HUNSMIRE Music Projects

Video mixes

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 07:22:20 PDT

Miscellaneous ditties

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Tue, 27 May 2008 06:39:51 PDT

Here are some odds and ends, sketches, and exercises.

Taterz Tunez

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Mon, 26 May 2008 07:52:28 PDT

I like the new social playlists.

Here's one featuring some remixes I've been doing the past few years or so.

Guillaume de Machaut 1300-1377 (fl. 1340-1360)

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 20:12:01 PST

A. Machaut & Individualism

Summary

• poet & musician
• highly personalized
• life, experiences with the Black Death
• advancement of secular poetry
• self-preservatoin of his output
• complete & in order
• supposedly arranged chronologically
• complete repertoire
• fused impersonal w/ personal
• did not reject musical & poetic fixed forms entirely, but bent the rules
• secular individual, w/ sacred position

Style

Melody: distinct phrases, small; long continuous melodic line, 4-bar phrases
Texture: 1) treble dominated: 3 vcs
2) equal voiced: 3-4 vcs
Vertical: 5ths, Octaves; close, many 3rds and 6ths; 2nds, 7ths, 9ths
Rhythm: duplum, syncopation, hocket

Mass

Context

• papal bull: against complicated polyphony, singers; "tone things down"
• efforts towards Mass composition
• 2 codex
• Mass came to mean 5-movement polyphonic composition
• turned to familiar styles:

1) motet-isorhythmic
2) song style-treble dominated
3) conductus-homophonic (simultaneous)
4) mixtures

Mass cycles: all compiled

• Mass of Turnai
• Mass of Toulouse
• Mass of Barcelona
• Sourbon Mass

Machaut's Mass has 4 voices
B. Output by genre

a. Lais-19

• 15 monophonic, 4 polyphonic ( ao ac ao ac)
• polyphonic lais are “chace”; intensely canonic
• attempt at modernizing lai, though no successors
• music is simpler than poetry

b. Motets: 23, which follow & develop procedures by de Vitry

• 6 in latin, remainder in French (regressive)
• 2 have fr triplum and ltn duplum
• 3 w/ Fr tenors; all other tenors have Latin incipits: chant origins
• 19 are 3-vc polytextual (double motets) above tenor; remaining 4 add textless countertenor (5, 21-23)
• 6/8 (major prolation) predominates in upper vcs of 15 motets

c. Ballades-42

• more experimental types (#1 is isorhythmic, only fixed form)
• 2,3, 4 vcs (no 37 is monophonic)
• # 34 is double ballade (upper voices sing different texts)
• first 16 originally for cantus and tenor
• differ from trovere tradition in reduction to 3 stanzas
• stanzas have 7-8 lines with rhyme scheme (ababbcC or ababccdD)
• lines of 8-10 syllables
• 2 musical types: ballade simplex (37 of 42)ao ac b C
ballade duplex ao ac bo bc (2 sections)

d. Rondeaux-21

• 2-4 vcs; 2 parts predominate in earlier
• standardized poetic form: 8 line rondeau with lines of equal length: ABaAabAB
• a few 13 line rondeaus with similar musical form
AB B ab AB ab b AB B
A B a A a b A B

e. Virelais-25

• 25 of 33 are monophonic; 7 in 2 parts, # 26 has 3 parts
• simpler syllabic style
• AbbA bbaA bbaA

Music for 18 Musicians

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 08:30:09 PDT

Bill Ryan conducts Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians.

Great job, Bill!!

Tater Z at Project Opus

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 08:26:52 PDT

I've created a new site at Project Opus. You can purchase or download my music there.

I'm also able to create various xspf playlists over there that I can export to other sites such as my Tribe page.

The Mysterious Hoy Mill Dubstep Z-Mix

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 19:09:38 PST

My latest mix and a new style for everyone to download. Enjoy!

Enter the 3 letters in the box; wait 30 seconds, and then you may download the file.

Robert Schumann: Schenkerian graph of Ich Grolle Nicht

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:39:39 PST

Text Painting and Form in Hugo Wolf's Der Feuerreiter

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:20:02 PST

Section	Measure #'s	Harmonic Characteristics	Rhythmic Textural Characteristics (piano)
Introduction	1 - 14	Chromatic (ascent)	triplet 8ths [general alarms]
A1	15 - 22	Chromatic to F#7	triplet texture [crowd]
Refrain 1	23 - 26	Tonal: Em - Bm under B Pedal; cadence m. 26 on F#	tremolo on B pedal [firebell]
B1	27 - 34	quasi-tonal: piano ascends to m. 35	contrary outwards motion; two 8th block chords, separated by triplet 16ths Fire Rider's theme
A2	35 - 42	Chromatic to F#7	'Crowd' texture combined with 'Fire Rider' texture
Refrain 2	43 - 46	Tonal: Em - Bm under B pedal; cadence m. 46 on F#	tremolo on B pedal [firebell]
C1	47 - 54	Tonal: D - A	repeated 8ths, block chords
	55 - 62	increasingly chromatic; harmonies become contorted as text describes horror and Devil's conjuring; wild climax!	repeated 8th block chords, to outwards chromatic contrary motion
Refrain 3	63 - 70	Chromatic!! Fire and/or Devil 'rages in the mill'.	dotted eighth to sixteenth; descent at m. 67 - 70
B2	71 - 83	Tonal: dm - A Fire Rider's fate revealed; mill collapses	dotted eighth to sixteenth; outward contrary motion (2 legs)
A3	84 - 91	Chromatic to F#	"crowd" texture
Refrain 4	92 - 102	Tonal: Em - Bm under B pedal; cadence m. 102 on F#	straight 8ths on B pedal; extended firebell alarm
C2	103 - 110	Tonal: D - A new melody	8th block chords
	111 - 120	Chromatic to F# mill encounter aftermath	dotted rhythms
Refrain 5	121 - 130	Tonal: m. 121 - 124 Em - Bm under B pedal; m. 125 - 130 Bm - Em under F# pedal; normative progression is reversed; while Bm is final sustained chord, F# is final sounding sonority	half-note block chords; rhythmic density decreased to end of piece music fades, like 'ashes', into nothingness, dreams, cold bones; recall of the firebell

Golden Section in Anton Webern's Op. 31, #1

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:39:39 PST

Positive and negative golden sections generally articulate important structural divisions in the piece. Note series of positive golden sections which begin at overall work’s "negative" golden section at m. 18. The section where the time unit changes (m. 26-38) begins at a negative golden section point and ends at a different positive golden section point. This is easier to look at than to write about it, so take your time and try to understand this diagram, because what Webern does is rather ingenious. I was not surprised to learn that the segment which begins at the negative golden section point, is at the "deficiency," or "ausfall," which is the structural mid-way point for the Row Structure (see Appendix #1 in my paper). Webern’s use of retrograde in the work reflects his use of "retrograde" golden sections. Nothing outstanding occurs at the work’s positive golden section, by the way.

Arnold Schoenberg: Op. 19, #2--Vertical and Linear Fields

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:39:40 PST

Ludwig van Beethoven: Op. 7, #2--Graph of registral activity

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:39:40 PST

Milton Babbitt: Musical Perception

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:08:46 PST

• Babbitt correlated way in which listeners perceive music with the four categories of perception offered by S. S. Stevens; categories represented as scales:

SCALE	DESCRIPTION	MUSICAL CORRELATION
Nominal	Is or is not	Texture, density, instrumentation
Ordinal	More/less, louder/softer, etc.	Dynamics
Intervallic	Above/below, by how much (additive)	Pitch
Ratio	Relative measurement	Rhythm

• John Melby feels attempts to organize these parameters is fruitless unless these aspects highlight similarities in other elements, as when dynamics are used to highlight time points

• John Melby’s main consideration when discussing formalized procedures to organize a work relate to question of perception; specificies 3 ares of concern:

1) ability of “informed listener” to hear certain relationships

2) need for composer to understand those abilities

3) erroneous presumptions made by some (acousticians and music critics) about what is actually necessary for a listener to hear

• composers must determine what they want people to hear; must realize what people can actually hear; there are underlying relationships and consistency of internal ordering that one can perceive at a subconscious level

• Babbitt questioned validity of music systems in which all parameters are organized according to the same procedure

• Babbitt felt correspondence between various musical properties in a composition based upon a universal organization could not be perceived, even subconsciously (a la Schoenberg); felt processes for similarly ordering these various musical properties were incompatable in themselves

• Babbitt had no desire to re-invent musical properties that had no perceptable, structurally significant role in his 12-tone system

Electronic Music: Historical Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:06:22 PST

Late 19th Century: Weltschmerz; absolutism breaks down, suicides go up

1. Science: interest in physics replaces interest in biology

1895-X-Ray

1896-radioactivity

1905-Einstein’s 4th Dimension: relativity

1912-synthetic vitamins

1928-penicillin

1932-Chadwick discovers neutron particles

2. Politics: socio/political unrest; more wars with increasing frequency

1870-Franco/Prussian war

1914-WWI

1943-WW2

etc.

3. Literature: unusual distortions of reality in written words, ideas

-symbolism/dadaism

-Kafka, Lawrence, Joyce, Elliot

4. Visual Art: distortion of visual, photographic reality

-isms:

-impressionism

-pointillism

-post-impressionism-more form & structure

-Cézanne, Gaugin, Van Gogh

-fauvism-additional alteration of space, lines, abstract color

-Matisse

-expressionism

Techniques for Musique Concrete

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:05:06 PST

A. Turntable

1. "locked-groove"
2. speed manipulation
3. reverse direction

B. Tape

1. Compositional Splicing

-ordering of material

-splicing envelopes; attacks mask splices

-create new envelopes

-partially replaced by sampling

-splicing still useful, as digital editing is expensive
-classical, popular recordings not done in one take

2. Speed displacement/manipulation

-vari-pitch tape recorder, tape speeds

-transfer from tape to tape

-slows down changes; timing of envelopes

-expanded time; moment/reverse

-useful for background

3. Tape reverse

-decays become attacks; envelopes reverse

4. Reel rocking

5. Fast forward, rewind

6. Tape Loop

-provides unity

7. Tape Echo, Delay

C. Mixing techniques

1. Panning

-sounds "travel" through space

- much easier to do with mixers w/ panning lever

2. Channeling

-separation: complete divorce; schizophrenia

3. Layering

Indeterminacy

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:03:46 PST

• indeterminacy: music in which some aspects are not pre-determined or are obtained by chance
operations

Cope distinguishes 3 types:

1. composer indeterminate: performance is determinate; chance operations produces a fixed score

2. performer indeterminate: composed events; performer determines order, etc.

3. both composer & performer indeterminate

Europeans: 1 & 2

Americans: 3 (2)rise in early ‘50’s

"aleatoric" alea=dice: European practice [Boulez]

chance-Cage

issues: improvisation, tool vs. aesthetic, "alea", ego

1. Historical precedents

earlier efforts: Cowell, Harrison, [Partch]

• Cowell studied non-European musics in Europe under a Guggenheim grant

• interest in new sounds shifted to an investigation of ethnic music: sound, forms; "elastic
form"-notion of indeterminacy-performer takes role in determining order of performed segments

2. Composers, repertoire

John Cage

• studied with top teachers of ‘30’s, including Cowell, Shoenberg: discovered his deficiency with
harmony; accepted it; initially a serial composer, but extended the idea to explore ways of
organizing rhythm [time]

• early works are percussion/prepared piano works, often to accompany dance; structures are
modeled on eastern rhythmic [time] cycles

• approach towards indeterinacy grew out of approach to form: organizing sounds [determinate pitch,
indeterminate pitch], silences

• 1951-took eastern concept to heart: Magic square, tossing coins, dice, I Ching; explored
indeterminate techniques for generating material, structures

• new phase of composing career brought on by a life crisis: personal & creative anxieties; exchanged
knowledge with an Indian woman

• believed purpose of music was to quiet and sober the mind, thus making it susceptable to divine
influences; felt this to be proper purpose of music, comparing -pre Renaissance and Oriental
aesthetics as sharing the same basis; self-expression in art [music] was heretical; cycled back into
communal attitudes

• wanted to remove expression [purpose] from art: "My purpose is to eliminate purpose" [intention
into non-intention]; took logic out of music-felt logic restricts our apprehension of the world

• I Ching: oracle style for consulting, divination; cast yarow sticks, chance operation

• structure is perceived by the individual: perception of listener more important [as opposed to
Western approach, re: Beethoven’s aesthetic]

• equated openness in aesthetic to architecture of Mies van der Rohe, others

• lectured in Darmstadt, 1958; met Stockhausen

• associated with Earle Brown, Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff

Music of Changes (1951)

• prepared piano; every detail of score determined by toss of three coins six times, directed him to a
specific number in I Ching; sent him to a numbered position on one of 26 pre-arranged charts:
procedure repeated to determine pitch, duration, timbre, etc. Resulted in a precisely notated with
ultra specific instructions for the performer; performance is fixed

Imaginary Landscapes #4 (1951)

• 12 radios, 24 players, conductor

• frees choice of materials, maintains control over form by directing performers’ actions according
to a precisely determined schedule of duration and dynamics

• 2 layers of indeterminacy

1) operation of radios

2) random events broadcast over airwaves

4’33" (1952)

• emphasized role of silence as a frame for sound

• ambient sounds

Concert (1957-58)

• prepared piano, chamber orchestra

• each part written in detail; no master score; piano part is book of 84 kinds of material that may be
played in whole or in part, in any sequence; orchestra may involve any number of players; work
may be of any length, determination is made by conductor

Stockhausen

• introduced to piano music of Cage and Feldman-David Tudor’s European tour; Klavierstucke V-X
reflect the influence

• Klavierstucke XI -19 groups on a single sheet that can be played in any order

Gesang der Junglinge (1956)

• explores redundancy in randomly created texts, aleatoric manipulatoin of electronic controls
according to various curves: results in "an aleatoric layer of individual pulses which, in general,
speeded up statistically."

• insisted that attempts to trace European approaches to ‘open forms’ to American influences were
incorrect; insisted that approach was linked to contemporary European investigations in statistics
of Meyer-Eppler

Kontakte (1959-60)

• moves from interdependent "group" to autonomous "moment": each moment is to be experienced
individually, non is more important than any other, listener’s attention may bary without
detriment to the whole [each "moment" is dispensable]

• rejects anticedent/consequent concept

Pierre Boulez

• initially impressed with rhythmic structures and gamelan sounds of Cage’s First Construction (In
Metal), became estranged in 1952 after New York trip; correspondence stopped

• Boulez attacked Cage for adopting "a philosophy tinged with Orientalism that masks a basic
weakness in compositional techniques"; two composers assesment of Music of Changes widened
gap between them

• further distanced himself from Cage and Stockhausen, criticized Klavierstucke XI as a sort of
automatism, only lets in element of risk inimical to the integrity of the work

Livres pour quatuor (1948-49) freedom to choose which movements to perform

Third Piano Sonata (1956-7)

• "mobile" form with 8 possibilities of ordering the five movements

• third movement is fixed in its ordering: some performance options with respect to segment
ordering, but choice is limited; formal coherency is assured

Aléa (dice) article: acknowledges chance in composition, states need for compser to absorb and control it

"Eastern" Influences in Western Art Music

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:02:12 PST

Exoticism: infatuation with foreign cultures; associated with Romantic age; importation

vs.

Folklorism: study and use of one’s indigenous musical heritage

Early examples:

1. Janizary music (bodyguard of Turkish sultans) known to European courts from mid-1700’s

• bass drum, cymbals, triangle

• Gluck, Mozart, Haydn (Military Symphony), Beethoven, Weber, Rossini

2. France-mid 19th C as a melting pot for exotic imporatations

• exploration, Napoleon’s campaigns, Napoleon III’s marriage to Eugenie de Montijo

• Saint-Saens (Algeria, eastern modes); Bizet’s Carment (Iberian Peninsula)

• Glinka emphasized potential use of native Russian materials, as well as vitalizing capacity of
Oriental, Spanish materials in melody, rhythm, color

• influenced Glinka, Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov, Stravinsky

3. Paris World Exhibition of 1889

• javanese gamelan influenced a generation of French composers, including Debussy, Ravel, Dukas,
Roussel, etc.

Debussy

• inspired by painter’s works with eastern themes

• musical influences conceded to have taken place on visit to 1889 Paris World Exhibition

• pentatonic scales used as elements of color, contrast, timbre

• Russian, Spanish, English folk songs

Postwar

Backgrounds: colorist, formal-constructive alternatives

1. Debussy, other early 20th C European composers

2. Messiaen-color, rhythm [studied Greek and Hindu patterns, forms]

3. America

• interest in Pacific cultures; California-based composers

• Cowell, McPhee, Lou Harrison, Harry Partch

• Cowell studied non-Eurpean musics with ethnomusicologists in Berlin; interest with new
sounds shifted to exploratoin of ethnic music from standpoint of sound and organization;
indeterminacy

John Cage

• early works for percussion, prepared piano; timbre, formal organization

• antecedents for minimalism in such works as Amores

• interest in eastern [Indian] materials broadened to encompass philosophical approach to
composition [anti-ego]

East vs. West

West:

• "Genius" composers, individual approach: no other piece like this-only way to reproduce it is to
play it from written music;

• goal orientation (everything gets better and better);

• rhythmic system is system of ratios; divided rhythms

• abstract forms (sonata form-nothing to do with emotions, physical principles)

• written transmission of information (hands-on)

• emphasis upon harmony, harmonic progressions

• 2 scales (major, minor)

East

• representative approach; no big stars; anti-ego

• cycles of time;

• additive rhythms; influx principle

• traditional forms; nova rosta=9 emotions

• oral tradition

• emphasis upon melody, rhythm; no sense of chord progression: stationary chord, drone, tonal
pillar

• 72 scales (Northern India)

Tala-rhythmic pattern; table; assymetric groups [2’s & 3’s]; sum

Raga-melodic pattern, basic melodic form that implies emotions, certain times of day, note embellishments; sitar

Drone-like a tonic; sustained; tambura

Minimalism

Interpretive ideas:

• Music which uses very few elements over a long period of time with very fine degrees of contrast

• aspect of dealing with time

• trance music, steady-state music

• influenced by Cowell, Cage; sustained or repetitive use of simple materials; Eastern philosophical
basis; reduction of materials, emphasis on repetitive schemes, stasis

• Indian influences:

1) drone (tambura)

2) rhythmic cycles (talas; tabla)

3) melodic improvisation (raga; gamaka [ornamentation]; relates to 9 Indian moods, emotive
aspect

• heavily repeated materials using principally Western instruments and tunings; just intonation,
simple interval ratios

• Eastern/popular crossovers in ‘60’s prompted experimental/popular (concert)

• avante-garde is dead; return to simplicity: pitch, duration and silence

• endorsed neither total control or chance as an exclusive credo; took the best of both

• multi-cultural processes, techniques, concepts, instruments

• idea of process; "anti-masterpiece" mentality

• perceived aimlessness from Eastern/ New Age

• represents search for a common style; analogous to pre-20th C

• concert music/popular culture; composer as performer

• John Cage: shift in the way American is being composed, performed, appreciated

• individual perception

• "packaging" of ideas

• go with the moment, rather than try to recall previous relationships

• Relate minimalist compositions to Eastern concepts, ideas, structures, procedures

• reaction against manipulative types of music (serialism)

• emphasis upon rhythmic processes, structures

• static, trancelike

Lamont Young (b. 1935) regarded as "father" of minimalism

Terry Riley (b. 1935)

-slow expansions or reductions occuring over great lengths of time

In C, Rainbow in Curved Air

Steve Reich (b. 1936)

• "phase" process from idea of gradual nonsynchronization; tape loop

Come Out, Music for 18 Musicians, Violin Phase, Different Trains

Eastern influences in Come Out

1. rhythmic cycle; drone; motivic fragments evolve from voice/tape processes

2. static harmony or environment; stationary quality, repetition

3. individual perception is as important as composer’s intentions

Philip Glass (b. 1937)

-bar line sets stage for changing meters for different lengths of repeating material

-additive rhythms

-studied North Indian, Morrocan, Boulanger, Shankir

-pared everything down to basics, built back up again

-make audience aware of the passing of time

-moment concept

Music in Fifths

Einstein on the Beach (w/ Robert Wilson: staging & designs)

-modern mythological basis

-additive process, rhythm

-4-5 hours

-opera with no arias, recitatives, etc.

-Dreamscape: 20th C mythology

-no real plot; rather, a series of different scenes

-dance: minimalist style; motorized

-violinist: Einsein; everyone dressed like Einstein

-Einstein’s role: midway between orchestra and performers; witness of stage events

-emphasis on passing of time

-scientists unleashed social powers which couldn’t be dealt with

-dream-like atmosphere

-trains: Einstein played with trains as a boy; explained theory of relativity

New-Age

• like minimalism; however, less emphasis upon rhythic pulse

• associated with nature

Brian Eno

Alban Berg's "Lulu"

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:00:05 PST

Lulu (1929-1934)

Lulu, perhaps the most controversial work written by Berg, is based on two plays written by the poet Franz Wedekind, Earth Spirit (1895) and Pandora's Box (1902). Apart from the subject matter, a great deal of the controversy about the work concerns the issue surrounding the third act of the opera, which was completely composed by April 1934, but not yet fully orchestrated. Much of the confusion arises from the fact that Berg's widow, Helene Berg, suppressed many primary documents concerning the work, including all sketches and manuscripts of the third act. It has not been until the early 1960's that certain scholars were covertly allowed by Universal Edition to examine some of the musical documents. Helene Berg actually put a clause in her will prohibiting availability of these primary documents, although since then, these sources have become available to be analyzed by Berg scholars. Among scholars who have studied Lulu, aside from Berg's official biographer Willi Reich, include composer George Perle, Douglas Jarman, and Friedrich Cerha.

The reasons behind Helene Berg's suppression the third act of Berg's masterpiece remain unclear, but have resulted in numerous misrepresentations of the work's performance and interpretation. From the opera's 1937 premiere until 1979 the work has been incompletely performed, with many misrepresentations of Berg's intentions occurring in these performances. While most scholarly analyses of the opera have been based upon the work of Reich, the availability of the short score in 1963 to George Perle has revealed a more complete insight into Berg's true intentions of the work.

The symmetrical aspect of many of Berg's mature works is now apparent in the structure of Lulu, both on a large and a small scale. For instance, certain character associations and music associated with them that appear in the first act are recapitulated in the third act. Berg even goes as far as to assign the same actors to play these associated characters in both acts, which is a matter usually decided at the production level. It is therefore clear in light of Perle's work that Berg fully intended these symmetrical relationships to occur not only in the music but also in the actual characters and the people who were to play them. While Reich states that there is one basic series from which all other row forms associated with different characters are derived, Perle shows that this is not entirely true, and proves how other series are used which have no apparent relationship whatsoever to the one referred to by Reich. The significance of this point, aside from the symmetrical aspect of character/musical relationships previously discussed, is that this use is in direct contradiction of Schoenberg's method of one series providing unity for the entire work, appearing to be more related to Hauer's organization of the series into hexachordal "tropes."

Another aspect of symmetry concerning the opera is the manner in which Berg links the time lapse between the two Wedekind plays together, during which the character of Lulu goes to jail and is later broken out by her friends. Berg's use of palindrome is evident not only in the use of a film that shows the bilateral symmetrical relationship of these events, but also in the music which accompanies the film, which corresponds exactly to events during the film and is similarly organized in a palindromic structure. While symmetrical relationships are therefore apparent in the opera's structure, Berg reserves the palindrome technique for significant events such as the connecting film episode and associated music. Obviously, without the third act of the opera, the meaning of the work is incomplete and distorted, with the crucial symmetrical structure being obliviated.

It is apparent from the available literature that Berg's use of row forms and their relationship to the music and plot is indeed very complex, and that while he was concerned with solving organizational problems dealing with the row material, he was accomplishing this in a way which was also related to Wagner's system of leitmotifs. This would suggest that Berg was more concerned with making a connection from the Germanic traditions of the past with contemporary developments of the second Viennese school than were his colleagues Schoenberg and Webern. Berg also utilizes a complex scheme of text-painting on multiple levels, which includes the association of certain instruments and musical forms with individual characters, while in at least one example associated with the death of Dr. Schon, the row form which is associated with his character is "absorbed" into the score, returning finally in the third act as the row for Jack the Ripper. Jarman and Perle have provided rather complete illustrations of Berg's technique of text-painting in their works.

Berg's choice of instrumentation, use of older operatic forms and use of contemporary jazz rhythms and sonorities is rather interesting, and reflects current European musical trends of the 1930's concerning the use of older forms and treatment of American jazz. The use of the saxophone is particularly striking and adds a distinct color to the overall texture.

Another issue that should be mentioned is that of Berg's use of "secret" programs which are "hidden" behind the obvious programs, which is a distinct feature of many of Berg's works such as the Lyric Suite and the Violin Concerto. Perle has shown how these "secret" programs had special significance for Berg concerning his private life that for reasons of his own he wanted to remain secret from others. One such "secret" program in the Lyric Suite concerns Berg's relationship with Hanna Fuchs-Robettin, which manifests itself by Berg's use of numerical relationships which had distinct meaning for the composer in connection with himself and Hanna Fuchs-Robettin. Berg prepared a special annotated score, which revealed this program for Hanna Fuchs-Robettin, which he gave to her. As it turned out, Berg's wife knew about the existence of this document as well as his relationship with this other woman. This contrasted drastically with the impression which the Bergs' wished to portray to the public, which was that of the "perfect" couple. While the "official" dedication of Lulu was to Arnold Schoenberg on the occasion of his 60th birthday, an analysis of the prelude and concluding measures of Lulu reveals a motive which is based upon Hanna Fuchs-Robettin's initials, so in this way, Berg "unofficially" dedicated the work to her. Perle has suggested that same use of a motive based on Hanna's initials was also used in the Lyric Suite, and argues that this use in Lulu is not merely coincidental. Perle goes so far as to suggest the existence of another annotated score of Lulu, which he gave to Hanna Fuchs-Robettin on the grounds that it would be entirely within his character to do so, but the existence of such a document, has not been proven. However, considering Helene Berg's suppression of the third act of Lulu, there might in fact be some connection.

On the other hand, there is another significant reason for the delay in the availability of the third act. While the first two acts had already been published by Universal Edition, the vocal score plates for the third act had been partially engraved, when Hitler placed a restriction on performance of Berg's music. Since the only reason for completing the engraving of the plates for the third act would have been for a performance, which was not possible at that time because of Hitler's restrictions, the publication of Lulu by Universal Edition at that time was not exactly a priority.

While Helene Berg died in 1976, as early as 1963, when George Perle was allowed by Universal Edition to view primary source documents concerning the music of Act III, Perle makes reference to a "Viennese expert on Berg" who was also allowed to view source documents. Apparently Universal Edition was already planning to publish the music of the third act, and called in Perle and Cerha to get an idea of the feasibility of this project. Ultimately, Friedrich Cerha was selected to complete the orchestration, which was done between 1962 and 1974 and later revised after Mrs. Berg's death in 1976/77, although Perle had expressed his interest in the project himself. While one detects a certain amount of jealousy towards Cerha in Perle's writings regarding the Cerha's completion of the orchestration of Act III, in Perle's The Operas of Alban Berg: Lulu, commenting on the 1979 Paris premiere of the complete opera, Perle raises some valid issues concerning the production:

On February 24, 1979, the complete Lulu was heard for the first time. It was heard, not seen. What was seen on the stage of the Paris Opera was a vulgar and contemptible travesty that converted the music of all three acts, in relation to what was transpiring on the stage, into some sort of general background music at best and an utter irrelevancy much of the time, just as the necessarily makeshift third act that we had to put up with when Mrs. Berg's ban was still in effect had done only to the few fragments of the third-act music taken from the Lulu Suite... And what does Pierre Boulez, who had the honor to conduct Chereau's Lulu, have to say about the rights of stage producers? ..."When Berg borrowed from Wedekind, he didn't consider respect for the text an overriding virtue. He took what suited him and made it fit his own musical structure. There is, therefore, a disrespect which is stronger than respect." But if the responsibilities and prerogatives of the producer are to be equated with those that an opera composer assumes when he revises the text of a play in order to transform it into something that he can set to music, ought not the producer to go much further than Chereau in taking only "what suits him" from the composer? ...Operatic production today is everywhere based on the assumption that composers-inept, naive, and indifferent to the dramaturgical aspects of the operatic theatre-compose music in a vacuum which it is the producer's responsibility to fill. There is no end to the grotesqueries and idiocies that this notion-whose sponsorship by a musician like Boulez is particularly damaging and disgraceful-has given rise to... (Perle, 1985)

There is an enormous amount of literature concerning Lulu, much that was written before the music and documents of Act III were available for scholarly study. Apparently the facts are still not complete, and the possibility remains, unfortunately, that they might never be. Complicating matters further are the contradictory opinions of scholars who have studied the work, upon which their reputations are at stake. Listed below is a partial survey of works, including analyses by Reich, Jarman and Perle, concerning Berg's Lulu.

Bibliography

Cerha, Friedrich. Arbeitsbericht zur Herstellung des 3. Akts der Oper LULU von Alban Berg. Vienna: Universal Edition, 1979.

____________. "Zum III. Akt der Oper 'Lulu,'" Osterreichische Musikzeitschrift 26/10-11 (Oct.-Nov., 1981).

Jarman, Douglas. "Dr. Schon's Five-Strophe Aria: Some Notes on Tonality and Pitch Association in Berg's Lulu," Perspectives of New Music 8/2 (Spring/Summer 1970).

____________. "Some Rhythmic and Metric Techniques in Alban Berg's Lulu," Musical Quarterly 56/3 (July 1970).

____________. "Lulu: The Sketches," International Alban Berg Society Newsletter, 6 (June 1978).

____________. The Music of Alban Berg. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.

____________. "Countess Geschwitz's Series: A Controversy Resolved?" Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association 107 (1980/81).

____________. "Some Observations on Rhythm, Meter and Tempo in Lulu." In Alban Berg Studien. Ed. Rudolf Klein. Vienna: Universal Edition, 1981.

____________. "Lulu: The Musical and Dramatic Structure," Royal Opera House Covent Garden program notes, 1981.

____________. "The 'Lost' Score of the 'Symphonic Pieces from Lulu,'" International Alban Berg Society Newsletter 12 (Fall/Winter 1982).

Mitchell, Donald. "The Character of Lulu," Music Review 15/4 (November 1954).

Offergeld, Robert. "Some Questions about Lulu," HiFi/Stereo Review 13/4 (October 1964).

Perle, George. "The Music of Lulu: A New Analysis," Journal of the American Musicological Society 12/2-3 (Summer/Fall 1959).

__________. "A Note on Act III of Lulu," Perspectives of New Music, 2/2 (Spring/Summer 1964).

__________. "Lulu: The Formal Design," Journal of the American Musicological Society 17/2 (Summer 1964).

__________. "The Character of Lulu: A Sequel," Music Review 25/4 (November 1964).

__________. "Lulu: Thematic Material and Pitch Organization," Music Review 26 (November 1965).

__________. "Erwiderung auf Willi Reichs Aufsatz 'Drei Notizblatter zu Alban Bergs Lulu,'" Schweizerische Musikzeitung 107/3 (May/June1967).

__________. "Die Personen in Bergs 'Lulu,'" Archiv fur Musikwissenschaft 24/4 (November 1967).

__________. "The Complete 'Lulu,'" Musical Times 120/1632 (January 1979).

__________. "The Cerha Edition," International Alban Berg Society Newsletter 8 (Summer, 1979).

__________. "Friedrich's 'Lulu,'" Tempo 137 (June 1981).

__________. "The 'Sketched-In' Vocal Quartet of Lulu, Act III," International Alban Berg Society Newsletter, 12 (Fall/Winter 1982).

__________. The Operas of Alban Berg: Lulu. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.

Reich, Willi. "Alban Berg's Lulu," Musical Quarterly 22/4 (October 1936).

__________. Alban Berg. Trans. Cornelius Cardew. London: Thames and Hudson, 1965.

__________. "Drei Notizblatter zu Alban Bergs Oper Lulu," Schweizerische Musikzeitung 106/1 (November/December 1966).

Reiter, Manfred. Die Zwolftontechnik in Alban Bergs Oper Lulu. Regensberg: Gustav Bosse Verlag, 1973.

Wedekind, Franz. The Lulu Plays. Trans. Carl Richard Mueller. New York: Fawcett, 1967.

Rhythm System of Pierre Boulez

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:58:53 PST

Messiaen

Mode de valeurs et d'intensite (1949)

introduced nonordered 12-member sets of numerous parameters (pitch, rhythm, dynamics, density, attack, register)
sets not used serially; extended Messiaen's already established pitch modes

Boulez

took Webern as point of departure

Structures Ia (1952)

divided into three pieces; each concentrates on specific elements: a-pitch and duration; b-attack; c-dynamics
adapts one of Messiaen's pitch modes from Mode de valeurs
limits rhythmic vocabulary according to 12 values from thirty-second to dotted quarter; assigns a rhythmic duration to each pitch in the series
the key problem: upon transposition, the rhythmic series loses its relationship, as invariant intervallic relationships don't correspond to new placement of durational values: every permutation of the series assumes a new series of durational values

Alban Berg's "Wozzeck"

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:54:40 PST

1. Berg’s response to Buchner’s "folk" element

• Wozzeck is deeply disturbed: used by the doctor for his psychoanalytic experiments

• Berg creates a fusion, contrasting human reality and Expressionist unreality by layering
scenes: Act 1, scenes 1,3,5 are suitable for 19th C opera, while scenes 2 & 4 introduce
Wozzeck’s visions, confusions and hallucinations

• A balance of variable degrees of reality is matched in fluctuating choices of musical
language

• rhymed verse of Büchner’s Woyzeck ripe for incorporating folksong: alludes to 1804
Wunderhorn anthology; folk songs (13) predominate in Buchner’s 25-page play

• intellectual "proto-expressionist" elements in Buchner’s play are also matched by Berg

• mixture of these 2 qualities provide much of the fascination in understanding the work

• sprechgesang, lied (songs of Marie, Andre), ‘normal speaking intonation’ (mélodrame of
Fidelio)

Wunderhorn counterpoints/connections:

•tavern scene following Marie’s murder (Wozzeck’s text, music)-climax of drama, finale
(children’s song), Marie’s lullaby, military march

• while Berg appears not to quote folk melodies (like Mahler’s Wunderhorn settings), he
adopts manner of folk melody w/ respect to phraseology and melodic interval

• Berg remarks upon necessity to create relationship between art-music and "primitive"
folk-music ["Volkstümlichkeit"]:

1) symmetrical periods, phrases;

2) harmonies in 3rds, 4ths;

3) "polytonal" military march, ("wrong" basses), 4ths harmony of Marie’s lullaby; melodic
whole-tone & P4th contrasts w/ "expressionist" diminished & augmented intervals

Act 1, scene 2:

alternates rhapsody (Wozzeck’s hallucinations, 3-chord progression w/ strophes of
hunting song (4th intervals, duple-compound meter)

Act 1, scene 3:

quasi-trio relates to folk song idea and Wunderhorn (Mahler)

as parade passes, Marie remarks, "The soldiers. . .are splendid fellows": similar to
3rd strophe of Mahler’s Revelge, that also speaks of a soldier’s march along a road
with his troops approching the window of his lover

2. Formal Issues

• assessment of music structure must distinguish 3 basic techniques:

1. use of diatonic scales, non-diatonic scales, "serial rows" as unifying elements

2. Wagnerian leitmotif system that establishes close affinities between character,
situation, action and music

3. use of forms of absolute music

• formal construction of sonatas and passacaglias coincides with 1920’s compulsion
for formal clarification: Act I (1919) predates Schoenberg’s first excursion into
Baroque designations [Suite for Piano, op. 25, 1921-23]

• precedent for formal organization established repeatedly in repertoire; absolute
forms used by Wagner (fugue in Meistersinger), Verdi (Falstaff), Beethoven
(Fidelio), Mozart (Magic Flute); however, musical constituents receive additional
significance through their roles as elements in complex system of leitmotives,
recapitulatory episodes throughout the work [for example, first subject of sonata
(II/1), associated with earrings, functions as a leitmotive symbolizing Marie’s guilt;
sonata bridge-passage is associated with the child & appears in those scenes; this is
used in the fugue {Wozzeck, doctor, Captain}]

• leitmotives also related through common pitch-collection relationships: 2 Nexus sets
(both hexachords); melodic figures and vertical structures function in this way; specific
transformations (transposition, inversions) of these collections are selected on the
basis of "common tones" [pivot idea], ie, the structural B-F tritone that receives
particular attention in Act III

• larger units also reappear throughout the opera:

1) musical repetitions recall textual remininces: II/3, when Wozzeck confronts Marie with his suspicions, is accompanied by music associated with the Drum Major and the seduction scene

2) Berg establishes relationships between events that appear to be unrelated [II/5- ‘snoring’ passage w/ I/2- ‘nature’ sounds in the field; also Wozzeck’s/Marie’s fights with the drum major in last scenes of acts I and II

• Berg desired a correspondence between the formal design and the diverse character
of different scenes: scenes w/ thematic development vs. those without
1) Berg establishes specific pitches & pitch collections as focal elements; earlier atonal structural devices are given large-scale structural implication for the first time in Wozzeck

2) tonal materials used to express certain moods, associated with specific characters (Marie)

• Non-musical relationships:

1) sun/moon

2) curtain synchronization is part of the overall compositional design: one example is after
Wozzeck gets thrashed by the drum major: 2 bars of silence, then curtain falls in silence;
functions to prolong the view of the stage world beyond its "proper time"; also heightens
conclusion of III/3 when it is lowered prematurely

• Large scale = ABA

Relationship between 2 outer acts: visual imagery of red sun in Act I, and its
"retrograde inversion" rising of blood-red moon in Act III

Musical forms reflects textual/dramatic structure of the scenes:

• musical material traditional associated w/ stage activity: military march, lullaby of I/3;
ländler and waltz of tavern scene (II/4); piano polka in pub scene III/3

• musical form as a symbol, representing dramatic of psychological kernel of scene: Wozzeck’s
obsessions are symbolized in single musical elements that dominate each of the 3 scenes in
which he is present;

1) murder scene of III/2 (Invention on a note)-the extent to which B recedes or emerges
from texture reflects the extend to which murder fluctuates in his mind

2) following rhythmic pattern of III/3 symbolizes Wozzeck’s suppressed consciousness of
the crime, mirroring his outbursts, accusations by Margaret, etc.

3) III/4 drowning scene: single chord

4) III/5 perpetuum rhythm represents every-day world of children, undisturbed by
discovery of Marie’s, revelation of what’s occurred

• juxtaposed movements of suite form musical parallel to way in which conversation between
Captain and Wozzeck go from topic to topic in I/1; baroque ‘old-fashioned’ dance forms is a
comment on Captains out-dated, traditional bourgeois moral stance [Lulu: Dr. Schoen’s desire
for respectability represented by a musette and gavotte]

• recurrent passacaglia in I/4 symbolizes both the doctor’s recurrent idée-fixe (immortality)
and his scholarly pretentions (passacaglia regarded as being ‘scholarly’ compositional form)

• triple fugue for II/2 determined by pursuit of each character working out their own private
obsessions; also reflects exactly details of textual demands and stage action (ie, when
Captain taps his forehead)

• Act II, scene 1 also involves 3 characters [see below]; development coincides with point of
highest dramatic tension, as Wozzeck questions Marie about ‘discovery’ of her earrings’;
recapitulation intensifies reflects Marie’s disturbed state after Wozzeck’s departure

diagram illustrating Berg’s response to 3 acts, 15 scenes:

DRAMATIC	MUSICAL

Exposition
Wozzeck and his relation to his environment	Five Character Sketches
Scene	Scene
1. The Captain	1. Suite
2. Andres	2. Rhapsody
3. Marie	3. Military March and Cradle Song
4. The Physician	4. Passacaglia
5. The Drum Major	5. Andante affetuoso (quasi Rondo)

Denouement
Wozzeck is gradually convinced of Marie’s infidelity	Symphony in five movements
Scene	Scene
1. Wozzeck’s first suspicion	1. Sonata form
2. Wozzeck is mocked	2. Fantasie and Fugue
3. Wozzeck accuses Marie	3. Largo
4. Marie and Drum Major dance	4. Scherzo
5. The Drum Major trounces Wozzeck	5. Rondo marziale

Catastrophe
Wozzeck murders Marie and atones through suicide	Six Inventions
Scene	Scene
1. Marie’s remorse	1. Invention on a Theme
2. Death of Marie	2. Invention on a Tone
3. Wozzeck tries to forget	3. Invention on a Rhythm
4. Wozzeck drowns in the pond	4. Invention on a 6-note chord
(Instrumental interlude with closed curtain)	(Invention on a Key)
5. Marie’s son plays unconcerned	5. Invention on a Persistent Rhythm (Perpetuum mobile)

Act II, scene 1.

• formal components defined and characterized by menas of referential harmonic units: analogy
with menas used to define and characterize components in traditional tonality

• choice of sonata design for Act II, scene 1 is based upon relationship between dialectic and drama
of sonata and the dramatic values of the scene

Exposition	1st Reprise	Development	2 Reprise (Recap)

Main Theme	Main Theme	Main Theme and Closing Theme	Main Theme
(mm. 6/7-28)	(mm. 59-60-80)	(mm. 96-108)	(mm. 127/8-150)
Marie alone; admires earrings given to her by Drum Major	Marie alone; compares herself with rich people; admires earrings	Marie and Wozzeck; argument over jewelry	Marie alone; despairs that man, woman and child all go to the devil; (C major glissando down; Curtain down)
Transition	Transition	Transition	Interlude: Thematic reprise
mm. 28-9: V-vi cadence in C	(mm. 81-9)	(mm. 108-45)
mm. 29-42
Marie tells child to close its eyes; hint of threat	Marie orders baby to close its eyes	Wozzeck alone; concern for child: Wir arme Leut!" climaxes on 12-note chord
2nd Theme	2nd Theme	No development of 2nd Theme	Main Theme and 2nd Theme
mm. 43-52	mm. 90-2
Marie’s gypsy song further frightens child (music derived from Act I, scene 3)	Marie threatens child with blindness
Closing Theme	Closing Theme	Recitative	Closing Theme
mm. 53-9	mm. 93-6	mm. 116-127	mm. 162-170
Child’s fear conjures Wozzeck’s music (whole tone melody in sixteenths)	Wozzeck’s entrance (whole tone music in eighth notes)	Wozzeck gives Marie his earnings (C major triad held, mm. 116-124)	Long silense (166-9) (Curtain up: C major glissando up)

• Berg is heir of Strauss, Schoenberg (tone poems), Mahler (symphonies)in deploying sonata in
programmatic & texted surroundings: continues in Der Wein, Lulu

Orchestration:

Act II, scenes 3 & 4

tutti split into 3 self-contained independently organized instrumental groups:

a) chamber orchestra of 15 instruments (modeled on Schoenberg’s op. 9)

• fl (pc), ob, eh, eb cl, a cl, bsn, contra bsn, 2 horns, 5 solo strings

b) band of player in the village inn, on stage

• ‘fiddles’, clarinet in C. accordion, guitars, bombardon in F

c) residuary orchestral tutti

• interplay is like that of concertino and tutti

3. Schoenberg’s influence

• loosening of tonality, metrics

• Sprechstimme (extension of vocal expression) [used in Die glückliche Hand, Erwartung]

• chamber orchestra identical to Kammpersymphonie, op. 9

• also, Berg combines symbolic use of rhythms to Wagneriam leitmotifs and "bifocal" view of
melody and harmony (Mahler)

4. Wozzeck as Operatic innovation

• distinguished from forerunners [Wagner, Pelléas, Salome, Elektra, Erwartung, Die glückliche
Hand, Der ferne Klang (Schreker)] by subject matter: Wozzeck presents a social problem in
dramatic form (social drama), whereas forerunners continue to operate in sphere of romantic
music

• use of sprechstimme, sprechgesang (‘rhythmic declamation’) in place of recitative

5. Paradox of dealing with mental collapse of Wozzeck through formalized musical structures

• Berg gave technical reasons: in absence of tonality, formal design ensured musical unity to
structure of scenes, acts and the entire work: explanation ignores relationship between musical
and dramatic structure that receives such an important role

• implications of social protest; vs. Doctor’s & Captain’s obsession w/ time, Wozzeck’s
hallucinatory visions, strangeness of natural world of the work, all introduce into the play an
element that won’t fit into socio-economic solution, that Berg emphasizes through his choice of
structures to protest against sadistic social order and a hostile world

• association of symmetries, palindromes, retrogrades with concept of time passing:

1) ‘Langsam, Wozzeck, langsam’ at opening of work is significant: associated with first motive of
the work, chromatically filling F-B span

2) obsession of Captain (passing of time) and Doctor (defeat time through immortality) [Doctor’s
obsession examined in II/2: Pressiert, pressiert, pressiert! (hurry)]

• Adorno suggests that for Berg, retrogrades and palindromes are ‘anti-time’: they return to the
point at which they bagan, symbolically erase what has occurred

• palindromes in Berg’s mature works, when associated with text or known program, are
associated with negation [film music in Lulu begins her descent into desparation of last scenes]

• retrogrades and retrograde inversion not normally part of Berg’s 12-tone technique; specifically
reserves them for symbolic meanings

• in Wozzeck, this symbolizes pre-destination and man’s inability to affect the course of events

-image of the mill wheel=time moves in a circle, to its point of origin

-Wozzeck’s mental collapse associated with palindromes:

I/3 Marie says ‘he’ll drive himself crazy with those ideas of his’

I/4 scene with Doctor-Wozzeck explains to Doctor his feelings that toadstool rings in a field
hide mysterious meanings; music at that point is ascending whole tone scale, its retrograde,
accompanied by its inversion and rhythmic diminution in orchestra

II/3, Wozzeck: Man is an abyss. You get dizzy looking down into him-I feel dizzy.’

-opera abruptly closes in the midst of the ‘rhythmic’ invention; no closure felt; one feels as
though the process might begin anew with Wozzeck’s child

• The inhuman mechanistic universe depicted in Wozzeck represent’s Berg’s world view: natural
world governed by uncaring, mechanical, predetermined process that operate irrespective of the
fate or feelings of the individual.

• autobiographical elements in Berg’s mature works may be attempts to capture and assert the
value of individual identity, experience; structure of Wozeck is a symbol of the forces in the face
of which these attempts are made: nothing new is the ultimate end of the transient nature of
humans in the world that terrifies the Captain in the opening scene

Saxophonist Wendy Schmidt-Chapp 1965-2007

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:39:40 PST

I just recieved the very sad news that my dear friend Wendy Schmidt-Chapp passed away, on Jan. 2, 2007, from complications of leukemia.

Wendy and I were members in the Crane Saxophone Quartet with James Stoltie, Matt Patnode, and Susan Olix during 1986-1988. We also occasionally played duets. She was an extremely talented and gifted performer as well as a loving and kind person. As a friend, she made me laugh, and 'on the road', we always had a lot of fun.

Wendy, I will miss you!

After earning a Bachelor of Music Degree at Crane School of Music at S.U.N.Y. Potsdam, NY, Wendy then concluded her academic in Arizona earning a Masters Degree in Saxophone Pedagogy. Playing and teaching music defined Wendy's lifelong passion. Wendy's true gift was not just her affinity to music; the truest gifts came from her heart. She thrived on the long hours she spent working with students, passing her love and appreciation for music on to future generations. She was also an avid outdoors woman, spending countless weekends fishing, camping, and relaxing along the Mogollon Rim. Wendy was selfless, always helping others in need without question. She was a loving and dedicated wife to her husband, a staunch supporter of her family and friends, and an inspiration to those that had the opportunity to know her. Our beloved Wendy, may you now be at peace for eternity having left the physical bonds of this world behind. Take your place beside your family that have gone before you and forever reside in God's grace and love. Watch over your family still here on earth as we will always love and miss you. We will all meet again one day. We have you to thank for so many blessings we enjoy in our lives and the joyous memories of you as a wife, daughter, sister, niece, cousin, and friend. The sound of your music will echo through eternity.

Occultism in Music, by Gary Gomex

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 12:09:30 PST

If one defines the occult as the unseen (which is technically is) then it would be easier (and less lengthy) to write an article on times that music was not affected by the unseen world than on the times it was.

In the world music tradition, we have rather extensive history (extending all the way back to the Greeks) of the use of music to induce certain states- modes were thought to have certain qualities. There is even some evidence to suggest that the Egyptians used music as a healing tool This anticipated the later utilization of these techniques by figures as diverse as Sun Ra, Jimi Hendrix, the Misunderstood, Rudolph Steiner, various "new age practitioners" such as Stephen Levine and the biased experiments tying plant growth to listening to classical music.(1) These types of customs are utilized in Africa, India, South America and within most native cultures (shamanic cultures from Russia to the Americas to the Pacific) have some kind of tradition of sacred song to them. The links run from the Russian shamanic traditions, the Australian aborigines to East Indian Gandharva Veda and Karnatak musics to Hawaiian chanting, to perhaps the most infamous occult music tradition of all, the Yoruban culture in Africa which found its expression as Voudon (Voodoo) in Haiti and Santeria throughout most of the remainder of South America. This tradition has found its way into contemporary culture through jazz, tango, Cuban music, and of course, blues and rock and roll (more on this later). (2)

Getting back to tradition, in the more mainstream religions, it is valuable to know that Moslem, Hindu and Hebrew prayer is usually chanted, not spoken, and there are literally hundreds of books in all these cultures regarding the power of chanted prayer. Balinese and Javanese Gamelan and African Joujouka are vessels for worship. And the Western church also has a tradition of its own of this type—plainsong or proportional chant, which later evolved into Gregorian chant, was one of the basic building blocks of the Western music tradition. Also, as the years progressed, every major composer from the Renaissance onward (and even before) devoted most of their output to sacred work, up to and including 20th century composers like Stravinsky (occasionally) and Messiaen (mostly). A great many composers also chose subject matter of a more obscure occult/spiritual tilt. Mozart wrote overtly about Masonic principles in his opera "The Magic Flute"; Scriabin seemed under the influence of the Theosophical movement of his day with his Prometheus Symphony; Richard Strauss "Also Sprach Zarathustra" is a piece dedicated to Nietzche but also to the misunderstood principles of the founder of the Zoroastrian religion (considered to be the first continuous monotheistic religion; in its current state it is a realtively small religion practiced pretty much exclusively in Iran and in a small colony (Parsi) in Bombay, India); Erik Satie was a Rosicrusian who applied some of the principles of this secret society to his piano pieces; Dane Rudhyar and Gustav Holst were astrologers; Olivier Messiaen wrote numerous pieces dedicated to his unique form of Roman Catholic mysticism, but borrowed from Indian ragas and birds (St. Francis of Assisi being the Catholic link) and also wrote huge works drawing on Indian and Japanese works; and Schoenberg's most ambitious work was the unfinished opera Moses and Aron. The most anti-mystical composer of the 20th century (he claimed that the imagery of the Rite of Spring was derived from the music, and the large pagan gathering that was this major piece's program was inspired by the music, not vice versa) Stravinsky, wrote at least two major sacred works—the Canticum Sacrum and the Symphony of Psalms.

Among more contemporary composers, Stockhausen has written works about mantra, the creation and the archangel Michael; Penderecki has written religious works and mystical works, as has Ligeti ("Lux Eterna"), John Cage was directly inspired by Zen and Indian thought about music, while the minimal trio (Riley, Reich, and Glass) are well known for their interest in Indian music, African and Hebrew traditions, and Tibetan Buddhism, respectively. As George Crumb wrote the piece "Black Angels," there was definitely an air of foreboding in the late 1960's and early 1970- like "Tubular Bells," this piece did not start out as an "occult" piece but became one by association by virtue of its inclusion in the soundtrack to the Exorcist (an overtly occult piece like Stairway to Heaven was only marginally associated with occultism, by contrast). The mystical tradition that inspired Wagner is well-known. His finest work (also his last) is a opera called "The Comedy at the End of Time" in which the world comes to an end, prophesied by Sibyls and Anchorite monks and Lucifer is finally forgiven by God for his transgressions and accepted back into God's hands. Even Glenn Branca talks about angels and devils in his Symphonies (and I have left out a ton of composers, I know, from Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis" to Handel, Haydyn, Bruckner, well…it never ends.) We'll talk about blues, jazz and rock further on.

Where do these people come up with this stuff?

First of all, as one of my friends remarked to me long ago, music, being an auditory phenomenon, is not visible, save as a representation on sheet music. It is an occult (unseen) science. It seems to come from everywhere. We interpret it in a congregation (the audience) and it has a wide variety of "secret messages" to it. We can go all the way from the meanings that people derive from lyrics or music to the truly insipid interpretation of lyrics by the "Paul is dead" mania of the late 1960's to Geraldo Rivera hearing the words "Son of Sam" in Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" to the even more stupid "backwards masked" lyrics of Led Zeppelin, among others. Before any of you ever reads too much into a song lyric again, I strongly encourage you to read Julian Jaynes' Origins of Consciousness in the Bicameral Brain. In it, he discusses the cross talk of schizophrenics as the model for messages from the Gods to early cultures. It is a fascinating bit of work and one that should give pause to any one who thinks they hear a message from anywhere—be it from a grizzled singer who can barely pronounce the words he is singing because of a drug-addled state or a "blues" affectation.

Thankfully, apart from Geraldo and a few Beatles-maniacs in the 1960's (they are back, by the way and on the Internet), most of us don't pay too much attention to words we can't understand on records. Also, this diatribe should not be taken to mean that 1) their isn't real occult or spiritual significance to the music we enjoy or 2) that music can not be a consciousness altering experience for some people, even from sources that I would not necessarily like. Both exist; but like anything else unseen, interpretation must be made with caution.

Blues, rock, and jazz, it must be noted, are many times made in the presence of mind-altering substances. To get to the essence of this, it is always useful to recall that alcohol is called "spirits" for a reason. It has a potency that opens us up to very positive or very negative experiences. Also, the grandfather of these musics is a blend of two musics that have profound occult roots—the Yoruban and the Celtic cultures, for blues came out of Africa, jazz came out of Europe and Africa (adding sex from the whorehouses – in the old days there used to be sacred sex temples in various cultures)– and rock coming out of blues and old country. And country came out of the old Celtic folks who settled in Tennessee. Ever wonder why groups like Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull had such an easy time blending rock rhythms into these weird little English folk pieces?

The blues certainly had its share of occult imagery working for it. There is of course the Robert Johnson legend of him going to the crossroads. This is a place in most cultures where demons gather or the devil appears. According to one sensationalistic television special I saw, the Allman Brothers Band used to spend time at Johnson's grave and apparently picked up some kind of a curse by hanging out there- hence the deaths of Duane Allman and Berry Oakley. Pieces like "Got My Mojo Workin" or even Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put A Spell on You" are obviously huge parts of the history of rock and roll. Even the sex and drugs part of rock represent a sacred tradition, because sex, if used properly, can lead to enlightenment or power, as can alcohol or drugs—but they are considered rather dangerous for unprepared individuals, so a variety of spiritual traditions—in the far east (India with Tantra and Aghora), Shamanic cultures, and even, from what I know of the Santerian—require long periods of preparation before these substances are used for spiritual purposes. Here in the United States, all you need is a fake ID, a drug connection, and (maybe) a condom and you're all set.(3)

Anyone who has ever been to a rock concert sober knows the sense of power you feel from seeing thousands of fans masses… and most of us have been witness to the power of sex, either in our own lives or through proximity. Jim Jones (and many sect leaders) slept with his female devotees not only for pleasure, but for power and dominance. The Hare Krishnas (ISKCON) also had stories of rogue Western gurus who abused their positions for sexual dominance.(4) The organization has made major changes over the past twenty years to ensure that the power struggles and corruption that plagued certain parts of the organization in the 1980's do not recur). And think to the recent Heaven's Gate cult—the leader, plagued by guilt or fear over his homosexuality, convinced many cult members to become Eunuchs—actually, somewhat perversely following a pattern that exists in the early Western church of eunuchs (Origen, one of the truly great early church thinkers and founders, was a Eunuch.

Moving into music, it was a well-known custom in certain circles to castrate male choirboys in order to retain the high pitched purity of their voices, although this was apparently, done more for aesthetic reasons than spritual—if only they had been blessed with the falsetto control of, say, Frankie Valli. It happens in certain pagan traditions also- according to one who claimed to belong to a family of witches, Alex Sanders, ritual castration was once part of becoming a witch (he got away with a nicked scrotum, though). In India, certain dovotees of Shiva engage in surgery to eliminate sexual desire to this day, and a very bizarre group—the Harridan—go from village to village looking for male children with either deformed sexual organs or with hermaphroditic tendencies, and claim these children as part of their group. The group dress in women's clothes and have a reputation for being powerful magicians. It is rare that parents refuse their demand for a child, because of the fear of a curse. These individuals take the child, cut away all vestiges of maleness and travel the country, telling fortunes and offering magic remedies to villagers—while seeking new recruits. Power, intoxication and the creative energy of the universe (sex) are difficult to withstand. Many sects call for abstinence, for similar reasons—abstinence builds up energy in most people, which can be transmuted to satisfy the goals of the group or given proper guidance, can be channeled through the body to create higher states of consciousness.

Watch an evangelical meeting sometime (or better yet a snake handling session—watch this on TV!)---you'll see, in many cases, the kind of fervor connected with a rock concert, If you witness a coven meeting (which is not as tough to do now as in the past) you will notice the same kind of energy. I have seen cabalistic and Santerian rituals (no animal sacrifice) that have similar energy. I have been part of Hindu rituals that have the same energy as a great musical experience, and I have been at concerts that have a truly sanctified feeling to them. But the experiences range from the ecstatic (Mahavishnu, Alice Coltrane, Magma, Cecil Taylor) to the oddly detached (Leo Smith and Marion Brown, or ZAJ, led by Walter Marchetti and Juan Hidalgo, two Cage disciples) to the traditional (Korean Ah Ahk Theatre, Gamelan, Hare Krishna temple celebrations, chanting, church). Some included the desire to communicate and make more money in the process- Chick Corea's move to fusion, starting with the Moreira-Purim Return to Forever through the Mahavishnu-inspired groups, coincided with his involvement in Scientology. Although it is not known how deeply involved Coryell was with spirituality after he left Sri Chinmoy's tutelage, his most successful band, the Eleventh House, was named for an astrological term. Some of the classical pieces that were inspired by spiritual concepts, like Messiaen's work ("Quartet for the End of Time" comes to mind, but there are so many more), Dane Rudhyar's pieces, Bach's religious works, Stravinsky's pieces, Penderecki (The Passion of St. Luke), Michael Tippett's The Vision of St. Augustine and King Priam (in both pieces the lead character has a vision of the totality of creation all at once; this is similar to some Hindu concept of God realization); Stockhausen's Hymnen and Mantra, and even Cage pieces inspired by Zen, are truly amazing—they are great pieces of art no matter what the context and I am not even touching upon one tenth of all the great religious pieces.

Oddly enough, because spirituality and overindulgence in sex and drugs have both produced some great music, it is tempting to look for a link—and there is. Both elements involve a loss of identity and surrender to something else… God, wine, bliss. Certain types of reggae (such as dub) and certain varieties of psychedelic (and later) rock and jazz showed some extraordinary music that would probably not have been made without the influence of intoxicants. Sometimes intoxicants precipitated a crisis that led to other things. We are all familiar of the various stories of how drugs (particularly alcohol, psychedelics, speed, and the harder drugs -- cocaine and heroin in particular have wreaked havoc on people's lived. This has brought on death (Charlie Parker, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and Keith Moon to name a select few), ruined or interrupted careers (Syd Barrett, Brian Wilson, Peter Green, Skip Spence, Ginger Baker, and David O'List) or led to lame music (Eric Clapton and Lou Reed)—to name the two people I wished hadn't performed when they were on drugs) and animal abuse (accidentally on Ozzie Osbourne's part, intentionally—for which my estimation of him went down enormously—on the part of John Cale). But Santeria and Voodoo regularly engage in animal sacrifice, and many religions around the world, including Biblical Judaism and certain older sects of Hinduism, engaged in animal sacrifice. But these seem to be used for the release of energy, which I think is totally unnecessary and to be honest, repellant.

Linking the pattern back to spirituality, part of the myth of Syd Barrett relates how he was interested in joining a sect of mid-Eastern mystics who practiced astral travel to planets—also practiced in India—but the group felt he was too immature to handle it. He resorted to a diet of LSD in order to produce the effect—explaining the emphasis on the first two Floyd LP's—but burned himself out from chronic use of LSD, from which he has apparently still not recovered. Syd sacrificed himself to his spiritual and material ambitions in a pattern not very different from martyrs and hasn't rock has its share of "martyrs" to its life style, such as Hendrix, Morrison, Moon, Cobain and Laughner, to name just a few?

But there are also stories of marvelous second chances, like John Coltrane's incredible rebirth and spiritual awakening in the 1960's. But these are very rare and Coltrane only had a short span of time in which to spread his new gospel. Disciples like Pharaoh Sanders and his wife Alice Coltrane, despite great initial popularity, vanished into obscurity by the late 1970's (although they re-emerged) and the ones who exceeded Coltrane's spirituality (like Ayler) were found dead in the East River in the late 1960's under bizarre circumstances. Although Coltrane really got into some incredibly mystical places (albums included titles like the churning "Meditations" (this piece sounds like one of the foundation stones for the German Free Jazz scene of Brotzmann and the late Peter Kowald), Om, Interstellar Space (homages to the planets in duets with drummer Rashied Ali) and the comparatively tame classic A Love Supreme. Ayler's entire set of work was spiritually based., from his earliest to his last lame rock-based work. Titles like "Witches and Devils," "Ghosts" and "Universal Indians" barely hint at Ayler's ecstatic virtuosity. Anybody who just thinks he was blowing straight simple themes should listen with care to, for example, "Ghost" on his Love Cry LP in which he dances in and out of the melody, dropping notes and catching them intentionally like he was using the silences as a type of spiritual counterpoint, while Milford Graves does everything he can to avoid keeping a beat and Alan Silva keens to the higher consciousness. It's an amazing, ECSTATIC performance—quite startling. Are the missing notes being played by the Ghosts?

And Sun Ra's interest in Egypt, and spirituality was not just for show. When I met him and spoke with him in 1973 (it was an interview in only the loosest sense of the word—more of a Sun Ra lecture), one of the things he told me to do was to look up a book that I would be interested in at the University of California at Berkeley. The book Urantia has to be one of the strangest books ever written—it was written through a technique that would later be called "channeling" but was composed in the early twentieth century by a spirit possessing a well-placed man in an apparently well-placed group of people. If such a thing were to happen today, there would be a rush to record it or make a television series about it. But, being "well-placed" at that time meant that you would not want anyone else to know of this, so a group met and recorded the book in secret. The book purports to be a history of the universe told from the creation, and Ra was fascinated by it. In one of the chapters of the book, it spoke of Green, blue, orange people—so much so that Ra felt this was why people had distinct color preferences throughout their lives. Somebody who liked green clothing was probably a green person in previous lifetime. He also spoke freely about angels and UFO abductions he had experienced. This was in 1973, long before this kind of thing became popular. Albert Ayler also had a famous vision in which he and his brother were zapped by a flying saucer but were immune to its negative effects because they possessed holy marks. This type of dream is not dissimilar to the belief in certain Indian sects that UFO's represent highly evolved spiritual beings who are intent on deceiving humanity for their own ends the one populated by faerie, vampires, ghosts and all the occult mischief makers.(5) Interestingly enough, in some meditation circles, some folks seem to encounter UFO-like characters when they start to make spiritual progress, but these characters are considered distractions, not helpers.

My meeting with Sun Ra marked a time (1973) during which interest in the metaphysical and the occult was just about as strong as it is now, but most of us tend to have relatively short memories, so we tend to forget that the sixties and its expansion into drugs also led to a major concurrent interest in the occult and the spiritual life. For example, astrology was HUGELY popular in the 1960's; interest in Eastern Gurus, thanks in no small measure to the Beatles involvement with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the Hare Krishna, was enormous. I can recall kids in college leaving to join spiritual groups—and interest in Wicca or White Magic was also quite high. So we had a major influence of different gurus affecting musicians who had come out of the drug culture, or even who needed a refuge. Among the folks who were disciples of different gurus were of course, the Beatles who aligned themselves with TM and ISKCON—the International Society for Krishna Consciousness appealed to John for a brief while, George died an adherent to ISKCON. "The Fool on the Hill" was originally, the story goes, dedicated to the Maharishi and most of The White Album was written in retreat in India). The Doors were into TM though Morrison was initiated into TM before the Beatles involvement: Morrison was the shaman who sacrificed himself for his vision, too in love with living on the edge to see the danger. The Beach Boys were also TM devotees, but it was too late for poor Brian Wilson, who stopped work on Smile because he was sure that his music caused some of the Topanga Canyon fires. Other followers were The Rascals whose song "It's Wonderful" is their TM tribute. There was also Pete Townshend, who devoted himself to Meher Baba- "Baba O'Riley" on Who's Next name checks him and Townshend's first solo album Who Came First was almost entirely written in dedication to him.

The jazz-rock contingent seemed drawn to Sri Chinmoy as John McLaughlin, Carlos Santana, Larry Coryell and Brian Auger were all devotees at one point in their lives. Chinmoy seemed to attract instrumental virtuosos while he himself is known for the thousands of songs and paintings he completed, as well as his feats of strength). And of course, there was Alice Coltrane (whose best work, Universal Consciousness, was inspired by her spiritual interests and other musicians, like the late Larry Young (Khalid Yasin) went over to Islam (as did Cat Stevens). And many AACM musicians (from Muhal Richard Abrams to Kalapurusha Maurice McIntyre) were drawn to African and Jewish spirituality. Other folks were drawn to Western Magick, like Graham Bond (who committed suicide in 1975), Robert Fripp (in the early 1970's before his involvement with Western guru J. G. Bennett and the Gurdjieff group), and of course, folks like Stevie Nicks. But what of the heavy metal tradition—the one most intimately (and publicly) connected to the "darker forces"?(6)

But the interest in the weird extra forces of the progressive rock world came to a head between 1971 and 1975, when : 1) Magma came to pre-eminence; 2) King Crimson became interested in Wicca (the Wetton-Cross-Bruford Group); 3) Yes composed titanic works dedicated to Theosophy (followed by Todd Rundgren just a little later.(7) These are only the three most obvious. Vander actually developed his own language based upon a time when he was playing free jazz in a club. As the story goes, he was playing to an unappreciative audience; and he thought about the people who were dying to play this music (think Coltrane—Vander viewed Coltrane as his major hero according to the press of the time) and he wished the audience dead—and he was going to tell them. What came out of his mouth, if we are to believe him, was the foundation of Kobaian, the language of all of the Magma music. This concept is quite a bit like "Glossalia," or speaking in tongues when possessed by the Holy Spirit, a phenomenon documented in every religion in the world. Also, I can recall a hell of a lot of apocalyptic thinking at the time—one of the reasons that Fripp gave for disbanding King Crimson in 1975 was because he thought the world was going to undergo massive disasters in 25 years and the idea of running a group seemed frivolous to him; the story changed shortly after, to the "small mobile intelligent units" concept favored by Fripp, Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno, but apocalyptic thinking was the first reason I saw in print. Not tough to see why—escalating energy prices and unemployment were starting to worry folks, and there was a real feeling of doom (perhaps fed by too much drug consumption) in the mid-1970's. The advent of Punk and Disco only seemed to make people more convinced that things would get worse and that it was time to get spiritual—in time for a variety of Gurus (eastern and Western) to fill the gaps that the cessation of drugs and partying brought. Also, pieces that had no occult origins like Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" acquired satanic connotations because of its lifting of Terry Riley's trance ideas, and, of course, its use in the film The Exorcist.

In certain areas, (mainly industrial England and heartland USA) groups with huge Marshall Amplifers, and distorted guitars realized how ominous such sounds could be. They took the basic concept of Cream, the Who and Hendrix, slowed down the beat and voila, Satanic heavy metal is born. The forerunner is probably Black Widow, an obscure English group from the late 1960's who teamed up with our friend Alex Sanders (see above) caused a minor sensation with their live shows (featuring a nude female celebrant at the end) and releasing one album which faded into obscurity because their record company wanted to push Simon and Garfunkel instead of them! So much for their association with Sanders (according to them, the most powerful man in England). Many groups, like the Crazy World of Arthur Brown (who Ritchie Unterburger correctly identified as the daddy and grand daddy of all the latter "Satanic" rockers), Atomic Rooster, Black Sabbath, Kiss, and Alice Cooper, that were essentially Hammer studios and Hollywood visions of the occult world—accidentally evil or occult at best, but entertaining for the spectacle.

The Stones, you will recall, were also involved in their earlier years—of course they had a certain number of songs and album titles in their early years.(8) And of course, there was "Dancing With Mr. D" and "Sympathy for the Devil" but their real involvement was with the films of Kenneth Anger, author of Hollywood Babylon. Anger was a Luciferian satanist and also a devotee of Alesiter Crowley (who was not a Satanist) and the movies he mad with the Stones help were a bit bizarre, disturbing, and ultimately incoherent, like Bunuel/Dali on a bad day. This interest lasted a very short while for the Stones (probably 1968-1971) but the stigma stuck. But they were the bad boys- it was expected. The other fellow who exploits in this area are best known is our friend Jimmy Page.

Jimmy Page was fascinated with Aleister Crowley and eastern mysticism (remember "Kashmir"?), but the interest with Crowley lasted for more than a few years. The late Aleister Crowley (aka "the Beast" because, as he remarked, his mother called him that) was born into a fundamentalist Christian family who also owned a brewing company. In his early college years, he essentially started tapping into his family's fortune and quickly spent it all. He was involved in the Golden Dawn, a group of occultists from turn of the century England who also included W. B. Yeats among its members. Crowley was invited in by McGregor Mathers one of the founders of the organization who perceived Crowley as brilliant, and tried to enlist his assistance in a battle for control of the group. After a long series of disputes within the group, Crowley was out, and formed his own lodge (Mathers was disgraced and died soon after), and the Golden Dawn turned more introspective and cautious. But Crowley was convinced of his special role in the world, engaging in sex magick, drugs, esoteric rituals and demonic possession. Although he still exhibited a high level of influence through the late 1930's (and a great deal of press as "the Most Evil Man in the World"), his influence waned through the 1940's and he passed away in 1947. Although it sounds like he was just a profligate junkie, his contributions to the "new age" movement and occultism were considerable—he was quite brilliant (although incredibly egotistical, nasty and arrogant). He wrote and "ghosted" wrote many significant works of occultism, including jobs for Evangeline Adams (who made headlines as an astrologer in the early twentieth century) and Gerald Gardner (this was the man generally regarded as leading the Wiccan revival in England in the late 1940's, when it was still against the law to be a witch). Crowley's general decline can be seen as starting when he started to get addicted to opium and heroin, among other substances. Israel Regardie, who served as his personal secretary, allegedly said that Crowley was a genius with the emotional development of a ten year old boy—which, when you come to think of it, is a good description for a great many famous rock performers.

Page's involvement with the Crowley legacy extended to the purchase of one of Crowley's homes, and the symbols that adorned Led Zeppelin IV. "Stairway to Heaven" was certainly a mystical piece of music (it was praised by Kenneth Anger as being the most "luciferian" pieces of Page's work—a definite compliment if you view Lucifer, as Anger did, as a representation of truth and beauty), but Page never made it to the stage of finishing a soundtrack to Anger's movies. There are allegations that some members of the group blamed the death of John Bonham and other untoward events upon Page's involvement with Crowley; but Bonham's drinking was getting out of hand even before Page's involvement with Crowley. The break up of Led Zeppelin probably didn't end Page's involvement with Crowley, but the public knowledge and interest in this probably declined at that stage.

The interesting thing is, in the late 1970's, especially with the advent of punk, a lot of groups seemed to back away from occult (particularly positive occult) involvement, but the advent of "Death Rock" or occult rock, which developed in s slow pattern through the following bands: Black Widow - Atomic Rooster - Black Sabbath Angel Witch - Venom - Pagan Altar - Widow - Witchfynde - Hell Satan - Cloven Hoof – Warhammer- Onslaught - Sabbat – Antichrist-Ragnarok - Cradle Of Filth - Megiddo Bal Sagoth - December Moon – Ewigkeit - Adorior - Hecate - Enthroned - Phantasia - Forefather - Meads Of Asphodel - Reign Of Erebus Thus Defiled - Old Forest - Annal Nathrakh. They all showed a steady but consistent interest in the underworld as a source of inspiration, although, as I indicated earlier, the evolution is part occult interest, part show biz.

Throbbing Gristle even had a bit of a run in occult circles and Genesis P. Orridge has an interest in the works of Austin Osman Spare, a contemporary of Crowley's who established the foundation of a system called Chaos magic, which draws heavily on tapping into the patterns of nature (such as repeating sets) and partially on Shamanic-inspired altered states of consciousness—which sort of fits in well with techno and other dance systems as a metaphysical delivery agent. In the progressive world, Fripp continued his involvement with discipline, Art Ensemble founder Joseph Jarman got more deeply involved with his dojo, and the Belgian groups Present and Univers Zero put out gloomy CD after gloomy CD with strong senses of foreboding.

The 1980's also saw a great deal of interest in H.P. Lovecraft's work. Lovecraft was a writer from Providence, RI who was active in the 1920's and who developed intense and foreboding mythologies about the elder gods who ruled the earth before the advent of humans and who waited to seize it again. Their worshippers were snake-like races who seemed more inspired by the influx of Southern European immigrants into the Northeast during Lovecraft's time than by any recorded legends. (Lovecraft was an introverted xenophobe. But Lovecraft inspired more than a few groups, including Caravan (!), Magma, and Univers Zero.

Other groups, that emerged in the 1980's, such as Megadeath, Ministry and Slayer, had a stronger connection with the instrumental posture of groups like Black Sabbath, but the instrumental prowess greatly exceeded that of the earlier groups. Slayer, in particular, in their earlier albums, played with a frenzy close to that of free jazz, and a truly threatening vocal style that inspired folks like Rob Zombie (from the old industrial city of Lowell, Massachusetts), but that lost a lot of its bite when you see folks like Trey Parker (creator of South Park) imitating it pretty flawlessly. The difficult part of the late 1980's was that, with the advent of the PMRC and various Christian fundamental groups, and police looking for scapegoats, ANYTHING connected with mysticism or the occult was automatically tagged as SATANIC—even folks like Rush and Alan Parsons show up under the Satanic heading, much to my (and their) astonishment. The 1980's was also the period in which New Age music, a combination of ECM, Terry Riley, ethnic music, and a sprinkling of light electronics. This started to gain an enormous audience of over-stressed former hippies and baby boomers trying to find music that would transport them, but not force their heads to work harder than they already were. It was, in some ways, a search for a nice refuge from the hyper-materialistic eighties.

In the 1990's, interest in the occult and spirituality seemed to skyrocket to heights not seen since the mid-1970's. The introduction of drugs into a culture among youth seems to generate interest in alternative spirituality, but interest in Wicca seemed to run high in the 1990's—there are more Wiccans than Unitarians at this point—and the increasing diverse environment of the United States and Western Europe are bringing in many more religious traditions, including areas as diverse and dissimilar as Santero, Voodoo, Hinduism and Buddhism, these often having houses of worship or outlets in the same community.(9)

Millennium fever probably fueled a lot of interest in the occult, and disenchantment with mainstream religions also seemed at a peak in the mid to late 1990's. Prosperity in the United States always has seen us experimenting—we find that money doesn't buy happiness, or we start looking for new things to entertain us. Also, the Goth scene started to develop with a new intensity, becoming the hippie movement of the 1990's. This started to develop interest in alternative religions.(10)

In the later 1990's, as groups like Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson (who is allegedly, a minister in the Church of Satan) started to gain in popularity, the middle class and fundamentalist Christianity started to get very concerned again, but the ability to confine this stuff is less easy than in the days before the internet (there must have been a great deal of gnashing of teeth when Tool thanked Satan for its Grammy award!). The ultimate ramifications of the September 11, 2001 attacks have had the interesting effect of both increasing animosity towards foreign cultures and increasing interest, while the Church's recent spate of sexual molestation cases all around the United States have increased interest in alternative religion. Madonna, for instance, is interested in the Cabala and has had a Hindu (Indian) astrology reading done for her (this is the system of astrology that I myself practice). There has been an enormous upsurge in interest in the more metaphysically oriented music of the late 1960's and early 1970's (Gong, Magma, Hawkwind, Terry Riley, etc.).

But people are also a bit insecure and afraid now—it would only take one more successful terrorist attack to turn the U.S. into raging xenophobes. What does that have to do with music? Nothing and everything. Basically, even though I am not a big fan of some of the music I've discussed here, it does make the entire musical scene a whole lot more interesting. And I really don't want to listen to either basic rock'n'roll or Christian rock (although some of it sounds OK to me) or even new age stuff. I grew up in a time when virtually everything was possible in music. One of the biggest disappointments in the world as it exists today is the fact that the music scene has remained as fragmented as it was in the mid-1970's onward with segregated markets. The thing that we all have to fight is the belief that we have nothing in common with the rest of the world. The universal undercurrent in every spiritual teaching stresses our similarities—the differences are for spice and flavor, not evil.

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Footnotes:

1. Many of you may recall these experiments, conducted as far back as the early seventies, in which various experimenters "demonstrated" that plants responded more positively to Mozart than, let's say Megadeath. The hidden factor that was not explained up front, was that the first lady who conducted these experiments hated loud rock, indicating the distinct possibility of bias. Recent experiments have been less conclusive—I seem to recall that now country and western music is the best—but research also tends to indicate that plants seem to thrive if the researcher likes the music being used—so plants could, and mine have, thrive on a diet of free jazz, art rock, and noise.

2. The more insidious side of this is that science, our new religion, is expanding on the "classical" experiments and has produced "studies" that show that learners learn better to the music of Mozart—which is odd, considering the fact that Mozart was more of a burnt out party boy than Ozzy Osboune—and many subliminal learning tapes have modeled their music on a certain number of beats oer minute that are supposed to optimize learning. In fact, a friend of mine who programs funk jazz—you know, like the Yellow Jackets, and various other fusack entities—has told me that many of the lighter (yes, Virginia, there is lighter jazz than the Yellow Jackets—all kidding aside, they are good musicians whose combination of elements just happen to annoy ME) jazz stations and producers have the music calculated so it hits a certain number of beats per minute, etc. in the theory that it will sell products better. On the surface of it, it makes sense, but, IF IT WERE TRUE, we would expect, let's say, Kenny G. to be more popular than Bruce Springsteen or the Rolling Stones and this is clearly not the case. But we will be stuck with lame jazz on the airwaves because of this misconception. And we won't even get into Scientology's take on this (refer to the section on jazz rock and Chick Corea's desire to reach people).

3. There is a story circulating that Shree Rajneesh, the Rolls Royce Guru, used to preside over ecstatic dancing and (allegedly) even sexual acts performed by his disciples and, in so doing, gathered tremendous Siddhi or power.

4. See the interesting book Monkey on a Stick for an interesting—though some would say biased—expose of the abuses of power in this organization, especially after Srila Prabhupada passed away.

5. This theory is not dissimilar to a theory put forth by John Keel , a veteran UFO and occult investigator, who sometimes felt that UFO's were the latest manifestation of history's contact with the unseen occult world.

6. An odd bit of musical trivia is that the occult connection with music can be traced to the most bizarre of connections—Desi Arnaz. It seems Desi was allegedly involved in an offshoot of Santeria in Cuba and was a devotee of one of the deities in his native Cuba. "Babalu" was apparently a tribute to this deity and one Santero (Santerian Priest) I know claimed that the conga rhythms in the "I Love Lucy" theme were actually used in worship to this deity. And they were worried about Led Zeppelin and Ozzy in the seventies! (Note to lawyers in the audience: I am not claiming that Desi was a Satanist!

7. Things like the success of "Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac and "Dream Weaver" by Gary Wright showed mainstream acceptance of these themes. But I think "Rhiannon" in particular, pales in comparison to pieces like "Tam Lin" from Fairport Convention, a song about the evil side of the faerie folk that sent chills through me when I saw them perform it without Sandy Denny.

8. I can remember innocently doing a public relations flyer in my high school that stated "Their Satanic Majesties Request Your Presence at Our Spring Dance" and it was a spring dance for two Catholic high schools. Went over like a lead balloon but I was Episcopalian and forgiven for my error.

9. There have been increased attempts at Christian conversion in other cultures—the underhanded shenanigans that have occurred in India with the intention of drawing Hindus away from their native religion are extraordinary, deceitful, and reprehensible—but we are living in a time of cultural exchange unparalleled since the late 1800's, personally and through the use of the Internet.

10. You haven't lived until you've gone to a Goth club and been approached by somebody who hands you a card that advertises fake vampire fangs and yellow contact lenses—then flashes his fangs at you. It's an interesting experience.

Original article

The Amadeus Code

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 11:58:11 PST

DAN Brown’s breathless quest for the secrets of the Holy Grail in The Da Vinci Code cleverly patched together gossip and curiosities from the visual arts. Had the story taken another turn, it could easily have followed a path of mystery and mysticism in classical music. The music world is no less a fertile place for cryptograms, hidden messages, secret societies and weird religion. And so many of the great composers could have a role to play: J.S. Bach, Edward Elgar, Alban Berg and, of course, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The story could still have started in Paris, at the end of the 19th century, with the eccentric and truly inventive composer, Erik Satie, best known for his piano miniatures, his strange and haunting Gymnopedies and Gnossiennes. Less known is his involvement with the cult of Rosicrucianism and its self-styled “Sar” or priest-king, Joseph-Aime Peladan. The Rosicrucians were a secret society with roots in the medieval Priory of Sion and the Knights Templar, organisations well known to readers of Brown’s tale.

Another French composer, Claude Debussy, may also have met Peladan, and was even rumoured to have been a grand master of the Priory of Sion.

Fin-de-siecle Paris was a hotbed of mysticism, symbolism and the decadence espoused in such influential books as Joris-Karl Huysmans’s Against Nature. Indeed, much of the Rosicrucianism of Satie’s circle was a quest for a new aesthetic, and Satie’s own contribution included incidental music for a mystical drama, and piano pieces composed of solemn, liturgical-sounding chords. According to one analysis, Satie structured some of his Rose+Croix pieces in accord with the so-called divine ratio: the number denoted by the Greek letter phi, that is thought to give especially pleasing or auspicious dimensions.

Satie’s infatuation with Rosicrucianism was short-lived however, and the composer broke with the Sar and invented his own religion, the Metropolitan Church of Art of Jesus the Leader, with a congregation of just one: himself.

Composers through the ages have embedded codes in their music, both for the purpose of secret communication and private amusement. Music and cryptography - the science of codes - are often said to be closely aligned, as both disciplines rely on communication through symbols. Indeed, the ability to read music was a desirable skill for Britain’s Nazi code-breakers in World war II.

The composer best known for inserting extra-musical ideas into his work was Bach. He signed his compositions “Soli Dei Gloria” - to the glory of God alone - but he also signed within his works a tribute to himself, using the letters of his surname. In English notation, only the letters A to G are used in the musical scale; in German, the letter H denotes B-natural. So Bach was able to sign his own name, with the notes B-A-C-H, in such magisterial works as The Art of Fugue.

Other composers took to this idea of musical Scrabble. The Irish composer John Field wrote melodies on the themes of B-E-E-F and C-A-B-B-A-G-E; the pious Frenchman, Olivier Messiaen, used entire quotations from Thomas Aquinas in his organ work, Meditations on the Mystery of the Holy Trinity.

Elgar’s Variations on an Original Theme are more popularly known as the Enigma Variations because of the wordplay therein. The 14 variations are musical sketches of Elgar’s friends, and the title of each holds the key. The best-known variation - its noble theme is widely used in film scores - is the Nimrod, for the music publisher and Elgar’s best friend, August Johannes Jaeger. Puzzle solved: Jaeger means hunter in German; Nimrod was the mighty hunter of mythology.

Numbers, too, figure heavily in music. Those with sacred associations - such as three for the trinity, or 12 for the apostles - appear again and again: in three-note motifs, for example, or in the key of E-flat major, which has three flats.

In the 20th century, when composers broke with convention in search of new means of musical expression, number-crunching became more prominent. Bela Bartok’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste uses the Fibonacci sequence, in which each number in the series is the sum of the two before. Later composers such as Iannis Xenakis would use ever more sophisticated methods.

The musical modernists of the Second Viennese School in the early 20th century were highly analytical in musical thought yet, oddly enough, deeply superstitious of numbers. Arnold Schoenberg, the inventor of 12-tone serialism, was triskaidekaphobic: afraid of the number 13. It’s not clear that this influenced his music, but he changed the name Aaron to Aron in his opera Moses und Aron so the title would not have 13 letters.

His pupil Alban Berg was even more carried away. Berg was paranoid about the number 23, stemming from the date of his first asthma attack, at the age of 14, on July 23, 1900. This “fateful” number recurs in works such as the Lyric Suite, the opera Lulu and his Violin Concerto, and is often paired with the number 10. That number, musical detectives believe, is a symbol for Hanna Fuchs, the woman with whom Berg had an adulterous affair.

The very act of playing a musical instrument involves patterns of numbers and nature’s own codes.

In the sixth century BC the Greek mathematician Pythagoras discovered the relationships between notes in the musical scale. A plucked string, when divided in half, he found, will sound an octave higher. Divided by two-thirds, it will produce a note a fifth higher. All the instruments in the modern symphony orchestra - violins, flutes, trumpets - work according to the same fundamental principle.

Pythagoras’s discovery had such pleasing elegance that his followers believed the same properties could be found elsewhere in nature. It was thought, for example, that the planets charted their course in the heavens according to similarly harmonious rules, hence the “music of the spheres”.

The recent discovery that the Perseus galaxy, some 250 million light years away, emits the very deep note of B-flat adds a tantalising detail to the idea of a celestial harmony.

But Western music couldn’t live with the idea of a perfect Pythagorean universe. As people started to impose their creative will on nature, and compositions became more complex - using, of all things, chords! - instruments tuned in the Pythagorean way sounded shockingly out of tune.

Alternative methods were developed to overcome this. One of them was championed, perhaps invented, by Bach, who showcased the system in his collection of preludes and fugues, The Well-Tempered Clavier.

Mozart, whose 250th birthday falls this year, is the composer best known for his involvement with secret societies. He became a Freemason in December 1784, and many of his musical works bear the hallmarks of the “Craft”. His Meistermusik, for example, is some of his most beautiful for male voices, and Masons later set their texts to other pieces by the composer.

Freemasonry is a quasi-religious movement guided by principles of fraternity. It has its origins in the ancient guilds of stonemasons, and uses the symbols of masons’ tools - the square and compass, for example - as metaphors for self-improvement: God is regarded as the divine architect of the universe.

The movement requires only that its brothers be men, and that they follow a monotheistic religion, Judaism, Christianity or Islam.

The Magic Flute, completed in 1791, the year Mozart died, was not written for Masonic ceremony but daringly took its symbols into the domain of the public opera house. As Goethe, another Freemason, wrote: “It is enough that the crowd should find pleasure in seeing the spectacle: at the same time, its high significance will not escape the initiates.”

Freemasonry had flourished in Vienna in the late 18th century but was under threat: the movement was condemned by the Empress Maria Theresa (the character of Queen of the Night is sometimes said to represent her), was suspected of being involved in the French revolution, and rival lodges were being formed that allowed women as members. The Magic Flute is, in many ways, a public relations campaign for Freemasonry.

There are many symbols that Masons would recognise in the Flute. The number three is prevalent - in the key of E-flat, in the three boys, in the three-note motifs said to echo the secret Masonic “knock”. It refers to the three pillars of the Masonic temple: wisdom, beauty and strength.

Characters would be understood as taking part in a Masonic drama: the prince Tamino is the new initiate who must go through a ritual purification; Sarastro is the Persian prophet Zoroaster; the Queen of the Night refers to the realm of darkness and ignorance; the moor Monostatos is said to refer to the assassin of King Solomon’s architect, Hiram.

The Flute can be read as a parable of the triumph of light over darkness, an end to superstition and the beginning of a new age of peace.

Freemasonry is implicated in the circumstances surrounding Mozart’s death, but not with the suspicion that was levelled at rival composer Antonio Salieri in the film Amadeus. In his book Mozart’s Last Year, H.C. Robbins Landon writes that the composer contracted a streptococcal infection at a Masonic lodge meeting in November 1791, which exacerbated his poor state of health. He certainly wasn’t murdered.

Nor were his family left unaided: Masons have always looked after the families of their brothers, Robbins Landon writes, and it appears they did so with Constanze Mozart. The lodge raised money for Constanze by subscription, although the Masons themselves were on the way out: Freemasonry ceased to exist in Austria in 1794.

So no suspicious circumstances there - just the enduring mystery of the wonder of Mozart’s magical music.

Opera Australia’s new production of The Magic Flute is in repertoire at the Sydney Opera House, February 20 to April 1.

This was probably first published on 26 February, 2006; no author credits were given in the article.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au

I Play a Live Gig on Sax with Jack!

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 16:01:40 PST

It was Friday night--last Friday night. I was bored, so knowing that my friend Jack was playing down at the Chateaugay Bowling Alley establishment, Rick McDonald, prop., I packed up the dusty saxophone and headed out.

When I arrived at the Bowling Alley, I passed David Roach and his parents, and walked down the crowded aisle, parking the horn up near the band and then returning to the bar for a brew. After about a song and a half I got antsy and took my horn to the back, unpacked and assembled the contraption.

The thing is, I literally haven't even taken the horn out of the case since the New Year's Eve gig I played with the Boneyard Blues Band, along with Kevin Glennon, Jack Donahue, a great bass player named Alan, and Rick Resnick was the drummer. On that occasion, I had a bad tooth infection--in fact, the blood and pus were running down my tooth by the second night. Jack was grossed out, and rightfully so. Right up in there (my head) is a huge hole in my upper jaw, caused by...who knows. The dentist that treated me for that right afterwards [down in Manhattan, NYC], thought that it could be related to an earlier injury combined with the way that I'd been blowing that saw on these rock and roll gigs, where I play, well, I used to move a lot of air. So that had been causing this problem with my mouth, and now basically I don't think I can play anymore.

I noodled in the back, warming up, while Arc the Band was out there, playing their first set. They took a break--we all took a break--I got a beer and we went up there and played a set.

Of course, I had no microphone, which means for a guy that's trying not to overdo himself the first time back on the bicycle, here I am driving about 45 m.p.h., oh well.

I played a lot, but laid out a lot too. Some guy--a friend of the band, I think--was out there taking video footage, and Jack had a digital recorder going too. Who knows if any of this saxophone playing will even be heard, of course.

I last for the entire second set, no problem. About half-way through their last set--which is a long one--I had to quit because not only was my embouchure making me feel like my face was going to finally fall off, which was something I expected anyway because I hadn't played in all these years, but also that part of my upper jaw was feeling very uncomfortable and weird.

I didn't like how it felt there at the end, at least, with my mouth, no, not at all. It was great to play, however, especially with somebody I haven't played live with in--get this--24 years. We also had some nice musical moments. I think the bass player was enjoying some of it, as well as teh drummer, but again, I'm one acoustic instrument playing against two amplified instruments and a drummer (can't remember if he had any mikes for that gig).

There weren't particularly a lot of drunks out there, so after the novelty of playing wore off and especially after I got too tired, I had to finally quit. I was pooped. I hung out for a bit, then when I was getting my stuff ready to leave, I looked and there was Tom Collins the Turkeyslayer, just back from his gig with Todd Barney at the Wagonwheel. Tom was leaning against the jukebox, peering out under his hat and didn't even recognize me at first. He said that he'd caught a humongous rainbox--to tell you the truth I can't remember whether he was talking about pounds or inches but the number was thirty-six. Either way, I was amazed. He's going to get it mounted, so maybe I can even get a photo of the thing on here.

We chatted a bit, yada. I was tired and was still determined to leave, although they were still playing and I missed saying goodbye to my friends. In the morning when I drove by Tom's house, everyone was parked there.

Just so that I can upset some respectable folk that are reading this, I'll say that I'm sure there was an incredibly wild party with wild women over there or something. It's OK, go ahead and just use your lurid imagination on that account, it's so-o-o easy!

Properties of 12-tone Sets

noreply@blogger.com (Grampa Miles) — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 22:12:36 PST

Combinatoriality-the most efficient way of controlling the rate of unfolding of aggregates (harmonic pacing, rhythm); discovered by Schoenberg, exploited by Babbitt

3 Basic large groups:

1. semi-combinatorial

a. I-combinatorial-a given prime form tht will combine with one inversion

b. RI-combinatorial-P0 will combine with one RI form (R is all comb. w/ its I)

c. 2nd order I combinatorial-will combine with two inversions

d. P-combinatorial-will combine with a transpositin of itself (TT)-rare; only one

Schoenberg Variations for Orchestra

any set is combinatorial w/ its own retrograde

2. non-combinatorial

Berg & Webern didn’t use combinatorial sets (when they did they didn’t know or care)

Schoenberg uses combinatoriality as a means of avoiding octaves

3. all-combinatorial

any form which will combine with at least one transpositon of itself, one I, one R and one RI

all-combinatorial sets-2nd hexachord is always a literal transpositon of the 1st

a. first order-a form that combines with one P, I, R & RI

i) 0 1 2 3 4 5 (720 orderings possible; 7202 possible for whole source set)

ii) 0 2 3 4 5 7 | 6 8 9 10 11 1-most used to make an all-interval set

ex.
source set: {0 2 3 4 5 7 | 6 8 9 10 11 1}
ordered set: {2 5 3 4 0 7 | 1 11 6 8 9 10}

go to the number in the 2nd hexachord that corresponds to the order number in the 1st one that the set
begins on (go to D then G#): THIS IS THE COMBINATORIAL PRIME FORM

count back from the end of the source set to find I form (D -> B)

R-which transposition of the 1st hex. will maintain exactly the same pitch content as the 1st
hexachord? (only are for first order: itself)

RI which inversion of the prime will maintain the same pitch content?
(itself in first order)

iii) {0 2 4 5 7 9 | 6 8 10 11 1 3}
-Guidonian hexachord

has maximum possible linear intervallic variety, but the least vertical intervallic possibilities
(least amount of sets to combine with)

in any 2 1st order all-comb. sets: if hexachordal content is maintained one will get exactly the same
vertical diads (P & I, R & RI)

b. second order-will combine with two of each {0 1 2 6 7 8 | 3 4 5 9 10 11}

hexachords composed of two symmetrical trichords; space between each aggregate same as each trichord

c. third order-will combine with three of each {0 1 4 5 8 9 | 2 3 6 7 10 11}

if set begins on C, then it will combine w/ set starting on D, F#, A#

if set begins on C, then it will invert w/ sets on B, G, D#

d. sixth order (or fourth)- will combine with six of each (WT scale)

{0 2 4 6 8 10 | 1 3 5 7 9 11}