|
Hidden Elements in Music and Sound
One of the most difficult questions for a
composer to answer is 'From where is the inspiration drawn to
create a new work of music?' Given that the craft and grammar
of music is already formulated in the minds of the musical establishment,
what is there left that has never been in place before? The answer
lies in one's perception of a complete formulation, and at what
stage a learning curve can be considered terminated. Blinkered
by its own accepted traditions, the academic music establishment
insists that the development of the 'modal form' scale system
commenced with the Greeks or Romans - a view similar to the insistence
by Fundamentalist Churches that homo sapiens was created
precisely as stated in the Book of Genesis. We now know that
the Darwinian and archeological findings prove otherwise, but
dogma has a habit of narrowing the mind. This follows from an
understanding that, if you repeat something often enough and
it is not questioned strongly enough, it can become established
as an apparent truth.
Fortunately, we have reached a time when we
have the opportunity to examine ambiguous matters without having
our lives threatened by some kind of Inquisition. We are able
to debate these issues freely with people who have 'eyes to see
and ears to hear'. Currently, our free-thinking Light Workers
are able to expand upon these issues, liaising with others, and
many use the World Wide Web to support the questing endeavour
in a profound way. Even the Vatican curators have begun using
the Internet to publish information from their archives, although
much still remains secreted at this stage. Many people see this
as a long awaited chance to confront and overturn the many schisms
which exist between the different religions. This is only a start,
but it is hoped that the new Millennium will bring a welcome
and open tolerance between the many faiths on this planet. It
will be interesting to see how the future monarch of Britain
will deal with the prevailing controversial issue of defending
The Faith or defending Faiths, when the moment for decision arrives.
My chosen route into the quest for the connections
to ancient music begins with examining the root stems of modal
form. Scales and modes can be simply understood as the superstructure
for melodic phrases. In the Christian Church, plainchant was
used to enhance the ritual in services, and ecclesiastical plainchant
evolved from these root modes, as have the complete sets of minor
and major scales we use in Western music today. As far back as
the 4th-century era of Emperor Constantine, a solemn chant called
the 'Introit' accompanied formal processions from the sacristy
to the altar: The Offertory was sung in the Communion preparation,
and in the Communion itself a chant accompanied the distribution
of the bread and wine to the congregation. All this was, of course,
sung originally in Latin. Significantly, the Roman Mass became
the most important form throughout Christendom although, interestingly,
embracing some Greek, with the inclusion of the phrase 'Kyrie
eleison' - 'Lord have mercy'. This chant was eventually succeeded
by the hymn 'Gloria in excelsis Deo'. The Sanctus can be traced
as far back as 3rd-century Alexandria, but the 'Agnus Dei' was
not introduced until the 7th century. Early chant was always
sung by men because women were not allowed to participate in
the churches - as detailed in my essay, 'Feminine Element in
Mankind'.
A problem arose in the 8th and 9th centuries,
especially in the reign of Emperor Charlemagne, when an attempt
was made to bring Roman-style church worship into the Frankish
regions of Gaul. In this, Charlemagne saw himself as the divinely
appointed ruler of the chosen people, similar perhaps to King
David and his new Israel. This presented a considerable challenge
to the Franks, who had tremendous difficulty in mastering the
subtleties of Roman chant, while the Roman singers deliberately
protected the secrets of their own skills. Consequently, confusion
was created instead of harmony!
The outcome of this, as some scholars would
have us believe, was a quite different chant in the 13th century
- a chant called 'Gregorian', This is said to be a Byzantine
Imperial liturgy which emanated from the Pope's own chapel as
opposed to the various basilicas. However, there is good reason
to believe that this chant was actually Frankish, not Byzantine,
and that it was intended to codify the oral repertory. Somewhat
conveniently, however, it is claimed that the Frankish city of
Metz (seemingly involved in the establishment of this musical
model) 'lost' all its chant books, and the only manuscripts surviving
onwards from the late 9th century emanate from other places!
The Frankish Empire was responsible for three
musical genres: sequences, tropes (tones) and liturgical drama,
which added local repertoires to the services for the patron
saints of their churches. A number of theoretical books about
chant were written in the 9th century and some of these attempted
to reconcile the non-traditional chant with what survived of
Greek music theory.
By the 12th century, the repertoire had become
ever more complicated, and the Cistercian Order of monks reacted
against this over-elaboration of ritual by excluding particular
notes from the wider range (10ths) and eliminating the long meandering
(Melisma) of certain single words. Since this period there have
been occasional changes, including many of the medieval forms
which reappeared in the 18th and 19th centuries. Notational changes
were apparent with the transition from a no-line stave to a four-line
stave and, eventually, to the five-line stave that is familiar
today. Expression markings to the chant notations also changed
along with these, together with rhythmic stem indications - even
as far back as the 13th century. However, the Old Roman system
still contains a more primitive modal form than does Gregorian
chant, and it is easy enough to discover the root stem modes.
The Greek names for the four main root modes
or tropes are: Protus, Deutorus, Tritus and Tetradus, while out
of these came others like the eight psalm tones of a Frankish
innovation connected to the Byzantines. The eight modes are:
Dorian (D), Hyperdorian, Phrygian (E), Hypophrigian, Lydian (F),
Hypolydian, Mixolydian (G) and Hypomixolydian. Later, in the
16th century, four more modes were added: Aeolian, Hypoaeolian,
Ionion and Hyperoionion. Each mode contains a different sequence
of half-tones and whole tones which make up a progression of
notes similar to a scale. Interestingly, the Lydian mode contains
the Augmented 4th interval that was so despised by the Roman
Church and banned as the 'Devil's Interval' in the 12th century.
Other music of the medieval period was related to the aural tradition
of European folk music, and from this derived the long standing
Troubadour melodies
Meanwhile, non-European cultures were developing
their own modal systems, like the Arabic 'maqäm' and the
Indian 'räga' systems. Several aspects of moral and expressive
values were attached to the various modes in the Middle Ages
and some of these have bizarre stories attached to them. In one
instance, a young man was so aroused by a melody in the Phrygian
mode that he was about to break into the room of a young lady
when, suddenly, a change to the Hypophrigian mode restored him
to a proper frame of mind! Others of the medieval period related
the eight modes to celestial bodies and to the masculine and
feminine aspects.
Plato and Aristotle wrote about 'harmoniai'
which, interestingly, had the names Ionian, Lydian, Dorian and
Phrygian - and each of these required a separate tuning of the
lyre. Plato also praised Egyptian musical standards and it would,
therefore, be fair to assume that the association with modal
form links the Greek and Roman systems. Within these modes were
other tunings of the diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic forms,
while along with the Greek modal forms came melodies and rhythms
mainly associated with Greek lyric metres and poetry. This afforded
Greek composers less freedom in setting words to music than their
Roman successors.
The principle influence on Plato and Aristotle
was Pythagoras (c. 550 BC), who investigated musical theory
in Egypt before being instructed by the priests of Babylon in
the secrets of arithmetic, music and other disciplines. Unfortunately,
none of his writings remain and so we must rely on later sources
to trace his work on the mathematics and acoustic geometry of
music. His ideas, such as the Tetrad, the Golden Section and
harmonic proportions, became applied to aesthetics and various
mystical beliefs. Pythagoras is known for revealing the mathematical
correspondence between the pitch of a note and the length of
a string. However, there is much evidence that this relationship
was known as far back as the early Babylonian and Sumerian eras.
Grecian thought is still unmistakable today
in the belief that music influences ethical life, and in the
idea that music can be explained in an abstract way as a reflection
of some higher source. Pythagoreans believed in the principle
of 'the kinship of all beings'. In his nexus with the god Apollo;
he believed that he was able to remember his earlier incarnations
and, hence, to know more than others knew. He used music to teach
the purification of the soul in order to reach higher levels.
'To be like your Master' and so 'to come nearer to the gods'
was his challenge to his pupils. Salvation was thereby achieved
through a union with the divine cosmos and the study of the cosmic
order through the Music of the Spheres.
When we examine the music of ancient Mesopotamia
and Egypt, we find that by the the end of the 4th millennium
BC there was a defined musical structure of rhythmic and melodic
tradition, developed under priestly ritual guidance. Some texts
have been discovered which, in the first half of the 2nd millennium
BC, gave instructions for the tuning of a lyre which implied
the octave (as in later Greek and Roman systems) and were the
basis of a tonal scaling. From other texts, there is much evidence
that the Sumerian and Akkadian dynasties in the 3rd millennium
BC made music a significant aspect of kingly and priestly ritual.
In fact, they emphasise that the various musical instruments
were 'pleasing to the gods'. Musical instruments played in the
Death-pit ritual of Ur (the capital of Sumer, c.2600 BC)
were nine lyres, three harps, sistrums or bell trees, frame drums
(flat drums) in three different sizes, double pipes and silver
pipes.
There is evidence from this era that modal
forms were definitely in use and information gained from the
many cartouches show people singing and dancing with bells, rattles
and cymbals. By looking at the tuning of harps and lyres, we
are directly able to ascertain the four main root modes used
later in Greek and Rome. The mosaic Royal Standard of Ur shows
a female singer, accompanied by a male playing a lyre with a
soundbox in the shape of a bull. Animals were very much connected
with various instruments, as in the jackal decorations on one
of the Ur lyres, along with the 'serpents' (long curled trumpets)
which were able to produce snake-like hissing sounds.
In Egypt, associations with military music
are shown in many cartouches and funeral tombs. Tutankhamen was
buried with two trumpets, while a relief from Sennacherib portrays
a pair of trumpeters blowing alternately. As pointed out by Laurence
Gardner in 'Genesis of the Grail Kings', the biblical Tubal-cain
(who is revered in scientific Freemasonry) was the great Vulcan
of Mesopotamia during the reign of Egypt's King Narmer (c.3200
BC). He was a prominent alchemist and the greatest metallurgist
of his age, while his step-brother Jubal was said to be 'the
ancestor of all who handle the lyre and pipe' - whence the word
Jubilee, meaning 'a blast of trumpets' or 'to lead with triumph
or pomp'. The ritual connection in pleasing the gods with brass
horns and trumpets is very apparent in this era and a later association
between angels and the medieval buisine (long trumpet) probably
originates from this time.
From the Sibylline Oracles - wherein prophecies
concerning Jewish or Christian doctrines were allegedly confirmed
by a sibyl (a legendary Greek prophetess) - a song reads: 'They
do not pour blood on altars in libations of sacrifices; No drum
sounds no cymbal; No flute of many holes which has a sound that
damages the heart; No pipe which bears the imitation of the crooked
serpent; No savage-sounding trumpet herald of wars; None who
are drunk in lawless revels or dances; No sound of the lyre and
no evil-working devices'.
For a while in the Middle Ages, the bishops
banned the use of brass instruments in churches because they
were brash and produced what was perceived as Devil tones and
Satan's music. This proscription was intended to sever the link
with all ancient Old Testament forms of worship ritual and its
associated Egyptian ritual. However, it is interesting that,
from the Reformation, secular music was almost totally dedicated
to the use of brass instruments with composers like Purcell,
Handel and Bach at the forefront of great choral and brass dominated
works. The fact is that today both Church and State ceremony
inherits its musical tradition from the priestly ritual and military
pomp of the early time-frame.
Sacred ritual has always been linked to a
transcendent realm and many depictions of musical instruments
are of double instruments, being perceivably one octave apart.
This is very significant when considering the psycho-acoustic
properties of sound. The interval shift of a perfect octave is
exactly one-half or double the frequency. In ecclesiastical terminology,
it is the seventh day (exactly a week) after a feast day, or
eight days including the feast day and its octave. Occasionally,
however, strange acoustic phenomena occur when the octave is
sounded imperfectly. In certain architectural and atmospheric
circumstances the imperfect octave (when the frequencies start
to resonate against each other) produces lower or sub-harmonics
and these can fall far beneath our audio range.
Resonance is the vibration set up by contact
with an object sympathetic to the frequency. For example, a tuning
fork sounds far stronger if it is touching a table with the energy
transferred more powerfully through the air. However, the vibration
of the fork will go on far longer (although less intensively)
if it is free of any contact. It is also important to realise
that, in the familiar scenario of the singer and the wine glass,
it is not the power of the sound that is important; it is the
vibrational 'trill' of the singer, in a resonating frequency
with the glass, which causes the glass to shatter.
The Law of the Conservation of Energy states
that 'you cannot get more energy from a sound source than you
put in' - and yet, with the subtle use of architecture and natural
chambers, sound can be harnessed to project these psycho-acoustic
properties. The sound of a particular instrument is derived from
a tendency to reinforce particular harmonics so as to create
what we understand as 'tone colour', and this pitch region is
know as a 'formant'. Formants play a unique role in in our speech,
as each vowel sound can be characterised by way of containing
two fixed formant regions. Extreme use of these may be found
in the low chanting of Tibetan monks, along with the Hari Krishna
chant and the Om chant. In fact, formants play a significant
role in the strength or amplitude of a sound, and this explains
how it is that a single flute is able to be heard amid a large
string and brass section of an orchestra.
Many have studied the levitational potential
of sound and we have several accounts, with eyewitness evidence,
of this elevating force. Indeed, levitation rituals are still
being performed in India and Tibet. In the village of Shivapur,
near Poona, is a little mosque dedicated to the Sufi holy man
Qamar Ali Dervish. Outside in the courtyard of the mosque is
a stone weighing 138 pounds and, during daily prayer, eleven
devotees surround the stone, repeating the holy man's name. When
they reach a certain pitch, the eleven men are able to lift the
stone by using one finger each. When the chanting stops, the
devotees jump back as the stone resumes its weight and falls
to the ground with a heavy thud. The key seems to be in the chanting,
and eleven voices must be the required formula to achieve the
correct pitch to make the boulder's vibrations change and render
it weightless or, at least, much lighter.
Another fascinating eyewitness account of
modern levitation comes from Tibet. It was reported by the Swedish
aircraft industrialist, Henry Kjellson, who travelled through
the Himalayas. Kjellson described how Tibetan monks hauled stones
measuring 1.5 meters square by yak up to a plateau and placed
them in a specially designed bowl-shaped hollow, 1 metre in diameter
and 15 centimetres deep at the centre. The hollow was situated
100 metres from a 400-metre cliff face, at the top of which was
a temple that was being constructed.
63 metres behind the hollow stood 19 musicians,
and behind them 200 priests radiating out in lines, separated
from one another in groups at 5-degree intervals, forming a quarter-circle
with the hollow at its focal centre. The distances appear to
have been of the utmost importance, as all were carefully measured
by the monks using lengths of knotted leather. The musicians
possessed a total of 13 drums of three different sizes, while
alternating between them were others with 6 large ragdan trumpets.
The drums weighed up to 150 kilos each and were barrel-shaped,
suspended from wooden frames set horizontally and directed towards
the hollow. The long metal trumpets, also directed toward the
hollow, were of specific length, and it took two monks, taking
turns, to blow one instrument.
On command, the drums and trumpets were sounded
and the priests chanted in unison, together forming sharp blasts
of sound. After four minutes, Kjellson observed that the individual
stones placed in the target hollow began to wobble, moving from
side to side, and then as the beats of sound increased, the stones
soared 400 metres in a parabolic arc to the top of the cliff.
Kjellson recorded that, by this means, the monks were able to
elevate five or six blocks an hour.
A few years later, in 1939, a friend of Kjellson,
a Swedish doctor called Dr Jarl, working for the Oxford Scientific
Society in Egypt, was called into Tibet to treat a High Lama
in this same region. While he was there he was permitted to shoot
two films of this levitational ritual. However, the Oxford Scientific
Society confiscated the films, declaring that, since Dr. Jarl
was in their employ when the films were shot, they were classified
and not to be released. At present, the whereabouts of the films
remains a mystery, but exhaustive searching by this author and
others is in progress.
In the music album 'Genesis of the Grail Kings',
I have reenacted the first four minutes of this levitation ritual
on a track called 'Phoenix and the Firestone', using the exact
same format as described above. Several people have contacted
me since the release of the CD, remarking that this track has
occasionally caused certain phenomena to occur. One report told
of the music returning even after the CD player had been turned
off, while others have described objects being moved around the
room. However, as yet, no one has made any report of their stereo
system floating out of the window!
Preliminary findings to this point in the
research have led me to look more closely into frequency and
resonance. The resonant frequency of our skulls is around 3.5
Hertz, and this coincides with the 14th sub-harmonic of G above
middle C, which is the main frequency used in the 'Phoenix and
the Firestone'. This is the frequency directly connected to the
pineal gland and is, therefore, linked to the transcendent realm
and the expansion of the subconscious.
Recent research has been accomplished into
sound as a part of the IRCAM project in Paris. This is an electronic
music research establishment (a part of the Georges Pompidou
Centre), founded in the 1980s with substantial grant-aid from
the French Government. Unfortunately, much of this French funding
was originally associated with the exploration into the military
potential of sound warfare under cover of the cultural project
in the studio complex. There are certain rooms which are still
'out of bounds' today, even to the composers working permanently
within the centre.
So far, none of the acoustic research of modern
times has produced any definitive sign of the levitational ability
known to the Tibetans and others. But the research continues,
for there is no reason why we should not acknowledge the Tibetan
acquisition of knowledge from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Until the Chinese takeover, Tibet had been isolated for millennia
and this knowledge may well have been intentionally provided
to the monks.
Purposeful architecture has always played
a significant part in the constructions that surround spaces
where music is played. In France, Chartres Cathedral (built in
less than thirty years during the 13th century when high Gothic
architecture was at its purest) is one of the most wondrous structures
in this regard. In the centre of the floor of the nave is the
famous labyrinth, which has long been connected with certain
musical harmonics, set within an architectural framework of the
Cathedral's walls and flying buttresses.
In 'Genesis of the Grail Kings', Laurence
Gardner describes the exotic anti-gravitational properties of
the white powder of gold and other orbitally rearranged monatomic
elements (ORMEs). Our collective work in this field has led us
to postulate on the potential of the three combined forces: the
single-atom powder, acoustics and architecture - and that, without
this triple and holistic conjunction to facilitate an interdimensional
state known as the Plane of Sharon, the superconductive forces
inherent in levitation may not be possible. I do not know at
this stage whether the Tibetan stones contained a monatomic substance,
but it is becoming possibly apparent in other architectural structures
around the world. Meanwhile, the sources of modal forms, sound
and the development of a new understanding of harmonic progression,
which I have termed the 'Modes of Extended Transposition', are
inherent in the music I have created in 'Holy Spirit and the
Holy Grail' and 'Genesis of the Grail'.
I began this essay by confirming that we are
currently able to examine many hitherto hidden elements in sound
and music. We now have the opportunity to go behind the veil
of these unique elements - not lost, but hidden away somewhere
in our subconscious genetic memory - and to reaffirm their value
in today's environment. Our Earth's fuel resources are beginning
to expire and we must embrace other forms of energy if we are
to allow any of our benign technology to be of use in the future.
Unfortunately, the present payback for our non-ecological use
of technology is that it is doing us more harm than good in the
longer term. But this does not have to be the case - certainly
not if we can comprehend and reutilise the resources that were
available in ancient times. How heartening it is to learn that
some of our most advanced scientists are now realising that the
previously perceived 'vacuum' of space is actually filled with
what they term 'exotic matter', and that some of this vibrational
and resonant energy is available for our beneficial use on this
planet.
Adrian Wagner © September 1999.
|
