Beauty is in harmony and the happiness is in harmony. The music can add what is lacking in the parson and bring back the balance.
Intention[T31]
“There is an old saying Swara hi Eshwar hai. In every culture, Music has its roots in spirituality. Music has always been an internal part of worship of God. That is why hymns, carols, bhajans, shabads, kirtans etc. are all forms of prayer. Through music we can convey our innermost feelings”
-(Amjad Ali Khan,2007)[13]
Intention is most important aspect in composition and performance. Dr. Emoto [14]has studied crystalline pattern in the water. He gave different words to water and the resulted pattern was significantly different. Dr. Emoto has proven that when one gives word love to water, it forms beautiful geometric pattern which doesn’t happen when negative words are given. When one gives good intension to the water, water response to it. Since we are all result of vibration, the good intension gives us good effect just like water does. It is proven with the research of Quantum Physics too. The intension of the researcher results in the studying material. The intension has strong power to the result of effort. In music also, when listener focus intension in the music, the intension will carry to the audience.
Sufi writer Hazrat Inayat Khan says voice is breath. In Sanskrit, breath is called Prana and Prana also means energy or ‘Ki’ in Japanese. It’s the ‘Prana’ that Aikido master knocks down his enemy without even touching him. With this ‘Prana’, a parson would be able to express very strongly. “If there is anything in the world that can give expression to the mind and the feelings, it is the voice. Very often it happens that a person speaks on a certain subject with a thousand words, and it has no influence; yet another person who expresses a thought in a few words can make a deep impression. This shows that the power is not in the words, but in what is behind the words; that is, in the psychological power in the voice which comes from Prana. According to its strength it impresses the listener.” (Hazrat Inayat Khan 1988)
Intention of playing the music is not same as a reason of playing the music. Reason of playing the music could possibly separates the player and the music. When two things are separated, the player would see difference between himself and the music. When player see himself as music, it would have clear intention. Intention becomes music.
Frequency + Intention = Healing[15]
Jonathan Goldman came up with the equation of Frequency + Intention = Healing in the book ‘The power of intent’. He says that the intention is as important as the note of the song. It would be meaningless to conduct healing music without pure intention.
"In the universe there is an immeasurable, indescribable force which sorcerers call intent, and absolutely everything that exists in the entire cosmos is attached to intent by a connecting link. Sorcerers, or warriors, are concerned with discussing, understanding, and employing that connecting link. They are especially concerned with cleaning it of the numbing effects brought about by the ordinary concerns of their everyday lives. Sorcery at this level could be defined as the procedure of cleaning one's connecting link to intent."[16](Carlos Castaneda,1941)
Intention has strong connection with the identification of the self. When the identification of the self is broad, the intention does not come from own ego. When the identification of the self stays within the body, the intention can only come out from one parson and it would tend to connect with ego and personal desire.
Carlos Castaneda says when a musician is in selfless state, out from their daily concerns, it would make great chance for good musical performance because the intention that moves energy. The music would travel through the people.
I am not an island
I am not alone
I am my intentions
Trapped here in this flesh and bone
-(Melissa Etheridge "I Need to Wake Up")
Therefore composition is not only about notes and sound but composing the intension is very important part of musical performance.
Chapter 3. What is Sound
What is sound that human hear every day. The research says that there is no moment that human is separated from the sound. Even in the sound proofed room, a parson would hear his body functioning.
Everything in this world is made out of electrons. And the vibration of the electron makes particles that form matter. The vibration, in other word, the energy forms the world. The sound is also a form of energy and has its vibration. Therefore any energy has sound wither a parson hears it or not.
Scelsi liked to say: "Sound is immobility's first motion", adding: "There is the beginning of Creation!”
Much religion talks about sound as the cause of the creation.
The Bible says
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not.[17]”(John 1, Bible)
In Hindu philosophy, ‘Om’, a primary chant in Hinduism is a creator, Brahman. When Hindu practioner goes into very beginning of the creation during the deep meditation, he hears the sound ‘Om’.
"Om is Brahman, the Primeval Being. This is the Veda which the knowers of Brahman know; through it one knows what is to be known.”(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad)[18]
Jonathan Goldman, a musician and a founder of organization Healing sounds says
"The world was created through sound!" Shamael said. I nodded my head and watched as he waved his hand. I saw the creation of the earth and the planets, of suns and galaxies and universes. "It is not sound as you would think of in human terms. You think of sound as that which you perceive through your sense of hearing. Everything in the universe is in a state of vibration and has its own natural frequency. Everything in the universe was created from these frequencies which are unique and natural to themselves… "(Golaman,Jonathan)[19]
Sound is made out of vibration and the whole world is made out of the vibration. Humans are also made out of the vibration.
To understand the sound is to understand the self. To understand the sound is to understand the beginning of the creation.
Giacinto Scelsi
“Scelsi was obsessed with a certain sonoral quality and knew exactly what he wished musically... I think he intuited a sensitivity and propensity for losing myself in sound, an advantage for playing his particular music. After all those years of rehearsing and perfecting the Trilogy, he encouraged me to abandon technical considerations and let the works fly in freedom.”
- Frances-Marie Uitti[20]
Scelsi has unique style of composing song. When he gets inspiration, he would go to his piano and play it though with pure improvisation. He would record the sound and ask his assistant to transcribe the music. This way he would maintain the intensity of inspiration rather vivid than writing everything down on paper.
“Scelsi had already composed about thirty pieces, when, towards the end of the war, he underwent a serious crisis, calling for years of hospitalization. Whilst in the nursing home, he found his own therapy: he would spend hours at the keyboard, endlessly playing the same note and immersed in concentrated and intense listening, thus renewing experiences going back to early childhood. This saved him, and from 1952 onwards he started composing again, but in the entirely new and different language which allowed him to create about a hundred works within thirty years. In direct contradiction with the then prevailing serial combinatory way of thinking, his music explored the very center of sound, in order to liberate the infinite energy within. “
He became much involved with spirituality after series of retreat with a sound. He has studied Russian philosopher Gurdjueff, Blavatsky, theosophy, yoga, Buddhism, and Indian mystic Sri Aurobindo. He also had spiritual journey to Middle East and Asia. He healed himself by concentrating on one note. He has discovered the world within the note by the power of concentration. There are meditation technique in India which is aim to unite with the sound, called Nada Yoga. The practice of the nada Yoga is to face focus upon the inaudible sound that comes within the self. In Indian Veda tradition, the truth is within the self and the seeker seek the truth in the self
Scelsi said “He who does not penetrate to the interior, to the heart of sound, even though a perfect craftsman, a great technician, will never be a true artist, a true musician." [21]
He insisted that he is not a composer but a mediator between spiritual world and the material world. This phenomenon can be seen at almost any part of the world’s tradition. Music was, and always has been the mediator between two worlds.
His music Quattro pezzi su una nota sola (1959) are about the search within the self. It is the work for chamber orchestra and it is beyond the tonality and microtone. It gives experience about the state of being to the audience. It is the 4 dimensional music which focuses on the energy and the time of now. The music does not go anywhere and it always stays in the time of now. It is about being inspired than trying to achieve the goal.
Microtonal music
Tuning system has been changed over many years. In 12 Equal temperament system which is current most popular tuning system has 523Hz on middle C. Yet this frequency will not probably stay for very long time. Tuning system is also seeking for the self. The system has tendency to want to liberate self from limitation.
Everything is made out of vibration, or energy. All the energy, material or living form has instinct to seek self. Tuning system is also seeking the self.
"Through Vibration comes Motion
Through Motion comes Color
Through Color comes Tone"
- (Pythagoras of Samos,560BC-480BC)[22]
“Pythagoras of Samos taught that the movements of the planets traveling through the universe created sounds, and could be perceived by those who were trained to hear them. This music of the spheres could be replicated using a single stringed instrument called the monochord. Pythagoras used the monochord to explain musical intervals and harmonics to his students. He taught how harmony may be produced when tuning the high and low notes in the octave, thereby laying the foundation for many of the theories and teachings that have come down through the musical traditions.”(9ways,2007)[23]
Pythagoras made a connection between astrology, mathematics and the music. Music system was the reflection of the Universe.
Mathematics
According to Gurdjieff, certain melodies composed of microtones on inner octaves have the power to affect the inner states of humans and animals.[24]
Experimentation of different tuning system is another human’s instinct for the self seeking. Human would like to discover the secrets of the Universal rule. Tuning system is also based on the Universal rule of mathematics.
The musical tuning can be seen as a sequence of numbers called ‘Fibonacci Numbers’. It looks like how shell curves the way they are. And it also looks like the shapes of our DNA cords which circulates and goes up. The music tuning also circulates and goes up.
· An example of Fibonacci Numbers1
· An example of Fibonacci Numbers2
It is the mathematics of the Universe. Music tuning is no exception of symbol of rule of the Universe.
Just Intonation
Just intonation has the shape of spiral cord as well. The next octave is slightly higher than the previous octave.
“Just Intonation is not a particular scale, nor is it tied to any particular musical style. It is, rather, a set of principles which can be used to create a virtually infinite variety of intervals, scales, and chords which are applicable to any style of tonal music (or even, if you wish, to atonal styles). Just Intonation is not, however, simply a tool for improving the consonance of existing music; ultimately, it is a method for understanding and navigating through the boundless reaches of the pitch continuum—a method that transcends the musical practices of any particular culture.”[25]
The pioneer of just intonation is an American composer Harry Partch. There are few more composers who used Just intonation include Lou Harrison, Ben Johnston, György Ligeti, Shohei Tanaka, Carl Eitz ,Douglas Leedy, Kathleen Schlesinger, Max Meyer Pauline Oliveros, Terry Riley, Adam Silverman, and La Monte Young.[26]
Bach
-Bach and the art of temperament
p.71
Equal temperament, with all thirds quite high.
Meantone tuning, with most of the thirds pure and the others impossibly high.
Composer whose music suggests meantone to equal temperament is Hanry Purcell.
p.79
“Nowadays we play but rarely B major and A flat major, and pieces are never set in F sharp major or C sharp major.”-hanry purcell
Discussion of Bach's ‘Well Tempered Clavier’
E flat G sharp
It is the tuning system called Werckmeister III which was a popular tuning in Bach’s time. These songs are collection of solo keyboard music composed for a Well temperament.
In Europe, they used to have 17, 19, and 31 tone keyboards hundreds years ago. So one can say that the recent music experiences the joy of modulation by using 12 equal temperament and the music then experienced more detailed note in the diatonic scale.
"Music was born free; and to win freedom is its destiny" –( Dante Michelangelo Benvenuto Ferruccio Busoni,1907)[27]
Music composers have been seeking for way to express self through much freedom. The microtone idea gave expressive freedom to the composers.
In contemporary 20th century music, the composers explored microtones and tuning system began with Harry Partch, Julian Carrillo, Ivan Wyschnegradsky, Ivor Darreg Ivor Darreg, Alois Haba Haba, Lou Harrison and Ben Johnston to name few.
The microtonal music has been around since way before the 12 equal temperament system has been invented. 12 equal temperament systems are made out with 1200 cents in one octave. This means 100 cents per semi tone in the chromatic scale. Yet in most cultures, the intervals are made out with smaller than 100 cents each. Some popular tunings are 17, 19, 22, 24, 31, 34, 53, and 72 notes per octave. 17 tone temperaments have 70 cents per octave and 19 tone temperaments have 63.1 cents per octave.
Spectral music
There is another microtonal movement in composers in Europe started in 1979. Hugues Dufourt, a philosopher and composer’s compositional decision were decided by computer analysis of sound spectra called Fast Fourier transform analysis. “Hugues Dufourt gave the emerging style a name when wrote an article in 1979 entitled “Spectral Music.” He spoke of the tendency of the music to focus on the microstructure of sound, the ever-changing relationships between the pitches of a sound’s overtone structure as it develops in time.” (Anthony Cornicello)
Some of the influence to this music was composers like Maurice Ravel, Olivier Messiaen and composers around Hyperion Ensemble in Romania in 1970s. Their music had the harmonic and inharmonic parts which contained complex sounds, such as multiple-stop organ tones, bell sounds, and bird song. Spectra music is the extension of these chance ideas in logical analysis. And it was constructed on the development of a sound spectrum, working with harmonic spectra and focused on the sonorous nature of music.
Another influence to spectral music was Giacinto Scelsi, an Italian composer who composed music by focusing on listening to overtune. He puts importance on color of the sound
One of the most known Spectral composers is Gerard Grisey and Tristan Murail from France. They met Gerard Grisey when they went to Rome and were inspired to develop the system of spectral music.
Overtune
Almost all sounds are made out of more than one note. Even when one hits a key on the piano, it is more likely that there is combination of different notes in a sound. Human voice also has quality that which is combined with different harmonics. Harmonics is the combination of different sounds or timbre. Different parson has different harmonics in their own voice. A parson who has major harmonics in the voice is likely to give healing energy or positive energy to people. Likewise, microtonal singing also gives significant overtune harmonies. The voice is a vibration medicine tool to enforce the natural healing process.
God, as I use the word, is another name for what is. I always know God’s intention: It’s exactly what is in every moment.
-Byron Katie Quotes from Loving What Is
Conclusion
“Every Raga has a soul and every musical note is the sound of God. The meaning of Indian Classical music is freedom within the discipline." -Amjad Ali Khan (Sarod Maestro)
Microtonal music is one way to seek the freedom by freeing self from rigid scale of notes. Microtonal music is not a new phenomenal in the music history. In fact it is revisiting the tradition and history of music. The world became very small with our fast developing technologies. Now the music is mixed with past, future, east and the west. Equal temperament represent Western music and it is not necessary be used all the time.
Musician can develop the ear to listen ‘Shruti’ in the environment and tune the music to it. Because the real point of tuning system is really about tuning the self.
Harmony with environment, harmony within the self and harmony between ancestor spirits are all possible by using music because music is vibration. Everything can be seen and unseen in the world is made by vibration. Everything is vibration. The vibration of music has potential to harmonize the vibration of the environment by representing the ‘Shruti’ of the place. It will create balance and harmony in listeners, players and the environment.
This tuning system can be a new way as well as very ancient way of making music composition.
Reference
Helmholtz, Hermann von. (1863), On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music, Dover
Danielo,u Alain (1990), Music And The Power Of Sound, Inner Traditions
McLaren, Brian. Microtonality in United States
Neilson, Linda. (2004)Microtonal healing, Spirit of the healing voice
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[1] Terres Unsoeld, Vision Magazine, Feb. 2005
"The seed of the spiritual is found in the physical. In the heart of the cells, in the spiral of the DNA is written the divine story. When scientific research, spiritual practice and artistic expression work together, heaven and earth are in resonance.
This is Tam-Do - The Way of the Soul."
--Fabien Maman
http://tama-do.com/roothtmls/cell-research.html
[2]Sue E. Estroff, Self, Identity, and Subjective Experiences of Schizophrenia: In Search of the Subject, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC. p.189
[3] Paradiso,1.103
[4] Quoted by Preau,1932
[5] Preau,Voile d’Isis nos, 1935,Paris, p.350
[6] Interview at Adrian Sheriff’s office in 2008, Melbourne. He said “In Shakuhachi, the piece ends when intension ends. Within the intension the music comes.”
[7] Sabine Feisst (from the notes to mode 92)
[8] Mbira.org
[9] Quote of Albert Einstein, 1954, http://www.spaceandmotion.com/albert-einstein-god-religion-theology.htm
[10] Albert Einstein to Joseph Lewis, Apr. 18, 1953
[11] Diallo, Yaya. Hall,Mitch (1989) The Healing Drum: African Wisdom Teachings Destiny Books
[12] Redmond, Layne.(1997)When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm, Crown Pub, London
[13] Khan, Amjad Ali. (2007) Sarod Maestro, Music is Life -http://www.sarod.com/amjad/
[14] Emoto, Masaru(2007)Secret of the Vibration, Universal truth, Tokyo, Tokuma shoten
[15] Goldman, Jonathan, The Power of Intent
[16] The Power Of Silence, Carlos Castaneda
[17] John 1 , Bible, American Standard Version
[18] Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 5.1.1
[19] Lost Chord: Chapter 15, Goldman, Jonathan
[20] ECM records, http://www.ecmrecords.com/Background/Background_1963.php
[21] http://www.myspace.com/giacintoscelsi
[22] Quotation of Pythagoras of Samos (560BC - 480BC)
[23] Sacred Sound Tools, Pythagoras
http://9waysmysteryschool.tripod.com/sacredsoundtools/id13.html
[24] Ouspensky ,Peter.(1949) Some Aspects on Gurdjieff's Musical Aesthetics ,In search of Miraculous, p.297
[25]Just Intonation Network, http://www.justintonation.net/
[26] Just intonation Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_intonation
[27] Ferruccio Busoni “New Aesthetics of Music”
