Tonalibus Archives – Page 14 of 28

October 30, 2022November 11, 2022

Tonality of the month: ReachBal

ReachBal — sound sample, calm — 8-string guitar — October 2022 — 2:45 — as loop on a separate tab (or via right-click browser option, where available)

“Gihahatigo Bhairav” — ReachBal contemplation — expanded sound sample, calm — 8-string guitar, harmonium, tingsha cymbal pair, gong — 8:15 — as loop on a separate tab (or via right-click browser option, where available)

The tonality of the month of November 2022 is ReachBal, a Reach heptatonality, as identified in the Tonalibus catalogue. Other names used for it are double harmonic major, Gypsy major, harmonic minor over Phrygian major, and Byzantine scale. In India its name is Bhairav, used widely to express profound feelings. A key characteristic of this intriguing tonality is its overall balance and symmetry. The placement of its pitches, intervals, and axes of East and West mirror each other. The lower and upper tertachords have the same intervallic content. This results in a striking balance between very pronounced regressive and progressive characteristics, as well as major and minor elements.

You may enjoy a sound sample or tonality loop as sound mantra for contemplation or meditation. This can help with upliftment, purification, and focusing. Or it could simply be used as soothing background sound for relaxation and regeneration. If you care to hum, chant, or sing along, you could use a spiritually charged syllable like HU or Ōṃ / Aum ॐ, or another mantra syllable that suits you.

The sun rises above the clouds hovering cover the Alps — October 2022 — Grächwil, Switzerland

October 19, 2022March 22, 2023

September-October 2022 Tonalibus update

This September-October 2022 Tonalibus update highlights the expansion of Tonalibus releases, sounds, playlists, tonalities, images, and this website. And, along with latest sound samples, this update touches on a new spontaneous cooperation project resulting in sound healing concerts.

New Tonalibus releases

On Spotify, Deezer, YouTube Music, Apple Music, and Amazon, as well as many more music platforms:

Just released as single: “चैतन्य Chaitanya – blues” (below) — previously released on the album Tonalibus D & E.

To be released for the first time on November 28, 2022: “Phrygian HU — a meditative blues” — for now as single (then also on next year’s 2023 album Tonalibus F & G).

“Chaitanya – blues” — G# Mixolydian with D# TetraNa / A# Norcor inversion — vichitra veena and double 3/4 violin — 9:47

Personal sounds and playlist updates

“An embrace of divine love — no hypocrisy” and “संप्रयाण Saṃprayāṇa — departure from past to future, let’s go!” conclude playlist Tonalibus F “So many colors of reality”, now complete with 11 pieces spanning 112 minutes. The new evolving playlist Tonalibus G “Venturing far out and in” already contains 7 pieces of new meditative music. “Holy sham — a short sound excursion far out” is first in Tonalibus G but last under Summer 2022 Sounds. Further new additions are under the new Autumn-Winter 2022, including two recent cooperation sound samples.

“First encounter of old all new” and “Gentle blue light” are live recordings from the first musical encounter between Punnu Singh Wasu and Ulrico. Within one week, this led to two good size group sound healing concerts in Kiental, Switzerland. (See separate blog post Sound healing.)

“Celebration joy — a new start” manifested to participate virtually in a most special celebration of pure love and joy. This is a meditative fourth birthday wish and welcome on this planet from one side of the world to another. (Below.)

“Celebration joy” — a new start — TetraNa Mixolydian blend — 8-string guitar — 12:05

“No mistake — big sky, beach, rock, pine, broken branch” and “ॐ शान्तिः Om Shanti HU — with Elijah’s bells and cicadas” contain live flute recordings, orthodox church bells, and real cicadas from Hydra, a Greek island that is car-free. “ॐ शान्तिः Om Shanti HU” is further offered as “just chant and pluck”. And, to hear the overtones of low voices, as “plain chant only” (under Sounds and below).

“ॐ शान्तिः Om Shanti HU” — plain chant only — A# — low chanting voices in unison generating overtones — 4:43

Derivative tonalities beyond the catalogue

Derivative tonalities are slight mutations of those eighty in the Tonalibus Catalogue. An example of such surfaced in the recent sound sample “No mistake — big sky, beach, rock, pine, broken branch”. Its tonality description reads: Phrygian on A framing HexaBlueUp (BlueUp without 7+) on E. As such it introduces the new tonality HexaBlueUp as the catalogued BlueUp without its major seventh.

Tonalibus images and website updates

Sounds now presents its many sound samples in a new structure by year (and season), including also the yearly collections of Tonalibus images (previously under About).

Depending on connection limitations and such, there can at times be noticeable delays to load an image collection or a large sound sample. Thank you for your patience.

Some browsers (Firefox, MS Edge, etc.) now offer a loop option by right-clicking an audio item to set it to loop or to get a running loop to stop the next time the piece reaches its end. Sound samples offered on Tonalibus loop pages are often specially configured for looping, differing slightly from their single-play version.

The July 2022 Tonalibus update mentioned an isolated translation problem on this website. In languages other than English, some links targeting a specific place in the body of a page landed on the top of the target page instead of the desired location on that page. The developers of the used translation engine just now corrected this problem!

September-October 2022 Tonalibus update conclusion

Life is great. Enjoy the ride!

Autumn-blue sky glowing above the dusk settling into the valley below — October 2022 — Kiental, Switzerland

September 27, 2022October 29, 2022

Tonality of the month: PhrygDorian

“Tagicrosago” — W. A. Mathieu’s dark horse — PhrygDorian — extended sound sample, calm — 8-string guitar, crotales, singing saw, gong, tanpura — March 2022 — 5:45 — as loop on a separate tab

PhrygDorian — sound sample, calm — 8-string guitar and tanpura — March 2022 — 2:45 — as loop on a separate tab

PhrygDorian — short sound sample — 8-string guitar — June 2020 — 1:01 — as loop on a separate tab

The tonality of the month of October 2022 is PhrygDorian — a clustered heptatonality.

W. A. Mathieu in “Harmonic Experience” refers to this intriguing tonality as “Dark Horse” or Mixolydian/Phrygian. He also expresses affinity for its “slightly off-putting mystery.”

The octave of a clustered or melodic tonality includes five whole steps and two half steps (or semitones). This is the same as for diatonic tonalities. However in a clustered tonality, either one single or a group of four consecutive whole steps, one and four alternating, separate the two half steps from each other. While in the far more commonly used diatonic tonalities, there are two and three, not one and four consecutive whole steps.

Tonality of the month: PhrygDorian — Visiting toad before going back to its pond — August 2022 — Grächwil, Switzerland

August 30, 2022August 30, 2022

Tonality of the month: Ionian or diatonic major

“Ionian prayer in gratitude for the golden heart” — 8-string guitar — February 2021 — 4:44 — as loop on a separate tab

The tonality of the month of September 2022 is Ionian or diatonic major — a regular diatonic heptatonality. Diatonic heptatonalities follow this matrix: The octave includes five whole steps and two half steps (or semitones). Either two or three consecutive whole steps, a pair and a trio, alternate in separating the two individual half steps from each other.

Ionian or diatonic major, the tonality of this month, is most common in Western music. On the piano keyboard it corresponds to the white keys with C as fundamental. It is often the first scale one learns. And it corresponds to the widely known solfège steps Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do.

Tonality of the month: Ionian — Partial personal garden bounty — August 2022 — Grächwil, Switzerland

August 8, 2022January 18, 2023

August 2022 Tonalibus update

This August 2022 Tonalibus update announces the latest personal sound samples and a change in Spiritualibus blog posts. It concludes with a message on therapeutic music and a personal photo.

Personal sound samples and playlist update

Playlist Tonalibus F — So many colors of reality will soon conclude and make room to start Tonalibus G. Because by now Tonalibus F already consists of ten pieces and offers some 102 minutes of meditative new music. Most recent additions, which are also under Sounds in Summer 2022, include: “Individual bhajan” — a progression experiment, and “Gratitude in advance” — a true gift.

“Individual bhajan” — concieved as theme for a personal theater production — Phrygian, ReachMin, ReachMix, Mixolydian — 8-string guitar, tingsha cymbals, gong, and double voice — 13:08 — as loop on a separate tab

“Gratitude in advance” — inspired by a gift of true love prepared before the first encounter — HexaBluNa or HexaLolo — 7-string guitar, 8-string guitar, crotales, gong, and tampura — 6:10 — as loop on a separate tab

August 2022 Spiritualibus blog update

In recent months it was possible to add comments to new posts on the Spiritualibus Blog. However as of now this capability is no longer available. It was turned off because there were more comments from unidentifiable sources and potential hackers coming in than usable contributions.

Therapeutic music — become a friend of the NSBTM

“Perhaps you have had this experience. You or a loved one is struggling with pain, depression, fear, sleeplessness, or loss of will. Then someone steps in to say, ‘Let me be with you, just as you are.’ The offer is to share space and music with another without words, judgment or objective to change or modify the other, and without expectation of praise or reward. Many times, music accompanies the sacred liminal space between now and what is to come. This is the role of the therapeutic musician.

“The certified therapeutic musician is a highly trained professional whose objective is to provide intentional music at the bedside and other settings to work together with the other’s mood, body rhythms, culture, and musical preferences to provide comfort care. The anecdotal as well as documented evidence of the benefits of therapeutic music are extensive. Among other valuable results, therapeutic music has been shown to move heart rate, blood pressure, and respirations to more optimal levels and to ease anxiety and reduce pain. This musical support is accomplished at a very low cost and without negative side effects.”

Rachel Christensen, NSBTM Secretary, National Standards Board for Therapeutic Musicians

Category: Tonalibus