The Wheels of Time

 “The Wheels of Time”,  by Armando Martier

Since Man is on Earth, he raised his prayer to God or the Divinities. Nowadays, it seems to be in fashion to plead to “The Universe”. Regardless of our creed, should we first be in tune with the Higher Powers, so our pleads are heard?

Whenever my traveling allows, I like to stop in Miami and stay a few days with my friend Juan. With his simple, kind and unpretentious manner, he is a modern “man of wisdom”. His friendship is dearest to me since I was a child in Argentina.

Every Tuesday, he opens his house to a group of followers, to teach and practice ancient exercises of meditation. During one of my visits, Juan asked if I would like to join the session. So I tried as best I could to follow the slow, intricate motions.  “The Wheel” in particular, was a  difficult exercise. The movements require a good deal of concentration and coordination. The hands draw two wide circles in front of the chest, rotating in opposite directions. A countdown from nine to zero is chanted, marking ten imaginary points on the circles. While doing so, an absolute silence of mind must be kept. Easy to say, but hard to do. The solemnity of the collective movements and chantings produced a profound impression on me.

After the group was gone, I asked Juan what the meaning of  “The Wheel” exercise was.  He responded “It helps to raise your consciousness to be more in tune with the Universe, the Divine creation. And it’s more powerful than you may think… Tonight, you may experience something unusual, but do not be alarmed”.  That evening, we went out for dinner, had a great time and I forgot all about  “The Wheel”.

As I lay sleeping that night I was awakened by a jolt from head to toe. My tissues seemed to be burning. Every cell in my body  was calling for my attention, like ten billion points of light. It lasted for several minutes and I couldn’t go back to sleep. I got up and made some coffee.

At breakfast, I told Juan about my intense physical experience. He laughed. “I warned you!” he said.  After our usual exchange of thoughts he asked, “Will you compose some music for The Wheel exercise? It will be good to play suitable music during the exercise”. I was flattered and accepted the challenge…

Back in Los Angeles a few weekends later, with a newly sharpened pencil and several pages of blank sheet-music, I headed for my sailboat…  The ideal place of work and inspiration. “You have quite a task on hand”  I said to myself,  “To put music to Man trying to  be in tune with the Universe, the Divine creation”. I had to plan this carefully…

The Universe is a marvel of equilibrium, balance of forces. So the structure of the music, I thought, should be based on classic laws of Harmony, which is based on the natural laws of Physics. Nothing could be more in tune with the Universal than natural laws.

The style of Mozart’s “Requiem” came to mind, but I should add a dash of “2001 Space Odyssey”. .. Some meaningful symbols had to be peppered here and there, for sure…  A problem of metrics  worried me most: if the music had to synchronize with the ten points of “The Wheel” exercise, I had to compose it in phrases of ten measures, instead of the traditional eight. “This may  stretch the phrase too long to sound right”, I thought.  But I had no choice.

I decided to describe the Universe first.  Man trying to be in tune with it last. “Should I start with a Big Bang?”  A big blast at the very beginning didn’t seem  appropriate for a meditation exercise. Then, my childhood concepts of the Universe came to mind: God  soaring in the darkness of empty space carrying me on his back, my little hands clamped on his wide shoulders. Like a Master  Magician, slowly waving His arms and millions of glittering stars coming up from his sleeves. I thought that image was more poetic than the Big Bang. It would also give the listener the impression of traveling in a journey throughout the Universe…

A master plan crystalized in my mind. I will divide the composition in three equal parts.  PART 1:  God will be soaring in a dark empty space, creating stars with wide strokes of his arms;  PART 2:  Angels and then archangels will sing the glory of what they are witnessing; PART 3:  After a dramatic climax, a descending scale will bring us down to Earth where Man, in a reverberating Temple, pleads to  Heaven with a spiritual chant. Angels and archangels, from above, will  echo the chant  as a signal that the plead was heard. At the end, the celestial beings, in communion with Man, will sing the final chords.

“OK… let’s  start from the beginning…with God” I joked to myself looking at the empty  sheet music . Then I wrote a big “C” note, “Do” in Latin, at the low bass.  “Do” is the fundamental note in the ancient natural scale and short for “Domine” … God in Latin. The “Do” will last for the first third of the score, atmospheric… omnipresent… but almost imperceptible.  A string ensemble and humming voices will provide the fabric of Space; a merciless and constant clockwork by a glockenspiel  will represent Time, while giving  the feeling of movement through Space. A distant bell will mark the ten points of the circle. A male and female choir will represent Humanity… a children’s choir will be the angels and heavenly bodies…. the timpani will add drama….”So far so good!… ” I said out loud, trying to reassure myself.

The music  started coming easily to my mind. And to my surprise, the metrics of ten were providing a strange sensation of Infinity. It took me a few days to finish the score. At the end, it was twenty four pages long, exactly under 10 minutes of music, as Juan had requested. Now I had to convert  my paper into sound. To hire a symphony  orchestra and a choir, was out of the question for such a humble project. So instead I called my daughter Ana Lenchantin, a professional cellist and composer and to my advantage,  with  Pro-Tools experience! I recorded everything digitally from a keyboard, trying to imitate as best I could the orchestral dynamics  and inflections of human voices. And I must add on a side note, I drove my daughter crazy in the process…

When we finished, Ana and I sat and listened to the whole thing from beginning to end…  We could not avoid laughing. Hard!… It was too intense to be used as background music for a meditation exercise! We imagined Juan’s group with their hair electrified, trying to meditate under the blast of God, Universe, Time, Space, Humanity and Angels…  In any case, that’s what I had so I sent the file to Juan and waited…

Juan called me a couple of days later and I  noted some hesitation in his voice. “We all love your music a lot, here. But for God’s sake…”, he said laughing, “…nobody can pay attention to the exercise!  We get carried away by the music!  I am so sorry, but it’s not going to work for this exercise.   But your composition has a powerful life of its own!… Please, you have to publish it!… ”

I always listen to what Juan says.  But for the time being I left  the score in a drawer. More than a year later, I decided to follow his advise and started to work on it again. I did not change a single note, but by polishing the sound and dynamics, something more intimate and insightful came to life.

Today I can personally meditate while listening to my music. Let’s say, an “intense” type of meditation. When I close my eyes, it takes me to a wonderful realm… nothing less than a voyage through the Universe, with my hands clamped on the shoulders of God…

I sincerely wish for you to share with me this wonderful experience…. Give it a try, soar the Universe… be in tune with it …  Bon Voyage!.