Chorale preludes have a long history in music. Even not-particularly-religious composers wrote them—just because!

By the way, hymn tunes get all sorts of different words set to them, so the tunes themselves have been given nicknames to keep them straight. (E.g.”‘Nicaea” and “St. Denio”). If you’re acquainted with any hymnal at all, you’ll certainly recognize these tunes right away.

So, here are two more contributions to that long and honorable tradition. In the mp3 I’ve played the hymn tune itself once straight, and then the chorale prelude. Both are for pipe organ.

Nicaea

• Here's the the whole piece (3:23)
• Here's the the first 30 seconds
• Here's the the score

St. Denio

• Here's the the whole piece (2:07)
• Here's the the first 30 seconds
• Here's the the score

It’s interesting to take a childhood memory like this song and reflect on it through the lens of the joys and sorrows that have intervened over the decades. Some childhood ideas and dreams are left behind. But other childhood ideas and dreams end up defining the course of our lives–although perhaps now reframed and deepened by an older, hard-won perspective. (I’ve symbolized that in this piece by restating the song–as dreamlike fragments of it appear–with a different meter.)

So here’s a solo piano piece, reflecting on this iconic children’s song:

• Here's the the whole piece (5:07)
• Here's the the first 30 seconds
• Here's the the score

In Search of the Philosopher's Stone

(Click here for mp3 and order page)

The “Philosopher’s Stone”, reputed to be hard as stone and malleable as wax, is a legendary alchemical tool, capable of turning base metals into gold—which we’ve seen can be a metaphor for ‘enlightenment’. It was also sometimes believed to be an elixer of life, useful for rejuvenation and possibly for achieving immortality—all of which fit in nicely with alchemy processes in general being metaphors for  ‘enlightenment’.

“The stone, also referred to as the “tincture,” or the “powder” (Greek xerion, which passed through Latin into Arabic as elixir), was allied to an elixir of life, believed by alchemists to be a liquid derived from it. Inasmuch as alchemy was concerned not only with the search for a method of upgrading less valuable metals but also of perfecting the human soul, the philosopher’s stone was thought to cure illnesses, prolong life, and bring about spiritual revitalization. The philosopher’s stone, described variously, was sometimes said to be a common substance, found everywhere but unrecognized and unappreciated.”¹

What a wish list! Wealth. Spiritual renewal. Longevity. Health. Even an elixir of life! In essence, the philosopher’s stone offers all human values. The Philosopher’s Stone is like gold, but even better. Gold is a means to all material wealth, but the philosopher’s stone is a means to all ends, a universal means. And it’s lying around for the taking. It’s everywhere! If you have the wit merely to recognize it and learn how to use it, then all ends are within your reach. We needn’t wonder why those who believed in the philosopher’s stone devoted their lives to finding it. What higher ideal could they seek? What better end could a man set himself than a universal means?

The search for the Philosopher’s Stone occupied some of the finest minds of the Middle Ages and Renaissance: Isaac Newton (1643–1727: yes, the famous physicist!) was deeply interested in alchemy and particularly interested in finding the Philosopher’s Stone.² And, according to legend, the 13th-century scientist and philosopher Albertus Magnus (1193/1206–1280)  is said to have discovered the philosopher’s stone and passed it to his pupil Thomas Aquinas (c.1225–1274: yes, the famous Catholic theologian!) shortly before Magnus’ death.

And just pure speculation: in the  ‘Sword in the Stone‘, might the stone from which young Arthur pulled Excalibur and proved his right to the English throne be related to the Philosopher’s Stone?

More generally, isn’t the never ending search for the Philosopher’s Stone, in all of its guises, one of our quintessentially human qualities: never satisfied with the status quo—always picking away at the chains that bind us all—longer life, better health, more comfort, more knowledge, more Art, more spirituality, more more more! That quality has been both our Great Glory and our Great Curse.

In Search of the Philosopher’s Stone is scored for glass armonica and symphony orchestra.

1. Encyc. Brit., 15th ed., 1976
2. NOVA: Newton’s Dark Secrets (2005) USA: PBS

"Harmony of the Birth of the World"—Kircher

To write a piece about Creation that’s only a few minutes long seems almost preposterous—Haydn takes a couple hours of music in his oratorio Creation, and even God Himself took 6 whole days to create the Cosmos! But I like to think about how these Archetypal Stories continue to re-enact themselves today, in my own life. If we’re “created in the image of God”, does the Genesis story say something about how my own acts of creation unfold?

Here is one imagination of that. You may have another, and tomorrow I could likely have yet another still! But here’s one for today:

• I first start with ‘darkness’—before any creation commences or insight occurs.
• Then I have an ‘idea’—Light is a frequent metaphor for ideas (including the light bulb turning on over your head).
• Then this idea begins to give structure to whatever it’s about (separating the firmaments): it begins to give structure to the notes if it’s a piece of music, it begins to give structure to personal decisions if it’s an idea about how to move forward in my life. At this stage I can separate elements in my life into “this furthers my Idea” (the firmament ABOVE) and “this hinders my Idea” (the firmament BELOW) and start making choices accordingly.
• And, any really Good Idea brings forth lots of implied additional ideas as it works itself out—it’s “fruitful and multiplies”.

Another thought: a rather a tacit assumption from the Genesis story is that God stopped creating after Creation. But the story only says that He rested on one day—not that He took the rest of Eternity off! Perhaps after a day of rest, He gets right back to work creating some more? Hmm…

The piece opens with a single note ‘E’. This has a definite symbolic significance:

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the cosmos—it accounts for about 75% of the universe’s elemental mass. Stars are mainly composed of hydrogen in its plasma state, and our Sun accounts for 99.9% of the total mass of our solar system—the earth and other planets are just the tiniest dust motes floating around our Solar Candle.

Hydrogen generates a spectral line at 1420.40575 MHz due to changes in its energy state.  These changes actually occur very rarely, but there’s just so darn much hydrogen in this Really Big Cosmos that there’s a constant 1420.40575 MHz “hum” going on all the time as a cosmic background whistle. If we were to transpose this “hum” down into the audio range (20 octaves more or less), its closest note (in standard Western tuning) is ‘E’, so that’s the sustained note with which the piece begins.

And much more. But I can’t give away all my secrets! <wink!>

So here we are, starting a new year. We’ve just completed our ‘6 days of creation’ called 2008, and the whole world takes a deep breath at the Winter Holy-Days—a ‘day of rest’—before plunging into the next ‘6 days’ called 2009. This piece is my wish to you for a blessed new year!

“The Harmony of the Birth of the World” is scored for symphony orchestra and pipe organ (see Kircher’s image).

• Here's the the whole piece (9:44)
• Here's the the first 30 seconds
• Here's the the score

Sincerely,

william

Here’s an image from the Quinta Essentia by Thurneisser (1530–96):

The Alchemical Tree

Until you get some familiarity with the ‘language’ of these alchemical images, it’s hard to even know where to begin. So here’s is one interpretation—and by no means the only one:

The tree: what do trees do? They have their roots in the earth, but they reach for the heavens.

The birds: their natural abode is the heavens.

The dragon: unlike western children’s bedtime stories, dragons in the alchemical literature are not necessarily evil and destructive.  And the natural abode of dragons is also the heavens. But this one is on the earth. And kneeling (as well as a dragon can kneel!)… and instead of breathing out fire, it’s drinking in water. And the result of that is that the Alchemical Tree is blossoming…

Again, my hints at ‘interpretation’ have no more authority than anyone else’s. But it’s a place to start!

Here’s my companion piece. It’s scored for chamber orchestra (strings, french horns, flute, oboe, clarinet, harp, celesta, finger cymbals):

• Here's the the whole piece (5:44)
• Here's the the first 30 seconds

The surviving alchemical literature is really quite extensive, and in addition to the various initial attempts at practical science, there is indeed a lot about ‘transforming lead into gold’. But within all of this there is yet another literary stream, in which the writers use ‘transforming lead into gold’ as a metaphor for transforming the Human Heart from ‘lead’ into ‘gold’–in other words, Spiritual Enlightenment. (In this context it’s worth remembering Biblical metaphors such as “He (God) is like a refiner’s fire.”). These writers used the symbolism of Alchemy to write about the Spiritual Path, and by using the symbolism of Alchemy they were able to do so under the radar of the Inquisition (with varying degrees of success!). This literary stream has come to be known as “Inner Alchemy”.

Possibly the earliest, and certainly still one of the most important authors/researchers on Inner Alchemy is Carl Jung (1875–1961).

And there’s not just ‘alchemical literature’—there’s also a great deal of ‘alchemical Art’—fabulous images unlike anything else I have ever seen. They range from amazing charts and diagrams (an example below), to fantastic landscape-type images (future blogs).

J. Böhme, Wunderauge der Ewigkeit (click for larger version)

And Alchemy isn’t limited to just the West. To be sure, the Western Alchemical literature (and iconography) makes heavy use of Christian and Jewish symbolism, but there is also Islamic and even Chinese Alchemy.

When I view these images, they take me to a magical place that makes me want to write music about it. (Hence this blog, and new piece!)

Here’s an example, an image by Jakob Böhme (1575–1624), from his Wunderauge der Ewigkeit (“The Miraculous Eye of Eternity”). Böhme was born in Germany, grew up a Lutheran and became a shoemaker. But he had mystical visions throughout his life, and in 1610 he started writing books. These did not set well with the Lutheran authorities and he spent the rest of his life writing and dodging charges of Heresy (potentially a capital crime).

In this image, on the left is the world of darkness (as Böhme writes): “when the eye of wonder enters nature”, on the right is the world of light, “when the Divine Mystery has passed through the fire and dwells in majestic light.” The cruciform reflective axes mark the sphere of the magic fire “from which both the angels and the soul of man originate”.

“Everything that wishes to have divine light must go through the dying, magic fire and exist in it, just as the heart on the cross must exist in the fire of God.”

I’ve taken the liberty of re-imagining this chart in more 21st century garb:

"The Dying, Magic Fire" (click for larger version)

And of course I have an accompanying piece of music, also titled “The Dying, Magic Fire”, scored for glass armonica and string orchestra:

• Here's the the whole piece (6:27)
• Here's the the first 30 seconds

The tune is played on the glass armonica. When the tune is repeated, the armonica  is doubled two octaves lower by a bass clarinet—a fun sounding combination, if I say so myself!

• Here's the the whole piece (4:11)
• Here's the the first 30 seconds

The second section of the piece, by the way, is a ‘canon’, which is fancy music-jargon for a ’round’ like “Row Row Row Your Boat” (although ‘canons’ can also take other pretty interesting forms). For you music readers, music world has a ’shorthand’ for notating canons—’Row Row Row Your Boat’ would look like this:

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

In other words, the first group starts with line 1. When group 1 reaches the end of the first line, they continue with line 2, at which point group 2 starts with line 1, and so on. When the first group reaches the end of the last line, they continue with the first line.

Here is my canon (in the second section of the piece) in this standard canon notation (with my apologies for the alto clef but with either the treble or bass clef there are WAY too many ledger lines):

Tales Of The Joyful Dragon Canon

• Here's the the whole piece (6:26)
• Here's the the first 30 seconds

Count Bachula at Castle Bachula's Mighty Pipe Organ

• “We Wish You a Scary Christmas”
• “Silent Fright”,
• “Rudolf, the Red-nosed Werewolf”
• “The Thirteen Nights of Christmas”.

Count Bachula recorded these on the mighty pipe organ at Castle Bachula, accompanied by the Transylvania Vampire Choir (directed by Dr. Van Helsing), Quasimodo on bells, and a dread host of others.

All the songs sound vaguely familiar to me, but the Count swears his songs are millenia old.

By the way, the suggestion that Count Bachula and I must be related because we look so similar is, of course, completely ridiculous!

Gothic Christmas

More information, including pictures of Castle Bachula, “Vampires in the News”, sound samples of all the tracks on his CD and more can be found at the Count’s website:

http://www.CountBachula.com

Information about Count Bachula’s new CD, Gothic Christmas, can be found here, or click the CD cover at left—if you dare!.

Warmly (while I’m still warm!),

william zeitler

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:
   • Here's the the whole piece (3:46)
   • Here's the the first 30 seconds
   • Here's the the score
2. Adoration:
   • Here's the the whole piece (3:31)
   • Here's the the first 30 seconds
   • Here's the the score
3. Supplication:
   • Here's the the whole piece (3:26)
   • Here's the the first 30 seconds
   • Here's the the score
4. Communion:
   • Here's the the whole piece (3:18)
   • Here's the the first 30 seconds
   • Here's the the score