Concepts are guidelines for reference But then there is reality that is real What we do with our existence No matter how tentative, it just is Detachment and love at the core Everything is possible but only one The single thing which actually is The miracle of this very moment Present here and now in love.
Swirling vortex or vorteces in the river Aare near Bern
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Vortex of spirituality and religion
“Moment after moment we have to find our own way. Some idea of perfection, or some perfect way which is set up by someone else, is not the true way for us. Each one of us must make his own true way, and when we do, that way will express the universal way. This is the mystery. When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything. When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything.” — Q1
“Religion is not any particular teaching. Religion is everywhere. … Forget all about some particular teaching; … [do] not ask which is good or bad. There should not be any particular teaching. Teaching is in each moment, in every existence. That is the true teaching.” — Q2
— Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki, Q1: p. 136, Q2: p. 161
This May/June 2021 Tonalibus update presents new personal sound samples. It highlights the integration of another tonality into the Tonalibus catalogue. It provides an update on the Fidibus shop. And finally, it highlights Harmonic Experience, a massive book on harmony in music.
New personal sound samples
“Acoustic Scale Acceptance” — a previously rejected tonality
A good year ago, during the initial evaluation of tonalities to become part of the Tonalibus catalogue of anchored tonalities, what is known as Lydian dominant or acoustic scale and other names, was rejected because of being only partially anchored and appearing insufficiently harmonious. However, recent study and experimenting with it, now led to its integration into the Tonalibus catalogue after all. Following the current Tonalibus naming convention, being a clustered or melodic heptatonality, its Tonalibus name is LydDorian or ClusterPro.
Recognizing its inherent harmonic intricacy went along with the discovery that its most contrasting two pitches, the tritone and minor seventh, appear more harmonious when initially approached from above, not from below. Then, after introducing them from above, they gradually become also more palatable when approached from below. It was not the tonality that was insufficiently harmonious, but not knowing how to use it harmoniously that caused its previous rejection.
LydDorian / ClusterPro — short sound sample, rhythmic — 8-string guitar — 0:48 — as loop on a separate tabLydDorian / ClusterPro — short sound sample, calm — 8-string guitar —1:03 — as loop on a separate tab
Fidibus shop update
Following its suspension in May, the Fidibus shop is now again online. Current offers are sporadic mini-concert sessions and the CD A Symphony of Life and Love. However, Tonalibus exploration courses and individual sound mantras remain on hold for the time of their revision and eventual renewal.
Harmonic Experience by W. A. Mathieu
The full title of this big 563-page book is Harmonic Experience — Tonal Harmony from Its Natural Origins to Its Modern Expression. The first sentence of the introduction summarizes its contents: “Harmonic Experience describes the full range of harmony, from its fundamental gestures to its most complex expressions, by means of the unifying principle of resonance.” — p. 1
It appears that W. A. Mathieu indeed comprehensively presents and elaborates on some of the same or very similar fundamental concepts of harmony in music that Tonalibus is based upon. However, it will take some time to assess and confirm the extent of this. For now, to provide an initial taste of his approach, here are a few general statements from the introduction to Harmonic Experience:
“Every rule and formulation ever made burns away at the moment of music making. Ultimately everyone makes music intuitively; individual circumstances determine the point at which the music rises above the mind and the intuition takes over.” — p. 5
“The Sufi mystics say, ‘The mind is the willing slave of the heart.’ The key word is willing. The intellect that wills to be in the service of the intuition is powerful and mature — the kind of mind a musician needs in order not to be paralyzed by knowledge. … You find the balance between heart and mind by asking your heart what it really needs to become musically complete. If the question is clear, your answer will be clear too. Then your mind is finally free to offer service.” — p. 6
“You can’t learn music linearly. Rather, you learn it all at once, a little at a time.” — p. 7
A room that is free of time — He just removed all the clocks. So what can be the point of this When next door watches tick?
Still, that room remains beyond Outside of measuring any time Here the infinite is undivided While all life flows in cycles Day and night, sun and moon Moments, eternities all whole.
Humans synchronizing time A metronome’s fixed rhythm As life flows flexible and free Reality establishes the pace. References are no essence Merely tools for one to use Then to pass on and let go.
Thus the room’s free of time. Check next door as needed To exist within and without. One single step, all at once.
Prophecy found in a room free of time
From a living spiritual master who did not want to be named on this website:
“The real joy of living is in being courageous enough, for instance, to go out on the street…”
“If you are inspired with an inner knowingness that what you are doing is right, you just carry on and do it.”
And about the distinction between the material life and the spiritual, he pointed out that divine spirit, “as you go further, … actually weaves the two together so smoothly that there is no difference. It is all the spiritual life.”
Celebrating the conclusion of the planting season — June 2021 — Grächwil, Switzerland
An ideal is essential To pursue and manifest As possible here and now. However let’s not forget It’s an ideal, that it is.
Human reality differs: Shortcomings, stumbles They are an integral part Inextricable from being Here in this outer world Of duality and matter Positive and negative And all the contrasts Helping and enabling One to be motivated To reach beyond it all.
Exemplified by an ideal Manifested in the flow Humans may master Also teach their way That they found to be A working one and only They practice and pursue As ideal in the flow Of life and love Divine as can be But still human too Aiming for the ideal The very love of God.
LydDorian / ClusterPro — short sound sample, rhythmic — 8-string guitar — May 2021 — 49 seconds loop
An essential ideal — is it idiopathic?
Essential: 1) absolutely necessary; extremely important. 2) in medicine: with no known external stimulus or cause; idiopathic: relating to or denoting a disease or condition which arises spontaneously or for which the cause is unknown. — Q1
Ideal: a person or thing regarded as perfect; a standard or principle to be aimed at. — Q2
An ideal is a principle or value that an entity actively pursues as a goal and holds above other concerns perceived as being less meaningful. — Q3
— Q1 and Q2 from Google word definitions, Q3 from Wikipedia,
Luna and Moon, the essential ideal two cats of Tonalibus — June 2021 — Grächwil, Switzerland
Let go and open the door For the old to go out a way And the new to come on in.
There may be a moment When the old has gone And the new’s not yet in A rest point in eternity To relish all in silence.
Maybe there is no need For something new at all After the old was let go And freedom took over Live the present moment As it is — was — and will be Without old, without new Just here and now, as it is Navigating the flow of life And love does carry it all No thought nor image But reality all by itself Divine inside and out.
Infinite cannot be counted Stop measuring and enjoy It is what it is and you are I am that I am, have been And continue to be, soul No more and also no less Welcome the celebration!
LydDorian / ClusterPro — short sound sample, calm — 8-string guitar — May 2021 — 63 seconds
Good one to the next
“Goodness is … not merely a norm, but something alive: It is a gesture of relationship. The good, when it is transformed and comes alive, is love. For the mystical experience, therefore, being embedded in an encompassing spirit, the ‘great life’, is not being bound by law — the principle of the good — but being embraced by a loving being. … Under cold law, the good is ‘the right thing’: We may follow it and obey it; we may recognize it or even manipulate it. But to a being in whom the good is the relational gesture of love, we are able to surrender in the heart. In this, spirit and human face … each other in a friendly and loving way.” — Kontexte des Segens, I Ging: Das Buch der Wandlungen, Thomas Primas, vom “grossen Leben” und seinem Sinn
The morning sun lights up the Blüemlisalp, May 2021 — photo by Karin Gsöllpointner
