[-empyre-] inner octaves and Orpheus

[Glenn Bach <gbach@csulb.edu>]

John, wow, thanks for this Gurdjieff quote.  Beautiful.  Thanks, also, 
for the reminder about Orpheus.  Here is a paragraph on Orpheus from 
Harris & Platzner's _Classical Mythology: Images and Insights_:

"A personification of musical skill, Orpheus was the world's most 
effective, if not its first, poet.  Accompanying his singing on the 
lyer, he charmed the gods, reduced wild animals to peaceful 
contemplation. . . .  A mortal figure who combines elements of rational 
Apollo and ecstatic Dionysius, Orpheus is the archetypal creative 
artist, expressing powerful emotions in poetry of irresistable beauty. 
When Orpheus performs on his lyre . . . the entire world is captivated 
by his song: gods, mortals, wild animals, and even stones respond 
joyously.  In the still darkness of death's lair, Orpheus's music 
charmes Hades' fiercest monsters, including Cerberus and the Furies, who 
quietly let him pass.  Singing of his love for Eurydice, Orpheus reduces 
Hades and Persephone to tears, winning their permission to take back his 
wife . . ." (259)

I don't have an answer to whether there exists today a music that can be 
as direct.  I think that rave culture sought to achieve this.  Tobias?

G.

john hudak wrote:

> > From the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff:
> Objective music is all based on "inner octaves."  And it can obtain not only
> definite psychological results but definite physical results.  There can be
> such music as would freeze water.  There can be such music as would kill a
> man instantaneously.  The Biblical legend of the destruction of the walls of
> Jericho by music is precisely a legend of objective music.  Plain music, no
> matter of what kind, will not destroy walls, but objective music indeed can
> do so.  And not only can it destroy but it can also build up.  In the legend
> of Orpheus there are hints of objective music, for Orpheus used to impart
> knowledge by music.  Snake charmers' music in the East is an approach to
> objective music, of sourse very primitive.  Very often it is simply one note
> which is long drawn out, rising and falling only very little; but in this
> single note "inner octaves" are going on all the time and melodies of "inner
> octaves" which are inaudible to the ears but felt by the emotional center.
> And the snake hears this music or, more strictly speaking, he feels it and
> obeys it.  The same music, only a little more complicated, and men would
> obey it.
>
> This was in a book called "The Country Blues Guitar" by Stefan Grossman.
>
> I'm sorry if all this seems a mishmash of ideas...the Gurdjieff ideas are
> from my past (I used to be in a Gurdjieff group about 15 years ago).  I
> remember searching for music that might have a direct effect on human
> feelings...more or less the same effect for most people, as opposed to most
> music, which i think has a different effect on everyone.  I'm not sure if
> this music exists nowadays.  Perhaps I am thinking about the difference
> between direct communication of an idea and entertainment.
>
> I think "microsound" is just really a classification of sounds that have
> always been around in some form or another, but have just recently gained a
> popularity with labeling.  The early Musique Concrete creators were doing
> the dj-ing stuff years ago without mass popularity.  I always wonder what
> the next "real" new music will be.
>
> best future,
> john   
>
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