See my ON THE TEMPO OF PERCEPTION essay at http://picture-poems.com/photoweek/converging-lines_3-2-09.html

Human perception, it seems to me, is inextricably
intertwined with the speed or tempo of the human
heart beat or pulse. In turn, the pulse conditions our
sense of motion in bipedal movement or walking. If we
take 60 beats per minute as the mean, or center, or
reference point, then its doubling of 120 is fast, while
its halving of 30 is slow.

So there are but two central octaves or doublings
of tempo: 30 to 60, and 60 to 120.* These together
form what we might think of as a kind of perceptual
temporal tree.

WARBLING, hearing into the sound x1 | 2 |3 | 4 octaves slower lower

Finding peace in an inverted world…”Warriors of the Devil. Gateway to Hell…”

UNHOLY LAND, a soundpoem “Where not to kill is a sin”

What could be more urgent than ending the glorification of war, and bringing to justice the handful of corrupt men—Presidents, Popes, and CEO’s—that are its cause?

We are now at the threshold of a tipping point in world consciousness in which the meaning of war has shifted from something necessary and heroic, to a form of collective insanity, like schizophrenia, the left hand of humanity fighting against the right. The world is beginning to see that the price of freedom is no longer war; Clearly, it’s the revolution of thought and consciousness that ends conflict—before—it happens.

TEXTS are at http://picture-poems.com/photoweek/high-route_march-storm.html

IMAGE: On the road in the Pacific Northwest…along the track of the OREGON TRAIL, what the LAKOTA people in present day North DAKOTA called in scorn, THE HOLY ROAD.

ON JUSTICE & TIME / VETERAN, an essay & a poem…

(Glaucidium gnoma) NORTHERN Pygmy-Owl duet? Well, this is an objective reality report filtered through the working hypothesis of my ignorance. I bird by ear. Not with my eyes. I generally sleep at basecamps with my finger on the record button. This happened last night. 

I am assuming that the female is the distant voice, about 30m away. (Again. I didn’t actually see them. I was in a tent, trying to remain as incognito as possible.) Her music always ASCENDS; The male’s music always DESCENDS. (Note his percussive high F-pops at the beginning of each phrase.)

Ah, the joys of OBJECTIVE REALITY & MOTHER NATURE!  Where, unlike me, everybody makes an honest living, there’s no endless suffering based on organized religion’s troubling of morality, and there’s no confusion about, well yes:—gender.

IMAGE: Wikipedia

Northern Pygmy-Owls, male / female hunting duet…V.27.2024 /23:20 NT at 1330m

What a joy! The sound of montane spring / early summer…

IMAGE: Where I am composing right now. Out of midday sun & heat.

“Nijinsky” solo Hermit Thrush, is back! Just in time for RIOT AT THE RITE DAY V.29.2024

Avian soloist is the newly arrived from down south Hermit thrush. He will only sing in old-growth deeply shaded Doug-fir & Ponderosa pine forests.  Composed and recorded along the little montane conifer forest where I fetch water every day.

IMAGE: Sign just before the Columbia River, WASHINGTON

STROPHE / KATASTROPHE, part one, Fireweed Poems…

THE QUALITATIVE SPATIAL / TEMPORAL GROUND…

Music is movement. Music is a movement of relationship that we sense, not just hear, but sense with our whole mind-heart-body (the somatic constant). 

The qualitative ground is where the linear unfolding of Time folds into Space folds into TimeSpace folds into—like a melody becoming harmony with the piano’s sustaining pedal pushed down—spiral-like circles turning into cycles becoming ever more subtle or finely woven until they become timeless, beyond all thought and measure. Like the expanding circles within circles ringing out on the surface of a pond shading off to infinity. Like the a primal constant’s mysterious digits beyond the decimal point going on without end 1.41421356237…… 

The movement is at once both sustaining—giving back energy—and generative—creating energy out of nothing, emptiness, silence. The qualitative ground is the difference between Intelligence, and mere Intellect (AI or AGI), real Poetry, and mere Prose, real Music, and mere mechanical movements of air. It’s the energetic character of the whole. Like the sound of one’s voice. Like true love, we recognize it instantly, but if we try to think about it, it’s gone. Duality, measure, mathematics, and notation are powerful exploratory map-making tools, but only useful if we, like running solo in the mountains, we are aware of their limits and dangers.

IMAGE: Sunsight 4:20 NT (Natural Time) overlooking the great Snake River country, the WALLOWAS, OREGON, as this talk was recorded.

THE QUALITATIVE SPATIAL / TEMPORAL GROUND, understanding the shape of change

FLOWERS are to the background green of meadow and forest what a well-made POEM is to the constant chatter of SOUNDS that surround us. How strikingly beautiful they are, these centers where essences converge.

AVIAN soloist features here in (3) is the etherial Varied thrush in duet with two small flutes (piccolos). The Varied has failed to return in the South WALLOWAS where I work for seven years. Why?

IMAGE: Solo Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) Center of the Eagle Cap Wilderness, Sentinel Peak in backgrounf, OREGON.

FOUR ROMANCES, from Fireweed Poems… “Mystery Flower”

Stefan Koim, microtonal guitar
Hezarfen Ensemble
Cem Önertürk, flute
Nina Janssen-Deinzer, clarinet
Özcan Ulucan, violin
Doğu Kaptaner, violin
Ulrich Mertin, viola
Gökhan Bağcı, cello
Amy Salsgiver-Dorsay, percussion
Andreas Meier, conductor

GuitarPlus Microtonal Wuerzburg 2017
19th August 2017, Wuerzburg, Germany

Recorded & mastered by Onur Dülger

cOn·nEc·Tion for microtonal guitar and ensemble (2016/2017)

Oğuz Usman

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