Asterisk Piano Podcast (PJ Cornell): Recent Episodes
PJ Cornell
I am an improvisatory pianist. My music is pensive, and is great to listen to while you're reading, driving, meditating, enjoying dinner, or just relaxing. Because I am an improviser, every podcast is entirely on the spot and is completely original. I post a new episode once or twice a week; or whenever I feel like it.
"Doverie," or "доверие," means "trust" in Russian. It is an improvisation for keyboard and guitar. The bass line sounds like an acoustic bass, but it is actually also my acoustic guitar. The form would best be described as an elegie. When I improvise, this is frequently the form that emerges unless I am intentional about how I think about the form before I begin. Stylistically, this piece could be described primarily as impressionistic with some Americana elements.
This song is about the vulnerability you experience when you extend faith to another human being. People will fail you. When you trust in the Father, you are able to extend faith to them as an extension of that, realizing that, when they fail, you must be prepared to show mercy.
This is the first piece I created with my new keyboard setup. It was time to retire my previous one. Hopefully my new keyboard will serve me well.
The image chosen is in the public domain. It is a photograph by Maysam Yabandeh.
https://pixnio.com/media/exploration-expedition-mountain-top-snow#
Yesterday, my best friend and I were having a brief phone call to catch up since we both were experiencing career milestones at the same time, and he happened to mention a quote from someone whom he couldn't remember that amounted to, "If you look at your life today, you will notice that it is the answer to your prayers from yesterday." Before he could even get the words out of his mouth, I found myself agreeing with the statement, and said so without even having to pause to process the words.
This is a post-modern piece with Americana, minimalist, neo-romantic and modernist harmonic and rhythmic textures. It has a loosely ABCA structure where B is a counter-theme, and C is a development section.
As above, so below. Reality is fractal. Tune into the wavelength of the universe, and traverse it up and down.
This is a liturgical piano piece that combines minimalistic, impressionistic, and modernistic elements.
When you drive at night, listening to the quiet, you can sense the world shifting around you as it resets itself for a new day. Like set pieces being moved backstage, you sit in the darkened world waiting to see what the next day will bring. The only light you see comes out of a solitary waffle house. You see a waitress standing on one side of the bar, and a line-haul trucker sitting alone on the other side. Everyone is alone with their thoughts.
This is a prelude for piano, guitar and bass that combines baroque, neo-romantic, modernist and jazz stylistic choices.
This is a prelude and fugue in f# minor that I improvised that expresses what it has been like to grasp the relationship that modern man has with the truth. Modern man is a creature that loves lies and half-truths, and refuses to understand why his life continues to deteriorate as a result. Because man cannot be made to see the truth - even when it is staring him in the face - one must cut all ties that will bring you down with him as his surroundings become worse and worse, and as evil men take advantage of his willful ignorance. The only solution is to not take part.
This piece follows the baroque form of a prelude and fugue, and has some call-backs to Vivaldi and Bach, while also integrating some more modern elements reminiscent of Copeland and Shostakovich.
Horus (Sonata for Keyboard) - in g# minor
This episode of Friday Music at Five features "The Proud Bird," by Romansk V. This is a depiction of the ancient Egyptian god of Horus. What grabbed my attention in this piece is the artist's choice to reimagine the ancient two-dimensional Egyptian images and render it in three dimensions with very interesting color choices for the shading. I also like the extreme colorfulness of the god and the proud, confident, intelligent expression on its face. The background is vague and dark, while the bird is colorful and highly distinct. The curve and sharpness of the beak, the haughty look in the bird's eye, the musculature of the face; all of these things suggest a masculine vitality, power, and fearlessness.
The Egyptian Renassaince
It has occurred to me that we may be on the verge of a renaissance of rediscovering the deep roots of the Abrahamic religions, which really do go back as far as Egypt; and even further, into the days of Hammurabi and Sumer. However, Egypt particularly is where many of the archetypical stories that are cherished by the Jews, Christians, and Muslims originate. It is also interesting that, according to legend, in the times of the sons of Noah, Egypt was the seat of authority for Shem; from which he exercised God's justice on Earth.
This is important because the Post-Modern Structuralist intellectual narrative has begun to unravel. People are seeking a new way of developing a relationship with being. Consequently, one of the most popular intellectuals of our time is Dr. Jordan Peterson, whose Biblical Lecture Series represents a deep dive into the intellectual roots of the Western Tradition and morality. Part of what led to the rejection and death of God in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was an ossified understanding of this tradition.
The Christ Story of Horus
What better symbol for this rebirth of the Western Tradition than that of Horus, the ancient Egyptian christ figure. According to ancient Egyptian tradition, Osiris is murdered by his brother Set. Osiris's wife, however, reassembles the corpse of Osiris, engages in intercourse with it, and gives birth to Horus. Horus is regarded as the resurrected form of Osiris.
Horus, therefore, represents the divine masculine; that which overcomes death and destruction.
Some Notes on Horus (Sonata for Keyboard) - in g# minor
This piece expresses a major philosophical theme. That is, the backdrop to life is struggle and hardship. Death always lies in wait for us. However, we can overcome this. We are not linear creatures. We are creatures of light. Death, darkness, and hardship exist in order that the heroism of our being can shine against it like eternal stars in the night sky.
The harmonic trajectory of the piece is rising dominant-tonic resolutions. The first movement is in g# minor, which is a tumultuous key, to my ear. The second movement is in c# minor, which is the darkest key, to my ear. The final movement is in f# minor, which has a spiritual energeticness.
First Movement - Vivace
This movement is in a modified sonata form. This movement begins with a trill ostinato. The upper note of the ostinato traces a simple melodic line against the tonic bottom. This is the main theme. The countertheme is in the relative B Major. It is slower and melodic. The countertheme goes directly into a development section. The countermelody, rather than the main theme, is developed. In the recapitulation, the two themes are combined polyphonically and polytonally.
The modification of the form reflects three things. Firstly, the backdrop of life is death and struggle. Secondly, although that is the case, the contrasting, heroic living power is far more worthy of our attention and is what undergoes development in being. Finally, in the end, we live before death's face with courage, grace, and defiance, even as it pursues to end us.
Second Movement - Dirge
This is a funereal movement in ternary form. The general form of this movement is 'ABA,' where each section also undergoes a certain amount of thematic development. The first iteration of the 'A' section is an Adagio that expresses a quiet shock of loss. The first reaction to death is often not overwhelming emotion, but rather an inability to process the fact of loss. The 'B' section is a somewhat faster Allegretto, where one recalls the living force of the one lost. The return of the 'A' section is in a higher, less shocked and somber register. Here, the emotional outpouring of the loss comes into experience.
Third Movement - Allegro
This movement is in a truncated sonata form. The main theme is a defiant, aggressive, fearless birdsong. The counter theme is a much softer, melodic theme in the relative major. The final section of the piece is simultaneously a development section and long, raucous, sped-up CODA dominated by a few variations of the main theme, ending in a brief recapitulation of the counter theme in the main key of f# minor.
Although the main key of this movement is in the minor, the main theme is extremely lively. This is done to suggest that, although the backdrop of life is struggle and death, in the end, the power of the divine masculine merely shines that much brighter against the dark.
Copyright, Philip John Cornell, 2018, some rights reserved. You may download this content freely. If you share it, it must be prominently attributed to "PJ Cornell," and if shared online, a link to the original content must be provided in a prominent location. This audio and video content may not be used for commercial purposes or modified in any way without permission from the copyright owner.
Only the latest episodes of this show are available on iTunes and Soundcloud. To locate archives of this podcast, visit: http://pjcornell.com/category/asterisked-music/piano-podcast
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Time to kick off your weekend with some new music! Welcome to Friday Music at Five, Episode #1.
Attention (Prelude and Fugue in F#)
I have decided to name this Prelude and Fugue "Attention," because it was inspired by the pen illustration featured in this post ("The Boy and the Cat," by Betzael Corvo). What strikes me about this work of art is looks on the faces of the cat and the boy. They seem to be staring raptly at some object in the distance, engaging their full attention to it.
Attention is an interesting thing from a phenomenological point of view. Heidegger describes objects of being as emerging through our participation in reality. Objects emerge from the void as a consequence of us negating all that is not radically other. Objects actually emerge as a result of us paying attention to them. Until we do, they are simply part of the undifferentiated manifold of experience.
Objects of Attention
In a very real sense, things, as such, do not really exist until they are formed by us paying attention to them. Things have a way of accumulating meaning the more we dedicate our attention to them. When we do not direct our attention to things, they often have a tendency to fade into irrelevancy. But when we do direct our attentive thoughts and actions to them, other things accumulate around them until they become irreversibly embedded in our sense of being; replete with rich relationships of meaning with other objects of experience.
Projection
When an object has become deeply embedded in our experience of being, it begins to have a sort of gravitational pull. It begins to affect our language; consequently, it ultimately affects the way we think. That which captures our attention redefines our very reality. This is how objects of experience became our religion, which then became our language. Religion establishes a hierarchy of being. This hierarchy of being evolves into language. That language becomes our means, not only of communicating but of thinking rationally. What we pay attention to determines everything about us and our life experience.
Some Notes on Attention (Prelude and Fugue in F#)
Just like my other Preludes and Fugues, this one is modal with impressionistic, modernistic, and/or minimalistic tendencies. This particular one operates in two different modalities. The modality of the Prelude is similar to F# Major, although it does drift into some Mixolydian, blues, and quasi-octatonic textures and has a significant amount of dissonance. It also explores the parallel minor a bit. The Fugue has a unique modality similar to f# minor, but with a lowered 2nd scale degree.
The Prelude is highly melodic. It has a steady ostinato in the lower register, and it slowly turns over a melodic motif in the higher register. It dwells on it and explores it, much like someone carefully paying attention to a fascinating object. The Fugue is a two-part canon. I chose to do this because I wanted it to reflect the two characters in the drawing. Just as the two characters in the drawing seem to have resonant reactions to whatever it is they are observing; so too do the two melodic lines of the fugue play off and harmonize against each other. This fugue is somewhat unique in that, in the development section, there is some extensive variation of the theme, rather than a predominantly tonal development.
The piece ends on the fifth scale degree; as if to suggest that the object in the distance is still something of a mystery to the observer.
Announcing the New Podcast Series
The Asterisk Piano Podcast (available on iTunes) now has, as its primary feature, the Friday Music at Five series (F.M.F.). This is the first official episode of that series. Stay tuned, and kick off your weekend with new music every week, published every Friday around 5 P.M. E.S.T.
Copyright, Philip John Cornell, 2018, some rights reserved. You may download this content freely. If you share it, it must be prominently attributed to "PJ Cornell," and if shared online, a link to the original content must be provided in a prominent location. This audio and video content may not be used for commercial purposes or modified in any way without permission from the copyright owner.
Only the latest episodes of this show are available on iTunes and Soundcloud. To locate archives of this podcast, visit: http://pjcornell.com/category/asterisked-music/piano-podcast
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Time to kick off your weekend with Friday music at Five!
Cogito
Cogito is an improvisation for bass and keyboard. It was inspired by the Meditations on First Philosophy by Rene Descartes. This work, for all intents and purposes, represents the very birth of the modern mind. What Descartes actually went through in order to produce this work was really a rebirth of the mind. In the book, he describes a deeply spiritual personal struggle to really come to grips with what he actually knows, separating genuine knowledge from mere belief.
All sorts of really deep things are explored in this work. Among the things he struggles with are the nature of God, the nature of being, the nature of the human soul and body, and many others. What he finally arrives at is the idea that the only two things that can be known independently are that God exists, and that He is truthful, and that he himself must exist, because that must be the case in order for him to even ponder the question. From this point, he is slowly able to come to grips with the rest of existence.
Some Notes on Cogito
In the Meditations, Descartes comes to the conclusion that there are two sorts of things: Res Cogitans, and Res Extensa. Res Cogitans is the mind, and Res Extensa is the physical world. Thus, he divides existence into two parts: the world of the soul, and the world of matter. He considers the body to be that part of Res Extensa that is connected to Res Cogitans; the machine or ship of the soul.
In this piece, the keyboard is the rich, inner, mental world. The bass is the outer body. The two interact and act in coordination, but they do not follow the same rules. The piece centers around C. Much of it is in C Major, but the keyboard explores atonality and sound clusters, as well as octatonic modes at times, whereas the bass is mostly in a blues modality.
Copyright, Philip John Cornell, 2018, some rights reserved. You may download this content freely. If you share it, it must be prominently attributed to "PJ Cornell," and if shared online, a link to the original content must be provided in a prominent location. This audio and video content may not be used for commercial purposes or modified in any way without permission from the copyright owner.
Only the latest episodes of this show are available on iTunes and Soundcloud. To locate archives of this podcast, visit: http://pjcornell.com/category/asterisked-music/piano-podcast
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Agave
The agave is a desert cactus. It spreads out almost like a flower; but unlike a flower, it survives year in and year out in the inhospitable desert. It is so sweet that its flesh is processed and used as an alternative to sugar. Its glory is its steadfastness, longevity, and sweetness. Prickly and yet beautiful on the outside. Alive and sustaining of life on the inside. It is patient.
Some Notes on Agave
This piece is largely tonal. It is in F Sharp Major. It is for keyboard and guitar. Although it is tonal, it uses a lot of quartal harmonies, polytonality, and some dissonance. The piece is a narrative in terms of formal structure; it expresses a motif, and then the rest of the piece is one long development section.
The piece starts with a solo piano. It begins with an unassuming moderato. The motif is almost an ostinato, but it moves just enough to suggest a simple melody. The guitar enters intermittently with a more melodic countermelody, lending it a simple polyphonic texture.
After this brief interplay, the piece slowly begins to unfold and build. The piano begins to play fast chords while the guitar sings over it. Then it takes a step back. The piano returns to the ostinato melody; however, now in a variation. The guitar continues to play a melody consisting of long, patient notes as a slow, concurrent melodic line over the frenetic keyboard activity.
The piece reaches a climax with a third piano variation over the guitar's agave theme, like an agave plant riding a desert storm. The piece ends with a quiet inversion (also a variation) of the theme in the piano, with a slow scaling motion in the guitar. Finally, the guitar ends on the fourth scale degree, suggesting the sacredness of a liturgic resolution.
Copyright, Philip John Cornell, 2018, some rights reserved. You may download this content freely. If you share it, it must be prominently attributed to "PJ Cornell," and if shared online, a link to the original content must be provided in a prominent location. This audio and video content may not be used for commercial purposes or modified in any way without permission from the copyright owner.
Only the latest episodes of this show are available on iTunes and Soundcloud. To locate archives of this podcast, visit: http://pjcornell.com/category/asterisked-music/piano-podcast
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Drifting
This short keyboard improvisation depicts a feeling of drifting; letting go, and just letting the currents that are present in your life just sweep you along where they will. The title describes the experience I'm trying to communicate by the piece. It's a feeling of drifting down a river, not knowing, or even much caring where you end up. Every now and then, you have to take a break from constant goal-oriented activity and just drift. When you drift and turn off your consciousness momentarily, you are able to get out of your perspective for a while. This is an important practice. You can get so wrapped up in what you think is important. If you're not careful, you can end up never stopping to reevaluate your direction. You can only really do that if you just let go and drift every now and then.
The Jewish people believe in practicing the Sabbath. I submit that that practice is a form of spiritual drifting. We should all have a Sabbath day to let go for just a little while and drift so that we can truly collect ourselves.
Some Notes on Drifting
The piece is multi-modal with a single tonal center (E flat). It starts off with some descending minor seconds, that keep you guessing about the tonal center for a couple bars, before the initial, un-harmonized melody resolves in such a way as to make that clear. Polyphonic strands are introduced at intervals, and they sometimes dissolve into a supporting harmony, and sometimes, they emerge in parallel octaves and fifths, like accelerating bottlenecks of current. By and large, the piece is focused more on the higher registers, to give the piece a lonesome, melancholy feel. The melody is almost Gregorian at times, in that it evenly spaced, without too many large jumps, but is measured in unusual time signatures, and sometimes breaks into less regulated rhythms, as the drifting speeds up and slows down on its own. The piece ends on a jazz-like unresolved dissonance.
Copyright, Philip John Cornell, 2018, some rights reserved. You may download this content freely. If you share it, it must be prominently attributed to "PJ Cornell," and if shared online, a link to the original content must be provided in a prominent location. This audio and video content may not be used for commercial purposes or modified in any way without permission from the copyright owner.
Only the latest episodes of this show are available on iTunes and Soundcloud. To locate archives of this podcast, visit: http://pjcornell.com/category/asterisked-music/piano-podcast
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Through the Night
Through the night is a keyboard improvisation. I am completely self-employed, but I engage in multiple forms of work. Currently, I derive income from creating online content (like the content you're reading now), selling insurance, and doing rideshare (Uber and Lyft). I do insurance and web content during the day when other people are up; and then I drive at night, when most people are asleep. I find that I enjoy driving at night. It's all about the long dark drives punctuated with interactions with every imaginable type of person. This piece is about the zen of driving all night on dark, empty roads.
Some Notes on Through the Night
This piece is, generally, in e flat minor; but there's quite a bit of polytonality going on with the E Mixolydian Modality and F Sharp Major. You tend not to notice that kind of polytonality so much because the two modes share all the same notes except for the third scale degree, and e flat minor and F Sharp Major are relative respective minor-Major scales, meaning they share a key signature. The beginning of the piece opens with a simple ostinato, and later a simple melody emerges. The ostinato comes in and out in various permutations throughout the piece, and the melody undergoes some simple development with substantial tonal exploration, but without any complete key changes. The piece starts in a lower register with some energy, and then slowly peters out in the higher registers.
Stylistically, this piece falls into a few different categories. It is minimalistic, in classical terms; but it also falls into rock, jazz, and blues categories. It uses some dissonance, albeit sparingly. The frequent use of parallel fifths gives it a distinct rock feel. It also uses syncopation very generously.
Copyright, Philip John Cornell, 2018, some rights reserved. You may download this content freely. If you share it, it must be prominently attributed to "PJ Cornell," and if shared online, a link to the original content must be provided in a prominent location. This audio and video content may not be used for commercial purposes or modified in any way without permission from the copyright owner.
Only the latest episodes of this show are available on iTunes and Soundcloud. To locate archives of this podcast, visit: http://pjcornell.com/category/asterisked-music/piano-podcast
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Patience
Patience is a virtue that is related to endurance. You don't have to have it when things are as you would like them to be. You need patience when, from a certain perspective, your situation is not tenable long-term. I say "from a certain perspective," because what it is really about is focus. If you focus on that which has not arrived yet, the pain of lack can be a source of unbearable suffering. You must intentionally focus on other things. Know that things will be alright again. Then you will exercise patience, and it will be less of a burden to you. Enduring lack is a matter of directing your attention to areas relatively untouched by the lack. There is a certain kind of discipline in this. Therefore, patience is a discipline.
Some Notes on Patience
This piece is agonizingly slow and constricted. I achieve this effect in a few different ways. Firstly, the piece, overall, and especially at the beginning is at a very slow tempo and contains chords that are very compressed, in terms of register. The piece is (generally) in a minor; a very gray, withdrawn key. When the melody does come out, it is in a high register; it tends to "dwell on" (that is, repeat) particular phrases, almost to the point of being an ostinato; but it does move - barely.
Eventually, the "patience" of the melody is "rewarded" by some polyphonic integration, as a couple of melodic strands move with it, and integrate with it, and then the piece concludes on a hopeful note, but at the very end, the melody hangs on the seventh scale degree, and doesn't resolve. Within the compressed space of the piece, there is a significant amount of harmonic exploration, and even a couple of key changes, reflecting a complex stew of emotions with very slow and gradual forward movement.
Copyright, Philip John Cornell, 2018, some rights reserved. You may download this content freely. If you share it, it must be prominently attributed to "PJ Cornell," and if shared online, a link to the original content must be provided in a prominent location. This audio and video content may not be used for commercial purposes or modified in any way without permission from the copyright owner.
Only the latest episodes of this show are available on iTunes and Soundcloud. To locate archives of this podcast, visit: http://pjcornell.com/category/asterisked-music/piano-podcast
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Keyboard Suite in A
This is a keyboard suite in A; that is, it has a tonal center of A, but the piece isn't completely tonal. This piece is mostly tonal, but it does explore other modalities, as well. A suite is a cycle of pieces in dance form. This suite is in four parts.
Arabesque
The first dance in this keyboard suite is an arabesque. It is a lively, narrative style piece that incorporates some middle eastern modalities. It also serves as an introductory piece. Although it does explore Arab modalities, it is largely in A Major.
Minuet
The second dance in the keyboard suite is a minuet. It is in A Major, although it does undergo a development section, and is dissonant in places. It is slow, stately, and simple.
Passacaglia
The third piece is a passacaglia. It is slow and dark. It has an a minor feel, although it is actually modal with some similarities to a minor.
Rigaudon
The capstone of the suite is its final movement, which is a rigaudon. It is fast, loud, and angular. It has a strong Americana feel. Generally, it is in A Major, although there is some dissonance and polytonality.
Some Notes on Keyboard Suite in A
As I mentioned before, this piece is mostly tonal, however, it explores other modalities. In general, this piece is very much in keeping with the Americana tradition, even while it uses Baroque European dance forms. This piece was created improvisationally, however, I did some preliminary research on the forms I used before I sat down to play. Ever since I was a child, I had a deep appreciation for J.S. Bach's Orchestral Suites, consequently, I've always been interested in exploring the form for myself. Formally, this piece is similar to what Baroque composers were creating in the early 1700s. Stylistically, this piece has more in common with Copland, Bernstein, Adams, Jazz, and Rock.
Copyright, Philip John Cornell, 2018, some rights reserved. You may download this content freely. If you share it, it must be prominently attributed to "PJ Cornell," and if shared online, a link to the original content must be provided in a prominent location. This audio and video content may not be used for commercial purposes or modified in any way without permission from the copyright owner.
Only the latest episodes of this show are available on iTunes and Soundcloud. To locate archives of this podcast, visit: http://pjcornell.com/category/asterisked-music/piano-podcast
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Keyboard Sonata in g minor
This is a keyboard sonata in g minor. It follows the classical sonata form. Stylistically, it is a blend of pop, neo-romanticism, minimalism, and modernism. It tends to be a bit on the dark side, although there are plenty of spots where the light shines in.
I've always greatly appreciated the keyboard sonata as a form. Growing up, I particularly enjoyed the Beethoven piano sonatas. The Eighth Piano Sonata (Opus 13) was a particular favorite of mine. This particular sonata in no way attempts to mirror that one, or even Beethoven generally. If anything, it sounds a bit like Chopin in some places, and perhaps like Rachmaninov in others. Nevertheless, my affinity for the keyboard sonata is directly attributable to the Pathetique.
Some Notes on Sonata for Keyboard in g minor
This keyboard sonata is a three-movement sonata that mostly follows the classical standard sonata format. Stylistically, I would describe it as neo-romantic. It has some dissonance, some quartals, some blues harmonies, and some minimalist elements, as well.
First Movement - Allegretto
This movement is in sonata form, where the main theme is in g minor, and the counter-theme is in B Flat Major. It follows the normal trajectory of exposition - development - recapitulation. In the recapitulation, the counter-theme is restated in its original B Flat Major, rather than the native g minor.
Second Movement - Adagio
This is a very slow Minuette. The form is AA'BA (where "A'" is a development section) The exposition moves directly into a development section that isn't clearly distinguished from the exposition itself. The "B" section is sharply distinct from the main theme. Where the main theme is somewhat laconic and soft, the second theme is strident and assertive. The recapitulation, rather than being a full recapitulation is more like an elaboration and completion of a previous thought.
Third Movement - Vivace
The third movement is typically a rondo. In this case, I depart from the norm. This is a fantasia in the following format: ABA'CA'DEA''[CODA]. Stylistically, this movement is an example of American Populist Modernism (in the vein of Copland or Bernstein) The main theme, which is a powerful, asymmetric march-like theme, is asserted, then gives way to a second theme, then comes back and develops, then gives way to a third theme, and so on and so forth. It almost has a Pictures at an Exhibition kind of feeling, although the demarcations between the main theme and the "pictures" are less pronounced. The final section presents the main theme as a more coherent melodic arch. It is also the darkest statement of the theme. The CODA is a brief variation on the main theme; it is significantly less strident than the original theme. The piece dies with a whimper.
Copyright, Philip John Cornell, 2018, some rights reserved. You may download this content freely. If you share it, it must be prominently attributed to "PJ Cornell," and if shared online, a link to the original content must be provided in a prominent location. This audio and video content may not be used for commercial purposes or modified in any way without permission from the copyright owner.
Only the latest episodes of this show are on iTunes and Soundcloud. To locate archives of this podcast, visit [http://pjcornell.com/category/asterisked-music/piano-podcast].
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Windowless Monads
Gottfried Leibniz was a German philosopher who was a contemporary of Isaac Newton. He theorized the existence of Monads. Monads are an object of theory; they are supposed to be particles somewhat similar to our modern concept of the atom (with some significant differences).
The Theory
These particles are the underlying universal substrate. They are self-contained and indestructible. They each contain within themselves the essence of the entire universe, much like a kind of divine genetic code. Nevertheless, they also are distinct from one another, each having different attributes, resulting in the vast variety that we can see in nature.
What he suggests is that the universe is a self-contained thing and that what we experience as a sequence of space and time, is really a coherent whole. He described monads as "windowless;" meaning, not being open to outside forces in any way. They do not take in or emit from themselves anything from or into anything outside of themselves. In this sense, they are similar to the modern atomic idea, in that we now theorize that atoms interact with other atoms, but under normal circumstances, atoms do not change in their fundamental nature.
Leibniz's theory portrays a deterministic view of nature that, in some ways, anticipated Einstein's Theory of Relativity, in that it suggests that the universe is structured in a non-linear way.
What I Find Provocative About this Idea
In absolute terms, modern science has largely invalidated the Theory of Monads. Nevertheless, I find certain aspects of this idea interesting. For one thing, his idea is really quite fractal. This idea that the further you go down into the micro, the more the macro reveals itself is a very spiritual idea, and I think there is something to that. For example, atoms resemble solar systems and galaxies in terms of their basic geometric structure. That's interesting. The idea that each particle has a kind of genetic code that reflects the universe as a whole - that's interesting, too.
Some Notes on "Windowless Monads"
This piece uses an octatonic palate to portray monadic "windowlessness." The octatonic scale is "windowless," in the sense that it has a completely repetitive structure; whole-tone - half-tone, whole-tone - half-tone, all the way up the entire octave. Unlike tonal scales, which have seven scale degrees, the "octatonic" scale has eight. The seven scale degrees in tonal music give it a kind of built-in tension that seeks resolution. The octatonic scale seeks no resolution because it does not require it. It is naturally self-exploratory and does not need to come to any rest. In this way, it is "self-contained," in the same way that monads are theorized to be.
However, I also wanted to portray my "windowless monads" as causing ephemera of time-bound existence. I show this by having the piece transition in and out of tonal sections. True to the monadic theory, the piece ends in a self-contained way - by returning to the original octatonic riff.
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Rooted
A balanced human being takes time to explore his own unconscious self. He does that by engaging in protracted self-exploration. Consequently, his conscious self is rooted in his subject. Lacan talks about how the ego, which is the focus of the objective, conscious self, is alienated from his subjective self. The separation between consciousness and subject is rooted in linguistics.
The subject organizes itself syntactically. It forms sensory associations which reflect meaning, whereas consciousness forms linguistic networks of meaning through the mother tongue and an objective approach to experience. In order for the conscious self to access the subject, it must listen carefully to the associations of meaning that the unconscious forms. The consciousness then discovers new depths of meaning within what is already familiar. The ego recognizes the roots of the objects of its experience, as well as their true, hidden meanings.
Exploring the unconscious subject is necessary. It is necessary for someone to know themselves intimately, and live a balanced, aware life. It is not possible to be truthful to others if, because of self-ignorance, you habitually deceive yourself. One must carefully observe and honestly assess one's emotional responses because these emotional responses reveal the true self.
Some Notes on "Rooted"
This is a solo keyboard improvisation. It is mostly in a minor, although it wanders quite a bit.
This piece is "paratonal." "Paratonal" is my own term. It means that any given bar appears to be (mostly) tonal, however, the harmonic structure of the melody and the piece overall is far from tonal. It tends not to dwell on one key for long. There is a lot of suggested polytonality, as well as some unresolved dissonance.
You can hear a certain impressionistic influence, as well. This piece is not dissimilar to something Debbusy, Satie, or Ravel might have created. There is also a little bit of Stravinsky influence, as well as some Rachmaninov.
I use paratonality in this piece to express a certain familiar weirdness. This expresses the strangeness, yet familiarity of the unconscious mind. I also use a lot of close intervals (mostly thirds) to portray a hiddenness. This makes the piece sound very closed in.
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Flight
"Flight" is about the essential nature of invention. There is, in the most powerful creative endeavors, a process that takes place that the ancient Hermeticists projected as being tied to the nature of existence itself. The creative endeavor is an essential component of life itself as such. All life is the emergence of the new from the pursuit of completion. That's what creativity is.
In Hermetic terms, this process takes place through the interplay of the male and female principles. This occurs on the level of biology, psychology, philosophy, politics, even, one could say, on the level of quantum physics. Consciousness and connected being interacting with one another generate the substrate of experience.
"Flight" depicts the Wright brothers' invention of the airplane. The invention of the airplane is a real-life example of the animating creative process. A colleague of mine once mentioned that one of the Wright brothers was driven to succeed in the face of repeated failure because the woman he was enamored with had lost faith in him. He felt that he had to restore that faith at all costs. I have not verified this story, but it is a plausible one. Because of universal process of completion taking place in the context of the human species, gravity, which once bound by man to a radius of about a hundred miles in his life, was now simply the thing that kept the plane from drifting into outer space, as he enjoys his flight from New York to Moscow.
Some Notes on this Piece
Recently, I've decided to include a guitar track in my pieces. In "flight," the guitar sort of symbolizes the idea of flight that becomes a tangible reality as the piano track transitions from the slow, plodding thinking to the dynamic emergence of the factual projection underneath.
The piece begins quietly and slowly, but it gradually picks up tempo, volume, and body. It rises to a crescendo. At the climax of the piece, the guitar reaches for (and doesn't quite attain) the tonic with a 6-7-6 (scale degrees) phrase. The piece ends with a peaceful decrescendo. The structure of the piece mimics the process of the joining of male and female principles in order to portray the hermetic idea.
The piece is for piano and guitar. It has some jazz and rock influences, as well as some Americana classical influence. Americana classical music is a branch of the classical tradition which features a largely diatonic harmonic content with some moderate level of dissonance, as well as some popular music influence. The two most prominent names of this tradition are Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein. John Adams also composed music in this tradition, although he also belongs to the minimalist tradition.
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New Canyons
In one or two of my previous posts, I've compared the emotional experience to a river which cuts canyons in the topography of our future experience of being, in such a way that our sense of self is "pre-paved," if you will, by our present emotional experience.
What you feel today is who you become tomorrow. If you don't like who you are, you can take control of that choosing to change your emotional experience. When you do this, the "river" that is your emotional self, begins to cut "new canyons" in your a priori bound experiential future. So if you don't like who you are, then it is incumbent upon you to cut new canyons for yourself by changing the way you feel. This starts with a conscious choice. You have to choose to take control of the person you are becoming. You have to understand that doing so commits you to an emotional process. Then, it proceeds with changing your surroundings. This presents the stimuli you need to be happier. You now have the power to be happy, regardless of what the objective situation is. When that happens, you become a deep, powerful, effective human being.
Some Notes on this Piece
"New Canyons" shows the process of getting from a place of worry to a place of personal power. Getting in touch with your personal power makes you able to experience confidence and happiness. It opens in g# minor, which, to my ear, is the most unsure, worry-filled key. The piece features, close, restricted minor thirds, further underscoring the anxiety of the experience. As it progresses, it slowly opens up and moves past the sense of anxiety, to much more full, open chords in a major key, with parallel fifths and octaves, suggesting a calm, but powerful sense of self-confidence and personal power. As such, this shows the process of developing new canyons of future experience.
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Sonata for Guitar and Piano in e flat minor
This is a sonata for guitar and piano in e flat minor. While it is somewhat in the realms of minimalism and jazz in terms of style, it follows the basic classical three-movement sonata form. I chose e flat minor because it has a dark, murky, mysterious quality. F Sharp Major is its relative major (which is used in classical sonata form for the countertheme and second movement when the main key is minor), which, to my ear, has a rich, yet frosty sound to it.
Some Notes on "Sonata for Guitar and Piano in e flat minor"
This piece has three movements. The first movement is a sonata allegretto in e flat minor, the second movement is a ternary andante in F Sharp Major, and the third movement is a quick-paced rondo in e flat minor.
First Movement: Allegretto
This movement moves along at a somewhat leisurely pace. The keyboard opens in the tonic key with a simple ostinato. The guitar then enters mimicking the ostinato before launching into the theme. The keyboards maintain a rhythmic countermelody before shifting to the countertheme.
The countertheme is slower and is characterized, in the guitar, with relaxed slides, and a shift to an acoustic sound pallet. The piano has already entered into the development section before the guitar is done with the countertheme.
In the development section, the guitar returns to an electronic sound pallet in between keyboard solos that explore a few different keys with the theme and countertheme.
The recapitulation is a bit truncated and is really more of a continuation of the thoughts posed by the theme and counterthemes, rather than a full-blown recapitulation.
Second Movement: Andante
This is arguably the best part of the piece. It is in the relative F# Major. This movement is much less rhythmic and much more melodic than the other two movements. It is somewhat modal with a few chromaticisms and whole tones thrown in. The guitar uses an acoustic sound pallet. The theme of this movement is reminiscent of the countertheme of the first movement.
This piece follows a ternary form. The "B" section is a development section, but while the theme explores itself a bit here, it doesn't go too far off afield. The returning "A" theme is a variation on the original theme with a slightly more lively texture.
Third Movement: Rondo Vivace
This movement returns to e flat minor with a main theme that is reminiscent of the main theme in the first movement, but it is much shorter and frenetic.
The keyboard plays the F Sharp Major countertheme rather than the guitar, which plays an accompanying role. The theme is a bit slower than the main theme, but it is not leisurely; it has a moderate pace and emphasizes rhythm over melody.
The first return of the main theme is actually a brief development section. The main theme explores a few different keys before going in the "C" section.
The "C" section is materially different from the rest of the movement. It is somewhat reminiscent of the countertheme of the first movement. It is a brief development section, as well.
The recapitulation returns to e flat minor, and, rather than going into a final "ABA" format, it simply combines elements of the theme and countertheme in what could be considered an extended CODA.
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Vow of Silence
Why is it that many monks choose to commit to a vow of silence? The level of commitment that that takes is heavy. It means that even the most casual and menial effort at communication with others becomes a major challenge. One does not take up such a challenge without the possibility of a significant payoff.
I would suggest that the payoff for such a vow has to do with the kinds of knowledge that are only accessible through the kind of intense introspection that you are forced to engage in when you have committed to not speaking at all under any circumstances.
When you make that kind of commitment, you are forced to listen and observe yourself and others. Unless and until you have chosen to listen and observe more than speak, you are highly vulnerable to hypocrisy and ignorance. So many people view others as their enemies, and sometimes, such an estimation of others has some validity; but what they forget is that they can be their own worst enemies when they fail to attend to the content of their own souls. I think that is what a vow of silence is really about.
Some Notes on Vow of Silence
This piece is a simple improvisation that I did for electronic keyboard. It is mostly tonal, with some whole-tonality sections. The piece is binary, with a musical motif followed by a development section. It is heavily melodic, rather than rhythmic. It does have a shifting time signature. There is very little polyphony; the piece instead focuses on the harmonic content.
I created this piece in such a way as to capture a sense of rich, silent introversion. To do that, I used an electronic keyboard sound pallet, which doesn't have any sharp edges, and I used a musical texture that focused on harmony and melody, rather than rhythm.
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Rokaya
Muslims have a practice known as "Rokaya," which is a ceremonial prayer which cleanses a house of unclean spirits. The idea of this practice is highly suggestive to me. It suggests something rather akin to an exorcism, yet less theatrical. It's more like a center of calm in a person that they find deep within their soul and extends, gently, to their chest, stomach, legs and arms, head, and, finally, their toes and fingers. Consequently, an unshakeable calm saturates their entire body, soul, and spirit. When it does, one utters the rokaya -- assertively, powerfully, yet entirely devoid of aggression or impurity.
Demons, who thrive on soul decay, frustration, aggression, and hatred, are only repelled by the pure power expressed by the idea of this rokaya. It is humble and unassuming. When the one who expresses it encounters others, they set their demons are on the run, and that things in their life are set back in proper order. The rokaya has a cleansing, healing, and comforting effect.
Some Notes on Rokaya
This piece has of a number of intersecting elements. The tonal center is c#, with an initial suggestion of the minor mode, which, in my opinion, is the darkest key signature. It sounds "black" to me. But, as other instruments are introduced after the slow, simple pointillist opening with the solo piano, the harmonies become much more complex.
The guitar, and later, the piano, introduces an octatonic mode. There is complex, florid polyphony, polytonality, and polyrhythm that grows naturally from initially simple threads into twisted sinews, dissolving again into nothingness. The piece begins and ends on the same, simple, unassuming C# right above middle C. This particularly suggests, in spite of the complex, passionate journey of the piece, a stable sense of self. This portrays a sense of reassurance of a beneficent constancy and dependability of essence in the face of the darkness.
Some people can drive out demons by simply seeing the truth. The beholder sees your true self. When you encounter the beholder, your demons must leave. Thoe rokaya cleanses your home. It cleanses your soul.
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This is just a meandering improvisation that I did. I just kind of let my mind wander on this one. If I had to compare this piece to something, I would compare it to a film score by John Williams, or maybe Hans Zimmer. It's mostly tonal, and it's a piano solo. It starts in A flat Major and ends up in B Major.
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What if what the mass unconscious wills is what we experience as reality? If so, we can imagine that when our wills come into contact with the mass unconscious to negotiate or do battle with it, a phenomenological texture emerges.
This piece is post-minimalistic with some modernist tendencies.
We are in the midst of a new revolution. This revolution is not local - it is global. It is not a physical revolution, but a spiritual one. We are finding one another. Those of us who seek freedom are finding those who seek freedom. Those who seek love are finding those who seek love. Those who wallow in self-pity or seek power are finding those like themselves who are driven by a malevolent weakness. We are self-selecting to become our greatest selves or worst selves. Those of us who embrace the new revolution will leave the rest behind.
A web search for the word "Hotep" will reveal a movement that has attracted a lot of controversy. It's hard to identify exactly what it is, but to the extent that this site (http://hotepnation.com/) is representative of it, I have to say, I'm a pretty big fan. For our society to work well, and for us to be at peace with one another, we all need to have the kinds of attitudes described by the literature on that site.
You do not pass out of the sequence without first being measured by the judge. There are none so cursed as those who invoke the judge who themselves fall short when weighed on Saturn's scale.
I really enjoyed creating my Prelude and Fugue in A Flat, and so I made another one in B Flat. I'm thinking I might create a series of 12 of these. I don't think I'll create 24 like Shostakovich or Bach because, strictly speaking, these pieces aren't tonal (they're modal), so it doesn't really make that much sense to distinguish between "Major" and "minor" keys (for those of you who don't know, there are 12 notes in the chromatic scale, and in classical tonal literature, each note has a Major and a minor key, for a total of 24 keys; but since my pieces aren't classically tonal, it makes more sense to just write one piece per note, rather than two).
The Prelude, in this case, is the kind of piece I imagine Beethoven might write if he were a minimalist. The three-part Fugue is very much in keeping with what Shostakovich and Bach did, in terms of its stylistic content.