Religions take up the distribution and shade of cultures in which they find root. This was certainly true in Tibet when Buddhism arrived in the 7th century. He transformed and was transformed by the native religion of good. Among the many creative practices that arise from this synthesis, Tibetan Buddhist music ranks very strongly in importance.
As in sacred music in the West, Tibetan music To complex musical notation systems and a long story of written religious singing. “A vital component of the Tibetan Buddhist experience”, explains Google Arts & Cultures Center for Digital Buddhist Resources“The musical notation allows the transfer of the sacred sound and the ceremony through the generations. A way to memorize the sacred text, to express devotion, to keep wild spirits away and to invoke deities. ”
Some of these characteristics can be foreign to secular Western Western Buddhists and silent meditation, but to various degrees, Tibetan schools attach considerable value to the aesthetic experience of extra-human kingdoms. As the musicologist of the University of Tulsa wrote, John Powell, “the use of the sacred sound” in Tibetan Buddhism, a “mantrayana” tradition, acts “as a formula for the transformation of human consciousness”.
Tibetan musical notations, underlines Google: “Symbolically represent the melodies, rhythm models and instrumental arrangements. In harmony with song, visualizations and gestures of the hand, music (Tibetan) crucially guides ritual performance. ” It is characterized not only by its integration of ritual dance, but also by a large collection of ritual instruments – in particular the long Swiss horns adapted to a mountain environment – and unique forms of song of polyphonic overtaking.
The examples of musical notation that you see here come from the Twitter account named appropriately The musical notation is magnificent and designer and police researcher Baerdemaker jo. At the top is a 19th century manuscript belonging to the “Yang” tradition, “the most involved singing tradition and considered in Tibetan music”, notes the Schoyen collection“And the only one to count on a rating system (Yang-Yig).”
The curved lines represent “increases and smooth increases in intonation”. The notation “also frequently contains detailed instructions concerning in which spirit music must be sung (for example, like a river, light as a bird song) and the smallest modifications to be made to the voice in the statement of a vowel”. The Yang-Yig dates back to the 6th century, prior to Tibetan Buddhism, and “records neither the rhythmic model nor the duration of the notes”. Other types of music have their own types of notation, such as that of the above piece for the voice, drums, trumpets, horns and cymbals.
Although they articulate and explain the religious ideas of India, the musical traditions of Tibet are entirely his. “It is essential to rethink the whole concept of melody and rhythm” to understand the Tibetan Buddhist song, writes Powell in a detailed overview of the vocal and instrumental qualities of Tibetan music. “Lots of Tibetan culture outside are used to considering melody as a sequence of high climbs or decreases,” he said. “In Tantric Tibetan song, however, the melodic content occurs in terms of modification of vowels and meticulous outline of tones.” Listen to an example of traditional Tibetan Buddhist song just above, and learn more about Tibetan musical notation Google Arts & Culture.
Note: a previous version of this article appeared on our site in 2019.
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Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him to @jdmagness
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