This composition is the second in my ‘Mountain Series’ – part 2 of last year’s Composer’s Choice ‘Shambhala’. I have had reoccurring dreams of living as a Tibetan monk since I was a small child. In these dreams nothing much happens – just everyday life in a monastery – but its consistent and vivid every time. And yes I do think this is past life recollection. I don’t come away from these dreams with any great conscious insight but I do take away a lasting feeling of peace and happiness. It always feels like Ive been “topped-up” with peace. I have composed Northern Lands fresh from one of these Tibetan dreams. I have included a header image by Bireswar Sen. Sen was a master miniature watercolorist, influenced by Nicholas Roerich (as mentioned in my Shambhala blog) and the teacher of my teacher Frank Wesley. All of these artists painted the Himalaya for its deep religious and spiritual associations. Then there’s Krista Rodin who mentions in her book “Mantra and Metaphor in Nepali & Indian Himalayan Communities” the deep connection between the mountains and the beginnings of language and associated vibratory tones developed in Hindu and Buddhist mantras from the region:Northern Lands – by Stephen Fearnley
Mandarin Sky – by Stephen Fearnley
The point before dawn when the shadows are pushed away and warm tones infuse the blues. The opening notes in the music are dissonant and then they clear into harmonies before the Indian Bansuri (flute) enters the scene. This music is minor key with wistful piano and falling drone waves. It is spacious and contemplative and quite melancholic- which is a good thing. Lets call it “happy-sadness”. This article by Sarah Newman is worth a read . She describes the psychological benefits of mixed emotions: “For a long time scientists believed that happiness sustained creativity and that negative emotions were detrimental to it. But a review of emerging research on the subject shows it’s mixed emotions that fuel creativity. Generally speaking, the creative process includes not only inspiration and strong emotion, but also calm attentiveness (Sarah Newman, MA).” The work Naomi Janzen and I do at One Mind Live is holistic. My music as well as Janzen’s tapping (EFT) addresses the shadow as well as the light-person. It doesn’t force, like so many modalities do, a happy state of mind. We know that’s two-dimensional. We know its unrealistic and not whole. I hope you enjoy this music. Its full ofMandarin Sky – by Stephen Fearnley
Renewal – by Stephen Fearnley
“Renewal” is a happy piece of music. I think it’s because after weeks and weeks the rain has stopped. Where I live has a specific microclimate where the Highlands meets the coastal air currents and voila! Fog is born. Fourteen days of fog on my mountain. White-out and humid and everything sticky. Today the sun is here and the sheets can dry on the line. Simple joy. And then there is Ovid! I discovered Ovid, not via the classics or Shakespeare (I was never taught in school what a legacy The Bard owed to him) but via Ted Hughes’ book Tales From Ovid. For a view into the ancient world, this is a great window as Hughes, poet laureate, has re-woven Ovid’s stories, retold, renewed for a new generation. This is one of my favourite Ovid quotes: “As wave is driven by wave And each, pursued, pursues the wave ahead, So time flies on and follows, flies, and follows, Always, for ever and new. What was before Is left behind; what never was is now; And every passing moment is renewed.” ― Ovid, Metamorphoses Stephen Fearnley is an award-winning filmmaker, artist and composer. He composes transformational soundscapes forRenewal – by Stephen Fearnley
Spring and the Musical Body – by Stephen Fearnley
In Christian Schubart’s “Ideas for an Aesthetics of Tonkunst” ( Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst -1806) he lists all the musical keys and tells of its virtues and emotional values. But what on earth is tonkunst? An old German word mainly out of use meaning the art of tone. I have no idea how this method or art was developed. Maybe it a was synesthetic thing, maybe it came handed down from one musical teacher to another. But it is in keeping with today’s scientific investigations into how music and keys effect us. This Scientific America article explores yet another interesting take on how music evolved and why it moves us: “ …new research by Logeswaran and Bhattacharya adds yet more fuel to the expectation that music has been culturally selected to sound like an emotionally expressive human. While it is not easy for us to see the human ingredients in the modulations of pitch, intensity, tempo and rhythm that make music, perhaps it is obvious to our auditory homunculus.” (Mark Changizi on September 15, 2009) Music is a hologram of the human body…made by humans. It’s an invisible vibrational space we create around us and into us viaSpring and the Musical Body – by Stephen Fearnley