Meru Foundation
eTORUS(tm) Newsletter
Special Edition -- 6 August 2002
Copyright 2002 Meru Foundation
Written by Cynthia and Stan Tenen |
The
Creation Overture is (c)2002 Daniel S. Gil and licensed to Meru Foundation |
ANNOUNCING: FIRST
SOUND(TM): The Music of Genesis
NEWS
I am very pleased to announce that Meru Foundation is now offering a new
music CD-ROM, FIRST SOUND(tm): The Music
of Genesis.
Over the years, friends have often asked us to tell them more about the
music playing during the opening and closing credits of our videotapes.
Many have noticed that this music has an unusual feeling quality. This
is because it is derived directly from the Hebrew text of Genesis, letter
by letter, "playing out the text" as you listen to it. There are many
ways that the Hebrew letter-text of Genesis can be rendered musically --
and that each, true to the text in its own mode, allows us to hear and feel
the text so that it can enter our hearts and minds.
Our new FIRST SOUND(tm): The Music of Genesis
CD includes three different renditions, each starting at the beginning of
the Hebrew letter-text of Genesis. We are presenting for the first
time, a new, 10-minute symphonic work by composer Daniel Gil, The Creation
Overture: A Musical Commentary on Genesis 1:1-3. This truly extraordinary
work embodies the structure of the text in a very different way than Stephen
James Taylor's Music of Genesis, the music on our videotapes.
The CD also includes a short portion of our original, simple chromatic rendition,
which Stan and I first explored in 1981. Below, you can read the liner
notes about each piece, and a short essay by Stan about the ideas behind
our Music of Genesis project and our new CD.
I will elaborate further on our plans for FIRST
SOUND(tm): The Music of Genesis CD in the next eTORUS.
Among the ideas we are exploring are the possibility of a competition for
additional musical renditions of the Hebrew letter-text of Genesis, the possibility
of computer animation or live performance of the letter-gestures along with
the music, and a number of other intriguing possibilities.
FIRST SOUND(tm): The Music of Genesis
is now available on Meru Foundation's secure-server website, www.meetingtent.com. (To go directly
to our secure server front page, click
here.) This original, First Release: Rev. 0 version is hand-produced by
Meru Foundation for a limited time only, at a special introductory price of
$18.00. The Hebrew word Chai, meaning "life", has a traditional numerical
value of 18, and many people make charitable contributions or personal gifts
amounts that are multiples of 18. This eTORUS coincides with the beginning
of the New Year on the Jewish calendar (Rosh Hashana). Stan and I want
personally to wish everyone reading this eTORUS newsletter a sweet, happy,
and healthy year, one that sees the world beginning to grow towards peace.
FIRST SOUND(tm): The Music of Genesis,
can help us all along the way.
--Cynthia Tenen
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FIRST SOUND(tm): The Music of Genesis
-- Liner Notes
- 1. The Creation Overture: A Musical Commentary on Genesis 1:1-3
(10:00)
- (c)2002 Daniel S. Gil. All Rights Reserved.
- The Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Karol Petocz, Conductor
Composer Daniel Gil received his B.A. from The Berklee School of Music in
Boston in 1997. His Western music influences range from Gustav Mahler to
Dmitri Shostakovich and Aaron Copeland. However, what distinguishes Gil's
work is that he is an heir to the Judaic tradition of "Holy Song" passed
down to him from the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. Gil also possesses a deep
understanding of the Hebrew text acquired through lifelong study. After assigning
musical notes to each Hebrew letter, Gil then employed the architecture of
harmonic structure (or chords) generally according to the standard rules
and principles called "Common Practice" (the methods by which most Western
classical music is composed). Gil adds that "the music itself is projecting
and communicating Torah commentary in the literal sense." (Torah is
the Hebrew Bible).
- 2-3. The Music of Genesis by Stephen James Taylor, original
concept by Stan Tenen.
- (c)1992, 1994 Stephen James Taylor, BMI, Kiba Dachi Music, BMI, Publisher;
and Stan Tenen for the Meru Foundation.
Composer Stephen James Taylor is known for his fusion of blues, gospel, African
tribal music and classical counterpoint into lyrical film scores. Among his
credits are "To Sleep with Anger," "Why Do Fools Fall in Love", and "A Question
of Faith", as well as the acclaimed T.V. series "I'll Fly Away". "The
Music of Genesis", composed in 1992, renders the 27 Hebrew letters in a microtonal
scale based on ascending and descending perfect fifths, with nine computer-generated
instrumental voices assigned to the letters in groups of three as specified
in Meru research. This music is excellent as tonal background for meditation
or healing. Two versions are presented here, each played through twice
to provide approximately a half-hour of consistent music.
2. 2210 notes (Gen. 2:11),
each note approximately 0.5 seconds long, played twice (19:10)
3. 252 notes (Gen. 1:7),
each note approximately 1.5 seconds long, played twice (12:40)
- 4. Genesis 1:1-3 - A Chromatic Rendering
- (c)1981, 2002 Stan & Cynthia Tenen
This rendering of the first 104 Hebrew letters of Genesis uses a chromatic
scale (like a piano keyboard). Stan Tenen first used this simple means
of turning the text-string into music in the early 1980's, in order to listen
for possible patterns in the text. It is easier to hear patterning
in a long, sequential string of data, than it is to see it. (He also
explored various microtonal renderings, not reproduced here.) Even this simple
text-string has musical qualities that intrigued the Tenens into exploring
further. This early chromatic rendering, covering exactly the same
portion of the Hebrew letter-text as Gil's The Creation Overture,
was reproduced by Cynthia Tenen using computer software available on Meru
Foundation website www.meetingtent.com,
Music from the Torah, which allows the listener to experiment with
the Hebrew-letter text using several pre-set chromatic and modal scales.
(The Music from the Torah software is copyright to Kevin Acres, of
Research Systems Ltd. in Australia.)
************************
FIRST SOUND(tm):
The Music of Genesis
Music that brings Genesis into
your Heart
".....And there was Light."
An Introduction by Stan Tenen
Much has been made of millennialism, most of it controversial at best.
But there is something to the idea that humankind grows in stages, and given
our current world-wide informational and scientific "golden age" - there
is good reason for us to be attentive to real, new-in-our-time advances in
human consciousness.
We have all seen our small, blue-green planet from the new perspective
of a higher orbit, above - a modern "heavenly view."
But much as we would like to be one world, we speak many languages, and
we know in many different ways. There is one exception: music is universal.
Music bypasses our cynical, analytic, separating mind, and our cultural prejudices.
Music doesn't care about education, class, or religion; music goes directly
to our heart. If there is One God (or One Nothingness, or one scientific
Theory of Everything), then that is the song all of our hearts can sing together.
There are many candidates for this One Song. It may be that the great
composers of all times have heard this Song, or part of it, and "drawn it
down" and recorded it for us. It's not hard to think that something
like this inspired a Mozart, or a Mendelssohn. And of course, the Great
One is great, and all-inclusive, because the Whole includes all of its parts,
all of its variations, and all of its projections, regardless of our point
of view.
In the course of researching the possibility of letter-patterning in the
root document of Western civilization, the Hebrew text of Genesis, it became
obvious that patterning would only be important if it was extended throughout
the text, and not just limited to the very beginning, or one or two odd corners.
But, how to tell if the patterns at the beginning of Genesis continued, without
a priori knowledge of what to look for? The simplest, quickest way
to get a sense of pattern is to look or listen. Looking at a text of
thousands of letters, and seeing it all as a coherent pattern, or containing
a coherent pattern, is just not feasible. But listening to a sequence
of musical tones (chords and developments of tones) that accurately represents
the sequence of letters of the text could bring out patterning by the presence
or absence of musical structure that could be felt directly by careful listening.
The Hebrew text of Genesis has been translated in literally hundreds of
different ways, each based on a different tradition or different needs.
While these translations are valuable and valued, they don't bring us together,
because they require a particular cultural view - and we're just not all that
familiar with each others' cultures. The Hebrew text of Genesis is
traditionally chanted (a form of singing). But this chanting is based
on the Hebrew words, and the tradition of chanting is both varied and, of
course, subject to interpretation and thus controversy.
If the Hebrew text of Genesis is a record of creation, perhaps its sequence
of letters, expressed as tones, is in fact FIRST
SOUND(tm): The Music of Genesis.
When we hear the sequences of tones that represent the creation process in
Genesis, letter by letter, this process directly enters our hearts, where
we can feel it for ourselves. Interpretation and translation are not
necessary.
The story of the text of Genesis takes us from nothing (but God) and no-life,
to life. It's the ultimate path of self-organization and growth.
This is the "hero's journey" in all faiths, because it archetypally recapitulates
our own embryonic experience as our experience in/on this womb we call Earth.
When we tune ourselves to the sound of creation, we grow naturally towards
the Source of creation. Whether we see this as God, or Nothingness,
or a scientific Theory of Everything, whether we see it as embryology or
mythology, when it enters our hearts, it encourages and guides our growth.
There is no way to tell whether what we learn from others can be trusted,
or not. After all, even experts are rarely right all the time.
But when we hear with our own heart, and trust with our own heart, we can
feel truth and beauty for ourselves.
FIRST SOUND(tm): The Music of Genesis
is a new experience.
The Creation Overture is a symphonic work. It requires a
different ear than the Music of Genesis, which is based on simpler
letter-tone relationships. The simpler tones, played softly, may be
helpful as a quiet background for meditation and healing.
It is also possible to follow the Hebrew text letter-by-letter, and to
make the hand-gestures that form the letters in time with the music.
Thus, The Creation Overture and The Music of Genesis also become The Dance
of Creation. (Live performance and animation will be available soon.)
It is strongly recommended that you listen through each of the tracks separately,
three times. First, the sounds may be new and unexpected.
Just let them in. On second listening, they will begin to become musical,
and you will begin to be able to follow the flow of harmonies and tones.
On the third listening, the deep pattern of the sound of creation should
begin to emerge. You may have heard these songs in the womb, at birth,
or in a dream or meditation.
Follow your heart home.
(c)2002 Stan Tenen
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