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Last day of Divine Light

today is the final day Divine Light. I will be at the gallery until 6:00

thanks to Morgan Maher, Yumee Chung, Daniel Pinchbeck, Alice Klein, Peter Lutek, Jaymie, Lori, and Stephen from the Deleon White Gallery, and the Toronto Arts Council for making it all possible.

and special thanks to all those who attended.

"the most notable names on any list will always turn out to be those omitted"-

Jorge Luis Borges

Divine Light: Transits and Navigations

Some notes on my composition "Divine Light"

There is an oft told story among cultural anthropologists about an encounter with a native shaman. The story goes that, when told about our modern-day space program, the shaman was incredulous that anyone would spend such vast resources on the quest to visit the moon... the shaman simply relied on his plant guides to take him there. Divine Light is a composition that maps the layers of the human psyche (and the quest for cosmic, visionary experience) in relation to our solar system. A universe of possibilities--with fish that swim in the sky, insects that travel between planets with timeless voices.

Our solar system (and the omniverse or multiverse) offers a very rich metaphor for composition. Musical investigations are inevitably about ratio (both harmonic and temporal) and the cosmos of Divine Light is shaped by sacred geometry. I focused on each planets' distance from the sun in sun-diameters. The Earth is especially significant in these terms. It is exactly 108 sun-diameters from the sun, while the sun's diameter is 108 times that of the Earth. Furthermore, the Moon is exactly 108 moon diameters from the Earth. We exist in a system of balance and co-relation.


Each planet's year length was the basis for the phrase-length of the loops: Mercury is 1 minute and Neptune is 12 hours. Mercury's tempo is given in 2 layers, one to represent its day length and one to represent it's year length. Mercury rotates at a 2:3 ratio which produces a rhythm that can be found in Voodoo, Santeria, and Afro-Cuban music. When this ratio is sped up sufficiently, it becomes a perfect fifth. Many of the audio files have been retuned by a perfect fifth from the speed of the original recording.

Venus often transits the sun and, at this time, it is said that the energy of Venus is amplified and washes over Earth. For this reason, I have amplified the Venus imagery and material at several points in the composition. Venus is composed, like Mercury, of three overlaying loops,which play 12 times, 13 times, and 2 times respectively over the course of 33 minutes, representing the cycle of 12 Venus days, 13 Venus years, and 5 synodic cycles. This relationship, which takes 8 Earth years to complete, is of special interest to me as it relates mathematically to the Mayan calendar.

Earth is set at a tempo of 108. Here, life blooms with birdsongs and rain, love and spring. I chose Neptune as a counterpoint to the Earth. Neptune is so distant it becomes abstract and mathematical, containing our dreams, projections, wildest possibilities. When we make love on Earth, a child is heard simultaneously at play on Neptune's moons.

The inspiration for Mars was drawn from water, as water is the Earth's blood and Mars is known as the bringer of war. For this reason, I chose to depict ocean life, to remind us that blood is not just the stuff of war but the essence of life itself.

Jupiter is two and a half times larger than all of the other planets in our solar system combined. Its moon Europa is one of the most likely places in the solar system to host primitive extraterrestrial life. Jupiter's size causes it to have a massive influence on the other planets. I created long loops of single sounds using sine waves with gentle oscillations, to create a cohesive vibration but the vibration is different in each speaker, creating an oblique wash of low sound which contextualizes all those around it. Jupiter is the first of the gaseous planets; after Mars, the planets are no longer solid. Jupiter has radio storms which I included in the audio.

The ancients believed Saturn to be the most remote planet because its the last one that can be viewed by the naked eye. Uranus and Neptune are not visible to the naked eye and were discovered by humans relatively recently. Saturn is Sun Ra's dream land, a place of magic and alchemy. I created hollowed-out wind sounds, storms, and radio bursts to represent its mighty rings and moons. As in dreams, things become longer or shorter, void and devoid in the great cosmos.

Uranus has a core that spins more slowly than its atmosphere. One of the most distinctive features of Uranus is its axial tilt of 98 degrees. Uranus effectively lies on its side and, consequently, for part of its orbit one pole faces the Sun while the other pole faces away. This gives each pole 42 years of continuous sunlight, followed by 42 years of darkness. I play two audio files for Uranus--both detuned and interrupted in a variety of ways. The files are palindromes, as they are mirrored opposites of each other (reversal and phase inversion). In between them plays "orbits of a dream" a composition I created under the moon's influence.

I've used bursts of electicity to evoke Neptune's storms--60 cycles conducted through my own body. Neptune is our solar system's windiest world. Winds whip clouds of frozen methane across the planet at speeds of more than 2,000 km/h. A sample from Stravinsky's symphony of Psalms is played back at 1/3 speed. This was prompted by the planet's sheer distance from us and its apparent invisibility (it was mathematically predicted before it was physically discovered). The beauty and alienation of Stravinsky's work creates a parallel for the alien possibilities of faraway planets and imaginary lands.

2133

"A very rare event in astronomy is the passage of one planet in front of another (occultation), as seen from Earth. Mercury and Venus occult each other every few centuries, and the event of May 28, 1737 is the only one historically observed, having been seen by John Bevis at the Royal Greenwich Observatory.[23] The next occultation of Mercury by Venus will be in 2133."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1737

the world has gone green and the plants are singing:

CWVortex - Solstice

CWVortex will perform a special concert to celebrate the summer solstice 2007

The performance will take place June 22/2007 at the DeLeon White Gallery 1139 College St. (West of Dufferin).

Vortex members will present original compositions and improvisations.

Peter Lutek- reeds/electronics
Simeon Alev- reeds
Elie Katzin- guitar
Tom Richards- trombone/synthesizer/effects
Greg de Denus- keys/synthesizer
Scott Peterson- bass/effects/synthesizer

This performance is the culmination of Divine Light, a large scale sound installation/composition which will be installed at DeLeon White from June 16-July 1/2007

things that grow

a lovely book entitled "Flowering Trees & Shrubs In India" by D.V. Cowen, available online:


http://vidyaonline.net/arvindgupta/cowen.pdf