MyDoorsAreOpen
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2003
- Messages
- 8,549
I've been turning over and tweaking this idea in my head for some time, and haven't told anyone about it. It's still very much a work in progress, but I think I have the basic foundation and framework solid, and as such I'm feeling ready to present it and decide from the feedback I get whether this is a brainchild worth birthing. And by this I mean making it a major contribution of mine to the world of any kind, not necessarily by any means an actual functioning new religion. I'd be happy just using it to craft an inspiring and uplifting work of fiction.
I've been fascinated for some time by the concept of a vocable, as it pertains to music. It's a concept that keeps popping up in the shadows I lurk in:
* Ancient songs of worship from tribal peoples in southern India whose vocals, linguists say, likely predate the existence of words
* Jewish nigun, vocals used in place of instruments for sabbath worship, because playing instruments is banned on the sabbath, and is considered crass for worship in general. The "yai da dai" that Paul Simon uses for the chorus of "The Boxer" is cut and pasted directly from this tradition
* The fascinating meeting of wordless vocals that have always existed in black American gospel music (and many of which probably date back to the first imported slaves, who worked the fields together with neither common language nor musical instruments), with ones borrowed back from jazz and hip hop in the form of scat singing
I could go on. There are many more examples from around the world.
And that's the point. I want to create a religion whose rites involve no words at all. Worshippers will vocalize interactively with each other in the highly dramatic, participatory, loosely scripted rites and rituals. But these vocalizations will not consist of meaningful syllables in any human language. Instead, they will combine seamlessly with the melodies and movements they're written to accompany, the sounds chosen carefully to evoke the sort of emotional response in the participants that the ritual is aiming to evoke. I'll want to do some reading on basic linguistics, and the evidence for sounds made in certain parts or with certain configurations of the human upper airway evoking universal emotional responses, as I am certain exists for certain melodic and harmonic combinations of musical notes.
This religion will be an esoteric or mystery religion, meaning that its teachings are imparted through initiation and revelation in private, rather than public broadcast. All around the world, aspiring initiates meet with a group of fellow aspiring initiates and a small team of people who have already been through the big initiatory rite and are full members of the fraternity. These meetings would consist in a large part of learning and practicing some of the songs and dances that one would be participating in -- in a set order and in a specially designed setting they'd never seen before -- at the major rite of initiation. I'm picturing the meeting happening once a week, opening and closing with a common opening or prayer that was mostly a short silent period of meditation and some simple humming. Then after the practice of the songs, there would be a discussion or exegesis of the meaning of the song in regards to our lives, the human condition, our connection to each other, and our connection to the great Whole.
Coming up next: a basic overview of the initiatory ritual. Keep it locked*.
*The actual meaning of con clave, literally, "with key" in Latin
I've been fascinated for some time by the concept of a vocable, as it pertains to music. It's a concept that keeps popping up in the shadows I lurk in:
* Ancient songs of worship from tribal peoples in southern India whose vocals, linguists say, likely predate the existence of words
* Jewish nigun, vocals used in place of instruments for sabbath worship, because playing instruments is banned on the sabbath, and is considered crass for worship in general. The "yai da dai" that Paul Simon uses for the chorus of "The Boxer" is cut and pasted directly from this tradition
* The fascinating meeting of wordless vocals that have always existed in black American gospel music (and many of which probably date back to the first imported slaves, who worked the fields together with neither common language nor musical instruments), with ones borrowed back from jazz and hip hop in the form of scat singing
I could go on. There are many more examples from around the world.
And that's the point. I want to create a religion whose rites involve no words at all. Worshippers will vocalize interactively with each other in the highly dramatic, participatory, loosely scripted rites and rituals. But these vocalizations will not consist of meaningful syllables in any human language. Instead, they will combine seamlessly with the melodies and movements they're written to accompany, the sounds chosen carefully to evoke the sort of emotional response in the participants that the ritual is aiming to evoke. I'll want to do some reading on basic linguistics, and the evidence for sounds made in certain parts or with certain configurations of the human upper airway evoking universal emotional responses, as I am certain exists for certain melodic and harmonic combinations of musical notes.
This religion will be an esoteric or mystery religion, meaning that its teachings are imparted through initiation and revelation in private, rather than public broadcast. All around the world, aspiring initiates meet with a group of fellow aspiring initiates and a small team of people who have already been through the big initiatory rite and are full members of the fraternity. These meetings would consist in a large part of learning and practicing some of the songs and dances that one would be participating in -- in a set order and in a specially designed setting they'd never seen before -- at the major rite of initiation. I'm picturing the meeting happening once a week, opening and closing with a common opening or prayer that was mostly a short silent period of meditation and some simple humming. Then after the practice of the songs, there would be a discussion or exegesis of the meaning of the song in regards to our lives, the human condition, our connection to each other, and our connection to the great Whole.
Coming up next: a basic overview of the initiatory ritual. Keep it locked*.
*The actual meaning of con clave, literally, "with key" in Latin
I told him that I had no idea but that I suspected it came from wherever his brother came from. It was a primal sound and a divine sound. I may have been delivering a baby but it was I who was delivered.
