THE SPIRITUAL POWER OF MUSIC #6
Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitation of the soul. It is one of the most magnificent, delightful presents God has given us. Martin Luther
I am not a musicologist or a music historian but I did come across some interesting information as to how things began to change with music around the 20th century.
Schoenberg, Boulez and Cage had different ideas about tonality which have influenced where we are today. In fact they applauded no tonality at all.
Cage in the early 90's called it
"purposeful purposeless"
and encouraged having no organization so as to be emancipated from the tyranny of meaning and order. He has had a huge influence on world music today.
Vagn, Holmboe and John Adams rebelled against these "modern" ideas and stuck to tonal music, the music that connected them to Pythagoras and Saint Clement. They are a reflection of a musical recovery of our time but there is still much opposition as in Heavy Metal and in Rap and especially depending on the words that are used. Christian Rock also has arisen in opposition to this.
At the end of the day music is mathematical, and tonality for maximum beneficial effect on our being should conform to these laws and not
"purposeful purposeless"
Nevertheless formless chaos often seems to have replaced essence and is a reflection of the disturbance of what is going on inside of us and around our planet.
The right musical vibration can help us return to our true Selves.
432 Hz is said to be rooted in musical history and has been linked without real proof to geometry, science, architecture, the Egyptian pyramids, Stonehenge, mystical events and other phenomena. It is also said to shift consciousness, soothe and reduce anxiety, heighten perception, increase mental clarity and align one with the heartbeat of the universe.
Whatever the case it has been replaced by 440Hz, now the standard pitch around the world although this was also used in the 18th and 19th centuries.
However, 432 is making a comeback especially in sound healing, therapeutic work and meditation.
Others have also warned against imposing a single system based on it having a superior vibration. Its not the pitch of the note but one's intention for the music which will prevail. It's all a question of skill in releasing that intention.
Conspiracy theorists believe that Goebbels and the Nazis promoted 440 Hz as part of a plan to warp the consciousness of the masses. However, it was in use in Italy, Holland, England, France and Germany long before the Nazi regime.
Although this theory has been discredited there is no doubt that the Nazis used music to torture their victims especially the Jews. Forced singing of German songs was accompanied by torture meted out in freezing weather. One labor battalion called the "Singing Horses" was harnessed to a heavily loaded wheel barrow which they had to pull as they sang at the top of their voices while straining or they were beaten.
Inmates also had to sing while being asphyxiated and play the violin while being tortured. Others - knowing their fate - had to play instruments as new inmates entered the camps. Musicologist Ruth Hacohen has called it the
"music libel against the Jews."
The SS robbed the Jews and Jewish musicians of the only vital resource that they had for their survival.
... or the Gates of hell
The tritone, Diabolus in Musica has been called the Devil's interval but it was also used to good effect by Beethoven, Wagner and Tartini as well as other composers. However, it has become a predominant feature especially in Heavy Metal and other forms of modern music.
It is designed to create a chilling, unsettling, forboding atmosphere which would not conform to the listener's expectations. One hears the tritone or trill in spooky movie soundtracks and the sounds around Halloween.
Samhain which has become Halloween in America is an ancient Celtic festival celebrated when the veil between the worlds was suppose to be at its thinnest allowing spirits to pass through. Harmful spirits were warded off and folks disguised themselves as harmful spirits for protection.
Many modern musical legends have flirted implicitly or explicitly with the fact that
"The Devil has the best tunes"
including;
Little Richard, Elvis, Snoop Dog, Jagger, Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page, Black Sabbath, Megadeth, California quartet Slayer, Black Metal and even the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bon Jovi, John Lennon and Lady Gaga.
David Bowie did so as well and stated,
"Rock has always been the Devil's music and I feel we are heralding even something even darker than ourselves."
However Rock and especially Soft Rock can be anything but dark depending on the intention of the musicians and avoidance of the tritone for negative and sexually enhancing effects.
THE TRITONE
Tartini's most famous work - The Devil's Trill Sonata - is a solo violin sonata that is technically demanding and difficult even by modern standards. According to a legend embroidered upon by Madame Blavatsky, Tartini was inspired to write the sonata by a dream in which the Devil appeared at the foot of his bed playing the violin.
The sonata written somewhere between 1713 and the mid 1740s is a piece that still tests the limits of even accomplished violinists.
Tartini's most famous work - The Devil's Trill Sonata - is a solo violin sonata that is technically demanding and difficult even by modern standards. According to a legend embroidered upon by Madame Blavatsky, Tartini was inspired to write the sonata by a dream in which the Devil appeared at the foot of his bed playing the violin.
The sonata written somewhere between 1713 and the mid 1740s is a piece that still tests the limits of even accomplished violinists.
The precise connection between the pitch of an instrument and the length of a string has been attributed to Pythagoras. He stated that the pitch was inversely proportional to the length of the string. He linked numerical ratios and the resulting tonality that happened to the harmony of the spheres and celestial sounds. Furthermore he described astronomy and music as twinned studies of
sensual recognition,
astronomy for the eyes,
music for the ears
all requiring numerical proportions.
Words also have a lot of power when added to the music. Rap can be light or dark depending on its vocabulary. The visuals associated in live performance or in video also have a huge impact.
These days music is often accompanied by dramatic visuals for effect as when Jimi Hendrix smashed and burnt his guitar on stage.
It's not just the tone of the music but the words and visuals that send the message
LOVE OR FEAR
good or bad, light or dark, healing or harmful.
This foreboding song below makes effective use of a rock sound to accentuate an important, though dark message. The visuals accentuate the effect.
Click on the links to highlight, then play
Words matter !
I have no idea what the French means but this beautiful love song combines its tonality with the softness of the accent.
Meditate on where this takes you
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