For many years I have been something of an amateur guitar player, playing and jamming just for fun. Lately I discovered how to digitally record myself and how to rework the data using a simple web editing program. The resulting "pieces" of music could be more accurately be called "Tonal Constructions". This is indeed how I refer to them. I have always been very fond of Ambient or Drone Music: that is music that doesn't actually do anything or go anywhere. Ambient Music is often used for Meditation, and thus was born the idea that perhaps I could make some real Ambient Jewish Meditation Music. Well one idea let to another. I said to myself: "Might it not be possible somehow to take the Names of Hashem and translate them into Music? Is not Jewish Kabbalah Meditation all about visualizing the Divine Names?" So that is what I did. Lest you think that I sacrilegiously turned Hashem's Holy Names into some catchy tunes, I assure you I did no such thing. These constructions are not entertainment. They are vehicles for contemplation. Is the music enjoyable as music? I don't know. You will have to decide for yourself. In any event, what follows is how I composed my "Jewish Meditation Music."
I began by arbitrarily choosing a series of three string "clusters" in an ascending scale, to stand for the 22 letters of the Hebrew Alphabet. I didn't try to compose. I didn't pick chords to sound nice together or blend well. I followed a pattern of finger placements on the guitar fret board.Once I had made the decision of how to "finger" the Hebrew Alphabet on the guitar, the music could just as well compose itself. The letters of the Divine names could now translate into a series of tones. I Let the wave editing program go to work and the result was that these tones interact with each other, play behind, through and above each other in shifting patterns. Once again, I did not see myself as the "composer." I made some arbitrary geometric decisions. Everything else followed "out of itself."
I went on to create numerous tracks: Meditations on the Name Havayah, Meditations on the name Adnut, Meditations on the unifications of Havayah and Adnut --namely, Y-A-H-D-V-N-H-Y and A-Y-D-H-N-V-Y-H.
Having done that, I expanded the harmonic possibilities of the Havayah/Adnut names and sequences and created two albums of music. The first I called "Eternity and Presence" (about the two 4 letter names individually) and the second "The Eightfold Moment" (about the unification sequence.) I also created some music about the stroy of Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai and the cave, which I caled "Rashbi's Cave" All these titles have ben recently upgraded, so they will sound much better than the earlier versions posted on archive.org.
All the "Sacred Music" can be accessed by going to this page:
http://www.firetreemusic.com/sacrednames.htm. There you will find everything I have put out so far.
Over time I created music more for the joy of doing it. Eventually I released three albums through my new record label "firetreemusic" and these are available for purchase on the big music dowload platforms (Itunes, Amazon and etc.) But you don't have to hunt around for things. You can access everything right here: http//:www.firetreemusic.com
Wishing you many blessings from Hashem!
Nathan
