Aquarian Music: James D'Angelo
The term 'New Age', or the astrological age of Aquarius, describes an expanded shift in the consciousness of increasing numbers of people concerning their inner purpose and direction. It involves a dissolution of materialistic thinking, out-worn institutions, scientific reductionism and arid artistic works in favor of a rebirth of the human spirit through the new impulses now infusing science, the arts and even religion. Its endpoint would be a complete merger of these disciplines into a singular, universal knowledge. Within the hierarchy of such a society will be highly evolved individuals capable of channelling such knowledge, uplifting human beings beyond their current third dimension of existence. However this shift is described, it will encompass a new phenomenon of sound which has been emerging in embryonic form since the 1960s. Human beings are in themselves phenomena of sound, vast networks of vibrational frequencies at the levels of body, mind and spirit. From the cellular level to the level of thought and beyond, each is sounding its own unheard vibratory patterns. All our expressions of emotions, from the deeply negative to the highest positive, are vibratory in nature and one day will be recognized in terms of specific frequencies. If this is the case then it is very important which external sounds are absorbed by people. For sound is a phenomenon which can make its mark on the physical body and psyche, whether listened to or not. This suggests that some aspects of 21st century music (if organized patterns of sound will be still called 'music') might become objective such that people will choose music according to specific physical, emotional, mental and even spiritual needs - an advanced form of music therapy for each level of the person. In this respect music as a dramatic form will have disappeared, though not the essential feelings of ecstasy, catharsis and transcendence that great music provides.
There have been strands of musical composition in the 20th century which were and are the very disintegration of music. What marks these strands is the great extent to which composers have worked through their rational, constructivist mind, much like an architect. Such composers can easily explain their works in great detail. But how often do composers say that the whole process is a mystery, that they were only a transcriber psychically transmitting the auditive vision through some notated form or improvisation? Yet this latter process is essential to the renewal of music as an intuited sound phenomenon. Undoubtedly the constructivist composers of the 20th century have played a necessary role in clearing a path for new music to emerge. It relates to the idea in Hindu philosophy that life is continually in the cycle of creation, maintenance and dissolution. Even the dissolution is good and necessary.
Within the world view of New Age visionaries is the idea that the Earth, indeed the whole solar system, is entering a new position within the galaxy, a position that contains higher rates of frequencies that are being absorbed by the planet and its peoples. Such a bombardment can produce physical disturbances to the Earth and psychological disturbances in human beings. Depending on their nature and age, people will either be strongly awakened to their potential for greater spiritual development by these high frequency vibrations or they will hold tenaciously to old ways of thinking and acting by resisting such vibratory influences. The Earth first reached this region of space around the 1960s. At that time there appeared four composers in the USA - LaMonte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Phillip Glass (all born within two years of each other) who, unconsciously stimulated by such vibrations, radically broke with their academic training and produced an incantational, simplistic music that was the antithesis of most 20th century composition. Another key figure is the prolific French composer Jean Catoire (1923- ) whose contemplative, minimalist music pre-dates and parallels the aforementioned composers.1
Another manifestation of the Aquarian musical impulse has been called 'New Age.' Its composers are often self-taught musicians who freely follow their imagination to create impressionistic, otherworldly soundscapes usually through the medium of synthesizers or a mixture of Western and non-Western acoustic instruments. Their most important contribution has been the expansion of tonal color beyond most traditional electronic music. This music is often advertised as being suitable for meditation, healing, inner journeys or relaxation. Sometimes the minimalist composers are even grouped with these New Age composers in record shops.
The third group of composers who have been sensitized to the new vibrations are those now writing a great deal of contemplative or sacred music, the most prominent being Pärt, Gorecki and Tavener. In the wake of so many negative world situations and rapidly changing times, these composers have filled a vacuum for listeners seeking new sound structures that calm troubled minds and hearts. So strong is the desire for harmonious vibrations that an album of Gregorian chant has become a current bestseller. To these styles should be added the music of Frank Perry who creates extended works using Tibetan singing bowls and various gongs; the overtone singing pieces of David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir; Brian Lee's soundscapes using ancient Greek tunings; the sound structures developed by the American Barbara Hero based on the ancient Pythagorean Lambdoma table, and the crystal music created by the holistic health practitioner Harry Oldfield.2
Many contemporary composers consider the writing of these kinds of music as sheer laziness, lacking in mental vigor. Their view is: How can they write such stuff when the mind has so much in it to be tapped? The question is: Which mind? To composers who work with great discipline, rationality and precision to create complex structures such music is 'mindless' and 'childish.' Alternatively it could be described as 'childlike', for children are highly receptive to their creative inner world without imposing any unnecessary intellectual judgments. Regardless of style, the visionary composers will remain those who allow themselves to be used as channels and transcribers. However, they have to possess a discrimination that can perceive their true inner voice and not the workings of a clever brain. Their present role is to tune into the new sound archetypes entering their consciousness through the changing vibratory frequencies reaching Earth and translate them into an audio or even visual form. This is the ideal in which the rational mind does not create anything, only assists in making clear the auditive vision. Sometimes to open the doorway to such vision some catalytic influences are necessary such as the music of Eastern cultures or the Roman or Orthodox churches. The result has been a much purified, direct music whose features include: non-developmental and geometrical forms, lack of contrast, steady state rhythm patterns or (in New Age music) lack of rhythmic definition, prolonged repetition, sustained moods of dynamism or contemplation, drones and/or long pedal points, singular scales/modes over long periods of time, triadic harmonies, alternative tuning systems to equal temperament and the use of electronic instruments for expanded range and colour of expression.
Since the 1960s these incantational and contemplative musics, emerging from both within and outside the established order of contemporary classical music and variously categorized as Post-Modernism, New Age, New Wave Classicism3 and New Consciousness Music4, have taken root and continue to gain larger audiences. But why? Surely listeners could be satisfied with earlier music that exhibits similar features. It would seem that the Aquarian age is reshaping people's psyches so that they are gradually resonating to the new sound archetypal patterns which still produce the qualities of ecstasy, catharsis and transcendence. Each epoch requires new archetypes. This means that no music is immortal. It has a limited life span within a given astrological age. We are now leaving the Piscean age for the Aquarian which will be at its full flowering by 2030. Very gradually the old archetypal sound patterns give way to new evolutionary patterns.
An essential question is: What is the relationship between the features of these types of music and the body/mind/spirit nature of human beings? Our constitution is more than a physical body and brain which scientists can analyze and dissect. We have other invisible bodies that surround us like an electro-magnetic field. They have been called the etheric, astral and auric bodies. Sound phenomena penetrate through these bodies, reaching the central core of our system - a series of vortices called in the Hindu tradition 'chakras'. In effect, they are our power centres and if they are all in tune and fully vibrating we are in a state of great harmony. It is often wondered why people accept and enjoy certain styles of music and reject others. Part of the answer lies in the principle of resonance. The composite vibrations of music enter a person, not only through the ear connected to the brain, but are absorbed throughout the entire body. If the music is resonating the majority of the frequency patterns of a person's constitution then they are attracted to it. If it is causing a sufficient number of dissonant relationships with that constitution then rejection takes place. This is the emotional effect of the absorption of sound phenomena. Even the perception of form is jointly apprehended by our various bodies and the ear/brain connection. Therefore it is quite possible to have a beneficial experience of music without the physical ear taking part. Actually hearing music is a pleasurable, sensual experience but it is not the whole picture. It is no coincidence that we use the word 'sound' in our language to mean that all is in order - sound health, sound mind and sound thinking.
Why should this so-called New Consciousness music be thought of as the forerunner of a sound phenomena that will evolve into profound auditive experiences in the 21st century? For a possible answer, let us consider some of its features:
Repetition
This is the key incantational aspect. Many non-Western cultures have used incantation as a means of changing a person's state. Repetitive sound patterns can pierce thorough the ordinary waking state and produce a catharsis that transcends the limited ego to the higher, spiritual self. The experience is not one of trance or hypnosis. Such patterns, unmodified or modified, should emanate from a pure transcriber of sound archetypes. Otherwise calculated repetitive sound phenomena produced by clever, imitative composers would simply wear down the listener. A criticism against prolonged repetition is that it is 'mindless.' In one sense this is so. The rational, thinking apparatus is not involved but the music can still effect us at other levels. In India spiritual masters have intuited many so-called 'mantras' that provide clarification of the mind and therefore the spirit. The prolonged repetitions being channeled by the New Consciousness composers are a kind of equivalent to such mantras. For example, Jean Catoire has written works three hours long whose sole content is permutations of a major triad. This goes far beyond Riley's 'In C.'
Tuning/Temperaments5
Few composers of NCM have thus far been interested in replacing equal temperament (ET) with alternative ones. ET was logical for the chromaticism and modulations employed by 19th and 20th century composers. However, as an acoustical phenomenon, its effects are limited despite the fact that our ears compensate for the difference between ET intervals and the truer, simpler ratios as found in just intonation, for example. Why should physical, emotional, mental and spiritual nature be limited to receiving only the complex ratios of ET intervals? What our nature desires and resonates to is a richness of intervals whose ratios are far less complex than ET. For example, in just intonation 35 distinct intervals are created.6 In his book on the ragas of North Indian music7 Alain Danielou catalogues 40 divisions of the octave measured against the tonic. Each interval is assigned a special quality of feeling. If there were a science of intervals along similar lines composers, using electronic or yet to be invented instruments, could have variable tunings for a 7 to 12 tone octave division according to which qualities of sound were compatible with their vision. The use of such tunings, be they ancient Greek, just intonation or intuitively created, remains a largely untapped field.
Drones/Modes
The drone is like a microcosmic reflection of the original macrocosmic tone or 'Word' (as it is called in St John's Gospel) out of which emerged the creation of the universe in the form of an ever expanding overtone series. It is an omnipresent constant against which the tones of numerous modes can be appreciated. Each harmonic interval carries its own psychic weight as it impinges upon our various bodies. Even within Western music there is the great power of the dominant and tonic pedal points. Drones can provide a centredness and grounding, essential to our nature. Keeping to a particular mode is equally potent. The same melodic intervals are heard over and over again and through duration these intervals can permeate our various bodies and do their therapeutic physical and psychological work. This is not a new idea. Plato wrote of the definite and powerful effects of modes centuries ago.
Steady State Pulse and Rhythm
These elements can directly affect the many different rhythm cycles within the human body, most especially the heartrate, breathing cycle and brain waves. This is effected by a process known as 'entrainment.' It is the ability of more powerful rhythmic vibrations to change less powerful vibrations and cause them to synchronize their rhythms with the former. It has now been proven that this entrainment through sound phenomena can affect our consciousness. This is very effective when the frequencies are lowered from beta waves (our usual consciousness) to the slower rates of 'theta' and 'delta.' These are deep, meditative states of consciousness which help to purify our nature. This occurs in many works of Jean Catoire which have an unending flow of minims and semi-breves at a MM of minim5.
Major/Minor Triadic Harmony
The structure of all music can ultimately be traced back to the overtone series and its mirror undertone series. It is the great principle of the many contained within the one. This series is not only the basis of musical tones; it is also to be seen in the structure of plants, crystals and the periodic table of chemical elements.8 As the materials of music are increasingly reduced in the future, the major and minor triad, as the fundamental progeny of the series and its mirror image, will become the primal harmonic forces in NCM. This phenomenon has been an important part of the NCM of Philip Glass. Beyond this a single tone would evolve so richly and profoundly produced that it could be experienced as a melody.9
Form
How form affects our consciousness is a subtle, mysterious process. One aspect of form that is gradually disappearing in NCM is contrast of thematic material, dynamics and tempo. Future composers will no longer intuit any need for contrast because their music will have moved beyond the level of drama and entertainment to the level of pure contemplation. Performers will have to be utterly in empathy with such music so that they can subtly communicate the sound values, without the usual external expressions. Internally they will be completely at one with the music's intent. More than likely musical form will take the shape of permutations of very basic thematic materials, a kind of sacred musical geometry or hologram whereby each section will always be a reflection of the whole. It would enable listeners to experience the one unity at all times while absorbing simultaneously its many permutations.
These features of much of the NCM and their suggested effects are not formulae for writing a kind of therapeutic, consciousness-expanding music that will eventually replace our present-day medicine and psychology. although undoubtedly the scientific application of sound for curative and preventative purposes will continue to develop.10 A science of tones will one day be established that correlates frequencies with every level of each particular human being. Correspondingly it will be realized that the pitching of tones must be quite precise so that tuning is founded upon C being 1 vps and A as lower than its current 440 plus. More than likely a more potent frequency stimulation can be achieved to retune and resonate all our frequencies through specialized instruments made of crystals, sparking off unique sets of harmonics. They would be an altogether advanced form of our present-day electronic synthesizers. Colored lighting would then be integrated with such crystal instruments or other sound media in some kind of correspondence. All such ideas could be taken into account by the composers/transcribers of the future. Nonetheless their music will still be received as a purely psychic phenomenon. The present day NCM composers, although it seems their music is a deliberate, calculated reaction to complex music, are simply the first to glimpse and transcribe new zones of sound archetypes as the solar system moves ever deeper into the Aquarian epoch. Once we have fully entered into the 21st century they will be superseded by a more highly attuned generation - a unique caste of individuals capable of perceiving through a psychic auditive vision ever more refined, primordial sound archetypes.
And what might be the final stage? One answer has been given by Jean Catoire.11 'If a unique, unvarying complex sound were allowed to develop indefinitely in the static multiple of its possibilities, human beings would finally realize this continuous sound in their innermost being while going about their daily lives. The very fact of not listening to these sound structures but only absorbing them, that is, narrowing the mental perception to the utmost, would enable the psyche to be opened more widely. Put into such a receptive state by the phenomenon of sound they would eventually come into a silence of inner unity and return to the beginning from which this sound came.' Is this the endpoint of what we now call 'music'? If so, then we will have come to the ultimate sacred music or phenomenon of sound that unites the listeners with the one creative Absolute. This has always been the ultimate objective for humanity, to experience the 'Word', that fundamental tone of tones sounded out of still silence at the beginning of time.
Notes
1 Very few of the almost 600 opuses of the reclusive Jean Catoire have been publicly performed. They are long, continuous works, none shorter than 15 minutes and many lasting between 1 to 3 hours. He has also written essays on the phenomenon of sound as it relates to the process of psychically transcribing music from an 'auditive vision' as he calls it. The author is in possession of all his works and essays and anyone interested in them should contact him at 14 Denmark Road, London W13 8RG, UK.
2 See Discography. Further information about the private recordings can be obtained through the author at the same address.
3 A term coined by the author to describe his own music.
4 A term, coined by the musician and writer Daniel Perret, which first appeared as the heading for his recorded music reviews in Kindred Spirit Magazine (Vol. 3 No.3, 1994) published in England.
5 Temperaments are separate from microtonality which is simply the raising and lowering of pitch by less than an ET half-step (minor second).
6 A prime example of this division is found in Terry Riley's extended piano work The Harp of New Albion. See discography.
7See Further Reading list below.
8 This is the central theme of Hans Kayser's research and delineated in his book Akroasis.
9 A concept first put forward by Rudolf Steiner in his lectures published collectively as The Inner Nature of Music and the Experience of Tone. It is also taken up in H E Lauer's essay published as part of the book Cosmic Music.
10 Pioneers already working in this field include the Englishmen Dr Peter Guy Manners (cymatics) and Harry Oldfield (electro-crystal therapy) and the Frenchman Fabien Maman (bioenergetics).
11 Excerpt from an unpublished essay entitled Contemporary Problems of Sound written in 1968.
Further reading
Beaulieu, John (1987) Music and Sound in the Healing Arts. New York: Station Hill Press
Berendt, Joachim-Ernst (1987) Nada Brahma The World Is Sound: Music and the Landscape of Consciousness. English edition. London and the Hague: East-West Publications
Berendt, Joachim-Ernst (1988) The Third Ear: On Listening to the World. English edition. Shaftesbury (England): Element Books
Catoire, Jean (1968) 'The Phenomenon of Sound'. Unpublished manuscript.
Danielou, Alain (1980) The Ragas of Northern Indian Music. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers
Godwin, Joscelyn (1989) Editor. Cosmic Music: Musical Keys to the Interpretation of Reality. Essays by Marius Schneider, Rudolf Haase and Hans Erhard Lauer. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions International
Hero, Barbara (1992) Lambdoma Unveiled (The Theory of Relationships). North Berwick, Maine: Strawberry Hill Farm Studios Press
Kayser, Hans (1970) Akroasis: The Theory of World Harmonics. English edition. Boston: Plowshare Press
Mertens, Wim (1983) American Minimal Music. English edition. White Plains, New York: Pro/Am Music Resources
Schaefer, John (1987) New Sounds. New York: Harper & Row
Steiner, Rudolf (1983) The Inner Nature of Music and the Experience of Tone. Hudson, New York: Anthroposophic Press
Discography
Glass, Philip (1983) Koyaanisquatsi. Antilles Records ASTA 1 (LP)
Glass, Philip (1989) Solo Piano. CBS Records FMT45576 (Cassette)
Gorecki, Henryk (1976) Symphony No. 3, Opus 36. Electra Nonesuch 7559-79282-4 (Cassette)
Hero, Barbara (1988) Grand Gallery Galaxy Sounds and Universal Law Harmonies. Privately produced on cassette
Hykes, David and the Harmonic Choir (1983) Hearing Solar Winds. Ocora 558 607 (LP)
Iasos (1983) Elixir: Celestial Symphonic Music for Synthesizers. Sound R 7000 (San Rafael, CA).
Lee, Brian (1993) The Painted Book (music for synthesizer using ancient Greek tunings). Privately produced on cassette by the composer
Oldfield, Harry (1992) Crystal Music. Durtro 003 (CD)
Pärt, Arvo (1984) Tabula Rasa (plus three other works). ECM Records 1275 (LP)
Perry, Frank (1988) New Atlantis. Celestial Harmonies CEL-011 (cassette)
Reich, Steve (1978) Music for 18 Musicians. ECM Records 1-1129 (LP)
Riley, Terry (1986) The Harp of New Albion. Celestial Harmonies CEL-081/19 (LP)
Tavener, John (1992) The Protecting Veil. Virgin Classics 0777 7595024 3 (cassette)
Young, LaMonte (1987) The Well-Tuned Piano. Gramavision 18-8701-4 (5 cassettes)
Reprinted from Contemporary Music Review, Volume 15, Parts 3-4 (1996) with the kind permission of Harwood Academic Publishers.