Thank you so much for this! I discovered you through Rick Beato's Youtube channel and as soon as you began talking, I knew I had just found a link in the chain I had been seeking. When you mentioned your Substack, I found you here and have been reading avidly. Thank you for doing this research and bringing this esoterica (in the traditional meaning) out to the world. This is the synchronicity I have been looking for, and your work is having a profound impact on how I am thinking about and working with music. I can't wait to see more of your installments for this book!
.."At some point I may write about my correspondence with Neher and how he viewed the pros and cons of his research some decades later."... That would be awesome.
Also, I am reading Harmonic Experience by Mathieu. I got a Udu ( Meinl Igo drum) for viscerally explore some concepts. It would be definitely a treat if you would touch at some point in the future some of the concepts, deconstructed for the enthusiastic simpletons.
A contextual continuation of Healing Songs while considering commercially available rhythmic and droning and resonant instruments? It's fascinating to read, but my lack of exhaustive understanding ( I am from a medical research and clinical background) precludes me to purposely and mindfully apply the reading.
I am , as always, in awe .
Thanks for getting through the writing process to structure the scattered bits, opaque narratives for the rest of us
You make some really great points about rhythm. Even Genghis Kahn used rhyme schemes for his commanders to issue orders to his troops. They found that giving orders in rhyme greatly reduced confusion and problems due to miscommunication.
As a teacher of singing, I note that the range typically given for a normal respiration rate is 12-20 breaths per minute. Here's a physiological origin for the 3-second phrase length!
Ted, I have come to believe that the “shot length” of movies and TV have decreased quite a bit in recent years. You site recent blockbusters but I wonder how long shot lengths have been historically? Of course there are some famous “long takes” directed by folks such as Orson Wells and Robert Altman.
Enjoyed this chapter. But re: your discussion of ~3 seconds as the universal period of music, storytelling, etc., the average shot length in movies actually used to be much longer (12 seconds in 1930), and has been steadily decreasing over time. Here's an article with a chart and links to a few studies https://www.wired.com/2014/09/cinema-is-evolving/
A wonderful chapter in a fascinating book, thank you! I reread this chapter this morning (in preparation of speaking with a conductor friend of mine) and decided to dig a bit deeper into your following reference:
"This image of paradise-with-a-beat also has Biblical validation. In Ezekiel 28:13, for example, we learn that the tambourine was played in Eden."
I could not find such a reference in Ezekiel or anywhere else in the Bible, even with a word search of timbrel instead of tambourine. Can you help me? The Old Testament is full of references to harps and tambourines / timbrels, but I cannot find any connection of drums of any sort to Eden. Perhaps when Adam named the Beatles, Eagles or Monkees? Or when Eve worked for Apple Records?
Fascinating. I teach music as a language. I used to annually ask a friend of mine, a prominent linguist who used to work with Noam Chomsky, whether any linguists have attempted to study the language of music yet. He would always answer, "nope."
This looks like a fascinating book on a marvelous topic that I want to read in its entirety. However, I note you cite Neher's 1962 study about ritual drumming inducing trance states. Have you read Gilbert Rouget's Music and Trance (1985)? He debunks Neher's scientific claims, as I did myself in a 1984 presentation at the Ethnomusicology Society Conference.
Are you aware of Giorgio Colli's reading of presocratic Greek philosophy? He basically tries to re-read everything in a Nietzschean-dyonisiac mysterian light. For some reasons or other I think it might resonate.
The most archaic Hebrew in the Torah/ Bible, Exodus 15, is The Song at the Sea, or Miriam's Song.
In it, Miriam took up her tambourine/ timbrel and led the escaping Hebrews in triumphal song and dance.
This makes sense. Is there anything more conducive to grab eyes than a woman dancing, a woman singing -- a woman exulting?
Moses sometimes gets the credit for this song, but careful analysis of the text show that Miriam led the music.
Moses definitely deserves the credit for holding the conductor's baton in battle: whenever his arm drooped, his Army flagged; whenever he held it high (assisted or not), they triumphed (Exodus 17:11-13).
Con + duct: from the Proto-Indo-European for "to lead [others] together"
"Societies that envision a heaven where string instruments are played have different priorities. The string instrument is, for them, less a tool of transcendence and ecstasy, and more a metaphor for a well-tuned, harmonious existence. Harmony, in these settings, is associated with orderliness and stability, not journeys and altered mind states. The leaders of societies that celebrate metaphors of harmony often fear and repress the “unusual behavior” described by Neher, and prefer religious and political institutions that instill rationality and conformity."
For what it's worth: In Plato's Gorgias, Socrates says the following: "It would be better for me that my lyre or a chorus I directed should be out of tune and loud with discord, and that multitudes of men should disagree with me rather than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself and contradict me."
Thank you so much for this! I discovered you through Rick Beato's Youtube channel and as soon as you began talking, I knew I had just found a link in the chain I had been seeking. When you mentioned your Substack, I found you here and have been reading avidly. Thank you for doing this research and bringing this esoterica (in the traditional meaning) out to the world. This is the synchronicity I have been looking for, and your work is having a profound impact on how I am thinking about and working with music. I can't wait to see more of your installments for this book!
.."At some point I may write about my correspondence with Neher and how he viewed the pros and cons of his research some decades later."... That would be awesome.
Also, I am reading Harmonic Experience by Mathieu. I got a Udu ( Meinl Igo drum) for viscerally explore some concepts. It would be definitely a treat if you would touch at some point in the future some of the concepts, deconstructed for the enthusiastic simpletons.
A contextual continuation of Healing Songs while considering commercially available rhythmic and droning and resonant instruments? It's fascinating to read, but my lack of exhaustive understanding ( I am from a medical research and clinical background) precludes me to purposely and mindfully apply the reading.
I am , as always, in awe .
Thanks for getting through the writing process to structure the scattered bits, opaque narratives for the rest of us
You make some really great points about rhythm. Even Genghis Kahn used rhyme schemes for his commanders to issue orders to his troops. They found that giving orders in rhyme greatly reduced confusion and problems due to miscommunication.
As a teacher of singing, I note that the range typically given for a normal respiration rate is 12-20 breaths per minute. Here's a physiological origin for the 3-second phrase length!
This by itself is pretty mind expanding. It will require multiple readings over the next few weeks.
Amazing!
Plainly , great read .
Glad we have Sir Gioia as our conductor/ guide!!
Ted, I have come to believe that the “shot length” of movies and TV have decreased quite a bit in recent years. You site recent blockbusters but I wonder how long shot lengths have been historically? Of course there are some famous “long takes” directed by folks such as Orson Wells and Robert Altman.
Enjoyed this chapter. But re: your discussion of ~3 seconds as the universal period of music, storytelling, etc., the average shot length in movies actually used to be much longer (12 seconds in 1930), and has been steadily decreasing over time. Here's an article with a chart and links to a few studies https://www.wired.com/2014/09/cinema-is-evolving/
A wonderful chapter in a fascinating book, thank you! I reread this chapter this morning (in preparation of speaking with a conductor friend of mine) and decided to dig a bit deeper into your following reference:
"This image of paradise-with-a-beat also has Biblical validation. In Ezekiel 28:13, for example, we learn that the tambourine was played in Eden."
I could not find such a reference in Ezekiel or anywhere else in the Bible, even with a word search of timbrel instead of tambourine. Can you help me? The Old Testament is full of references to harps and tambourines / timbrels, but I cannot find any connection of drums of any sort to Eden. Perhaps when Adam named the Beatles, Eagles or Monkees? Or when Eve worked for Apple Records?
Fascinating. I teach music as a language. I used to annually ask a friend of mine, a prominent linguist who used to work with Noam Chomsky, whether any linguists have attempted to study the language of music yet. He would always answer, "nope."
This looks like a fascinating book on a marvelous topic that I want to read in its entirety. However, I note you cite Neher's 1962 study about ritual drumming inducing trance states. Have you read Gilbert Rouget's Music and Trance (1985)? He debunks Neher's scientific claims, as I did myself in a 1984 presentation at the Ethnomusicology Society Conference.
Are you aware of Giorgio Colli's reading of presocratic Greek philosophy? He basically tries to re-read everything in a Nietzschean-dyonisiac mysterian light. For some reasons or other I think it might resonate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Colli
The most archaic Hebrew in the Torah/ Bible, Exodus 15, is The Song at the Sea, or Miriam's Song.
In it, Miriam took up her tambourine/ timbrel and led the escaping Hebrews in triumphal song and dance.
This makes sense. Is there anything more conducive to grab eyes than a woman dancing, a woman singing -- a woman exulting?
Moses sometimes gets the credit for this song, but careful analysis of the text show that Miriam led the music.
Moses definitely deserves the credit for holding the conductor's baton in battle: whenever his arm drooped, his Army flagged; whenever he held it high (assisted or not), they triumphed (Exodus 17:11-13).
Con + duct: from the Proto-Indo-European for "to lead [others] together"
Glad for the photo of Bernstein: what a shvitzer. Such a tiny shtik.
But for those with authentic vulnerability, such as Rilke wrote of Orpheus, that truly commands attention:
Da stieg ein Baum. O reine Übersteigüng!
O Orpheus singt! O hoher Baum im Ohr!
Und alles schwieg. Doch selbst in der Verschweigung
ging neuer Anfang, Wink und Wandlung vor.
Tiere aus Stille drangen aus dem klaren
gelösten Wald von Lager und Genist;
und da ergab sich, daß sie nicht aus List
und nicht aus Angst in sich so leise waren,
sondern aus Hören ....
"Societies that envision a heaven where string instruments are played have different priorities. The string instrument is, for them, less a tool of transcendence and ecstasy, and more a metaphor for a well-tuned, harmonious existence. Harmony, in these settings, is associated with orderliness and stability, not journeys and altered mind states. The leaders of societies that celebrate metaphors of harmony often fear and repress the “unusual behavior” described by Neher, and prefer religious and political institutions that instill rationality and conformity."
For what it's worth: In Plato's Gorgias, Socrates says the following: "It would be better for me that my lyre or a chorus I directed should be out of tune and loud with discord, and that multitudes of men should disagree with me rather than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself and contradict me."