What Did It Sound Like? - To Play the Oldest Known Music Notation in the World

As a writer of stories, long and short, in the genre of historical fantasy I am fascinated by all the facets I need to create a world for my characters which seduces my readers. And more ... which bedazzles and successfully invites them inside. One of these facets is music. Music is integral to the world in my novel Alba - not only is it integral, it is a 'shamanic' doorway. Thus essential.

The oldest currently-known notated music in the world (or, this set of civilizations upon the breast of Mother EAerth) comes from Ugarit, on the coast of present-day Syria, and is dated around 1400 BCE. Acknowledging that there may well be older music currently played, today and even tomorrow, that was transmitted by lineage of teacher/pupil learning ... This music, known today as the Hurrian songs, was inscribed onto clay tablets. What has so far been discovered is incomplete - clay is a fragle material.

What did it sound like?

Well ... here would be no elements of today. No technobeats ... no sampling ... no overdubbing and multi-tracking ... no electronic instruments. The 'true' tones of Western music not at all necessary. Voices and ... handsonics ... and ... reeds, strings, skins and metals, No recordings. No greatest hits. No accompanying twerking (I strongly intuit/suspect, but cannot be certain). Optional hotpants very unlikely.

What did it sound like?

Well ... we will never know. But that does not stop us from enjoying the joyful wonder of the fact that way back then, in that tribe, musicians composed and notated their music so that is could be shared and so that it could endure, at least for as long as the culture did endure.

Malek Jandali

There are some inspirational extrapolations from these Hurrian songs. The Syrian-born Malek Jandali has an album called Echoes from Ugarit released a couple of years ago written for piano and Western orchestra.

Why is this important to writers?

Why is this important?

Well ... It is important to be able to access a state of 'personal' wonder about this creation upon this planet and these experiences that 'we' have. It is right and natural to have wonder about these ancient civilizations - that in the galactic scheme of time are just the last heartbeat away. A sense of wonder is natural. A lack of a sense of wonder is not.

Why is this important to writers?

Music is a huge part of every culture, down through all of 'history'. Sure, we can all write stories that don't need the facet of music to create the world in which the story takes place. However, for myself, the more I want to incorporate the essence of a culture in a story setting the more likely I will introduce music into that world. Of course, if I want to introduce any facet that is the slightest 'shamanic' then I likely need music.

For writers of historical fantasy and historical fiction it depends how far back in time you are setting your story. If you have gone back as far as the Baroque Period - 1600-1750, or so - then you are in reasonably well-documented territory. Though bear in mind that there are periodic huge controversies in the early music communities about what early music actually sounded like.

Once we are in historical settings that are way back, like the Dark Ages and before in Europe, and their equivalent periods in other parts of this world, then where are we going to find inspiration to be able to write and create the musical backdrops in our stories?

Over the next few months I will share some of the music I have listened to, and become drunk upon, in the quest to meet inspiration for the musical facets of my ancient worlds.

Malek Jandali is currently giving great Service to the world through activist work on behalf of all children caught up in the current conflict in Syria. You can read more about his work here

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light with you!

Learning from the Underrated Masterpieces of Sci-fi

On a personal note I consider myself a very technical writer (as in practicing scales on the piano ... endlessly) as well as an 'inspirational' (improvisational music and absract painting) writer. I love watching movies from the point of view of being a story writer (and not, most certainly not, a script writer.). As a writer I enjoy movies that not only please me but also give me food for thought in regards to my writing 'techniques' and writing craft. I enjoy honing the techniques I have and discovering new-to-me ones.

'Underrated masterpieces' for me are special. I just have that kind of personality. The underrated and forgotten is a great realm to travel to - to enjoy inspiration and, maybe, be inspired.

Steven James Snyder of techland recently released a list, with commentary, of "The Five Most Underrated Sci-Fi Masterpieces".

Two of them I have seen ... a very long time ago - Silent Running and Dark City. I'm not sure that I have even heard of the other three - Gottaca, Serentiy, Primer. But now I am very inspired to have a Watching Underrated Masterpieces weekend - with some of my favorite wines. And to see what I can learn as a writer.

Anyway, I commend the list to writers of fantasy and magical realism. And, maybe even more, the short list of twenty from which the five were distilled.

Interestingly, another list i found by 'serendipity' also had Dark City in the top five.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

Enjoying Robert Graves (Again): On 'Being' a 'Poet'

I cannot say that Robert Graves influenced or inspired by writing, both stories and poems. I can say, with complete knowingness, that reading this kind of knowledge of his inspired me to trust and then follow my own inspiration - the touchCallingWhisperTug of the Source - in my writing.

This interview with Leslie Norris, also a great 'British' poet (acknowledging that poetry is universal), was published in The Listener 28 May 1970.

Here are a couple of questions from Norris and Graves' response.

Dharma

Do you consider yourself fortunate inhaving been a poet?

There's no alternative. If you're born that way, that's your fate - and you've got to do your best. It's a way of life. You have to be in the world, but not of the world, as the Sufis say. You can't cheat and you must only say what you have to say and not what people would like you to say.

I love this! No 'cheating'. Be true to 'you'. And ... Thy will be Done.

And ... a Poet is ...?

You've written that you write poems for poets. Do you mean you write poems exclusively for poets, or for people who live as poets do?

A poet is a person who lives and thinks in a certain way. A poet doesn't necessarily write poems. It is simply an attitude, and there are a great many more poets around than meet the eve. I think about one person in 20 is perhaps a poet. The ones who are not poets expect something of what they think is poetry, which I don't propose to give them. What I write is for people to understand who are on the same, as they say, wavelength as myself. I don't write for an audience at all really: I write for myself. But the audience is presumably there.

The Source (of 'Inspiration')

The Bridge is always open from meYouMe to the Source. The Source that touchesCallsWhispersTugs at us to write this ... paint this ... dance this.

Tending to our side of the Bridge is our Duty, our Dharma. The other side of the Bridge and what lies there takes care of Itself quite perfectly, thank you. Once we do our work on our side of the Bridge then Inspiration is AlwaysOn.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

Soundless Music and Storyless Story: Yves Klein's Symphony and Idries Shah's The Book of the Book

Nothing quite says something as much as nothing does, sometimes.

There was a performance of Yves Klein’s Monotone Symphony in New York last month. Klein is a fascinating and disruptive artist. His Symphony is in two movements. The first movement is a sustained D major chord that lasts 20 minutes. The second movement is a 20 minute period of 'silence' - i.e. no musicians playing but just ambient sound.

The Beginning of the NY Concert

And ... In France they Kiss on Main Street

And here is a video of a 'Happening' with Yves Klein, the musicians, blue paint, the artist's models and audience. Quite different from 2013 ... hmm ...

You can also listen to the performance of March 9, 1960 here.

The Book of the Book by Idries Shah

Stories without story? Now THAT is hard to do!

I bought The Book of the Book in the late seventies (I was buying all of Idries Shah's books available at that time in my life). It was 'controversial'. The first 16 pages of the book has text - story within story without story about story - and the rest of the book was blank paper. Not even page numbers. Interestingly, and as an artist I am so grateful for this, you can read the complete The Book of the Book on googlebooks. It will take you about five minutes. Hah! Five minutes to read. But ... how long to digest?

I recommend The Book of the Book to all writers in the genres of magical realism and speculative fiction. In fact, I wholeheartedly recommend all of Shah's books to writers of magical realism and SF. For ... there is much there about 'causality', in both its hidden and obvious elements. For ... there is much in his books about building worlds. For ... there is much there about how observers (unknowing) create worlds and hide worlds from themselves purely by deciding what their perceptions 'mean'. For ... there is much there about the 'real' and the 'really real'. And, on a personal note, I take inspiration from his work to write to 'change the cultural world' by inviting my readers to think about what kind of life they really want to live in the really real world.

Stories are healing. This is the way it is. Stories are also, manifestly, the opposite. Readers are there for stories that heal. Something different this way comes.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

Sirens Calling: Junk Phone Calls, Junkmail and Junk Stories

I get a small number of junk calls to my cell. I never answer them since I never answer a caller that is not in my address book. (It's simple to get into my address book - just leave me a message that appeals.) I get a lot of snailmail junkmail - I sort my mail in the garage so that junkmail goes straight into the recycle and never gets carried by me into the house. I work to keep my home a sanctuary of only the highest intentions. My two email providers do a fine job of filtering, and so I see little junk spam.

Odysseus on the journey home from the ravaging of Troy devised a way to hear the Sirens' songs and survive. Their songs were believed to be irrestistably 'beautiful'.

I get glanced by junk advertising from the ranks of TVs at my fitness center. I watch little television at home - it is a sanctuary of the highest intentions - so don't get tugged at by them. Little advertising seems beautiful to me. Much of it is apparently irresistable ... to many. Ho hum ...

... and then there are junk stories. SirenSinging into the individuals and the collective of our 'culture'. Few are 'beautiful', and so they are opposite to the beauty of the mythic Sirens. Thus ... their collective sirenSong is hideous ... and tsunamiaic. Oh well ... who cares about that?

You Become What You Read

Which almost certainly ensures that you become like what you write. The cause is to write the opposite of junk stories. Which is what many of us do. And ... I know with complete confidence, that there are so many who want, and seek out, stories that are not junk.

Since stories teach ... and inspire ... and remind ... and hearken ... and lead ... then ... you become in mindfulness what you read. The SirenSongs of stories that heal are beautiful. And are worth being touched by.

"We writers share in the godlike power of the shaman. We not only travel to other worlds but create them out of space and time ... Our stories have the power to heal, to make the world new again, to give people metaphors by which they can better understand their own lives." - The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler

The Audience is There

The audience is there. They are those who want human beings to treat each other, animals and the whole Divine Creation 'better'. That is a wonderful audience to have ready to be written to.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

Asking Are Some Animals Artists?

Can cats tell stories? Well ... lots of animals tell stories when they are in stories. But that is because people authors put words into their speaking mouths. I have not personally had the experience of one of our littleCats telling me a story. Though I once received a dream from one of our littleCats.

Once upon a time ... in 1997 or thenabouts we were peeps to a littleCat called Reuben. I was taking piano lessons and I practised for hours and hours each week at home. One day, in this Once Upon A Time, I watched Reuben jump up onto the piano stool and stare at the keybard and tentatively begin to reach out to it with his paws. And again a few days later. And then he started to tap the keys. Thoughtfully, as if ... "reaching".

I came to feel that he was "aspiring" ... in the sense of ... if there are previous lives (and thus lives to come in this vastness we call "Time") ... that Reuben was aspiring ... "reaching" to be "more" en-souled consciousness. And thus, as part of that yearning journey, reaching towards being an "artist". For art is Creation.

So ... it's a really interesting question to me as an artist. Can they be? Or, are they? What do Bozie the elephant and Suda the elephant and Cholla the horse and Justin the horse and Nora the cat have in common? And what might they have in common with me? And ... with you?

Well ... they are all artists - painters and piano players. They can all be communed with on YouTube. Along with many others.

Let us take a Little Communion with Some of the Fauves Wave II

Let us then commune with Justin the painting horse, Cholla the painting horse, Nora the piano cat, and Suda the painting elephant.

Cholla

Justin

Suda

Nora

The question remains ... are some animals artists? And if they are? Or, if they are not? What does your answer mean to you? And .. how final is your answer to yourself? Hah!

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

Wheels within Wheels: the Mechanics of Story

Cog Wheels Turning the Story Onward Within the Book

I came across this beautiful piece of cut-out craft by Annemarieke Kloosterhof ... and just fell in love with (all) the (very many) metaphors and symbolic elidances that flowed out from it.

For ... is this not how stories are? Wheels of character and place and plot turning against each other and turning on (wound up by the writer) until The End?

This is how Annemarieke described her piece -

I found this beautifull old Charles Dickens book on Brick Lane down in London, for only 20 pence. The clock is crafted out of the cover and over 300 pages of the first story ("Edwin Drood"). The clock ends where the story "Master Humphrey's Clock" begins, so you can still read it. I didn't add or change anything to the book apart from cutting things away. The black wheels in the clock are cut out of the illustrations found inside the book.

You can visit Annemarieke's deviantart page to see more of her paper-cut craft. The images there are much larger and you can see in detail the fine fineness of her work. You can also visit her beautiful portfolio of work on her wordpress blog.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the Light within you!

A Small Masterpiece: The Blue Germ by Maurice Nicoll (Review)

This is a review that I wrote last year for Amazon. I'm publishing it again since I'm planning to review some fiction by 'Seekers of the Truth', as Nicholl most certainly was, and, indeed, by finders of 'The Truth'.

Do seekers of the truth write different kinds of stories that are 'healing' to culture, in a general sense? The answer is ... yes. That idea interests me, since I have a deep and passionate interest in how we, collectively, create 'culture/society', and how that creation in turn informs us or makes us ignorant and unthinking. Anywy ... enough preamble ...

Maurice Nicholl, who wrote this under the nom de plume of Martin Swayne, was one of the great Fourth Way teachers of the 20th century. Nicholl wrote fiction in the years roughly 1911 to 1924. This is "science fiction". And it is science fiction of the type and style written in this period in the UK. Its style is quintessentially "British", its pace Edwardian, its techniques simple yet setting up a protagonism between points of view spiritual and materialistic. And it is a flowing, compelling story. Except for the techniques used to make manifest the ending.

The story of The Blue Germ is simple and intriguing. Two doctors, one Russian and one English, discover a bacillus with powerful properties. The story begins with Dr Harden tripping over his black cat, hitting his head, and, in the consciousness shock that follows he comes to the perception of an immense scientific discovery. Together with his colleague Sarakoff they perfect the Sarakoff-Harden bacillus. The properties of which are ... to kill all other germs in the human body. And the consequence of this ... well ... human beings will be immortal. Unless they are actively killed, of course.

So, what better way for an Edwardian scientist to test his "theory" than to test it out ... in real life. And so the pair of them introduce the bacillus into the water supply of Birmingham in Midlands England. The bacillus flourishes and creates the "Blue Disease", since fingernails and eye whites turn blue. Together with the fact that all those who are currently ill have their illnesses removed at a fast pace.

Well ... huge changes in "society" will be needed ... and ... how will different characters and personalities react to the prospect of immortality? Hah!

The Blue Germ is actually a compelling story well told. The conciseness of it is pretty similar to that of Michael Crichton. Style too, stripping away the Edwardian-ness of Nicholl writing as Swayne. And the story ... well ... there are many stories about "germs" in our modern consciousness. We seem to love them! The Blue Germ would make a marvelous, Crichton-esque movie. The ending? Forgive the book the ending - it is "poor". But getting there is not! Enjoy it. No guns, car chases, electronic eavesdropping, mayhem-in-general. What would you do if you were told that you are now immortal ... exactly, exactly as you are (age, appearance etc.) right now.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the Light within you!

The Fallow Time

For the joyful fun of it ... dedicated to ... all writers everywhere waiting to hear back from an agent or an editor ... The magnificent Kinks and Tired of Waiting For You.

Acknowledging that seeking out fallowness, the Fallow Time, and waiting therein is important. Out of true stillness comes true inspiration on 'what to "do" next'. Acknowledging that 'unseen activity' is always there. Regardless of who has an opinion on that one way or another. Acknowledging that we must create 'cause' to experience any 'effect'. Some times, the cause we make has to be on our own consciousness - the feeling of the inevitability of 'success' for us and our writing is important. Some times, we need to be still and fallow to hear both what Story Tells us to tell, and, what we need to 'do' in the material world to create effect.

Or ... maybe ... it is just 'what to write next'. The Fallow Time is a good spaceTimePlace to be to come to know what that 'next' is.

Acknowledging that it is also a cool song from one of the most amazing periods, artistically, in the last few hundred year (in the West!).

As a writer I have found it simple and deep to follow in my writing journey the truism of Ibrahim Khawwas, the “Palm Weaver”, giving his definition of the Sufi path -

“Allow what is done for you to be done for you. Do for yourself that which you have to do for yourself.” (as quoted from “Tales of the Dervishes” by Idries Shah. page 147.)

This is a good Russian Doll maxim for those writers who want to work with it.

Usually I choose to have the last word here. However, here is a voice that is totally for the imagination and the imaginal - Carl Gustav Jung "The Power of Imagination". He is important because tellers of stories need to understand archetypes. Simply said.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the Light within you!