I wrote these some time ago–at the time there was the possibility of a performance for glass armonica and soprano. Alas, the performance never came to pass.

So here’s the set of pieces I wrote: Four Prayers. They were inspired by a verse in the Bible about how “the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.” I always thought that was an interesting idea–maybe we’re not bright enough to know what to pray for (speaking for myself); maybe words are inadequate for prayers. . .

Along similar lines there’s an interesting little book called The Cloud of Unknowing, by an anonymous 14th century Christian mystic. The most interesting idea to me in this book was the ‘one word prayer’. His idea (and I’m paraphrasing) is that when you’re in a crowded theater and fire breaks out, you don’t yell “Attention everyone! Uncontrolled combustion seems to have initiated in this entertainment establishment…”. No, instead you yell “FIRE!” Or if you’re really in trouble you don’t yell “Please come to my assistance”, instead you yell “HELP!” Along similar lines the author argues that some of the most powerful prayers (with groans too deep for words?) are the shortest. “Help!” or “Thank you!” or…

So these Four Prayers have NO WORDS. They are all on vowels (like ‘ooo’ and ‘ah’).

As you can see, these kinds of musings get the Muse all excited and my composing fingers itchy, and here’s the result.

One of Walt Disney’s “inventions” in the early days of animation was the ’story board’ — where they do mockups of how the film will look before they actually make the film. I make my own mockups, especially when there are other musicians involved, because rehearsal time is incredibly precious and I want to make sure (as best I can) that there are no problems before any rehearsals.

So these are the mockups. The armonica is real, the voice is a synthesizer (it’s a mockup, right?) Maybe someday I’ll be able to do a proper recording!

1. Confession (3:46) mp3 20-sec sample score
2. Adoration (3:31) mp3 20-sec sample score
3. Supplication (3:26) mp3 20-sec sample score
4. Communion (3:18) mp3 20-sec sample score

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As always, MP3s are on the ‘honor system’–if my music does something for you, do a little monetary something for me and

I’ve done seven CDs to date, all of them featuring the glass armonica. And I plan to do many more featuring that instrument (like the next one!). But every instrument has its own unique voice, and I’ve had some piano music in me that just insisted on getting written. I presented some of these tracks in previous blogs, they are here on CD for the first time, as well as some brand-new tracks available for the first time.

Buckminister Fuller (1895-1983), author, inventor and visionary, pointed out that right now, today, we have the technology to feed every person on this planet. What is stopping us is not technology, but the lack of collective will to make it happen. We have the Collective Mind to know how to do it, now we need a change of Collective Heart. And this same observation can be made about every Big Problem we are currently facing.

I’m not advocating any particular Path forward. I’m just suggesting that we all, individually, and collectively (and me too!) accept a lot of grief as ‘the norm’–that we needn’t. Maybe the first step is just to imagine what it might be like to be grief-free. What would a world with no tears feel like? Maybe that’s a start…

This is easily the most personal and ‘honest’ album I’ve done to date. (I still have so much to learn on how to do these!) I am honored to share this music with you.

You can order A World With No Tears here

Here are the tracks with MP3s:

Title	Time	Full Mp3	20-second Mp3 Sample
1. A World With No Tears	6:17	mp3	mp3
2. Everywhere I Search For You	2:46	mp3	mp3
3. An Exaltation Of Larks	5:03	mp3	mp3
4. Lullaby	3:51	mp3	mp3
5. If Only I Could Kiss It & Make It Better	6:32	mp3	mp3
6. The Laughing Sage	3:09	mp3	mp3
7. Diamond Dewdrops	3:49	mp3	mp3
8. Shadows At Twilight	8:20	mp3	mp3
9. The Harmony Of Flowers	3:00	mp3	mp3
10. A Prayer In The Still Of The Night	5:38	mp3	mp3
11. A Leaf In The Wind	5:09	mp3	mp3
12. The Dragonfly’s First Dawn	7:45	mp3	mp3
Total playing time:	61:43

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As always, MP3s are on the ‘honor system’–if my music does something for you, do a little monetary something for me and

Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) was one of the foremost Jesuit scholars of his day–so much so that the Vatican ordered him to Rome and relieved him of all ecclesiastical duties so he could devote himself to study, writing and teaching. His range of interests was encyclopedic: he taught a half-dozen languages and mathematics; wrote extensively on optics, magnetism, volcanoes, automata (early robots) and music; his was the first recorded attempt to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics–to name just a few! And he founded perhaps the greatest museum of his day–scholars and explorers contributed to his collection from all over the world. J.S.Bach and his contemporaries would have been acquainted with Kircher’s massive treatise on music: Musurgia universalis. And, he discussed the wet-finger-around-the-wine-glass phenomenon in his Phonurgia Nova (1673), so he has a place in the history of the musical glasses and glass armonica.

Glasses from Kircher’s Phonurgia Nova (1673)

Kircher believed that all the religions of the world (including Catholicism, and religions from the Far East–about which he was very keen to learn) shared a common origin–much like the Biblical idea that our common origin can be traced back to Adam & Eve. What an ecumenical vision! And this–while war was raging between Catholics vs. Protestants throughout Europe in Kircher’s own day. Indeed, in his autobiography Kircher recounts how, as a young man, he was captured and almost lynched by Protestants–he was on the horse with the noose around his neck when they changed their minds and set him free.

Kircher’s Seventy-two Names of God
from his Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1655)
CLICK IMAGE FOR HI-RES

In his book Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1655) we find a chart of the ‘72 Names of God’. Each name is assigned to a different country or region of the world; for example he has ‘GOTT’ for Germany. Many of these “countries” are recognizable (’Syria’). Others not so much (’Zaflaneles’), and don’t appear in any of my Latin lexicons (including my Oxford Latin Dictionary, Glare and my Medieval Latin Dictionary, Niermeyer)–perhaps these regions have simply passed out of memory.

I’ve had the idea of writing a piece based on Kircher’s Seventy-Two Names for many years, and when I Cantori di Carmel approached me about composing a piece for chorus and glass armonica for them, Dr. Sal Ferrantelli (the director) was very excited about the idea.

Dr. Ferrantelli & William Zeitler playing the glass armonica “four-hands”

And so this piece came to be. It was performed at the Carmel Mission Basilica in Carmel, CA on December 8 & 9, 2007. My thanks to Dr. Ferrantelli and to the chorus members and orchestra for the superb performance they gave!

My own imagination about this piece is that each nation of the world has its own name for God–each name is precious to its own people. Hence the piece as a whole has a passionate–and deliberately non-intellectual–cast to it. And it leans heavily towards homophony (vs. polyphony) to really emphasize that these 72 Names belong together in a Great Celestial Song. After the opening glass armonica solo, the chorus opens the piece with a text from the Latin Vulgate (the Latin translation of the Bible used in the Catholic Church since the 5th century (!) until the present day)–to introduce the 72 names which will follow:

Laudabo nomen Dei cum canticum
Praise the name of God with a song
(Ps.69:30, or Ps.68:31 in the Vulgate)

Then follow the 72 names, each sung exactly once (we must be fair about this–no favoritism!):

1. YHVH 2. ALHA 3. ELVH 4. ALLA 5. ThONT 6. ABGD 7. ATAT 8. MOTI 9. AGZI 10. SURI 11. DEUS 12. ThEOS 13. BOOG 14. DIOS 15. IDIO 16. DIEU 17. GOTT 18. BOOG

19. BOGI 20. TIOS 21. BUEG 22. GOOD 23. DIEH 24. ESAR 25. ORSY 26. AGDI 27. ThEOS 28. ADAD 29. ZIMI 30. TURA 31. TELI 32. ANOT 33. AGAD 34. ANEB 35. ANUP 36. ALLA

37. ABDA 38. AGLA 39. GOOT 40. GOED 41. GUDI 42. BIUB 43. SOLU 44. BOSA 45. HOBA 46. PIUR 47. HANA 48. ZACA 49. MORA 50. POLA 51. PILA 52. ABAG 53. OBRA 54. BORA

55. ALAI 56. ILLI 57. POPA 58. PARA 59. ELLA 60. GENA 61. SIIA 62. SUNA 63. MIRI 64. ALLI 65. TARA 66. PORA 67. BOGO 68. DEOS 69. DEeOS 70. ARIS 71. ZEUT 72. KALO

The piece repeats the opening Latin text, closes with an ‘amen’, and the glass armonica has the last word.

• Here’s the complete MP3 of The Seventy-Two Names of God (7:59)
• Here’s the first 20 seconds
• Here’s the piano-vocal score to The Seventy-Two Names of God.

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As always, MP3s are on the ‘honor system’–if my music does something for you, do a little monetary something for me and