Sermon Preached at Northbrae Community Church, June 8, 2003 – Music Sunday
By Ron Sebring
Worship and Harmonics
Last year on Music Sunday, we considered MUSIC AS METAPHOR. This was based in part on the thoughts of Roger Jones in his book, Physics as Metaphor. The idea is that Music is an experiential metaphor that expresses for us, in Melody, the sequence of events in our lives:
Harmony, the synchronicity of events in our lives
Rhythm, the cyclic movement of our lives
And to add further conjecture, tonal texture might express our uniqueness of being
Through this last year, my spare-time reading has taken me deeper into the ideas of Kabbalah, studies in sound and healing, sacred numbers and the dynamics of what makes a sacred language … These are themes in the mysticism of many world religions. From this, I’ve come to a new conclusion. While music is an experiential metaphor with the power to organize and give perspective to our lives (and hence the feelings of satisfaction and inspiration) … There is another sense in which it is much more than this. Music and voice, by virtue of the harmonics they carry, can directly and literally affect things in enhancing or inhibiting ways. Music, particularly chanting and singing, can be a tonic for spiritual consciousness.
The act of intoning notes and vowels not only alters our consciousness, it has a physical effect on the world around us. In other words, music can be a way of praying. Alfred Tomatis is a French doctor specializing in sound and the human ear. He believes the ear not only takes in vibrations, keeps balance and enables vocal control … in a subtle way, it recharges the brain and central nervous system. For him, there are two kinds of sound, those that are toxic and those that are a tonic. Jonathan Goldman, Healing Sounds, pp. 74ff, The tonic sounds are those with the higher harmonics, such as found in the Gregorian chants. He discovered this when the Abbot of a Benedictine monastery invited him in to solve a problem. Their monks were depressed and ineffective. It seems that after Vatican II where emphasis was placed on social responsibility, the monastery felt that the six to eight hours they devoted daily to chanting was a waste of time. They ceased their chanting and devoted more of themselves to justice and social service. In a few short weeks, the monks became depressed, and lacked motivation to do their work. They called in many consultants to figure out the problem. They tried adjusting their diets, recreation, devotional themes, study topics … many things. Nothing worked. Then they called in Alfred Tomatis. When he restored their Gregorian chanting, enthusiasm for their rigorous routine quickly returned. What happened to these monks is known as the "Tomatis Effect."
Music, and the vowels in our voices, recharge and heal our bodies. Story from Jonathan Goldman, Healing Sounds, pp. 74-77, Dr. Susumu Ohno has done some amazing work with music and the DNA sequence. Perhaps, ‘PLAY’ would be a more appropriate word than ‘work.’ At the Beckman Research Institute in Duarte, California, he took strands of DNA, and carefully assigned musical notes to the various substances. His wife, Midori, a professional musician, added rhythm and harmony. He came up with fifteen or so compositions, and when transcribed, musicians performed the pieces. To trained ears, many of these pieces were comparable to Bach, Brahms, Chopin and others. Dr. Ohno found that the more evolved the organism, the more complex the composition. And this the really amazing part! He did the process backwards, transcribing a piece by Chopin to a DNA code, and found that it approximated a human cancer gene. [TOP]
From an article by Larry Dossey, M.D., entitled "The Body as Music," as found in Don Campbell’s book of essays entitled Music and Miracles, pp. 55ff, for good or ill, it would seem that music is encoded into the very nature of how life works, and who we are!
The powers of music [and vowels in the voice] lie in how the vibrations of sound have a direct relationship to forms in space. Dr. Hans Jenny, a Swiss Scientist, established this by taking a steel plate and placing various materials on it. Then by sounding a tone under the plate, the materials dance around and gather into a geometrical form. It’s as if the particular arrangement of the harmonics in a tone implies a fundamental form in space. Jenny established a relationship between sound and form. With various sounds, he was able to reproduce outlines of starfish, and human organs, and microscopic bacteria. His theory is that forms in our visual world have a corresponding vibrational harmonic that resonates with and holds them in place.
The universe is literally harmonically interrelated. This is precisely what a visual artist becomes sensitive to … the geometric forms in the shapes and textures of the things they see. Colors, too, have a scale of vibration that corresponds to music. Again: the universe is literally harmonically interrelated. Various religions of the world have recognized this. Lao-tzu, the originator of Taoism, believed that there is a "Great Sound." It is beyond imagination, beyond hearing. And on the basis of this sound, the Tao (the "way" of all things) unfolds. Hinduism talks about the Nada Brahma, the fundamental sound of the universe. From this come the various ‘seed’ sounds. And from these, all things evolve and are held in being. Many eastern religions, as well as esoteric traditions of western religions, give great attention to the particular ‘mantra’ used for meditation. They believe that the sounds chosen have a direct bearing on one’s spiritual journey into deeper consciousness. Pythagoras, who worked out the proportions for the diatonic scale we use in our music today, spoke of the "Music of the Spheres." [TOP]
Everything, including the orbits of the planets, is vibrationally related. And these relationships are precisely and mathematically proportional. Consider the quote in the Mini-sermon, in the Bulletin: "It suddenly came to me … that the word for the spirit of the universe or whatever you want to call "It" has the sound "aahhh" in many languages. To wit: God, Jah, Ra, Allah, Brahma, Atman, YHVH, Ram, Baal, Ahura, Mazda (I’m using the Thesaurus), Og, Hachiman, Mab, Nagual, Mana, Wakan Tankan, … I think it’s because the "aahhh" sound is so relaxing of the jaw and throat, letting go, giving in to what is. Makes me reminded of the oneness of all us folks." --Larry Ephron (Berkeley, CA) as quoted in Music and Miracles, p. 54.
While languages differ, there seems to be a certain texture in the sounds of which the human voice is capable that is universal. The mystics tell us that this is because the "Aaah" sound is the most relaxed, open and natural position of the mouth and tongue. This sound resonates at the level of our hearts, where we connect with God. From the "center" of Aaah …"Oooh" and "Uuuh" sound as the voice comes forward in our mouths; these sounds resonate in the lower parts of our bodies. "Long-A" and "EEEh" sound as the voice goes back in our mouths, and resonate in the higher realms of our bodies [throat and forehead]. It’s as if we have the musical scale running up and down our bodies, like the keyboard of a piano, just waiting to be intoned. The vowels in our languages represent the complete range of harmonics of which the human voice is capable. And on the basis of these two assumptions, the science of music, voice and healing find its basis.
Many months ago, Connie and I visited the Monterrey Aquarium. Both inspiring and educational it was …multicolored jellyfish, life from the deep ocean, sharks and tuna and all sorts of marine animals. In the gift shop, I purchased a CD, the music of the Monterrey Bay. The orchestra plays in the background. In the foreground, the whales and dolphins emit haunting and enthralling sounds. Profoundly deep. Enveloping. Magnetic in their draw. One can only imagine what that must be like under water, and with a hearing that can sense overtones far above our own hearing range.
How so wise the Psalmist who says …Praise God with the harp, lute, and trumpet. Praise God with tambourine and dance. Praise God both in our sanctuary and in the firmament. Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! It already does! Ours is only to listen. And then to find our own voice, and sing along.
© Ron Sebring [TOP]