© 1997 Now & Zen, Inc. P.O. Box 110 Boulder,
Colorado 80306-0110 MADE IN USA
Like all Now & Zen products, the
Harmonic Lyre is more than a decorative object. This booklet explains how
it functions as spiritual technology by playing an active part in your
personal growth.
Overview
The Harmonic Lyre is a chime set tuned to the Pythagorean
Fifth--a sound universally recognized for its beauty. The Harmonic Lyre's
ancient tuning produces a tone that is not only beautiful, but also subtly
energizing and healing. The ancient Greek master Pythagoras discovered
that the naturally occurring musical intervals could be used to entrain
the vibrations of the human body for better health. The Harmonic Lyre can
be used for meditation or prayer, or to begin and end meetings. The Lyre's
tones can be sounded to celebrate a breakthrough or signal an epiphany.
And the Lyre can also be used to tune your environment with the vibrations
of harmony, and to create sacred space for ritual. This book explains the
Harmonic Lyre's many uses as well as the physics of harmony and the
ancient Greek tradition of musical healing and sacred sound.
CONTENTS PAGE
I. Introduction--Pythagoras and the
Ancient Significance of Harmony
II. Therapeutic Tones
III. The Musical Fifth
IV. Suggested Uses
V. About Now & Zen and the Spiritual Renaissance Art
Movement
I. Introduction--Pythagoras and the Ancient Significance
of Harmony
The Harmonic Lyre is intended to be
an artistic part of your spiritual lifestyle. The Lyre is part of a larger
art movement that emphasizes sacred geometry and the practice of living in
the presence of Deity. This art movement focuses on the spiritual
significance of beauty and receives inspiration from the masterpieces of
history. To fully appreciate and use your Lyre it is helpful to understand
the ancient traditions from which it comes.
The Harmonic Lyre takes its inspiration from the ancient
Greek master Pythagoras who lived in the 6th century B.C. Pythagoras is
one of history's most mystical geniuses. Although he is best known for his
theorem in geometry, Pythagoras was primarily a religious teacher, and his
understanding of the universe retains much vitality for our day.
Pythagoras embodied the ancient Greeks' zest for understanding and their
passion for the "physics of spirit."
Pythagoras was part of the ancient
cult of Orpheus, the Greek God of music and science. And the tradition of
Orpheus has continued to be a potent source of artistic inspiration down
through the ages. Legend recounts how Orpheus was given a lyre by Apollo
and was taught to play by the muses. By playing his lyre, Orpheus produced
harmonies that joined all of nature together in peace and joy. In Greek
mythology, Orpheus, through his music, acts as the mediator between
humanity and the gods--fitting together that which is separate. And this
is the definition of harmony: an agreement between disagreeing
elements.
Inspired by this Orphic tradition of music and science,
Pythagoras was led to conduct perhaps the world's first physics
experiment. By playing strings of different lengths, Pythagoras discovered
that sound vibrations naturally occur in a sequence of whole tones or
notes that repeat in a pattern of seven. Like the seven naturally
occurring colors of the rainbow, the octave of seven tones we recognize as
do re mi fa so la ti* reveals the sevenfold structure that orders all
vibrations in the universe. These tones can be identified by their
specific vibrational frequencies which are measured in cycles per
second.
*The word octave means eight. In this pattern of seven
intervals, the eighth note repeats the first note, only at twice the
vibrational frequency.
[Pythagoras Illustration
Omitted]
In the course of his experiments with sound, Pythagoras
discovered that certain tones sound very good together, while other
combinations of tones are rather displeasing. One combination of tones
that always sounds good together is known as the Fifth. The Fifth is a
harmonic sound produced when two tones are in a specific relationship to
each other. That is, when one tone is vibrating one-and-a-half times as
fast as the other. For example, if you sound a middle "C" on the piano,
and then sound the "G" five notes ahead on the scale, it will sound
satisfying and harmonious.
The two chimes on your Harmonic Lyre are tuned to produce
the musical Fifth. Since its discovery by Pythagoras, the Fifth has come
to be universally recognized for its beauty; it forms the structural basis
of musical compositions in almost every cultural tradition. And as this
booklet explains, the Fifth is an archetypal expression of harmony that
demonstrates the "fitting together" of microcosm and macrocosm in an
inseparable whole. That is, the Fifth is a beautiful sound because it
demonstrates how the universe works.
II. Therapeutic Tones
In addition to their Fifth
relationship, the chimes on your Harmonic Lyre are tuned according to the
ancient method developed by Pythagoras. The large chime corresponds to an
"E" note and the small chime to a "B" note. However, these notes vibrate
at different frequencies than their equivalent notes on a modern piano. As
explained in the next section, modern tuning makes each note slightly flat
or sharp so a whole range of instruments can play together. But modern
tuning compromises the enchanting and therapeutic quality--the purity--of
the naturally occurring tones discovered by Pythagoras. As a result of
their natural tuning, the tones of your Harmonic Lyre correspond to the
vibrations of nature--the motion of the planets and the frequencies of
life. This is the secret of their therapeutic effect.
The ancients took harmony very seriously. Healing music
was practiced in ancient Egypt, China, Africa, and especially in the
Pythagorean mystery schools. Number patterns and harmony were central to
Pythagoras' metaphysical philosophy. The Pythagoreans studied the
harmonies of music as a key to understanding the harmony of the cosmos.
The primary focus of the Pythagorean schools was the use of music and
vibration in the healing arts. Their symbol was the pentagonal
star--representing health and harmony.
[Star from cover Illustration Omitted]
The ancients recognized in the seven-note scale the
macrocosmic design of creation. The ancient lyre (the original ancestor of
the guitar and all other stringed instruments) had seven strings. The
lyre's seven-tone scale was considered an imperfect representation of the
pure vibrational pattern that orders the universe. The playing of the lyre
was thought to entrain the vibrations of body and mind so as to bring them
into tune with the pure vibrations emanating from the Creator.
The music of the lyre was used to heal through its affect
on one's emotions. Pythagoras was said to have subdued the murderous wrath
of a drunken man and to have calmed a raging bear by playing appropriate
tunes on his lyre. The ancients well knew the connection between emotions
and the immune system--they used musical harmony as a way of bypassing the
intellect and directly affecting one's emotional well-being.
III. The Musical Fifth
As described in the Introduction,
certain combinations of tones naturally sound good together. These
beautiful sounding combinations or "consonances" are known as the musical
root harmonies. The primary musical root harmonies are the Octave (2:1,
where the first tone vibrates twice as fast as the second), the Fifth
(3:2, where the first tone vibrates 1.5 times faster than the second) and
the Fourth (4:3, where the first tone vibrates 1.333… times faster than
the second).
[Piano Keys Illustration Omitted]
These "objectively" beautiful combinations also appear in
the harmonic overtones which reverberate within every musical sound. The
sounding of any single tone inevitably causes that tone's corresponding
overtones to be sounded simultaneously. For example, the sounding of an E
note in any octave is accompanied by the subtle sounds of that octave's B
(the fifth note ahead) as well as the E in the next octave above (the
eighth note ahead). Overtones demonstrate that the musical root harmonies
are an essential part of the mathematical structure of sound
vibration--the elemental physics of the universe.
To produce the Fifth, the Harmonic Lyre's chimes have
been tuned so that the longer chime vibrates at approximately 1336 cycles
per second (the vibrational frequency achieved through Pythagorean tuning
starting with "C" at 264 cycles per second). The shorter chime vibrates at
approximately 2005 cycles per second, or 1.5 times as fast as the longer
chime.
Tuning to the Vibrations of Nature
As mentioned in the previous section, the actual
frequencies of the tones used by the ancients to heal and uplift the soul
were different from the tones we hear in the music of today. Up until the
late Renaissance musical instruments were tuned with the aid of a
single-stringed instrument known as a monochord--the instrument originally
used by Pythagoras in his discovery of the musical tones and their
corresponding intervals. Musicians tuned their instruments with the
monochord by following the phenomena known as the Circle of Fifths.
The circle of Fifths begins by the division of the
monchord's string at two-thirds its length. The two-thirds portion of the
string is the Fifth of the whole undivided string. The circle of Fifths is
produced through the continuous division of the string into smaller
two-thirds segments. Every two-thirds division begins a new scale wherein
all the notes of the first scale will be sounded in the next scale (only
in a higher octave) except one. The proper tuning for the notes in every
octave can be found in this manner. However, the scale of tones produced
by the monochord forms a spiral structure as it ascends the octaves such
that the higher octaves do not perfectly "match up" with the lower
octaves. This slight difference between ascending octaves in natural
tuning is known as the "comma of Pythagoras."
[Spiral of Fifths Illustration Omitted]
When orchestras developed in the seventeenth century,
musicians wanted to tune their instruments precisely with each other.
Composers required, for example, that a flute and a cello be able to play
the same melody in different octaves yet sound in accord. This led to the
development of the so called "equal tempered scale." In equal tempered
tuning, each note is made slightly flat or sharp so as to distribute the
comma of Pythagoras among all the octaves. And while the equal tempered
method of tuning is convenient for the writing of multi-instrument musical
compositions, it robs the tones of their ability to entrain one's
vibrations to the fundamental frequencies of the universe.
The tiny differences in the tones resulting from equal
tempered tuning makes the odd-numbered pattern of seven evenly divisible.
However, it is through the precise sonic reproduction of the indivisible
pattern of seven that musical vibrations achieve their maximum therapeutic
effect. That is, the tones used by the ancients for musical healing were
effective because they communicated the essence of the archetypal pattern
of creation--they were tuned to the music of the spheres.
The Chord of Triumph
Of all the musical root harmonies, the Fifth occupies a
special place because it demonstrates self-similarity--that is, it subtly
reveals the macrocosm within the microcosm. Self-similarity is an
organizing principle of the universe that is dramatically demonstrated in
holographic film and fractal mathematics. Wherever self-similar unity
across scale appears, it makes a superconscious appeal to your sense of
beauty--it hints at your connection with the infinite.
For an idea of how the Fifth embodies self-similarity,
recall the single-stringed monochord example. When you divide the string
at the two-thirds point and pluck each segment, the two parts sound the
same as each other, only an octave apart. The two parts of the string
reproduce the octave pattern that is their origin. But this two-thirds
division gives rise to a third element that provides a unification between
the original tone and its octave double--the Fifth unifies the octave's
duality by harmoniously fitting back together the original division. No
matter what the length of the monochord's string, the string that is
two-thirds its length will have a certain feel to it--the sound conveys
the meaning of agreement. And it is the Fifth's self-similarity that
produces the phenomenon of the Circle of Fifths. That is, the continuous
2/3 division of the Fifth provides the method of Pythagorean tuning
because the Fifth contains, by virtue of its self-similar structure, the
whole spectrum of vibrations. It can thus be used to produce all the
tones.
[Illustration of String Lengths
Omitted]
The self-similarity of the Fifth also plays an important
role in musical composition through its use in the technique known as
modulation. The Fifth has been used as a building block of musical
composition from ancient Greek music, through Gregorian chants, to the
music of Palestrina, Bach, Mozart, Wagner, the big bands, Frank Sinatra,
Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and U2.
With the exception of the atonal music of modern
"classical" composers, the history of Western music since 1400 has largely
been an exploration of the special characteristics of the relationship of
the Fifth. Music evolved from compositions within a single scale to
compositions which included notes from multiple scales. Composers found
that music written primarily within the key of a given scale could
incorporate notes from other scales most harmoniously if those notes were
from the scale beginning a fifth ahead of the initial scale.
The musical forms of the sonata and the symphony are
based on this first-note-to-its-fifth relationship. And many great
composers have explored the relationship of the key, its Fifth, and the
"Fifth of the Fifth." Mozart and Haydn fully explored the Fifth of the
Fifth, and Beethoven explored the Fifth of the Fifth of the Fifth and
beyond. The Fifth has come to be known as "the chord of triumph" for the
inspirational way it moves everyone who hears it. It is not the tones
themselves that produce the beauty, it is their special
relationship.
The Fifth and the Golden Mean
The German mystic Goethe understood the relationship
between sound and form when he declared that "geometry is frozen music."
Scientists are increasingly recognizing that the fundamental nature of the
material world is understandable only through its underlying patterns of
wave forms. The wave forms of the fundamental musical root harmonies have
a remarkable correspondence to the fundamental geometric patterns that
order the form of objects in space. For example, in his book The Power
of Limits, architect Gyorgy Doczi demonstrates the similarity between
the Fifth and the golden mean.
[Golden mean graphic Illustration
Omitted]
The golden mean, which is known by many names including
the "Divine Proportion," is a special relationship among the unequal parts
of any given whole. Just as the Fifth naturally sounds good through its
expression of self-similar unity among unequal parts, the golden mean
relationship naturally looks good for the same reasons. The golden mean is
discovered throughout nature--from galaxies to subatomic particles--as a
fundamental technique of evolution. And the human body is replete with
golden mean proportions, so it is only natural that it is a relationship
that humans find most beautiful. Like the musical Fifth, the golden mean
can be found as an organizing principle in art movements throughout
history.
[Wave form comparison Illustration
Omitted]
The golden mean and the musical Fifth each partake of the
heart of beauty. Through their harmonious unification of contrasts they
model the unifying direction of the flow of the universe. Both of these
relationships demonstrate the dynamic division wherein the resulting parts
retain a fundamental unity with the original whole. They thus express the
essence of beauty by portraying the drama of the unification of the
vastness of the cosmic extremes of creature and Creator. It is through
this understanding that we come to recognize the Fifth as truly a sacred
sound of universal unity.
IV. Suggested Uses
Meditation and Prayer
The Harmonic Lyre has been created
to look and sound like a sacred instrument; it is ideal for signaling the
beginning or ending of a period of stillness or reverence. Sound the Fifth
to mark the beginning or end of your meditation or prayer time. It will
fill your space with harmonic vibrations and subtly tune and cleanse your
environment.
Because the Lyre's chimes naturally resonate for an
extended period, you can focus on the diminishing tone as it gradually
fades out. Try using the chime for a sixty-second "mini-meditation" when
the stress of the day takes its toll on you. Also as an exercise, try
sitting in a quite room and, with your eyes closed, strike the two chimes
in quick succession and listen to them fade out. At the moment that you
can no longer hear the tone, strike the chimes again and listen to them
fade out until you can no longer hear them. As you become quiet within
yourself and repeat the process of "riding out the tone to its conclusion"
you will find that you can hear the tone's vibration for longer and longer
periods. If you practice this exercise long enough, you may eventually
hear the tone of the Fifth join with its octave in a subtle but profound
crescendo. This is the effect of the discrete sound of the Fifth
reintegrating with the spectrum of vibrations which is its source.
Bells and gongs play an essential role in the sacred
practices of almost every spiritual tradition. In this time of spiritual
renaissance we are now entering, the Harmonic Lyre provides a new form of
sacred sound for the new forms of spiritual tradition we are creating in
our everyday lives. Use your Lyre creatively as a part of the rituals that
connect you to your source.
Therapy and Healing
The ancients used the sound of the lyre for healing in
conjunction with a larger therapeutic system that involved colors, aromas,
herbs, minerals, and theology. As in all forms of healing, intention is
paramount. To use the sound of the Pythagorean Fifth as an aid in healing,
have the person seeking therapy hold an intention for healing in their
mind. As the Fifth is sounded, ask the person to concentrate on the sound
and visualize it carrying their intention into the vibrations of their
cells. The sound acts as an amplifier of the healing intention.
Forms of musical therapy are used in hospitals throughout
the world. There are over 2,000 practicing musical therapists in the
United Sates alone. To learn more about music therapy, see the reading
list at the end of this section or contact the National Association For
Music Therapy, 1133 Fifteenth Street N.W., Suite 1000, Washington, D.C.
20005.
Social Uses
The Harmonic Lyre can serve as a distinctive signal for
the beginning or end of a meeting or an address. The Lyre is an artistic
way to get a group's attention without producing an unpleasant noise or
yelling. The Fifth can also be sounded as a form of punctuation during a
talk or presentation--the ancient art of story telling was always
accompanied by the playing of intervals on a lyre.
The Harmonic Lyre can be used as a specific signal that
is understood by a group, such as a call to dinner or the end of work. And
the "chord of triumph" can be used to celebrate an epiphany or
breakthrough. Try striking the chimes at your next gathering when someone
says something profound or the group comes to an insight.
The Lyre can also be used as a teaching tool to share the
truths about the structure of sonic vibrations and the harmonies of the
universe. The Lyre's design incorporates sacred geometry in every
aspect.
Operation of your Harmonic Lyre
Assemble your Harmonic Lyre by attaching its base with
the two screws provided. The small hole in the back of the base is
designed as a holder for the Lyre's striker when it is not in use. Because
the Harmonic Lyre is a musical instrument, you may have to adjust it
slightly to get the best sound. To maximize the quality and sustain of the
chimes' tones, make sure the strings come in contact with each chime bar
so that there is an equal amount of space on each side of the tie strings.
Experiment by striking and listening to the chimes as you slightly and
gently scoot the chime bars up and down on the strings.
The Fifth can best be heard by firmly striking each chime
once with equal force and in quick succession. It was the tradition of the
ancients to play their scales downward as if descending from heaven. This
tradition suggests that you should strike the smaller chime first.
However, you can obviously strike the two chimes in any manner that
pleases you. The Harmonic Lyre is designed for indoor use only.
Further Reading
Schneider, Michael S. A Beginner's guide to Constructing
the Universe. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1994. Doczi, Gyorgy The power of Limits: Proportional Harmonies in
Nature, Art and Architecture. Boston, MA: Shambala, 1981. Goldman, Jonathan Healing Sounds: The Power of Harmonics.
Rockport, MA: Element, 1992. Beaulieu, John Music
and Sound in the Healing Arts. Barrytown, NY: Station Hill Press,
1989. Blackwood, Easley The Structure of
Recognizable Diatonic Tunings. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
1985. Bamford, Christopher, Ed. Homage to
Pythagoras: Rediscovering Sacred Science. Hudson, NY: Lindisfarne Press,
1994. McIntosh, Stephen Ian. Divine Proportion:
Creating Beauty as a Spiritual Practice. Boulder, CO: Now & Zen,
1997.
[Lyre Illustration Omitted]
V. About Now & Zen and the Spiritual Renaissance Art
Movement
Now & Zen, Inc. is a manufacturing and publishing
company formed in 1995 to create products that can best be described as
"cultural artifacts of the spiritual renaissance." Headquartered in
Boulder, Colorado, Now & Zen's mission is to make beautiful tools
which are subtle parts of a spiritual lifestyle and that remind us we live
in the presence of Deity. Every Now & Zen product has been created to
be beautiful, useful, affordable, and to embody and express principles of
universe harmony in every aspect of the design. Ultimately, we are trying
to express a new art movement that is about beauty, truth and goodness.
This art movement seeks to capture the feeling of magical synchronicity,
fresh possibilities, and spiritual focus that is alive in our time. For a
catalog of current Now & Zen products, please call (800) 779-6383 or
(303) 774-6344, visit our website at http://www.now-zen.com/, drop us an
e-mail at mail@now-zen.com, or write us at P.O. Box 110, Boulder,
Colorado 80306-0110. Thanks for participating in the spiritual
renaissance!
Peace.
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