Compressed 96kbps MP3.
This web-page documents an extended electroacoustic composition, submitted as one third of the author's final portfolio for the Masters in Music, Composition (Studio) at Goldsmiths College, University of London on 17th June 2004.
Spectrogram of complete composition (0-22khz grayscale); time-domain
waveform overlaid (green):
Compressed 96kbps MP3.
Awarded 2nd prize in the Sherrill C. Corwin-Metropolitan Theatres Awards for Excellence in Composition fro Electro-Acoustical work, 2004-2005.
I had for some time been discussing with a close friend and professional singer, Nicolas Oyarzun, the idea of creating a sound-piece based upon his voice. His diverse experience includes operatic baritone, medieval bass, new music and Mexican bolero, however it was in his more esoteric interests in chanting and mantra that the most intriguing combinatory possibilities presented themselves. Of the various mantras in which he was practised, Nicolas identified that of Green Tara as the most suitable for this project.
In this document I will first describe the nature of mantra and its practice, and my understanding of its relation to the principle of resonance, then describe in more detail the tradition of Tara and Green Tara in particular. Beyond this I shall describe the various consequent ideas and methodologies explored in the development of this piece, and their eventual use in the final composition.
Figure 1: Green Tara (web source: http://www.iol.ie/~taeger/bio/greenye.html)
Proceeding from the core Vedic principle of breath as the material of life, and the supreme power of words and gestures (when correctly pronounced and gesticulated), a mantra is chanted by an individual such that the individual becomes one with the content of the mantra, and thus takes on or becomes the properties or nature of the mantra itself. The core method of mantra, besides the correct pronunciation, is reinforcement through repetition, often achieving a meditative state.
“If, in particular you are practising Tara, you should recognize all you see as Tara’s body (made of green light), all you hear as Her divine speech, and all your thoughts as Her divine wisdom… thus Tara is the Basis from which spiritual practice starts, the mud of samsara, with all its defilements and other obscurations, in which the lotus of spiritual awakening grows.” (Willson 1996: 17)
I find this a striking metaphor for the phenomenon of resonance, and indeed resonance is a term often used by practitioners of mantra chanting in describing its process or effects.
Etymologically, resonance literally means sonic repetition, through resonare, which means ‘sounding again’, or re-sounding. In turn, the word resounding implies the resultant amplification due to resonance, whether physically as “the increase in amplitude of oscillation of an electric or mechanical system exposed to a periodic force whose frequency is equal or very close to the natural undampened frequency of the system”, or acoustically as the “intensification and prolongation of sound, especially of a musical tone, produced by sympathetic vibration”. (Web source: www.dictionary.com)
Beyond such mechanical descriptions (essentially as positive feedback to particular stimulus), resonance sheds yet more illumination not just metaphorically, but also as a means of metaphor itself:
“The quality or condition of being resonant: words that had resonance throughout his life.
Richness or significance, especially in evoking an association or strong emotion: ‘It is home and family that give resonance... to life’ (George Gilder). ‘Israel, gateway to Mecca, is of course a land of religious resonance and geopolitical significance’ (James Wolcott).”
(Web source: www.dictionary.com)
The kind of resonance described in these examples is a very meaningful human experience, emphasizing states of significance or ‘one-ness’ with life, due to reflection, distant connection or other similar metaphoric perceptions. In the presented composition, I have tried to draw inspiration from all the above aspects of both mantra and resonance.
Tara is a feminine deity of Indian origin, worshipped in Buddhist tradition since at least the sixth century AD from India, Cambodia, China, Nepal and most particularly Tibet, and has been said to have inhabited these regions incarnate in human form through the ages.
“In our age, Tara first revealed herself to humankind as an emanation of the male Bodhisattva of Compassion, Avalokitesvara. This is recorded in myths and supported by archaeological evidence. The usual story is that She was born from a lotus that grew in Avalokitesvara’s tears of pity.” (Willson 1996: 12).
In brief, Tara represents or endows quick-thinking wisdom, generous compassion, protection from fears and dangers, and quick karmic completion. Within the complex Buddhist system, Tara is worshipped as a Bodhisattva, as a mother Goddess and as a Tantric deity.
Buddhahood results from a continuum of reincarnation of unenlightened beings over many cycles, until by practising the Boddhisattva path over these cycles enlightenment is achieved. Tara took the traditional Bodhisattva vow to work for the benefit of all beings until Samsara is empty, however unlike other Bodhisattvas she further takes the vow to only be reborn in female form henceforth (against the traditional teaching); hence Tara’s femininity is a very crucial aspect to her tradition. Her nature as Boddhisattva is one of compassion (from Avalokitesvara’s tears), wisdom (through the femine wisdom embodied in her Boddhisattva vow) and as a saviouress as described in her name, which is usually taken to mean ‘she who leads across’.
This latter nature made her particularly popular as a granter of worldy aid against the eight great fears or dangers, which are described as lions, elephants, fire, snakes, robbers, imprisonment, water and demons. However,
“The outer aspect of the eight fears is not the whole story. They can be taken symbolically, as in the song by the First Dalai Lama in Part Five, as standing for the inner fears of pride, delusion, anger, envy, wrong views, avarice, attachment and doubt. This … makes it part of Her real task as Saviouress from Samsara.” (Willson 1996: 14)
Figure 2: Green Tara, Wrathful (web source: http://www.iol.ie/~taeger/bio/8greenta.htm)
In defeating these fears Green Tara is often depicted in a wrathful form with eight arms, each one holding a different tool with which to counter each fear.
Tara is also worshipped as a Mother Goddess, drawing on many aspects of Brahmanical forms such as Durga, and in this form has been analyzed as an archetypal form in Indian culture by Jung’s student Erich Neumann:
“He describes the Feminine archetype as compirisng an elementary character – the maternal function of containing – and a transformative character, which operates in different directions and on different planes. On the first plane is the Goddess as Great Round, ‘which is and contains the universe’. Next, on the natural plane, is the Lady of the Plants and Animals. Above this again is the Goddess of Spiritual Transformation, whose highest form of all, Neumann says, is Tara.” (Willson 1996: 15)
Finally, the third form in which Tara is worshipped is as a Tantric deity, or a complete and perfect Buddha, “That is, she is a potentiality latent within every sentient being’s mind, that the practitioner properly empowered by a Guru can by Tantric practice develop and learn to identify with and so reach perfection, fully realized Tarahood.” (Willson 1996: 20) The seeming paradox between being both a perfect Buddha and a Bodhisattva on the path to Buddhahood is resolved in that through her perfect compassion she aims to enlighten all those around her before she herself disappears into blissful Nirvana, but as a result of this compassionate aim she becomes enlightened quicker than ever. Hence Tara is also worshipped as offering a faster path to enlightenment.
There are many different rites and songs to Tara, perhaps the best known being the Praise in Twenty One Homages, however a simple form exists as a ten-syllable mantra: “Aum Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha”, and it is this form that has been used in the present composition. “Aum” is one of the most common opening words for mantra, as it is “one of the most important Hindu symbols… the sound of God, the origin of all sounds.” (Karolyi 1998: 99). Similarly, “Svaha” is a common ending term to ‘feminine’ mantras, and though it has no exact translation, it is not dissimilar to ‘praise be’. Between these, ‘Tare Tuttare Ture’ has no specific meaning as such; it is said to be a ‘play’ on her name, close-sounding approximations that relate to her nature, and the ‘seed-syllables’ of the Goddesses in the Mandala of Nine Taras (Willson 1996: 62).
Om! Namas TARE ture vire
TUTTARE bhaya-nasane /
TURE sarvartha-da tare
SVAHA kare namo stute //OM! Homage! O TARE, Swift One, Heroine!
TUTTARE who eliminates fears!
TURE, the Saviouress granting all benefits!
Sound of SVAHA, worshipped and praised!Opening verse of The Praise in Twenty-One Homages, transcribed and translated by Willson 1996: 121.
The sonic source material for the composition was limited to a recording of Nicolas Oyarzun reciting the mantra. As with all mantra practice, and according to Vedic verse, the universe itself, we began with a straightforward breathing exercise. I then asked Nicolas to recount the mantra leisurely at first, to find his own comfortable rhythm and pitch at which to recite the mantra according to his normal practice. I next asked him to recite the mantra using only aspiration, i.e. no vibration of the vocal chords, in order to hear only the resonant space of the vowels themselves. Further to this, and to enhance the resonant properties of the mantra, I asked him to concentrate on each vowel sound in turn making prolonged aspirated sounds, to listen to these sounds for any pitches they might suggest, and finally to recite the mantra at these pitches. Naturally enough this process led to the encounter of the first and sometimes second formant frequencies of his voice in different vowel shapes, and I suspect that the other frequencies he encountered bore simple harmonic relationships to these formants. Finally we returned to a straightforward recital of the mantra, but a notable resonant enhancement to the vocal performance was clearly evident.
The mantra itself consists of ten syllables (though the first, AUM, strictly speaking contains a gradual timbral evolution of its own, with respective threefold reference to the three forms of time in early Indian thought). The meter of the mantra varied through the original recording, however a common pattern frequently emerged as in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Transcription
of the Green Tara Mantra
Note that the meter of emphasis did not always follow the pattern of the word beginnings, which is quite normal for mantra practice; in fact frequently a canonical form of displacement of emphasis pattern was evident.
In choosing means of arrangement and transformation of the source recording, I considered the parallel metaphor of mantra and resonance described above. Acoustic resonance can be modelled using relatively straightforward digital signal processing algorithms for many simple resonant bodies such as mounted strings and hollow bodies; the key principle being that a system has a feedback loop that incorporates positive feedback for ‘resonant’ frequencies, and some kind of damping mechanism. Frequently such systems are constructed of simple delay lines or comb filters, where the resonant frequencies are whole number multiples of the inverse of the delay period. A simple positive feedback loop however ends to amplify towards a singularity. This can be avoided according to two factors; the one being the form of the impulse energy driving the algorithm, the other being some kind of disturbance within the system to shift the energy centres of the feedback (at the very least this could be as simple as damping).
Considering the metaphor of resonance with mantra, the sound of the mantra would be the shifting form of impulse to the meditating chanter, whilst the inner mental activities of the chanter might be seen as factors of disturbance. In terms of realising this metaphor using digital signal processing algorithms, it was clear that the source recording should be used as the driving impulse energy, and in a further extension of feedback, I also frequently fed the results of the processing back as new impulse energy for further processing. Regarding the algorithms of disturbance, I aimed to combine a degree of controlled indeterminacy with direct manipulation appropriate to the piece. Frequently I made use of pitch-tracking algorithms (which provide their own interesting inaccuracies), modifying the results by random factors in predetermined ranges. Direct manipulation was restricted generally to guidance rather instrumental modes of interaction.
The feedback algorithms were constructed as DSP software ‘patches’ using Max/MSP (Zicarelli 2002), a number of which are included as screen captures in the appendix (Figures 4 to 8). Resonating structures were constructed using comb filters, delay lines, reverberation and filter-based resonance models (using the CNMAT resonators~ object, see Jehan et al 1999). Other approaches abandoned simple, linear models for complex models that would engender chaotic behaviour, seeking a potentially more musically relevant to the sense of expectant readiness, the suggestion of fears or indeed the wrathful destruction thereof. In particular, the patch in figure 7 (which employs granulation of the feedback loop, with flange filter inserts to shape the sounds according to the various key frequencies identified by Nicolas during the recording session) proved particularly evocative.
Finally I introduced a rather simpler resonant means to a number of these patches by allowing a secondary feedback loop from the resultant physical output of the loudspeakers to a microphone placed nearby to be mixed with the source material. By cupping my hands around the microphone in different modes I could physically manipulate the resonant space through which this feedback loop operated, and (albeit roughly) guide the algorithmic feedback loops. There seemed something appropriate to this composition about a having simple bodily element as part of the resonant system.
Figure 4. Comb-filtered feedback with phase cancellation and
harmonic disturbance. Each of the four comb filters is tuned independently
to a harmonic multiple of the frequency identified by the fiddle~ pitch tracker,
where the indeterminate choices of multiples are triggered at a the mean rate
of onset detection in the source sound, or manually.
Figure 5. Driving resonant models with MIDI triggers, and
control over resonant model shaping.
Figure 6. Phase-distributed comb-filters with frequency
based upon a fiddle~ pitch follower.
Figure 7. Granular synthesis with feedback under MIDI control.
Flange effects are inserted in the feedback chain, with each flanger tuned
to the vowel frequencies identified by Nicolas Oyarzun.
Figure 8. Rhythmic distribution of source triggers to various
effects, whose parameters are modified continuously based on the fiddle~
pitch tracker.
The composition falls roughly into three parts; an opening section being most closely based on mantra practice, followed by two sections following approximately the two-fold structure apparent in much of classical Indian performance:
“Put simply, the archetypal design of creation – unquestionably the most pervasive formal design in all the later music of India – consists of a sequence of two components: a slow, exploratory section with a loose temporal organization, followed by a faster and more strictly organized section.” (Rowell, 1992: 237)
The more respectfully literal introduction soon diverges from actual acoustic space through simplistic resonance and repetition; first as an inward-looking convolution of breathing and mantra, then as an assuredly outward-facing cohesive layering of similar but distinct recordings, related harmonically by the pitches chosen by the chanter. Beneath these growing sound masses however, less transparent reverberations of the mantra begin to emerge.
The second section of the piece introduces much more extreme digital transformations of the sounds leading to the generation of new and somewhat alien soundscapes, yet still tightly related to the mantra. The sonic transformations also begin to separate facets of the mantra; reducing the chant to aspiration, disorganising the structure of the mantra or removing its parts, and more generally removing the sense of stability, perhaps evoking resonance with the fears or dangers referenced in the Tara tradition, perhaps referencing the playful transformation of her name in the mantra.
The final section follows the previous freely structured arrangement with more rhythmic explorations of the sounds, and yet more extreme transformations, now more clearly separated from a re-integrated mantra. The repetitive gestures gradually build towards a crescendo, culminating in a collapse of the system. When resonance gets too much for the containing system it distorts or explodes – the loss of the mantra through over-concentration leads to disintegration. The subsequent re-organisation of the resultant fragments slowly returns the rhythmic crescendo form, however this time with less destructive character, terminating finally in a kind of satisfied readiness.
After Nicolas Oyarzun’s original suggestion of working with the Green Tara mantra, I first experienced some uncertainty regarding treating a revered subject and practice with completely new, technological means, however I resolved to aim where possible to treat the material in kind with both its practical origins and surrounding ideologies, and also with the sound-art medium into which I was placing these inspirations.
“As Tara becomes part of the lives of Westerners, we are likely to come to see Her in new ways. It is also quite possible She may offer some inspiration to our artists and poets; I point out that while Tara the Tantric Deity has to be drawn precisely according to the traditional prescriptions that come to us through Tibet, Tara the Bodhisattva and Tara the Mother Goddess do not – there is room for experiment, as one can see from Indian Buddhist art.” (Willson 1996: 25)
On the other hand, this piece is not claimed to be a work of religious or esoteric practice, rather it is simply presented as an exploration of the ideas of Tara, resonance and mantra in a digital audio medium; and let any literal or spiritual resonance with the reader and listener be considered an appropriate ‘granted boon’ in kind. Hopefully therefore what has been achieved is the sound of a Tara mantra resonating with the author’s interpretation thereof.
Beyer, Stephan, 1973: The Cult of Tara (California: Berkeley).
Jehan, Tristan, Freed, Adrian & Dudas, Richard, 1999: Musical Applications of New Filter Extensions to Max/MSP (web source: http://cnmat.cnmat.berkeley.edu/ICMC99/papers/MSP-filters/filticmc.html)
Jourdain, Robert, 1997: Music, The Brain and Ecstasy (New York: Harper Collins).
Karolyi, Otto, 1998: Traditional African and Oriental Music (London: Penguin).
Maconie, Robin, 1990: The Concept of Music (New York: OUP).
Roads, Curtis, 1998: The Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: MIT Press).
Rowell, Lewis, 1992: Music and Musical Thought in Early India (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Spjut, Erik, 2000: ‘Convolution in Csound: Traditional and Novel Applications’, in TheCsound Book, ed. Richard Boulanger (Cambridge: MIT Press), pp 507-520.
Willson, Martin, 1996: In Praise of Tara (Boston: Wisdom Publications)
Zicarelli, David, 2002: “How I learned to love a program that does nothing” Computer Music Journal Vol. 26, No. 4, pp44-51.