The Awesome Sound King Thus Come one takes its name from a passage in the Lotus Sutra that refers to the clairaudient abilities attained by a Buddha who brought enlightenment to twenty thousand million beings, each of them named thereafter Awesome Sound King Thus Come One.
The original ideas for this work began in the mid to late ‘00s with early gong pieces and the creation of a “Magic Celeste” interactive instrument that takes input values from motion tracking and filters randomly generated notes into triads based on the positions of adjacent triangles in what is called a tonnetz or tone network. It was intended for installations or performances in geodesic domes, and the composer has since created a mapping of the tone network to a sphere for dome and planetarium performances. The tone network helps put the listener in a three-dimensional space that is not simply stereo, and makes one more able to passively observe their own thoughts as they gradually dissipate, rather than thinking about things they have perceived outside of themselves elsewhere.
The piece makes use of non-repeating patterns, and is not the first work by Rendina to be without repetitions, a return to a theme, or call and response forms that predominate music, though inevitably some repetitions and calls and responses may be perceived by the listener. Such patterns allow the mind to free itself from predictability and memory, remaining in the present without intrusive thoughts. This is in contrast to minimalist music that is based on repetitions.
This work contains short melodic interludes played on toy piano as memories that interrupt the meditation sessions. Should a person come out of meditation and go into a memory, their attention will be paid to the short melodies instead before continuing onward in meditation. There is no climactic moment of the piece, and although it may be played in any order, the recommended order progresses to complete stillness rather than an emotion such as anger, passion, joy, or sorrow usually present in music.
The order also may describe the progression from a monadic oneness into a syzygy pairing, from thereon the appearance of light and matter being comprised of more tones, otherwise progressing in the opposite order. The Monad and the Syzygy contains a pair of tingshas and two binaural pairs of singing bowls played on the rim with sustained friction, their timed intervals coming closer together until sounding together as one, else being played in reverse order and split into two.
The Magic Trinity Emerges from Chaos contains all permutations of a given triad and a trichord, being of the simplest building blocks of music, and is accompanied by the Magic Celeste. Breathing times are provided by the tones themselves, with expanded breathing times for held breaths making use of bowls sounding in the higher register, inverting pattern for inhalation and exhalation.
The Illusion of Time contains all permutations of seventh chords and tetrachords having four notes, and creating symmetrical squares of four non-repeating phrases. Alternate tones expand the breathing time from a square to a rectangle, or from four seconds to eight seconds, holding the breath after both inhalation and exhalation. This section is accompanied by an antique music box sounding slowed down or sped up for the different tones, and is abridged in this recording for time considerations.
The Continuation of the Present introduces the gong and is otherwise even with regard to timing, forming larger five by five squares of phrases that shift the starting tone and emphasis of the phrases. The Union of Heaven and Earth is more similar to the two sections preceding The Continuation of the Present, being comprised of symmetrical squares formed from four smaller three by three squares, being accompanied again by the Magic Celeste. The Hammering of the Elements into Tone is played on a gamelan instrument with seven tones, its beginning and end signaled by pot gongs, and is similar to The Continuation of the Present, having asymmetrical seven by seven squares of tones that shift for each line. Each square section of seven phrases containing seven notes is delayed by one entire section and played back at a lower volume in canon to create interlocking harmonies.
There is much to explore in this work. It is not fixed as to the order of sections in performance, number of instruments, number of performers, performance location, nor the tones themselves, as they are represented only by their arrangement, one through seven, in front of the performer. This recording is somewhat electronic and makes use of reverberation and delays, allowing the unique harmonic qualities of the bells to expand over time.
credits
released May 23, 2022
2 Tingsha
2 Dril-bu
7 Standing Bell (Lower Register)
2 Binaural Pairs of Singing Bowls
5 Additional Singing Bowls (Higher Registers)
2 Pot Gongs
Metallophone
Wuhan 20" Chao Gong
Magic Celeste (Electronic)
Music Box
Toy Piano
A collection of tracks from the singer and multi-disciplinary artist's 111 collaboration series, featuring KMRU, Laraaji, and others. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 25, 2024
