A few days ago, I posted a new addition to my blogroll: Ezra Sandzer-Bell’s Hidden Origins of Western Music(k). 

What does this blog cover? In a nutshell: the Hidden Origins of Western Music(k) (HOWM) blog is one man’s attempt at uncovering occult organizing principles and symbols embedded in the major/minor key system of our Western music tradition.

Occult? Music? You mean Led Zep, Black Sabbath, playing records backwards, all that over-the-top heavy metal pseudo-satanic stuff?

Well, yes and no… Those of you following my own ramblings know that I’m generally curious about the origins of things and fresh new takes on the history of music. My interest in Mr. Sandzer-Bell is this: we both share a hunch that the “inner workings” of music – the design of the system – have implications that go far beyond our everyday understanding of music as art and entertainment.

For his investigations, Sandzer-Bell makes use of a “synchromystic” method that compares seemingly unconnected symbols and symbol-systems to reveal underlying patterns, similarities and origins. “Synchro” as in synchronicity, because the connections are intuitively discovered and grasped. “Mystic” because the symbols belong to traditions of esoteric thought. The term is borrowed from Jay Kotze of the Brave New World Order blog, and means: ”the art of realizing meaningful coincidence in the seemingly mundane with mystical or esoteric significance.”

In other words, this approach treats music as an esoteric system of knowledge that needs decoding.

Perhaps the best intro to Sandzer-Bell’s magical mystery quest is his first video. If it all seems rather ad hoc, keep in mind that Sandzer-Bell is referencing a common repertoire of esoteric lore contained in the traditions of Freemasonic symbolism, Kabbalah and Sacred Geometry, and applying them to everyday symbols.

Click here to view the embedded video.

musicians are so square(d)

Don’t know what to make of all this? I’ll confess that I’m a little iffy on this idea of relating everyday iconography to hermetic symbols as a way to confirm “occult origins”, even if there is clear overlap in core design features. From everything I’ve read on this topic, I’ve seen that the creative exegesis of symbols can mystify as much as it can open “the doors of perception” (to use Aldous Huxley‘s phrase). I also feel that numerology is more an assumption than a method of discovery: once you start that number patterning, everything ends up as a number pattern.

Which I guess is the whole point of hermetic and kabbalistic approaches. Maybe I’m still too new at this, but it seems strange to me to think symbols are “magical” and numbers have “talismanic” properties.

That said, I’ll grant that there are still many unanswered questions about the way Western music has emerged and developed, and its Pythagorean origins are well established in mainstream scholarship. What I take from the “synchromystic” crowd: be open to unexpected connections.

And do keep it playful .

I’ll close this post with a quote from Sandzer-Bell, on why he’s after some answers:

Music is universal to every culture, it potentially inspires a sense of awe and magical beauty, generating love and connection between humans. I noticed that it has lately been used in the mainstream as a tool for separation and thoughtlessness, encouraging mindless behavior and militaristic aggression (blastbeats?). Who is behind this force? Is toxic music the byproduct of toxic composers?

How can we TAKE BACK OUR MUSICAL SUPERPOWERS?

It didn’t take long before I fell into of a frenzy of speculation (this happens when you think too much). I was playing music, now writing about it. But the more I played and wrote, the more it dawned on me I didn’t have a very strong grasp of “music” to begin with!

So I set out on a magical mystery quest, with my big question: “what is music”? And where does every magical mystery quest take you, in the end?

Ancient Egypt, of course.

So here I am, in front that sphinx – mysterious old Music. I ask: “Music, what art thou?” (you have to sound Elizabethan or the sphinx won’t even hear you).

Seeing no response, I tickle it under the paw: “Sphinx, why are we humans musical?”

Getting the same mute response, I decide to go to the Google Gods (right under the Cheops Pyramid) and throw my flippin’ keywords into their oracular search sandbox.

The best answer I come up with? This website on “music science” by a fellow named Philip Dorrell. I even wrote a blog post about it.

an itch you just can’t scratch?

All fine and well, but reading Dorrell just leaves me with more questions than answers. I’m a child of the age: I want answers! Right now (pant, pant)!

At some point, I start to get it: every magical mystery search worth its salt must have dead ends and fruitless avenues. Perhaps I have gone about it the wrong way all along.

Perhaps I should have not gone to the sandbox at all, but instead looked at the Sphinx.

the twist, the twist!!

So instead of Google, I go to YouTube (Oy vey, Gilles, YouTube is owned by Google…Hello!)

Lookie here. There’s a cat on the ‘tube, pretty famous, one of the most gifted denizens of the internet: Nora the Cat.

When you look at the Sphinx, what do you see? A giant feline! Nora, my sphinx!

So you’ve watched the video (and the second installment!), and resumed reading once the adrenalin rush of giddy discovery has subsided.

Bet you forgot the question that started it all (I did!)?

Think of Nora. What is Nora’s gift, evident to all? A “musical sense”? The discovery of pitch? An association of pleasure with certain sounds?

Indeed, it’s tempting to take the “behaviorist” route and explain Nora away with the pain-pleasure conditioned-reflex response. But watching her ears perk up as notes resound, I’m not so sure myself.

Nora seems a rather mystical cat. She’s got feel.

of cats and men

To be sure, Nora’s special gift raises more questions than answers, too. About cats. And humans.

Again, perhaps the answers we seek lie “hidden in plain view”. After all, how did the Ancient Egyptians portray the sphinx? A cat with a human head. What does that say about musicians?

‘Nuff said.

Like: why does it seems to me that nobody uses the word “energy” more loosely than musicians (OK, maybe Feng Shui practitioners, aging hippies, UN Eco-Popes, yoga teachers and crystal healers are energy fluff-aholics, too. But on the whole…)?

For example, I’m a musician – just back from a vacation in my hometown of Winnipeg, Canada (“Spirited Energy” is the provincial slogan!) – and I’ll tell you this: whenever I go through downtown Winnipeg, I can’t help noticing an office building which really gives me the creeps.

I mean, it’s all bad vibes.

Yes, it’s the Credit Union Plaza, 215 Garry Street. Here’s the building data:

• Date: 1976
• Architect: Smith Carter Architects
• Some (previous and current) tenants: Credit Union Central, Department of Transportation and Government Services, Gaming Control Commission

Yes, yes, “bad vibes”! Like that black monolith in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001!

So, totally flaky? Or am I just oversensitive with regards to sinister-looking things, like those animals who go crazy two hours before a major earthquake?

Probably. But I’m also a curious guy.

feng phooey

Alright Ladies. I don’t want to be delving into Feng Shui or Ouija just yet. Rather, I’m going to consult a few muses, and see what they make of any “vibes” – real and imagined – emanating from this building.

First muse: the science of acoustics, the link between music and architecture.

Our key diagnostic tool will be the concept of harmonics. Harmonic and harmony share the same Greek root harmonia, meaning “joint, agreement, concord” (also a goddess in Greek mythology).

In acoustics, harmonics are the basic over-tones or frequencies which, blending together in the vibration of an air passage, drum surface or string length, and make up the pitch (note) and timbre (sound “color”) of a given musical instrument.

In music, tonal harmony is the set of tone relations that govern musical concordance and dissonance, based on scale patterns within the tonal key system.

big-time flake makes important scientific discovery!

While these concepts are the stock and trade of every serious student of music, I’m going to take an immediate historical turn, to garner the insights necessary for unwinding this foul-building plot.

A bit of research on the origins of music theory shows that our Hard Science and New Age obsession over harmonics is admittedly of ancient origins.

The earliest theories of music that have come down to us have come from Ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras.

Pythagoras is famous for giving music theorists the basic concepts for understanding musical scale construction.

He did this by dividing a plucked, resonating string into sections, and comparing the length of each section in relation to other tone pitches. From vibrating string sections, Pythagoras observed divisions that bore fractional relation to one another.

Cumulatively, these vibrating segments came to be known as the harmonic series.

By way of example: pressing down exactly in the middle of a whole string length would produce a tone exactly an octave above the open string. Pythagoras assigned the numerical ratio 2:1 to express this relationship between string division and tone pitch.

The following graphic demonstrates the 2:1, 3:1 and 3:2 monochord ratios, using frequency measurements of Hz, or cycles per second.

The Pythagorean theory, in a nuthsell:

• Every pitch value exists in relation to another. Even a single vibrating open string is expressed as 1:1 ratio.
• Laws govern harmonic relationships, which are to be expressed as numerical ratios.
• The western tradition of tonal harmony developed from the systemization of Pythagoras’ approach.

harmony, meet the sphinx

Fair enough. But where does this take us with regards to our “building vibe” diagnostic quest?

Actually, down the road to a much more ancient doctrine.

What is often overlooked in our understanding of ancient music theory, is that Pythagoras attributed deep mystical value to numbers. His fully articulated doctrine – called Sacred Geometry – was considered an esoteric science for priestly or philosophical initiates only, and it is believed today that Pythagoras inherited and “secularized” this received body of mystical knowledge from Egyptian forebears.

The following video documentary provides some fascinating (if not controversial) background research on the ancient mystery schools from which it is believed Pythagoras derived his initiation (watch from segment 6 onwards for an intro on “The Sacred Science”).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Whatever you make of this type of historical investigation, it should at least be more obvious by now that musicians and sound engineers can claim no exclusivity to the art and science of harmonics. Indeed, following these ancient precepts, music is simply an applied branch in the set of knowledge disciplines that comprise “The Sacred Science”. These disciplines can be listed as follows:

• Chemistry
• Physical sciences
• Philosophy
• Medicine
• Astronomy
• Geometry
• Architecture
• Music
• Mathematics

magic and mystery in central Canada

If all this stuff seems rather far-fetched and esoteric to you, well… you’re right. I mean, there’s a building in Winnipeg which gives me the creeps, and somehow I’m trying to relate my subjective impressions of this building to the mystery schools of Ancient Egypt!

So perhaps I should begin making my point .

One of the reasons people take to learning a music instrument is the ability to express themselves through song and music. Concretely, that means learning to produce harmonious, melodic and rhythmic vibrations with their musical device, in keeping with the stylistic laws of any given musical genre.

In this way, just as I’m instinctively repelled by this building, I am subconsciously attracted to my instrument, knowing it is designed for creative harmonic purposes.

Indeed, if there’s one (flaky) thing we can derive from this “Sacred Science of Geometry”, it is that harmonics are universal. Everybody knows the cliché: “music is the universal language of humankind”. But scientifically speaking even rhythmic devices, such as a single drum resonate with harmonic frequencies.

So in a way, it seems the only difference between us and the ancients is that the ancients thought all things to be imbued with “mystical resonances” (harmonics), from the smallest being in the microcosm to the largest of celestial bodies.

So in effect, what am I doing? I’m just putting on an ancient mask to better sniff out some contemporary bad vibes.

Like Frank Albo, Manitoba’s most recent academic celebrity, now a celebrated architectural harmonics inspector. For those of you who haven’t heard of him, Frank has made a name for himself as expert in local esoteric lore in Winnipeg, with his landmark research on the Freemasonic origins of the Manitoba Legislature.

Here’s a televised segment of Frank doing a “magical mystery tour” of the legislature (apologies for the appalling hipness displayed by the show hosts). Of interest to us: there’s a neat demonstration of architectural harmonics in the final bit of the segment.

and what about glass pyramids?

So in the end, can Frank’s research methods provide me with the key to my local bad vibes diagnostic quest?

Well, if bad industrial design remains the main criteria for determining whether a building has Sick Building Syndrome or not, perhaps flaky musicians such as myself must ultimately have recourse to architectural harmonic assessments, as self-defense against psychically noxious sites.

‘Cause, unless you’ve got that special ear training, you’ll never really know when your local glass pyramid will spontaneously shatter.

(Great West Life glass pyramid, across the road from the Manitoba Legislature.)