Quite by chance, I read this post while listening to William Orbit's New Nebula, which works through a simple three-note motif, with a fourth note as intermittent variation. (Electronic music of the past thirty years is saturated with repetition of single two-, three-, or four-note melodic lines, in an attempt -- and to corroborate Ted's excerpt -- to create a transcendent experience.)
I also picked up on Ted's song line that lasts three seconds (when talking about prosodic metre). Three seconds is just about the exact time it takes to read a standard English iambic pentameter line in moderate tempo.
Reading point 3 above (do angels harp or drum? do they provide order or ecstasy?), the 2022 mix of the Beatles' "Love to You" played in my headphones. Liverpool lads with a sitar and Indian-style rythmn (I plead ignorance of that musical tradition) doing their best to be shamanic guides on a major label release from 1966. Even such a "canonical" album as Revolver touches on the underworld journey.
Ted, you're opening my understanding to the deep, powerful otherworld that music can convey. I've felt transported by music many times. Now, I'm beginning to think that the Ancient Greek experience of the Iliad might have been more like going to Burning Man than reading it in my dorm room and discussing it in an evening seminar.
Thank you, Ted Gioia, for this latest installment. After reading the previous installments when you posted the first part of this chapter, I ordered your book "Music: A Subversive History" from Amazon, and I read the entire book in two days. That is a great primer for what you are sharing in this book, here on Substack. I must say, I was dumbfounded by that book, as I am by what I have read in this one so far, and it is not because the information was new. I knew much of what you were writing about, in that book and this one, but it is the way you pull it all together that is so profound for me. You are making connections, and showing me connections, that I had not seen. It is like you are setting off neural pathways and networks in my brain, creating new pathways and allowing new connections to form. Then, when I just read this new installment tonight, the second part of this chapter, I see why you are able to do that. In addition to being an accomplished musician and music historian, you also studied shamanism. That gives you the broad insight to see the patterns and because of your music speciality, you see things that others who have studied shamanism might miss, and so you are making connections that are unique. Thank you so much for sharing those insights and connections. You are helping me to forge new paths of understanding and expression, and my own spirit is moving with these new insights, new ways of perceiving this information. In the past, you would have only taught this to initiates in a mystery school or apprenticing to a shaman. Thank you for sharing it with the world. I can't wait to read more!
Dear Ted, I want to thank you deeply...for this one article threads together a lot of my studies and vocation in music and anthropology and reminds me of what I've been so curious about that along the way, lost track of. This is gold. Thank you so so much 🙏
ps, saw your interview with Rick Beato and found you here. Excited for what's next...
Music and poetry have always played a huge role in the memorization and transmission of stories. More recently, music was the direct predecessor of public address systems along with highly reverberant halls.
I love it when ideas intersect. I first became aware of Milman Parry and Albert Lord while teaching a college course on World Music. Then I again ran into them by way of Bart Ehrman's excellent book, 'Jesus Before the Gospels' wherein he studies oral cultures. Now I find them here! Amazing.
Thank you for this. The Death and Resurrection Show by Rogan Taylor (https://archive.org/details/deathresurrectio0000tayl) was an interesting case of examining shamanism in the context of music, although as you say, it is rarer than it should be.
Very interesting thoughts, Ted. As you point out though, there is much more than thought that goes into what a shaman does. I have Eliade's book but have not read it yet. Through my interest in the music of Guadeloupe, I learned that the rhythm of their patois is based on seven sacred drum patterns.
Ted, I came across this video today and thought of the early chapters of your book, it's the our father played by the ancient harp of David https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZBqBnuRlBQ
I am currently reading The Immortality Key which delves into the rituals of ancient Greece and other parts of the world and it's use of psychoactive brews to come face to face with the afterlife before death. I have not finished the book, but it would not surprise me if a shaman was present to guide the way or some music to lead the soul during these ceremonies.
Getting high has always been a way for us to connect with something greater. Sadly the church and imperialism removed many of the best ways, leaving us with a weekly supply of dull wine and a piece of cardboard. Drums are, after all, as dangerous as mastrubation, and can and will leave you blind.
The similarities through time and place are striking in many ways. The desire to alter our mundane mental state. The hero's journey to the under world. The exogenous tools to get there and back. A shaman or guide to prepare and lead the way.
No doubt we have lost many powerful tools to connect with ourselves, each other and our planet. They will all be needed if we are to save our future, the planet and our deprived modern soul.
Hi Ted,
It's a privilege to have access to such ground-breaking ideas expressed so clearly, vividly, and in their own groove. Bravo, man......
Denny Zeitlin
Today, I’m able to recite this kindergarten science lesson only because the melody we sang it to 62 years ago was so darn catchy:
“The sun is a mass of incandescent gas -
A gigantic nuclear furnace
Where hydrogen is built into helium
At a temperature of millions of degrees.”
Would I have been able to retain that without the benefit of having sung it? Not a chance in the solar system.
Quite by chance, I read this post while listening to William Orbit's New Nebula, which works through a simple three-note motif, with a fourth note as intermittent variation. (Electronic music of the past thirty years is saturated with repetition of single two-, three-, or four-note melodic lines, in an attempt -- and to corroborate Ted's excerpt -- to create a transcendent experience.)
I also picked up on Ted's song line that lasts three seconds (when talking about prosodic metre). Three seconds is just about the exact time it takes to read a standard English iambic pentameter line in moderate tempo.
Looking forward to the upcoming chapters, Ted.
Reading point 3 above (do angels harp or drum? do they provide order or ecstasy?), the 2022 mix of the Beatles' "Love to You" played in my headphones. Liverpool lads with a sitar and Indian-style rythmn (I plead ignorance of that musical tradition) doing their best to be shamanic guides on a major label release from 1966. Even such a "canonical" album as Revolver touches on the underworld journey.
Ted, you're opening my understanding to the deep, powerful otherworld that music can convey. I've felt transported by music many times. Now, I'm beginning to think that the Ancient Greek experience of the Iliad might have been more like going to Burning Man than reading it in my dorm room and discussing it in an evening seminar.
Thank you, Ted Gioia, for this latest installment. After reading the previous installments when you posted the first part of this chapter, I ordered your book "Music: A Subversive History" from Amazon, and I read the entire book in two days. That is a great primer for what you are sharing in this book, here on Substack. I must say, I was dumbfounded by that book, as I am by what I have read in this one so far, and it is not because the information was new. I knew much of what you were writing about, in that book and this one, but it is the way you pull it all together that is so profound for me. You are making connections, and showing me connections, that I had not seen. It is like you are setting off neural pathways and networks in my brain, creating new pathways and allowing new connections to form. Then, when I just read this new installment tonight, the second part of this chapter, I see why you are able to do that. In addition to being an accomplished musician and music historian, you also studied shamanism. That gives you the broad insight to see the patterns and because of your music speciality, you see things that others who have studied shamanism might miss, and so you are making connections that are unique. Thank you so much for sharing those insights and connections. You are helping me to forge new paths of understanding and expression, and my own spirit is moving with these new insights, new ways of perceiving this information. In the past, you would have only taught this to initiates in a mystery school or apprenticing to a shaman. Thank you for sharing it with the world. I can't wait to read more!
Love this so far. Really looking forward to the next chapter!
Dear Mr. Gioia, is this a book we’ll be able to buy in hard copy some day?
Dear Ted, I want to thank you deeply...for this one article threads together a lot of my studies and vocation in music and anthropology and reminds me of what I've been so curious about that along the way, lost track of. This is gold. Thank you so so much 🙏
ps, saw your interview with Rick Beato and found you here. Excited for what's next...
Woooowwww. This is amazing work
Love it, a lot to research on this and I thought I had the area well covered!
Music and poetry have always played a huge role in the memorization and transmission of stories. More recently, music was the direct predecessor of public address systems along with highly reverberant halls.
I love it when ideas intersect. I first became aware of Milman Parry and Albert Lord while teaching a college course on World Music. Then I again ran into them by way of Bart Ehrman's excellent book, 'Jesus Before the Gospels' wherein he studies oral cultures. Now I find them here! Amazing.
Thank you for this. The Death and Resurrection Show by Rogan Taylor (https://archive.org/details/deathresurrectio0000tayl) was an interesting case of examining shamanism in the context of music, although as you say, it is rarer than it should be.
Very interesting thoughts, Ted. As you point out though, there is much more than thought that goes into what a shaman does. I have Eliade's book but have not read it yet. Through my interest in the music of Guadeloupe, I learned that the rhythm of their patois is based on seven sacred drum patterns.
Ted, I came across this video today and thought of the early chapters of your book, it's the our father played by the ancient harp of David https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZBqBnuRlBQ
Wonderfully written and interesting as always.
I am currently reading The Immortality Key which delves into the rituals of ancient Greece and other parts of the world and it's use of psychoactive brews to come face to face with the afterlife before death. I have not finished the book, but it would not surprise me if a shaman was present to guide the way or some music to lead the soul during these ceremonies.
Getting high has always been a way for us to connect with something greater. Sadly the church and imperialism removed many of the best ways, leaving us with a weekly supply of dull wine and a piece of cardboard. Drums are, after all, as dangerous as mastrubation, and can and will leave you blind.
The similarities through time and place are striking in many ways. The desire to alter our mundane mental state. The hero's journey to the under world. The exogenous tools to get there and back. A shaman or guide to prepare and lead the way.
No doubt we have lost many powerful tools to connect with ourselves, each other and our planet. They will all be needed if we are to save our future, the planet and our deprived modern soul.
Thanks for shining a light.