Dear readers, I want to let you know that the wonderful shakuhachi grandmaster Cornelius Boots has agreed to write the foreword to the book! Not only is he a consummate musician, but he’s also a formidable writer and a lifelong spiritual seeker. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with!
There’s one more thing I need to make the book complete, so I’m asking a favor of you, my esteemed readers. My idea is to include some of your comments in sidebars, or the front matter. But some of the chapters do not have enough comments!
The author’s introduction appears here for the first time. Below that I’ve linked to four chapters which need more comments. I believe the astute and insightful contributions of my readers will add value to the final work, kind of like when Jacob Collier gets the whole audience to sing with him.
All the comments that end up in the book will be attributed to their individual authors, either by name or initial, whichever you prefer. I’m looking for connections you make and insights you have, based on your personal experience. Also I can use comments on the entire project and/or concept. Of course everyone whose comments appear in the book will receive a free copy.
To my knowledge this has not been done before, adding reader comments to a book of essays. Testimonials and reviews, yes; comments, no.
The intention for this book, as with all my publications, is to raise the bar for musicianship in general. In the previous 100 years of music new standards have been set for technique, repertoire, recording and creativity. But the proliferation of digital tools like notation software, synth/sampler-based composition programs and AI is accompanied by a tendency to trust those tools rather than trusting ourselves.
Today’s musicians, whether professional or amateur, need to bring something else to the table. We need to go back to the source. . . and the source is US. Regardless of the tools we use, it is human ingenuity that powers all creativity, even if it’s inside a computer.
Thus I believe including reader comments in the book itself will be helpful for future readers. (If you wish to send your comments by email rather than in the app, that’s totally fine.)
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Music & the 7 Hermetic Principles
Author's Introduction
As both a spiritual seeker and a musician/composer, I've spent my life investigating the connection between music and spirituality. If we see spiritual life as being the larger whole, then certainly music is a microcosmic expression of that whole. The relationships that play out in music–between notes and intervals, between harmonic structures, between rhythm figures–seem to echo relationships between people and things. There is attraction and repulsion. There is consonance and dissonance. There is tension and release. Dynamics are represented, from gentle pianissimos to thunderous triple fortes and everything in between. Texture, phrasing, repetition, pattern recognition, tone color, voicing. . . every possible musical element is but a representation of the larger world around us.
Today's musicians face immense challenges in terms of finding performance venues, marketing our music, and navigating the digital world, including the AI offerings increasingly used to replace human musicians. We also have the never-ending traditional challenge of seeking to improve our musicianship and musical abilities.
This book addresses the latter. But because of the former, many of us feel even more driven to find and express what is uniquely human in music–the depth of emotion, understanding and wisdom that cannot, nor ever will be, expressed or replicated by a robot or computer program. This is not to say that we don't welcome and use the tools offered by computers in the creation of our works, whether in composition, live performance, or recordings. Of course we do! We are creative beings and we use any useful tools that are available to us.
What we wish to avoid is turning over the reins of the creative process to these programs. There is no reason to do that. Instead, let's apply the human wisdom of the ages so we can continue to develop our extraordinary human potential. Sages of both recent days and remote antiquity knew how to access the source of such wisdom. It is to them we turn for guidance. Hence this work on the 7 Hermetic Principles and how they relate to music.
The so-called Hermetic literature has its origin in a mysterious figure named Hermes Trismegistus, meaning "Hermes Thrice-Great." This Hermes has come down to us through history as something of a composite character, merging the Egyptian god Thoth with the Greek god Hermes. Regardless of his mythical nature, Hermes Trismegistus became the figurehead named as author in much of the Hermetic literature. This is in keeping with the spiritual tradition of students and scholars preferring to remain anonymous, and instead naming a revered authority as the writer.
The Hermetic texts originated in ancient Alexandria in Egypt, proceeding through the ages to places like 12th century Arabia and the Italian Renaissance, eventually landing in the 19th century New Thought movement in the United States. These texts are considered important to both the Western theological and alchemical traditions–and what is music if not an alchemical process that transforms 'sound elements' through various combinations, thereby also transforming not only the performer but the listener as well?
The texts I have consulted for this work include the Greek Corpus Hermeticum and Latin Asclepius (Brian P. Copenhaver translation), the Nag Hammadi Library, The Secret History of Hermes Trismegistus by Florian Ebeling, The Hermetica: The Lost Wisdom of the Pharaohs by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, the Kybalion, and a dozen translations of the Emerald Tablet from different eras in history. References to music appear throughout the writings.
As with the Bible, these texts of different eras branched out in various directions, yet they share the concept of acquiring wisdom through revelation, secrecy, and initiation. In fact, their spiritual value does not stem from their alleged authorship by the legendary Hermes Trismegistus, but rather from the verifiable truths they contain.
What I have selected as the main focal point for the present book is the compilation of Hermetic Principles stemming from the New Thought movement and published as The Kybalion. The most ardent Hermetic scholars may regard it as the 'least authentic' of the available Hermetic texts; nevertheless, its influence on modern spiritual thought is undeniable. Moreover, its straightforward presentation of spiritual principles is so relatable to musical principles that studying them cannot fail to inform and inspire us!
Atum's (God's) grace never fails
and there is no end to his bounty.
He is by nature a musician
who composes the harmony of the Cosmos
and transmits to each individual
the rhythm of their own music.
If the music becomes discordant,
don't blame the musician,
but the lyre-string he plays,
that has become loose and sounds flat,
marring the perfect beauty of the melody.But I have noticed
that when an artist deals with a noble theme
his lyre becomes mysteriously tuned,
so that its deficencies
issue glorious music,
to the amazement of his listeners.
It has been like this with me.
I confess my weaknesses,
but by Atum's power
my music is made good,
and he will likewise
make your music perfect.
–From the verse "Secret Teachings" of the Hermiticum, in The Hermetica: The Lost Wisdom of the Pharaohs. Translation by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy
Knowing music is nothing more than being versed in the correct sequence of all things together as allotted by divine reason. By divine song, this sequencing or marshalling of each particular thing into a single whole through reason's craftwork produces a certain concord - very sweet and very true.
– Translation of the Asclepius chapter from the Brian P. Copenhaver Hermetica, published by Cambridge University Press.
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• LINKS TO THE ARTICLES NEEDING ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
I am honored and give you permission to use my name in the comments to your book.
Yes Su! Would love to participate. I’m so inspired at the thought of such a book! Music for me IS spirituality - intrinsically intertwined. It’s a gift to us humans.
As an aside, I think one of the things that access to so much stuff and bleepity blip information is that people truly take things for granted.
Remember (I know you do!) when it was cause for much celebration when you finally tracked down that one rare recording after looking all through town? For weeks sometimes- then -Aha!! and we read liner notes like a menu! It WAS a menu. We treasured recorded music like gold.