New Spiritualibus Blog Posts – Excerpts – Page 45 of 67

February 12, 2022January 18, 2023

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

February 6, 2022May 29, 2022

Things come together

Things come together
From present pivots
On and on they move
The very moment now.

A new balance ever
Stepping forward ahead
One way or another
All ways right now.

At uncertain times
It seems backward
When actually it is
Consistently what is
No matter what ever.

It comes, it goes
The river flows
The wind blows
We dream a dream
Gently whispering
Yes, I love you!

“無為 Wu wei — contemplation”

Meditative sound sample — multiple fujara (bass) — February 2022 — 3:35 — as loop on a separate tab

Good things come together

Can a good thing perpetuate itself and stay a good thing? Ideally it be propelled by its goodness to know where to go and connect. But it has to go out there to meet and bring itself to others, so one may come its way. Thus make it available, bring it out to be seen and heard. Maybe there will be some who look and listen. Maybe a few will relish it as a good thing, the best for one of so many who are far better. And that is a good thing that stays a good thing.

Miracle sunrise over the Alps

Things come together — Original, unaltered colors of an approaching sunrise — February 2022 — Grächwil, Switzerland

February 2, 2022May 29, 2022

Where do we go?

Where do we go? The past is gone, the future open, the present now! That’s a choice of one, here now, the present moment. It’s all we have, had, and will have. Throughout eternity that’s now! At times we reach ahead a bit. We try to plan, we dream and envision. Then again we look back, clean house one way or another, deal with accumulations. Dust settles traces of trash and treasures. Sort through experiences and things. Together we can get somewhere. Alone we wither away to pieces. Such is life and love. I need you, and you need me. The choice is dual, love or fear. And beyond that we all are soul. Where do we go?

It’s clear, here and now. Simple and free, follow your destiny. As circles and cycles close upon themselves, doors open to step through into new worlds that have always been present but more or less neglected, ignored, or even pushed aside by all the happenings and choices made by and for oneself, goals accepted and aimed for, what was achieved, and what was missed or was not to be. For all that is to be, indeed was, is, and will be. Whether we rejoice or cry makes no difference, except for oneself. Thus it’s clear where we want to go — to rejoice in the freedom and confines of the present moment, continually in love and with divine spirit.

January 25, 2022June 22, 2022

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

January 20, 2022March 22, 2023

January 2022 Tonalibus update

Concert: February 10 in Basel

Fidibus shop: playlist news

Tonalibus: new singles release

Conclusion: quotes and image

This January 2022 Tonalibus update highlights an upcoming cooperation concert in Basel. Then it touches on playlist expansions in the Fidibus shop. And it announces the recent release of two new Tonalibus singles on global music platforms. It concludes with inspiring quotes and a sweet image.

Tonalibus cooperation concert in Basel, Switzerland

In the Happy Garden — sound & song

February 10, 19:30, QuBa, Bachlettenstr. 12, Basel — with Marcel Haag, an avid troubadour song writer, and Ulrico.

In this concert, exotic sound worlds — from gongs, bells, fujara, vichitra veena, and other instruments — meet poetic songwriting in German, Thurgau dialect and English, accompanied by classical guitar. The two solo artists Ulrico and Marcel explore new ways of sounding together in uplifting songs and soundscapes.

New and expanded free playlists in the Fidibus shop

New playlist Tonalibus Cooperation A

This all new playlist features a selection of twelve spontaneous improvisations with Christina Braun, voice, and Ulrico on various instruments. These unique musical cooperation creations span more than an hour with recordings from the past year and a half.

Expanding playlist Tonalibus D

By now, this still expanding playlist High Mountains on Fire, Light, and Sound has grown to eight pieces. So far, they explore the far reaches, the simplicity, and also inversion contrasts of harmony. The latest one of them received its own blog post, चैतन्य Chaitanya. While the second most recent piece, Blue Courage (below), is a blues in a regular diatonic tonality.

Dorian mode blues medley — 8-string guitar, singing saw, tingsha cymbals, crotales, gongs, and voice — January 2022 — 5:08 — as loop on a separate tab

New Tonalibus singles released on global music platforms

The following two singles were released in mid January on all the global music platforms also used for the album Tonalibus A, B, & C. They include Spotify, Apple, YouTube, Amazon, and many more.

From the Future to the Present and Back

This piece is part of the collection Tonalibus D. Initially it swings into what later turns out to be an inverted harmonic contrast; and it gently resolves some far reaches of harmony into unity beyond duality.

From G# TetraNa with touches of its F# Upcor inversion progressing to C# Ionian (diatonic major) and back, connecting the far ends and melting contrasts into a unified whole — 8-string guitar — December 2021 — 9:45 — as loop on a separate tab

ॐ मणिपद्मे हूँ Auṃ maṇi padme hūṃ — Blues

This spiritual blues is one of the most popular pieces of the album Tonalibus A, B, & C. Thus it now became available also as a single.

PentaMix / PentaDor (Egyptian scale) — triple 7-string guitar and voice — 8:28 — as loop on a separate tab

January 2022 Tonalibus update quotes and a crystal kiss

“Do not partake in the evil of another. If you are quiet and calm, your calmness and quietness will make a greater effect on the other than his anger — so that true resistance is the practice of contentment.” — p. 32
“[This] is love. The love that makes all things beautiful. Yes, and breathes divinity into the very dust you tread. With love shall life roll on gloriously throughout eternity, like the voice of great music that has the power to hold the hearer’s heart poised on eagle’s wings far above the earthly world.”
— p. 40, Stranger by the River, Paul Twitchell

“If you see many here, they are in reality only a few . . . if any.”
— منطق الطیر, Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr or The Colloquy of the Birds, Farid Ud-Din Attar