Oliver's transcendental musical diary

[Korpo]

Neither Napster.de nor iTunes.de has it, and it's basically unavailable on Amazon.de.

Oliver

[Korpo]

Had an experience when listening to a song Seuuzin posted: viewtopic.php?f=25&t=21048

I just listened to it, and wasn't too much into it.

However, at the 5:30 mark I paid a bit more attention to it and thought something like "this probably has a third eye opening aspect" from the way the music is arranged, and I felt a cool energy in one of the layers of my energy field, like at least my upper body was enveloped in a flow of cooling energy.

This is usually a good thing, and this actually happened as I repeated it. I kind of feel "opened." It also felt as if my head had expanded - all the "inner measurements" were off. I was trying to determine if the spot I was feeling was the third eye, and I thought it was, but I would have expected it "lower in my body." After a while of observation I found it was indeed the third eye and my inner body image had changed in a subtle way.

The effect is still with me as I write this, and it got retriggered also I think when I relistened to the song from the 5:30 mark.

[Korpo]

Something I've noticed - my attention span for listening to one piece of music and for concentration meditation is about the same. When I close in on 20 minutes I kind of get impatient and new variations, ideas or parts become less interesting. It's like my mind wants the end of having to pay attention, while initially enjoying it all along.

I get tired of longer pieces easier than shorter pieces, even if they are as highly varied. I guess that has something to do with expectations. Actually I'm a bit more tolerant for longer pieces if there's stronger element of repetition - for example in a classical piece if the theme appears more often. A practical example is that I find it easier to listen to the second movement of Bruckner's 7th (Adagio) than to the first. They basically match in length, but the first one explores a wider variety of musical ideas which seem less connected, while the Adagio seems to have more structure. Similar I find it easier to listen to Barber's "Adagio for Strings" than to other pieces - it's a set of variations on a theme. So, I think in my case the latter comes from growing up with rock and pop mostly. Both are structured and repetitive.

When it comes to developing attention span it has to be noted that songs tend to short attention spans, mostly. Ever since the single format for records came up pop and rock hits often lived below the five minute range. Compare that with "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen which was considered to be too long to be a hit (and boy were those record company executives wrong! ).

Tolerance for longer pieces can for example be built through styles like progressive rock - for example Jethro Tull would not exactly qualify as progressive, but they released pieces of about 20 minutes length - "Thick As A Brick Pt.1," "Thick As A Brick Pt.2" and "A Passion Play." Similarly Genesis and Yes have released longer pieces, sometimes in the double-digit minute range. Jazz sometimes, and of course classical music. I think listening to pieces of greater length can extend attention span, at least when you follow listening instructions like in "Music and the Soul." Listening as what we commonly call "paying attention," not just as background music.

Oliver

[Tutor]

so true Korpo, listening precedes that which would 'pay' attention. if seen rightly, to 'pay attention' is as if to put 'noise' over that which in silence would from listen.

it is hard to experience, let go, without requiring self to pay thoughts into it. like, how am i feeling here? well duh! stop thinking and freely feel.

so, feeling without thought added to it, would be the silent ear that listens.

i guess we are conditioned to avoid for fear of distaste, of this or that, which is thought as good or bad...etc.

so, the behavior is just that, it is paying thoughts for what is free.

free is free, is it not?

tim

[Korpo]

I found "Firth of Fifth" by Genesis to be an excellent example of a song which moves upwards through various centers. It's in the middle part, after Gabriel sings "Undinal songs urge the sailors on till lured by sirens' cry." Then the music mimics the singing of the sirens' for a short while. I think the following section is a particular masterpiece, moving through many centers till finally the song returns for the final verse.

Beautiful lyrics, too:

The path is clear
Though no eyes can see
The course laid down long before.
And so with gods and men
The sheep remain inside their pen,
Though many times they've seen the way to leave.

[...]

And so with gods and men
The sheep remain inside their pen,
Until the Shepherd leads his flock away.

The sands of time were eroded by
The river of constant change.

(Genesis, "Firth of Fifth")

Oliver

[Tutor]

i love the lyrics, but i wasn't crazy for the listening of it. but i see what ya mean.

[CFTraveler]

I so much preferred Peter Gabriel to Phil Collins.

[Korpo]

As I was walking to the train station I pieced together a melody. It was catchy and I began to whistle it. Then it started to play in my head. It became a fullfletched piece for piano, with trills and other playful ornamentation, and it got varied over and over in slightly different ways. Then the lead voice was exchanged for strings, and now strings and piano carried the piece together.

This went on for quite a while, in fact I had to deliberately stop it at some point because it wouldn't stop on its own.

On my way home then various pieces for piano I must have heard over the years started to play, vary, and mix in my mind. These were definitely known pieces, though I can't place them because I heard them for example in movies or on TV, not on their own or knowing titles.

Oliver

[Korpo]

I was listening to Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony out of an impulse. I actually like it, but it is definitely odd. At some part of I got a series of pictures, another sequence brought a sensation of unnnamed fear. I then realised that screen music writers of the 60s and 70s possibly had borrowed from Messiaen when they wanted to portray cognitive dissonance, despair, mental illness and states close to the mental breaking point, also for experiences that were alien, unknown and scary.

I let a co-worker listen to the opening movement, and he also reported the sensation of seeing a sequence of pictures.

(I also found out that the Turangalila Symphony is the reason for the first name of Leela in Futurama.)

Oliver

[Korpo]

This was a bit eerie. Today a jazz melody line popped into my head. It would form a sort of chorus, and then soli for the different instruments and groups of instruments would follow - a bit similar to improvisation.

I have to double-check if I heard this piece before when reviewing material about arranging. The freaky thing is that it is fully formed - I can hear the whole brass compartment in my head. I can vary it and listen in, I can focus on an instrument, I can hear the bass walk its notes, I can hear all the instruments playing out my ideas for solos.

Granted, not everything of it is original, but I can hear it in my head as if I listened to a record over and over. It's like I piece together what I know about the instruments (from listening that is) and expand on that.

I whistled the tune into my mobile's voice recorder. This idea will not stay unused, I intend to transcribe it.

Oliver