Esoteric Music Theory

Being a practising initiated traditional musician (sp. South Asian) and non-indigenous "ethnomusicologist" for over 35 years, I've sought to understand and expose the more esoteric aspects and roots of these perennial natural human forms of expression/communication - ritual music and dance. We live in an environment innundated with sonic stimuli, most of which is lumped into the term "music". We all know it continuously affects the mind/body, but in ways little understood by most people despite the volume of new age "sacred music"/"music-of-the-speres"/"music-of-the-chakras" type bs promoted beginning in the 80s by self-promoting grain-of-knowledge wankers (and a now-booming biz). Truth is, what we listen to, subject our consciousness to, has always had a profound effect on individuals and society on a deep psychic level. Traditional/indigenous music&theatre artist-scholars have preserved and passed on this as a precise science for millenia.
A couple years ago I came across Drew Hempel's M.A. thesis entitled "EPICENTERS OF JUSTICE: Music Theory, Sound Current Nondualism, and Radical Ecology". I don't know if SOTT forum readers are familiar with this quite dense exposition, but I found it pointing to crucial aspects of this field of inquiry, and coinciding with my own researches (music, mathematics, consciousness, political history, ecology).
See it here: http://www.lightmind.com/library/hempel/epicenters.html

Any opinions? Have the C's discussed the subject of Music, in this context or any other?
A shorter paper of Hempel's on a related, but slightly different subject is: "The Actual Plan for the Matrix: Incommensurability, Harmonic Resonance, and the Religion of Technology".
Can be found here: http://www.nonduality.com/hempel.htm

-wild and crazy, or another piece of the puzzle...?
I don't think Hempel is actually a musician, but more of an activist and intense researcher. Traditional musicians have always practised their work with an almost frighteningly serious sense of responsibility (while having fun) and in that vein I did send him complements for his contribution to public knowledge. (He's Anti-copyright.)
Check it.
 
Hello, my personal experience, being a musician myself, i can safely say that music literally everything.

Ill give you an example, im sure your familiar with the ratio 2:1 or an octave, essentially the same. pitch character, but a higher version, and this is relevant in all music, but what happens when you go round in a circle you come back to the beginning.

in color theory there are 3 primary, 3 secondary and 6 tertiary colors, which makes 12 colors, there are 12 music and 12 zodiac signs, and they are all connected by frequency. there is such thing as color therapy, and music therapy, which are essentially the same thing on two different levels, and that difference is within the wavelength

Its the second of law of thermal dynamics that matter cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred, you cant make new music notes or colors, you can only transfer from what already exists, but in its own unique combination.

And because our very nature is ruled by rhythm, i.e eat sleep, blinking, breathing ect, its fair to say that music will effect that all on a deep level.

I suggest taking a look at these videos, they explain about brainwave entrainment and the connection between color and sound
(p.s these videos have a comedy element to it, and it might seem liking hes taking the mick, but he explains it all properly and he understands it does make sense)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3HVF6C14HU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=732rgWdGGms
 
Welcome to our forum alexr963, seeing as this is your first post on the forum, we would appreciate it if you would post a brief intro about yourself in the Newbies section, telling us how you found this forum, how long you've been reading it and/or the SOTT page, whether or not you've read any of Laura's books yet, etc.

alexr963 said:
And because our very nature is ruled by rhythm, i.e eat sleep, blinking, breathing ect, its fair to say that music will effect that all on a deep level.

According to the C's you should always be aware of what you are listening to:

Laura said:
A: Indeed. And recall that the universe is about balance. After each period of suffering there is always joy.

Q: (Burma Jones) What do they mean by “psychic hygiene”?

A: Being careful about what you allow into your ”field”.

Q: (L) In what sense?

A: All senses.

Q: (L) What do you mean “all senses”?

A: Seeing, hearing, speaking, and so on

Q: (Ark) So, uh, I will tell a story about this “using all your senses”. A few days ago, I went out and I almost had an accident. I was driving on the interior peripherique - on the lane that was closest to the middle. There are three lanes. There was a guy behind me who was very unhappy that I was driving only 90kmh. He was swaying from left to right, trying to get past me and I could see it in the rear-view mirror. I looked to the right and realized I cannot do anything, because there was a car. I could see it.

So, I stayed. After about two minutes, you know, the one behind me again starts to act impatient behind me. But then, I look in the mirror again and the car to the right is gone. So I figure he must have moved somewhere else. Then I started to do {Ark makes descriptive hand gestures showing his driving maneuver} – only the car was there exactly in the right angle [to be in the blind spot.] But, uh, he was a young guy and he was fast. He steps on the brakes – and nothing happened, you see? I usually do not do such things. I was thinking very fast and that he must be gone, but I was not 100% sure. So, I should have waited until I was 100% sure. So, of course nothing happened, he just got upset.

A: We have more in mind. Take care with interacting with negative energies.

Q: (L) Well that’s kinda like creating your own reality, isn’t it?

A: Not what we mean… Keep your guard up and do not allow negative energies to slip by… such as believing lies… listening to negative music while thinking it is positive…watching negative movies and thinking it is negligible. It is extremely important to not lie to the self. One can listen or watch many things as long as the truth of the orientation is known, acknowledged, and understood. Clear?

Q: (L) So, in other words: awareness. Calling a spade a spade and not allowing something negative to enter you and believing it is positive. You can see it, perceive it and acknowledge it but not allow it to influence you. Because obviously, you cannot shut off your perceptions of the world, but you can control how it affects you. So, don’t let it inside, thinking it’s something that it’s not.

(Belibaste) So, see it as it is. If it is negative, see it as negative.

(L) Yeah, and they’re saying to focus on truth in order for changes to manifest in you that are positive. That is, “positive” can mean acknowledging that something is negative because it is truth.

Q: (Galatea) Choose the seeds you wish to water.

(L) Is that basically what we’re talking about here?

A: Yes
 
A perspective on this bandied-about term "Nada Yoga" (and 'esoteric music', 'sacred sound healing/therapy', and 'energy frequencies', etc.). Doesn't really have anything to do with "frequencies", but more correctly about sonic relationships, the body, and vocal expression. Esoteric music science/art for millenia was MODAL. This is the crucial mis-understanding and mis-direction of Western musicologists and "esotericists". (And ALL 12 notes can be in perfect harmonic resonance with the tonic.) [St Gregory went to the East to appropriate scales, but he "forgot to bring back a tanpura" - Alain Danielou]
An explanation of this subject by two masters of the oldest traditional music of India:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghdCs9bD4_o
 
Modalism in music may be more natural than the western harmonic systems. I think music is much more naturally "logical" through modes than keys. When modal Jazz came out in the late 50's and proceeded to non-functional harmony by the time of Miles's Sorcerer (I think the "non-functional harmony on Sorcerer is just an unrecognized mode), I feel like there were "sea-change" shifts in North America

Splitting from the direction Miles was pursuing, Coltrane explored modal in Moroccan music. Due to the chance discovery of an obscure blog entitled "Awesome Tapes From Africa", I was able to glimpse into some of the sacred modal music that may have existed for a very long time before it was neutralized.

This is a track from Southern Morocco performed by Berber people. The syncopation is something else as are the vocal harmonies. I think this is music that was once (possibly still is) sacred. From what I can figure out it is modal.

http://www.awesometapes.com/ahwach-souss/
 
What makes music sacred? What IS "sacred" music?

(My best answer would be that it gives voice to mysterious emotions that interrupt my machine's mental blabbering)
(In other words - I can't tell you what it is but I can tell you when I hear it)
(which is an extension of the old joke: I don't know anything about art but I know what I like)

On another track, Music can have an aim: to evoke/convey feeling; to hypnotize; to communicate thoughts/ideas; to inspire physical movement.
Or all of the above and then some more. Perhaps even to access a particular state of being...

I suppose it is possible that our DNA is genetically tuned to certain modes. EG, someone posted some Orthodox Chants recently and those really spoke to my soul. Maybe I have an Armenian ancestor? I don't know. But those chants don't speak to everyone in the same way.

(Hm...Is that because the people who are not moved are lacking in some kind of knowledge which is expressed in those chants OR, is it just a matter of taste?)

I agree that the relationships between the sounds/tones is a big key to the production of an aim through music, especially for emotions.

(But I don't think it is correct to totally dismiss the role of frequency. There ARE sounds related to particular frequencies that cause particular biological effects. And the same chord or scale played in a different octave (freq) can have a different feeling effect/tone)

And how does one define esoteric music? (I mean, it is a cool buzzword, and all, but do any 2 people have the same definition?)
 
Hello, I think there is a link of STS interest between "western music" and the exclusive ideology of the venerable "great architect";
on the other hand, the Cassiopian idea of a "great compensator" could give us some leads, and concerning the purpose of a "sacred music" as well as its true history.
Also, what would be the human interest in music, in esoteric terms? undoubtedly there is a relationship between "our high emotional center" and our creativity; perhaps music is only a symbolic representation of 3rd density, like a celebration of life or belonging to ONE religion.
 
Music is indeed powerful and fascinating. And I guess that since there are so many "frequencies" of beings, so must there be many preferences for music. I think, though, that the principle of "frequency resonance vibration" might indicate that beings (human or otherwise) can be "shifted" to other frequencies by what they listen to or have in their environment, whether it is audible or not.

Then, there is the issue of the music that imprints a person during vulnerable stages. My mother was extremely fond of the jazzy music of the 40s because that is what was popular during her youth. I find some of it okay, but some of it is irritating - too jazzy, or something hard to describe.

On the other hand, I like quite a bit of what is now called "classic rock" though much "rock" is abrasive. So go figure.
 
Music is indeed powerful and fascinating.
In Islam, music - or rather the use of musical instruments (particularly wind and strings) - is generally considered Haram with the exception of certain percussion instruments used at certain festivals at certain times. Music is seen as euphoric addiction and getting lost within oneself. Ive also been told be some Muslims the ecstasy of music is too dangerously self-absorbing luring ourselves away from God and believed a hypnotic opening to the influence of Djinns because they understand all too well the power of music has over us and know how to further enhance its rhythms to lull us into a form of compliance.
 
music is knowledge, so that there is well an art or know-how to combine sounds. But in our system of competition/intellectual property rights, the conduct of this art has been misused, "comme d'habitude", we know the song. But if not everyone worships the artist or the architect, music remains a good medicine, and unless it induces false hopes, it certainly compensates for the lack of human relationship and participates in self-knowledge.
in religious-symbolic terms of 3èD, music serves, reflects, the "communion of souls". It's a multidimensional conduit
It should motivate the common idea of vibration/elevation in the human sense, rather than that of "controlling time" for personal ends or self-satisfaction.(?)
 
Compliance or unity? Just my take on it.
Yes, "unity" is better.
Satan was said to be in charge of music in Heaven before his 'Fall' - and came to use his knowledge of the power of music to alter our mood and state-of-mind, to promiscuously dance with one another, and enter into sin. So yes, unity with STS.

Music and dance is also a Dionysus theme.
 
Very interesting, black cartouche. I would like to know more about this Islamic take on it. Do you have any links or would you be willing to elaborate?
 
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