New Spiritualibus Blog Posts – Excerpts

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Is it really freedom?

Is it really freedom?
Or is it rather captivity
Liberty through captivity
Captivity through liberty?

Liberating for decades,
Limiting all of a sudden
It is, was, and will be
Always was, after all
What one wants to see
And what one does not.

So far that’s freedom,
But captivity dictates
What to see and how
Absolute and exclusive
Black and white only.

Freedom has colors,
Possibilities all open
For divine spirit to flow
Free in every which way
Not channeled by power
But meandering in love
It is divine reciprocity
What one gives out
Will come back to
Is it really freedom?
Or is it rather captivity
Liberty through captivity
Captivity through freedom?
Love and power it is!

Thundering liberty and freedom

TetraNa — 8-string guitar and large gong — March 2022 — 9:16 — as loop on a separate tab

Get out, arrive!

“What if you were a teacher but had no voice to speak your knowledge? What if you had no language at all and yet there was something you needed to say? Wouldn’t you dance it? Wouldn’t you act it out? And wouldn’t your every movement tell the story? In time you would become so eloquent that just to gaze upon you would reveal it all.”

“The most important thing each of us can know is our unique gift and how to use it in the world. Individuality is cherished and nurtured, because, in order for the whole to flourish, each of us has to be strong in who we are and carry our gifts with conviction, so they can be shared with others.”

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer — pp. 128-129 and 134

Swan in liberty and freedom

Is it really freedom?
Swan relishing the early spring sun — March 2022 — Thun, Switzerland
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Decide for yourself

Decide for yourself
It is your own reality
Your most sacred space
What you live and love.

Then you meet others
Deciding for themselves
It is their very own reality
Their most sacred space
That they live and love.

At times to some extent
Realities will coincide
As far as actually real
However illusions clash
With others and oneself
While we live and love.

Love triggers what one loves
Reality is we’re here together
In this life this very moment
To share the reality of now
Where all realities blend
And illusions fall apart
As we live and love.

That’s all here and now
Let’s live and love for real.

Happy birthday, Robin Hood! — for K.

Ionian / diatonic major (with a touch Mixolydian) — 8-string guitar — March 2022 — 4:53 — as loop on a separate tab

Illusion or reality — life and love decide

A beautiful mother highland cattle cow apparently decided that I came too close to her calf by talking to it and to her. Thus, she decided to come charging at me full speed. Too late to back off, I stood firm, extended my arms to look bigger, and yelled at her. That stopped her onrush of lowered impressive horns — only a few feet in front of me. For a very tense moment of standoff that seemed forever, we both remained frozen stiff, too close for comfort. Then we took a breath and most slowly just backed away from each other, as she went to check on and comfort her calf (see photo below).

Decide for yourself
Highland cattle cow protecting her calf — February 2022 — Ghieiba, Lavizzara, Ticino — photo by Karin Gsöllpointner
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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

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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
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Imperfect perfection

Imperfect perfection
Perfect imperfection
It is just what it is
As I am that I am
You are as you are
How close we are
Is a choice to take
Approach or distance
Somewhere in between
We let each other be
We are who we are
Soul in a live form
Riding through life
All discovering love
That makes it possible
In imperfect perfection
And perfect imperfection
To be relished for one
And shared with all.

“Courage it takes” — a linguistic audio medley

Quadruple canonic quadri-lingual voice, English, German, French, Italian — February 2022 — 2:53 — text in Spiritualibus blog post “Courage it takes” (language selection via flag on left bottom)

Imperfect perfection in action

The above linguistic audio medley “Courage it takes” provided the basis for one of the pieces performed by Ulrico at the concert In the Happy Garden — sound and song in Basel on February 10. The same is true for another piece “無為 Wu wei — Contemplation” that appeared in the recent blog post Things come together. The concert came about through the cooperation between Ulrico and Marcel Haag. More info about it you find in the blog post In the Happy Garden — sound and song.

Patiently and gratefully welcoming spring sun rays

Imperfect perfection
Frozen waterfall — January 2022 — Tschingelsee, Switzerland