cheryl lynne skinner: Music

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• MP3 short clip, lo-fi play (modem)

11. Morning Doves

I decided to program this music mediation representing the symbols of peace—doves and the color blue.

In my researh for this meditation I found out some facinating information:
Blue is the west’s favorite color far surpassing the others.
Blue was a color of peace as early as the Middle Ages. Contemporary symbolism has made it a neutral color. These two properties explain why today all the major international organizations use blue in their emblems. This is notably the case of the United Nations, whose soldiers---referred to in Europe as the “Blue helmets”--- are given peacekeeping missions and whose flag---an azure field with the globe between two olive branches---attempts to bring a message of peace to the world.
Blue has become an international color charged with the mission of promoting peace and understanding between peoples: United Nations soldiers known as the “ Blue helmets” in Europe pursue this goal throughout the world. Blue has become the most peaceful and neutral of all the colors. Blue-History of a Color Michel Pastoureau
WEB notes —The color blue denotes loyalty to ones country, friend and loved ones. To give a blue gemstone to a person symbolically means that you are giving peace, good will and friendship.
The dove is universally regarded as being a symbol of peace, and is also associated with purity, love and tenderness. Holisticshop Crystal Dictionary
Christian's view the dove as the symbol of the Holy Spirit. In the Bible, a dove notably returned to Noah on the ark with an olive leaf in its beak, which was seen to be a sign from God that there was hope in the midst of the treacherous flood. Holisticshop Crystal Dictionary
In China the dove is a sign of longevity, and in Japan it's depicted along with a sword to represent peace. Two doves shown paired together represent the unity of love, when two individuals join together in a partnership. Holisticshop Crystal Dictionary

A programmed combination keyboard sound “Morning Dove” inspired this composition. The keyboard patch featured the use of the shakuhachi (the official Japanese Bamboo Flute), ethnic percussion and the harmonies using perfect intervals of fourths & fifths. In the spirit of family and unity I decided to add only flute tracks featuring members of the transverse flute family---flute, alto flute, piccolo and bass flute. The flutes play a melody in the natural minor over harmonies of fourths & fifths to give the piece a universal flavor. The entire piece is improvised meditation meant to be experienced not analyzed.

WEB NOTES: About Shakuhachi (Bamboo Flute)
The shakuhachi is certainly Japan's most well known woodwind instrument. A vertically held bamboo flute, it is made from the very bottom of a bamboo tree. Bamboo is hollow except for these nodes which are spaced at Intervals along the pipe. These nodes are knocked out to form the complete hollow length of the pipe. Four fingerholes are put on the front of the instrument and a thumbhole on the back. The mouthpiece is the open top of the pipe itself with the front side cut at a slight angle to facilitate blowing the instrument.
Although the placement of holes and tuning of the instrument is a very delicate process, the instrument itself is of a basically simple construction. It is this very fact, however, which allows for very complex techniques in playing the instrument such as the use of the breath with changes in the blowing angle for great or minute changes in sound quality, or partial-holding of fingerholes to make delicate pitch changes.
The instrument takes its name from its standard length of one foot (shaku) and eight (hachi) parts of a foot (called sun), approximately 54cm. There are other lengths of the instrument as well, all with the general name of shakuhachi.

A Japanese Zen Meditation Flute.
The shakuhachi is an end blown flute. That is you cover one of the open ends with your chin and blow across one edge that has been "notched". There are four holes on the front and a thumbhole on the back. An astonishing variety of tones and music can be achieved with this simple instrument. The basic scale is pentatonic but with practice it is possible to produce a full chromatic scale.
In Japan the flute has had a long association with Zen Buddhism. The idea is to use the flute in meditation to achieve total spontaneity, a release from normal conscious thought. When played in a natural setting it sounds very much like it belongs there. This is not true with most instruments. Imagine playing, say, a trumpet by a quiet babbling brook!

One aspect of medieval music now receiving much interest is the matter of tuning. This FAQ article is intended to explain the system of tuning in perfect fifths commonly known as "Pythagorean intonation," its interaction with the stylistic traits of medieval polyphony, and its relationship to other systems of tuning.
While our focus here is on the music of medieval Europe, the concept of a tuning based on a series of twelve notes in perfect fifths also plays an important part in other world musical traditions, for example in Chinese theory and practice.
Providing a simple and elegant way of generating a musical scale, this tuning system may have a special appeal for styles of harmony where fifths and fourths are the most favored intervals, as is true in the ensemble music of Chinese and related traditions, for example, as well as in medieval European polyphony.
In the West, as the name suggests, Pythagorean tuning was credited to the ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras, known (like many of the pre-Socratics) mainly through quotations and anecdotes in later writers. Interestingly, it is documented in guides to organ building from the post-Carolingean era (9th-10th centuries), also a period when polyphony was beginning to be recorded.
Chinese instrumental music is traditionally heterophonic if it is performed on more than one instrument or for an instrument and voice. Although Chinese music does not use the triadic, four-part harmonic progressions of Western music, harmony may occur occasionally. In fact, the sheng mouth organ produces fourths and fifths when played in the traditional manner, and some qin and zheng zither passages have two or more pitches sounding together when the musicians pluck two or more strings simultaneously. The Chinese people's fondness for clarity may have prevented them from developing a heavy musical texture.