Philosophical Speculations

AshvinP wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 1:47 pmThanks! Here is the cross image which was supposed to be in the essay (Dana, if you could edit the essay to substitute this link for the one that is there, that would be great!)

Done ... Btw, there is also an image ( the link being https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2&i ... _kqpgo7d80) that is not showing up in the version of the essay I'm viewing, just after the following paragraph ...

"Just as there is the primal Word, there is also the primal Tone. All speech has some musical tone, holding a dynamic relationship of outer form to inner meaning, respectively. The primal Tone permeates the soul element of Nature which resides in the spiritual realm without any physical form. It deals only in the vowels of speech which express the formless inwardness and feelings of the human soul, as opposed to the consonants which express the formative forces of her will and her thought. We can get a sense for the intimate relationship between speech and tone when considering the seven musical notes of the diatonic scale, from C through B, and the inward 'soul-moods' dynamically associated with them. These connections of sound-tone and soul will remain at a low resolution until we practice often with them, remembering always to approach the realm of spirit and soul with good will, humility, and devotion."

Soul_of_Shu wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 2:48 pm

AshvinP wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 1:47 pmThanks! Here is the cross image which was supposed to be in the essay (Dana, if you could edit the essay to substitute this link for the one that is there, that would be great!)

Done ... Btw, there is also an image ( the link being https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2&i ... _kqpgo7d80) that is not showing up in the version of the essay I'm viewing, just after the following paragraph ...

"Just as there is the primal Word, there is also the primal Tone. All speech has some musical tone, holding a dynamic relationship of outer form to inner meaning, respectively. The primal Tone permeates the soul element of Nature which resides in the spiritual realm without any physical form. It deals only in the vowels of speech which express the formless inwardness and feelings of the human soul, as opposed to the consonants which express the formative forces of her will and her thought. We can get a sense for the intimate relationship between speech and tone when considering the seven musical notes of the diatonic scale, from C through B, and the inward 'soul-moods' dynamically associated with them. These connections of sound-tone and soul will remain at a low resolution until we practice often with them, remembering always to approach the realm of spirit and soul with good will, humility, and devotion."

Oh right, forgot about that one - here is the image right after that paragraph. Thanks!

AshvinP wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 3:02 pmOh right, forgot about that one - here is the image right after that paragraph. Thanks!

All fixed, and lookin' real purrdy, just as originally conceived ...

While I have still not been inspired to make some insightful comment, other than to say to that, as per usual, I truly enjoyed reading this essay, while feeling some intuitive affinity for your artful style and content, as others chime in, perhaps that will stir up something from the fertile depths of stillness and silence.

Soul_of_Shu wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 3:18 pm

AshvinP wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 3:02 pmOh right, forgot about that one - here is the image right after that paragraph. Thanks!

All fixed, and lookin' real purrdy, just as originally conceived ...

While I have still not been inspired to make some insightful comment, other than to say to that, as per usual, I truly enjoyed reading this essay, while feeling some intuitive affinity for your artful style and content, as others chime in, perhaps that will stir up something from the fertile depths of stillness and silence.

Thank you i am glad you liked it and look forward to your inspired comment. We certainly cannot rush these things because, after all, "the Spirit blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going."

Here's an interview with Jacob Collier, which adds "Emotional Intelligence and Music" and more that might contemplated as part of the topic. I think it's a marvelous addition. Give it a listen and see how it feels to you.

Lou Gold wrote: ↑Thu Jul 15, 2021 1:18 am Here's an interview with Jacob Collier, which adds "Emotional Intelligence and Music" and more that might contemplated as part of the topic. I think it's a marvelous addition. Give it a listen and see how it feels to you.

Lou,

Thanks for sharing. Collier appears to me like someone who is very in touch with the concrete reality of musical aesthetic - how thinking is ensouled by feeling to bring forth the remarkable powers of human Imagination-Intuition. When he says musical "theory is secondary to feeling", that is exactly right - ensoulment moves us from abstraction to real living Thinking (higher cognition) in tempo, with harmonious tones, rhythms, melodies, etc., as Cleric also described in his comment above. Collier also says, "there is misconception that music is something the artist wants to do, but it's actually something the artist needs to do". Again he is spot on - we must realize that we can allow music to literally ensoul our spiritual willing and perceiving-cognizing so that we are lifted beyond the merely personal into the shared universal, and ultimately that is the only chance for freely living together with all beings in peace and harmony by our own volition. He says, "what is right [way of composing music] is what feels the strongest... music makes my mind feel stuff that I have never felt before". Yet again he is intuiting deep truths - that none of our activities of will, feeling, and thinking must remain discontinuous and out of alignment - that, through the spiritual and soulful power of thoughtful aesthetics, we can bridge all - W-F-T; past-present-future; body-soul-spirit. I am still listening to the rest, thank you!

Ashvin,

Yup, for me JC speaks and tones and vibes a language that I instantly understand despite not being a musician myself. In brief, for me, he's got soul and as a tremendous bonus (again for me) he vibrates the Child and the Mother. As the musical director at the MIT Media Workshop notes in this documentary, "he convinces that the Divine exists."

Lou Gold wrote: ↑Fri Jul 16, 2021 4:00 am Ashvin,

Yup, for me JC speaks and tones and vibes a language that I instantly understand despite not being a musician myself. In brief, for me, he's got soul and as a tremendous bonus (again for me) he vibrates the Child and the Mother. As the musical director at the MIT Media Workshop notes in this documentary, "he convinces that the Divine exists."

And that is the view of every pre-modern artist - through their artwork the Divine is revealed. Even more recent composers could not think of denying such a reality, such as Haydn, Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Wagner, and many others. That is how aesthetics provides the concrete meeting place within the heart between the body and the spirit, the will and the thought, the blood and the breath, man and the Divine.