February-March 2022 Tonalibus update

This February-March 2022 Tonalibus update announces the global release of the album Tonalibus Cooperation A. First though, it highlights Tonalibus playlists with new personal sound samples. Thus, the playlist Tonalibus D is now complete. In addition, playlist Tonalibus E experienced a very decisive beginning. Then there is a recap of the February 10 cooperation concert in Basel. Finally, this update concludes with inspiring quotes on harmony and a corresponding comment.

A completed and a new playlist in the Fidibus shop

February-March 2022 Tonalibus update

Completion of playlist Tonalibus D

This playlist High Mountains on fire, light, and sound is now complete with 12 pieces covering 72 minutes of original music. “Courage it takes” and “無為 Wu wei – contemplation” came about from the preparations for the cooperation concert in Basel on February 10, “Blessings may be” and “Guggisbärg-Melodie” from live concert recordings.

Beginning of new playlist Tonalibus E

This rapidly growing playlist Freedom of sound and harmony so far includes already 6 pieces offering 33 minutes of new music. This includes a rhythmic and a calm LydReach sound sample, “Happy birthday, Robin Hood! (for K.)”, “Thundering liberty and freedom”, “Bagisacro blues — let’s dance!”, and “Tagicrosago — W. A. Mathieu’s dark horse” that is offered as sample below.

“Tagicrosago” — PhrygDorian — tanpura, 8-string guitar, crotales, singing saw, gong — March 2022 — 5:45

The here mentioned new titles are available also under Sounds, individually and as loops. The recordings concluding playlist Tonalibus D as well as the two new LydReach samples are under Winter 2021-2022. While further recordings from playlist Tonalibus E are under Spring 2022. And the early 2022 cooperation sound samples mentioned below are under Cooperation 2020-2021.

Release of the album Tonalibus Cooperation A

Christina Braun, voice, & Ulrico, instruments

As announced in a previous blog post, Cooperation A – the album was released on global music platforms on February 22. Details about it you find under Cooperation A — Album in the Fidibus shop. It presents spontaneous improvisations as in playlist Cooperation A, including the new “Starry Sky” and “Heart in Misty Forest”. A sound sample is offered below.

“Cheerful Hey, Hey! — a happy dance” — Mixolydian — voice by Christina Braun — 8-string guitar by Ulrico — 5:18

February 10 cooperation concert — recap

Concert car packed up to and on the roof
Cooperation concert venue in action
Fretted vichitra veena
8-string guitar

In the Happy Garden –
sound & song

Cooperation concert
with Ulrico and
Marcel Haag
QuBa, Basel
February 10, 2022

Concert recap blog post

More concerts in various cooperation configurations are currently being planned. A private living room concert with Ulrico is scheduled for April 2 in Liebefeld, a suburb of Bern.

February-March 2022 Tonalibus update — harmony quotes

“By singing a tone in tune, you tune your room and your family and your neighborhood. It is not otherworldly that this is so. You place the energy of your sound into this world, and this world’s energy does not die; instead, it transforms. And whatever it transforms into carries with it forever the history of your good intentions.”

Harmonic territory, “even if it proves impossible to describe, it is nevertheless your territory and is eminently possible to explore. A true musician knows the inner ground.
Singing is the royal road to this inner land. Once inside, you become the mapmaker. You name the canyons and ranges, the hidden valleys, the underground rivers, the unnameable. The most amazing thing is that your map seems to be more or less identical to mine. (*) That’s why music connects individuals, communities, cultures, maybe someday a global population: We are more the same than different. And yet, vive la différence. Without it, music, like evolution, would be long gone.”

“Treat the naming systems … as if they were true. But we must remember that they are not quite true. It is crucial to understand the limitations of the names we use. The half truth of a construct in the mind can actually close our ears to the truth of a sound in the air. Incomplete or false constructs may lead us away from the subtlety we seek. … From now on we will have been forewarned, and prepared for imminent wobbles and collapses. We will understand and adjust.”

“It is powerful, upon hearing the music of strangers…, to recognize the common threads that connect the harmonic resonances of various peoples. This is not personal authority but the collective power of being human. Whether or not you were musically trained, you would sense the power of the harmonic resonances. But when you yourself can make such sounds, you realize the way in which you are this power.”

“Pure tones can learn to be alive inside your body.”

Harmonic Experience, W. A. Mathieu, pp. 90, 94, 101, 129, and 131

February-March 2022 Tonalibus update — conclusion

(*) — Indeed, W. A. Mathieu’s harmonic mapping appears largely identical in essence to the one of Tonalibus. Although he gives much more weight to and nests also the fifth harmonic or overtone (the major third) besides the third one (the fifth or quint) as basis for his fundamental harmonic mapping. Tonalibus, on the other hand, sticks more closely to the pure Pythagorean approach, i.e., the quint cycle, and gives more weight to the natural sequence of harmonics or overtones. Still, it is most evident that views of harmony are rooted in commonality. As Mathieu put it above: “We are more the same than different. And yet, vive la différence.” After all, there is always so much, much more to explore and experience in harmony, life, and love. 🙂

February-March 2022 Tonalibus update
Shadow profile on snow covered mountain brook boulders — February 2022 — bridge over Kiene, Fulbrunni, Switzerland

Tonality of the month: LydReach / NaReach

The March 2022 tonality of the month is LydReach / NaReach, a Na and Reach tonality.

LydReach / NaReach — rhythmic sound sample — 8-string guitar and big gong — 2:32 — as loop on a separate tab
LydReach / NaReach — calm sound sample — 8-string guitar and tanpura — 3:58 — as loop on a separate tab

The tonality of the month of March 2022 is LydReach / NaReach. Thus, this is a Na tonality and a Reach heptatonality of the partially anchored subgroup NaReach. It combines a Lydian lower with a Reach upper tetrachord. As primary Na tonality, it is an integral part of Na tonalities progressions.

LydReach / NaReach exemplifies quintupling, not only off the fundamental, but also off the quint and off the quint’s quint. Such quintupling is what W. A. Mathieu puts into the harmonic foreground, in addition to the Pythagorean harmonic base of tripling (see quote below). Tonalibus, on the other hand, gives more weight to the latter and to the natural sequence of harmonics or overtones, much less to nested quintupling. However both, Mathieu and Tonalibus, express many fundamental harmonic principles the same or in similar ways.

From Harmonic Experience by W. A. Mathieu

“An empty shell for music is made by the doublings called octaves; within that shell, the interactions among triplings (called perfect fifths) and the quintuplings (called major thirds) account for nearly all the tonal music that exists.” — p. 32

Sound sample loops as possible sound mantras

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 do so using a spiritually charged syllable like HU or Ōṁ / Aum ॐ, or another mantra syllable that suits you.

Tonality of the month: LydReach / NaReach
Majestic Alps in the evening sun behind layers of clouds — February 2022 — Grächwil, Switzerland

Cooperation A – the album

The new Tonalibus album Cooperation A is now available online globally! On Spotify, YouTube Music, Deezer, Apple Music / iTunes, and on many more music platforms. It features fourteen spontaneous improvisations by Christina Braun, voice, and Ulrico on various instruments. These pieces span close to one and a quarter hours of diverse original world music. Detailed information you find under Cooperation A — Album in the Fidibus Shop.

Cooperation A – the album

In the Happy Garden – sound & song

At the concert In the Happy Garden – sound & song in Basel on February 10, exotic sound worlds, with gongs, cymbals, fujara, vichitra veena, and other instruments played by Ulrico, met the prolific poetic songwriting with classical guitar accompaniment by Marcel Haag. They both love and live for their music and harmony, although their approaches to music are quite different. Marcel revels in poetic song texts, melodies, and intricate combinations of diverse harmonies in exact successions. Ulrico, on the other hand, relishes the continual flow of harmony by deeply attuning to and exploring fundamental sounds and harmonics, akin to sound mantras and meditative music. (This context further appears in the blog post Imperfect perfection).

(Through February 13, 2022, the captured live stream video of this concert was very briefly made available for viewing online. That was on Marcel’s Facebook page Marcel Haag Music, though with limited sound and image quality.)

In the Happy Garden – sound & song — the program

The 75-minute concert program included the following fifteen mostly short pieces:

Brief intro: «Gong Medley» – gongs (Ulrico)

«I bin es Lied» – voice & classical guitar (Marcel) with singing saw (Ulrico)

«Öffne die Tür» – voice & classical guitar (Marcel)

«Courage it takes / Es braucht Mut / Le courage qu’il faut / Il coraggio che ci vuole» – voice & 8-string guitar (Ulrico)

«Fahne vom Thurgau» – voice & classical guitar (Marcel) with alto fujara (Ulrico)

«Wolfesfährten» – strings, voice & classical guitar (Marcel)

«無為 Wu wei – soundscape» – Nepali & Tibetan tingsha cymbals, crotales, sound bowls, gongs, bass fujara, singing saw (Ulrico)

«Im glücklichen Garten» – voice & classical guitar (Marcel) with bass (Ulrico)

«Gartentag» – voice & classical guitar (Marcel)

 «Blessings may be» – vichitra veena (Ulrico)

 «Es soll Blumen geben» – voice & classical guitar (Marcel)

 «Ein Liebeslied» – voice & classical guitar (Marcel) with selje flute (Ulrico)

 «Guggisbärg-Melodie» – 8-string guitar (Ulrico)

 «Du Baum» – voice & classical guitar (Marcel)

 Close: «Sound/rhythm scape» – gongs & crotales (Ulrico) & voice (Marcel)

The cooperation concert venue in action

In the Happy Garden – sound & song
Ulrico and Marcel — February 2022 — Basel, Switzerland — photo by Karin Gsöllpointner

Tonality of the month: BlueMin

The February 2022 tonality of the month is BlueMin, a tritone or blues tonality.

BlueMin — calm sound sample — Nov. 2021 — 2:56 loop — plays until stopped or you go to another page on this tab
BlueMin — rhythmic sound sample — November 2021 — 1:42 loop

The tonality of the month of February 2022 is BlueMin, a tritone or blues tonality. As the name indicates, the octave of a tritone or blues tonality includes the tritone. Further it includes one or more Reach steps (augmented seconds), generally off the fundamental or quint. And there may be consecutive half steps. As such, BlueMin, a fully anchored tonality, is exceptional in that it contains three consecutive half steps or four consecutive halftones. However these may not (or only very rarely) be all consecutive.

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 do so using a spiritually charged syllable like HU or Ōṁ / Aum ॐ, or another mantra syllable that suits you.

Tonality of the month: BlueMin
Partially frozen waterfall — December 2021 — Wasserfall Hall close to Admont, Austria