To One (2013)
For bells and voices.
Duration: Open
"To One" is a text score, a potential for music realized by an indeterminate number of voices and bells for an indeterminate duration. It's a guided meditation on the ancient Vedic concept of the "Anahata Nada" and "Ahata Nada", the un-struck and struck sound. In it's Anahata state (print), the instructions form a mandala spiraling outward from the Aum in the shape of a conch shell. In it's Ahata state (performance), it's intention is to enliven the sympathetic resonance between the subtle vibrations of the internal world (Anahata) and the psychical vibrations of the material world (Ahata).
With closed eyes we quiet our primary sense, vision, and vivify our secondary sense, listening. In realization we create a portal through which a group of individuals can come to one, together dissolving into the unified field. The hollow of the bell represents the void from which all phenomena arise. The clapper of the bell represents form or appearance. The ringing of the bell produces an auspicious sound, the universal sound, the Aum. All auspicious actions begin and end with Aum. Aum fills the mind with peace, makes it focussed and replete with subtle sounds. The ringing of the bells drown out any irrelevant or inauspicious sound, and pervade the whole atmosphere. The sound, like all phenomena, arises, radiates forth and ultimately dissolves back into emptiness.