`CVK
Tonal Atonality with the author's explanations ` Composer Vyacheslav Kazarin
Vyacheslav Gennadievich Kazarin
TONAL ATONALITY
with the author's explanations
A few lines by way of introduction
Recently, I have been receiving increasingly frequent and highly constructive, as well as positive, feedback from art historians, musicologists and performing musicians—both acquaintances and strangers—regarding the compositional technique of Tonal Atonality, which is, in fact, my own style. These responses are dominated by a very important observation – and not just for me personally – that Tonal Atonality, as a compositional system, opens up boundless possibilities for creative work in the use of every single compositional means ever created by humankind – all of them, literally. And not just in the field of music.
To which I have but one thing to add: if this is so, then my life will not have been lived in vain.
Nevertheless, moving beyond personal sentiments that are pleasing to the soul and the heart, I would like to proceed straight away to a generalised clarification of the key features of this concept. So as not to confine interest primarily to the author’s person. It is important to realise here that the natural potential of Tonal Atonality lies, from the outset, beyond the confines of any individual or group, and thus beyond any creative norms or limitations known today. At the same time, it continues to conform to the natural order of things, and therefore to the highest aesthetic and, as a consequence, technological standards.
Therefore!
1.
To begin with, it is essential to highlight the factors that contributed to the emergence of Tonal Atonality as an independent system.
From 1987(85) to 1992 inclusive [the period of my studies at the Ural State Conservatoire in the Composition Department], the same drama unfolded before me time and time again, which had an extremely negative impact on many people’s lives. Here, I shall highlight just one of them, but the most illustrative and useful for exploring our topic.
The point is that when a young composer finds himself in the environment of higher academic education, his ‘virginal’ – natural – understanding of the world begins to be suppressed with particular insistence by the mentoring atmosphere of the educational institution. And it cannot be otherwise, for who else, if not your academic mentors in the form of doctors of science, professors, academicians and fellow students seasoned by local experience, knows better what and how things are organised in the profession in which they are already experts, unlike you – the novice. The newcomer then sincerely believes that this is the very essence of what cannot be found outside the confines of the academic ‘alma mater’—knowing what you must strive for throughout your creative life.
And I was no exception.
In our case, this patronising tone took the following form: you will never become an outstanding contemporary composer unless you embrace, study and subsequently champion the principles of avant-garde music, which have been shaped over the last century by compositional techniques such as serialism, pointillism, dodecaphony and so on, right up to minimalism, and indeed quarter-tone systems with aleatoric elements.
No, of course not!
No one openly imposed such an understanding on you, nor was it present in the teaching guides or theoretical works. And yet, the spirit of avant-gardism [identified with universal progress] and the corresponding reverent, if not downright subservient, attitude literally permeated the atmosphere of the educational institution. In other words, at every opportunity, this understanding was slipped in to you in one form or another, both by your teachers and by fellow students with a vested interest in the matter.
But, if that is the case, then it would seem that here it is – the demand for this state of affairs, unequivocally recognised by the musical community.
Here, I hasten to clarify: if one does not take at face value the claim that avant-garde movements in music and in world culture as such are in high demand, then the curious individual who takes it upon themselves to verify this will be in for a most striking discovery! The so-called ‘avant-garde’ within contemporary culture occupies a negligible space, and interest in it is equally limited, confined, quite literally, to a parochial level, comprising just a handful of avant-garde figures and a similar number of their public events. Yes, there are exceptions here too, the nature and origins of which are a subject for a separate study.
But that is just by the way.
Next, we shall speak of a man—let us call him Anton—whose innate charisma, manifesting itself not only outwardly but also in the form of a strikingly pronounced musical talent, was evident to everyone. And indeed, the compositions that Anton presented to the department upon entering the conservatoire predicted that he would stand shoulder to shoulder with such outstanding figures as G. Sviridov, V. Gavrilin and V. Zolotaryov. This became increasingly evident in the works he composed whilst still within the walls of the academy.
But!
The music did not play for long!
It wasn’t long before Anton found common ground in his creative explorations with a fellow student—also from the Composition Department—whom we’ll call Boris. It’s not hard to guess that Boris based his own compositional explorations on the modern techniques mentioned above. Quite quickly, Anton was impressed by their extraordinarily calculated logic, the mastery of which promised, in the long run, not merely to make one another traditional composer, but a ‘truly modern composer, ahead of the rest of the world’.
It was indeed impossible to resist this, not only for Anton, but for me as well, just as it was for other newcomers.
But, unlike many, for example, I remained somewhat on the sidelines of this ‘intricate sonic trap’ for a long time; I took my time, clearly sensing its unnaturalness, built on substitutions, the essence of which I could not articulate clearly at the time due to my inexperience in this regard.
Therefore, I took my time in absorbing this new knowledge.
And so it remained up to and including my third year of study [more on what this means below], whilst Anton plunged headfirst into the whirlpool of avant-gardism.
And here is what came of it for him.
Over time, rumours began to circulate in compositional circles that Anton was deeply disillusioned with his wanderings through the labyrinths of contrived structures—and thus of meaningless logical sound constructions that could scarcely be called music. Consequently, he suddenly realised that he had lost his identity – his original, natural individuality – and that his atonal, dissonant works sounded little different not only from one another, but also from the works of his colleagues in the ‘avant-garde workshop’. If anything, they differed only in the instrumentation of the scores and in their duration.
He had just over a year left before receiving his conservatoire diploma. And Anton made an attempt to return, in his creative work, to his natural, innate qualities.
I know of what happened next only from the accounts of my fellow students, for I myself had gone off for compulsory military service in the village of Sosva in the northern Urals. And this is what my acquaintances told me after my demobilisation.
The pieces Anton had written specifically for his final State Examination were utterly pitiful. It was clear that he had no desire to conclude his conservatoire studies with contrived, dissonant, atonal trifles, yet he was unable to return to a natural approach to music-making. His mind had already been so crippled by a destructive desire not to feel, see or hear Nature, but to destroy it by substituting unnatural constructs for the natural. And as a result, in his graduation works, fully conscious consonant-tonal episodes, imbued with the distinctive freshness of folk material, were replaced by utterly meaningless constructions of atonal-dissonant sound. It was precisely this juxtaposition of the natural and the frankly contrived that created a completely unbearable soundscape, even for the well-trained—and therefore accustomed to much—ears of the musicologists, of whom there were plenty in the hall of the local philharmonic that evening.
In fact, it was they who told me, with deep regret, that a human tragedy had unfolded before their very eyes, rather than the triumph that Anton’s innate gift deserved, had he not once been led astray by a surrogate for Music that reproduced sound in an unnatural way.
But there is more.
Just a few days ago, before embarking on this account, I tried to find Anton’s academic works on various online music platforms… and found nothing. Apart from a few video clips featuring his songs, performed by folk groups from some House of Culture. That is the full ‘price of success’ for being drawn into a contrived worldview that has little to do with reality and is, therefore, unnatural.
That was the first time I realised that not everything new is necessarily better. And even those things that have been endorsed by certain authoritative sources—in other words, those wrapped up in an attractive package promising you, as a beginner, some alluring prospects for life. At the same time, it prompted me to take a closer look and listen more attentively to my early works, which were already largely self-sufficient, but which seemed to me to be traditional in style, and therefore, by definition, lacking in potential. This became the initial stage in identifying these qualities within them, and subsequently in the formation of Tonal Atonality as a coherent system.
***
It wasn’t long before the second incident occurred.
1990.
Summer.
Across the land of the Aryans, in the outskirts of my home town of Samara, as indeed throughout the entire Middle Volga region, the month of July had arrived, shaded by the boundless blue of the heavens, bountiful meadows and forests, full-flowing rivers and lakes, wheat fields stretching from horizon to horizon, and sunlight everywhere… Still, I could not resist singing the praises of my homeland once more, of bright Russia – consonant and tonal, just like nature itself – majestic, and resounding nobly in the voice of folk art and in its own world-class achievements.
So, outside the window, the marvellous July of 1990 is just beginning. And I, being at home on summer holidays as a fourth-year student at the Ural Conservatoire, am asking my father and mother to let me have the family dacha for my own use for the month of August inclusive. So that nothing and no one might distract me during this time from studying and putting into practice those very modern compositional techniques.
To which my parents agreed.
The sheer amount of material I read, listened to and scribbled down on music paper on that subject back then… it’s absolutely mind-boggling! I suppose C. Kogout’s book was the simplest option of the lot.
And so, three days before August [I shall omit here the huge pile of exercises completed on the given theme], having notated the final dissonance in the score of my latest atonal composition, in which Pointillism was clearly discernible, thickly seasoned with Aleatoric elements—and not just any, but multiplied by Sonorism— I struggle to cram all my atonal, dissonant scribblings into a plastic ‘diplomat’ case—very fashionable and in demand as a replacement for a briefcase in those days—and go to bed.
It is around midnight.
I wake up.
Dawn is just breaking outside the window, and I suddenly realise that something, which had been lodged in my mind since the evening, has not only woken me but is also keeping me awake.
“So the night is drawing to a close, and now a new day… duality… — it suddenly occurred to me. — And who would have doubted it, — I answer myself, — no surprise there!”
I get out of bed and step out into the courtyard. There, the earth beneath my feet and the heavens right above my head: “Duality…” I find myself saying it again, involuntarily. And immediately I answer myself. “Well, what an event! And once again, no surprise!”
I glance straight ahead… oh, there’s the Trinity!
That is to say, I look and see a tree towering before me, and not just any tree, but a ‘White Pour’ apple tree – roots, trunk and branches, and fruit on the branches. “Well, yes… the Trinity… but that’s still no reason to be wandering among apple trees and vegetable patches at the crack of dawn! — I’m slightly annoyed with myself. And finally, a perfectly reasonable thought occurs to me. “Right, since I’m suffering from insomnia, and with a distinctly philosophical undertone at that, I’ll take a closer look around. Perhaps I’m here for a reason…”
And I looked around: duality indeed… here is my left hand, and here is my right… and between them, me – a trinity… and here are my legs, just above them my head – duality, and in the middle, my body – a trinity… Right, the process has begun and is clearly heading somewhere… I slowly turn towards the country house and see its foundations, and above the foundations the roof – duality, and between the duality of the walls – a trinity, and not just any trinity, but one with all the natural connections and gravities that go with it, which couldn’t be more stable!
‘And now this too!’ I exclaim aloud.
It’s as if I’m seeing it for the first time; I stare in amazement at yet another duality: a flowerbed, and within it flowers, where the flowerbed itself is a triad and every flower within it is a triad: lawn-flowerbed edging-soil within the edging; roots-stem-flower.
‘So what? Perhaps enough of this roundabout talk… now really surprise me, if that’s the case!’ – I command myself.
And then the desired answer comes, seemingly out of nowhere.
‘To begin with, stop denying yourself the miracle,’ it sounded and resonated in every cell of my body, ‘thus setting yourself against reality – against nature! Your eyes do not lie; this miracle has always been close to you and all around you. Just look at it – all the answers to your questions are here, right in front of you!’
Oh, my Gods, my Gods!
And I saw that every flower, as beautiful as it is in its ‘melodious’—consonant—perfection, is equally tonal in its stability, expressed through the Trinity. And most importantly, amidst this divine splendour there was not even a hint of atonality or dissonance – they simply did not exist. I stood in the midst of a world filled with the beauty of Consonance and equally with the classically ordered Trinity.
“Stop!” I mentally snapped myself back to reality, bringing myself down to earth. “By all accounts, to complete the picture, it wouldn’t hurt to switch right now from ‘object-oriented vision’ to ‘diffuse, that is, spatial’…”
But more on that later, in the third section of my tonal-atonal narrative.
Naturally, I did not fail to switch over then, so that just five minutes later:
- Unity… Duality… Plurality… – it occurred to me that this put full stop to the answers to the questions that had roused me at the crack of dawn on that early summer morning.
After which, I hastened:
` to empty the ‘Diplomat’ briefcase of my atonal, dissonant scribblings;
` to use it to light a blazing fire in the street kitchen;
` and to cook on it, for breakfast, the most delicious solyanka made of consonant cabbage,
the same sort of potatoes,
consonant carrots,
the same sort of tomatoes,
truffles,
all manner of pulses…
and, surprisingly, even amongst the other culinary trifles and herbs, such as dill, bay leaves and parsley, there was nothing dissonant or unstable to be found.
Instead, twig by twig, leaf by leaf, that is to say, the perfect harmony of this world – tonal beauty.
There you have it!
Well, there you have it: a few reasons that served as the basis for identifying Tonal Atonality in my early works. And thus for strengthening its ideological and aesthetic-constructive positions in the future.
2.
In the second section of my tonal-atonal narrative, I must define what is meant by ‘consonance’ and ‘dissonance’.
A curious question, to which, I suspect, any musician would respond with an indulgent smile, or perhaps even a Homeric roar of laughter. For at least the last 200 years, an endless number of theoretical works have been written on these subjects. And yet, I shall now explain what Consonance and Dissonance actually are.
Why is my clarification so important?
Simply because I will not speak of music as some abstract sphere of human activity, for it is not such a thing. For music is nothing other than an integral part of the very essence of nature itself, and certainly not an abstract manifestation of it. However, in order to best illustrate this position, we must first clarify the difference between Music and non-music.
So then.
Music is human speech of the highest order, but expressed through musical sounds.
This naturally leads to the following question: what sort of sounds are these that we call musical?
Firstly, a musical sound is always beautiful; it is noble in its multifaceted timbre; it is perceived as it should be by our ears, and therefore is perceived directly by the heart and soul.
And secondly, such a noble sound prompts us to experience feelings of happiness, joy, and a sincere interest in the world around us, a thirst to understand it, which is identical to an irresistible desire for our own creative self-realisation.
In other words, Music awakens in us a natural desire to know, recreate and creatively complement the Universe, to perceive it in all its divine fullness. And it cannot be otherwise, for Music is an integral part of perfection – one with the World of Manifestation, which was brought forth by the divine Ra.
This is what Music is, and therefore the musical sound itself.
It is inherently perfect, befitting the nature of Nature; its essence is exceptionally noble, which inevitably evokes a sincere, favourable response in human hearts and souls. And even when a musical sound is imbued with tragic drama, it directs our thoughts towards a blessed resolution of the problem, rather than a passive sympathy with it.
A musical sound, in all its components, carries the divine syllable of creation, not of destruction.
This is Music – life itself – the meaning of this world, resounding from top to bottom and from one end to the other.
` And now it becomes clear: if Music exists, then its opposite, Anti-Music, must also exist in some form.
Duality – it is precisely thanks to this state of affairs that we are able to determine what is what in this world.
` Right then, let’s make it clear right now that Anti-Music consists of sounds that cannot be identified with human speech, which is what characterises their non-musical quality.
Anti-Music does not exist; it is incapable of speaking or narrating, at best merely showing or depicting.
But what exactly and how—that will be covered in the next episode.
These sounds are, by their very nature, reflexive and physiological, or else arise entirely from inanimate structures. Naturally associated with such sounds are: the mechanical noise produced by various parts of industrial machinery as they grind and clatter against one another; household items that creak, crackle and rustle when in use; here too, the plopping of raindrops in puddles and the crackling of hail on rooftops during a storm; and even air pockets trapped in radiators are capable of something similar – a gurgling, hissing sound; not to mention the shuffling and clattering of human fingers across the bodies and strings of musical instruments, as well as the bodies of ‘avant-garde artists’ groaning and panting as they crawl over and under the grand piano; and as for the purely reflexive sounds and noises that animal physiology is capable of producing as a matter of course, at the level of rumbling in the stomachs and intestines, there is no need to even mention them. For these are precisely those non-musical sounds – the most primitive part of the acoustic environment of our universe, where the high aesthetics of spiritual and moral norms are absent.
And only a person of unsound mind, or indeed one who is aggressively insane, posing a threat to our divine Universe, could claim the opposite.
Why?
Let us recall what the characters, scurrying about on and under the piano, tell us in response to such questions: “If you don’t like it, don’t look! If it’s disgusting, then don’t listen! And anyway, you’re an uneducated fool, but we’re all about science!”
To which our reply must be just as brief and to the point: “As for liking it or not, go and tell that to yourselves in the mirror, though even it is unlikely to be impressed! Just as with your ‘scratching-snorting-clattering science’ sucked out of your avant-garde thumb, you’d be better off keeping it in your guts, where it belongs – in the womb of its magical conception! But as for us, we shall continue to perceive and understand your scientific-musical brain-dumpings from the standpoint of Nature, which has been tested for perfection and its creative viability over millennia.
` When it immediately becomes obvious that anyone can ‘avant-garde-style’ rumble with the sounds of their own stomach and intestines. Just as anyone can crawl over a grand piano, pluck its strings with their fingers, mutter daftly and howl like a beast whilst sprawled across its polished lid, and, moreover, not forgetting to trample all over the 7-octave keyboard with their filthy ‘avant-garde’ feet [incidentally, the last bit isn’t my imagination either; it’s all true].
Yes, that’s exactly how it is: anyone is capable of such foolishness and stupidity, the only difference being that not everyone is capable of such brazen, stupid boorishness. And a gifted musician-composer is a prime example!
Let me clarify this point, just to get ahead of myself a little.
For this reason alone, examples of so-called ‘avant-garde music’ differ little from one another in style and content, even to a musically trained ear. For this reason alone, so-called ‘contemporary avant-garde music’ is always a hysterical, uniformly screeching ‘March concert of cats’. Just as its second, and indeed final, emotional component might justly be described, say, as ‘dull, insipid drivel’, remaining, as it were, at the level of reflexive, physiological sounds and noises.
Even the most strenuous efforts to devise ‘avant-garde’ formative structures are powerless to breathe life into that hysterical deadness.
So we have established what Music is, and what its antithesis is. Just as we have established that only a few of us are capable of creating Music. Whereas anyone is capable of creating Anti-Music, where even a clever monkey’s antics with bananas against the backdrop of an elephant’s clumsiness in a china shop are no exception.
***
We now turn to the second part of this section, where we shall explain, just as briefly but clearly, what consonance and dissonance are.
Truly, such a way of framing the question can only make a modern musician laugh. As if to say, what’s the problem? Open any textbook on elementary music theory, and there you will find a detailed answer to your rather strange question. And yet, having established this fact, I shall once again base my conclusions on the natural essence of these two phenomena, rather than on the theoretical fabrications of certain musicologists. Incidentally, only a handful of them actually deserve that title, just as is the case with composers.
So!
` What is Consonance?
My answer: Consonance is a trinity, literally, not figuratively.
Let us reflect!
Music is always a sound that is pleasing to the human ear, inspiring us to feel noble emotions. And all this is simply because it is imbued with beauty—harmony—for it is itself an integral part of nature. Whereas nature itself is founded on three pillars:
1. The Source – the foundation;
2. Meaning – the central essence of all things;
3. The Summit – the realised divine purpose.
In other words, our Universe, like any building, is perfectly and enduringly stable thanks to its Foundation, Walls and Roof. This is what makes our human life possible in the World of Manifestation.
Likewise, any musical composition, as well as any of its components, is tripartite. At the same time, this tripartite nature may not be immediately apparent in its structure, but such a structure will always embody the Source, the Meaning and the Final Goal... even when the intended aimlessness is itself a goal.
To illustrate this formula in action more clearly, let us consider how it manifests itself directly in Consonance.
`Any consonant sound, taken in isolation, is inherently triune, for it is composed of three components: the low register, the middle register and the high register, which is what accounts for its phenomenal stability. That is why the consonant sound speaks of itself as nothing other than a foundation – within it there is clearly a naturally equal balance of all its components.
And the fact that such a structure is the primary foundation raises not the slightest doubt in the human mind, just like any other Source – the beginning that prompts us to think and act in a creative direction.
` This last circumstance leads us to the second foundation, which is equally clear and stable – consonance.
` Furthermore, our creative energy is unambiguously directed towards the third pillar, but now with the accumulated awareness of the path travelled, which was undertaken for the sake of returning to the starting point, in order to enrich it with new understanding, knowledge and possibilities. These are precisely what we have gained during our ascent through the three levels.
Or as our Ancestors used to say, ‘travelling beyond three seas… beyond thirty-nine lands, into the third-ninth kingdom, into the third-tenth realm’. This is the Tonic – Subdominant – Dominant – a trinity with a return to the Tonic. Thanks to this natural cycle, our universe not only remains consistently perfect, but also expands with new structures—worlds—which are identical to the divine purposes realised in Yavi.
Yes, that is indeed the case — the harmony of nature presupposes precisely this sequence of sound, mode and harmony comprising three noble Consonances, united in a ring. That is to say, in the Circle of Origin, the foundation of which is the native land – the Fatherland; the majestic walls – Family, Clan, Nation; and this is crowned by our outstanding achievements, which are worthy of the roof of the Universe.
Here they are, the three divine hypostases. Knowledge: unity in multiplicity, and multiplicity in unity, where the noble sound of Consonance is embodied through musical tones. That is why it is comprehensible, perceived sensually – an integral part of each of us, which is what makes it essential for human consciousness throughout life – here and now.
In other words: I invite you to the Native Hearth, built upon the unshakeable foundation of nature, fortified by the walls of human meaning and sheltered by the roof of the universe – timeless knowledge, tested by millions of generations of the human race for the common good. So live your life — do not grieve, but live in harmony with reality. Or as our great Ancestors used to say: ‘For the good of the Family and in harmony with Nature!’
So we have clarified what Consonance essentially is: unity within diversity, and diversity within unity. And now it is time for us to do the same with Dissonance.
` The thing is, Dissonance is by no means the opposite of Consonance; it is an integral and natural part of it.
Why?
But the thing is, it’s just like the far side of the moon – it seems to be the same, yet it can never be the one that faces us. On the far side, the terrain is different, and the light falls upon it differently. Hence the different nuances and shades, in which, alongside the steady pull of the dominant towards the tonic, subdominant and dominant supports now take precedence. Here it is, yet another meaning that expands the divine scales of Consonance, now known as Modality.
Which, in turn, is worthy of expanding the sphere of your dwelling on your native soil, when you erect your towers and mansions wherever you deem fit, provided it does not run counter to the original nature, which has aided you on the path to the modal—the expanded possibilities of Consonance.
As we can see, were it not for Consonance, there would be no Modality – and vice versa. They are not continuations of one another, nor do they oppose one another, for they are one whole.
Here, too, lies the atonal – dissonance, the emergence of which is simply impossible without the tonal – consonance.
Doubt it?
Then try to mumble something completely incoherent and disjointed that clashes with the common sense of human natural awareness. After which, try to impose this, albeit logically constructed, nonsense as the norm for humanity... will it work?
It hasn’t worked already!
For it is not fitting to put the cart before the horse amidst divine beauty.
That is precisely what universal harmony is for.
Yet those few who attempted to find glimmers of noble consonance within their atonal, dissonant murmurings succeeded. In doing so, they expanded the tonal and modal realms with the atonal—albeit by setting one against the other—but they succeeded. Thus, the world’s musical heritage was enriched with new shades of noble sound, which are today known as Pointillism, Dissonance, Sonorism, Aleatoric music, Layered Music, Polystylism, Minimalism, right through to Post-Romanticism and Neoclassicism. Although, let me emphasise once more that if all this shines with anything, it is, first and foremost, with experiments in a construct which, for the most part, is either neurotically hysterical or, to the point of primitive dreariness, utterly devoid of substance. And only in a few instances, and with rare exceptions, does it become meaningful, that is, capable of telling the story of what matters most – of life itself. Which is what brings such a dissonant, atonal construct closer to Music rather than anti-music.
Rarely, perhaps, but it does happen.
And so be it.
***
But now, whilst remaining within the context of what has been said above, and following the natural course of things, it is necessary to shed even more light on the ‘dark side of the moon’.
` Yes, that is indeed the case – Dissonance is merely one of the manifestations of Consonance.
Just as everything in this world is perceived through duality – by comparison: light with dark, white with black, hot with cold, light with heavy, soft with hard, firm with fragile, day with night, summer with winter, and so on, and humanity, with its set of characteristic traits and features, is no exception.
However, it is important to understand that this method, all the same, is merely one of many means of understanding the world, but not the World itself. Although, I agree, these days there are many who are keen to confuse cause with effect, but that is a somewhat different topic and not for discussion here.
Therefore, Consonance, being nature itself, is the primary cause. Whereas Dissonance, being a reinterpreted part of the former, is its consequence.
And it cannot be otherwise!
Let us see how this works in Nature, and therefore in Music.
Here it is, the Universe: the foundation, the walls, the roof – a natural, perfect structure for dwelling in the world of Yavi.
In our case, this is the Octave [C1 – C2].
` Where the perfect consonance C1 is the foundation;
` The equally perfect consonances [comprising the octave structure with its natural ascending and descending intervals – # ь] D, E, F, G, A, B – these are the walls;
` But C2 [the natural conclusion of this consonant structure] is the roof.
And what should be particularly noted here is this: if we simultaneously reproduce all 7 or 12 consonant tones of the octave, we will obtain exactly the same thing – an extremely natural, stable sound. For it contains all the intonational, sonic and harmonic components that exist in Nature [quarter-tone intervals, that is to say, the entire spectrum of overtones, right here].
And this means that from this construct, any construct existing in the world of Yavi can be reproduced, be it consonant, dissonant, tonal or atonal. But more than that, through compositional methods, each of us can create something entirely new from it.
Which is what constitutes the natural stability of the natural state – its tonal resonance, its primordial consonance, where Life generates ‘itself’ in the infinite manifestation of universes. This is what this primordial, sonorous object actually represents. And for such an object to lose its intonational and harmonic nobility in an author’s creative work, one must possess a ‘special gift’.
` But now let’s isolate one of the components of this structure—for example, the note D—and play it together with the root note, C.
We get a B2 [major second]—a dissonance that needs no proof. For it sounds jarring to the ear.
So here is the question: how did it come about that two consonances produced a negative result – dissonance – whilst losing their original harmony?
It could not have been otherwise, for the structure was destroyed in the attempt to pass off a part of it as the whole. This is, so to speak, the same as living in a house without a foundation or a floor, or without a roof, or even attempting to enter a house with no walls at all – that is to say, with no support for the roof.
Is such a thing possible?
Of course not!
- In the first case, your life would become unbearable due to living conditions unsuitable even for a prolonged stay in such a structure, let alone living in it. For the sake of the experiment, a dugout or other similar dwelling without a foundation is recommended – move in and see how you get on. Afterwards, you’ll tell us that a chronic runny nose isn’t the worst thing you’ve inherited from such a lifestyle.
- Secondly, move in and live without a roof. In other words, after the first rain… and even if the experimenter proves to be the most resilient, after the first frosts they will certainly tell you themselves what it’s like to have no roof over your head 24 hours a day.
- But in the third case… that’s not a mere coincidence at all, but a ward in a psychiatric clinic, where patients are permitted not only to live in buildings without walls to support the roof, but also to walk through walls that aren’t there. Doctors allow their patients so many things.
And yet, for many decades now, at the instigation of avant-garde cultural figures, humanity has been suggested, in one way or another, to inhabit this world without a foundation or a floor beneath their feet, exposed to the winds without walls and to the rain without a roof over their heads.
Or rather.
Without natural support, without meaningful substance, and consequently, without a proper, natural understanding of one’s life goals when interacting with Reality.
Which is, for the most part, what the ‘contemporary avant-garde’ amounts to, slyly passing off a fragment of the whole as the whole itself, and even attempting to establish this travesty—which cripples a natural perception of the world from school days onwards—as an unquestionable norm.
But, from a musical point of view, this inversion achieved the following: the close, simultaneous sounding of the two consonant tones ‘C and D’ destroyed the foundation. Consequently, this construct was deprived of its natural equilibrium, which is tantamount to the loss of conscious meaning.
- The sequential division of an interval into seconds – yes, this makes sense, for it harmoniously complements one set of overtones with another, which is characteristic of human speech, where ‘A and B… were sitting on a pipe’, rather than on each other’s heads.
- Simultaneous interval-taking, however, does not, for here it unconsciously mixes the duality of two triads—that is to say, their overtones—into a chaotic, meaningless jumble. In which C1, if it is represented as a foundation at all, is only a kind of misunderstanding, which is precisely what D1 has become outside the context of the rest of the Octave’s hierarchical structure.
And so, for the momentary Dissonance to acquire a certain pleasing form – a natural, sought-after content – it must interact with a consonant-tonal environment, with that which is inherently endowed with a stable, and therefore humanly comprehensible, meaning.
Or let’s put it this way, projecting this situation onto everyday reality: a ‘dissonant incident’ outside a tonal context is equivalent to a combination of a burdock, just plucked from the roadside, and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel 'The Idiot', which is wrapped in that burdock. But if you’re asking yourself a question here, it’s only of the following sort: ‘…‘The Idiot’ … burdock… where on earth did all this come from?!.. and what’s that got to do with me?! What utter nonsense!’
This situation is nonsensical simply because, in every respect, it runs counter to the natural order of things. Which is why your very presence here is devoid of any meaning—in other words, because there is no need in your life for such an unnatural ‘still life’.
For this reason alone, 90% of atonal and dissonant music is either a monotonous ‘semi-unconscious tedium’ or a monotonous, neurotic and hysterical ‘March cat concert’, which is completely devoid of musical aesthetics – of good taste and style. Although, I agree, the extreme analogy is incorrect, for a cat’s concert, however you look at it, has a fairly clear, precisely directed meaning, whereas …
No, really, personally I would like to learn to distinguish these ‘titans of constructive solutions’ by ear – to distinguish them by the composer’s style and the meaning of their content. And all this without reading the notes, as is customary when listening to music, which speaks for itself through its sound, rather than by poring over intricately written sheet music! But, it seems, it is not to be! For without knowing ‘which is which’ by their first and last names… the task is simply impossible. When even a flawlessly contrived logical construct of their dissonant atonalities fails to save the day.
All of this is, from the very first to the very last non-musical sound, a dead end for human perception.
And whatever you call all this avant-garde ‘blah-blah’, ‘tick-tick’, ‘tryn-dlin’, it remains just what it is: utterly indistinguishable from its kind due to its lack of originality, the latter having been replaced by primitive, talentless, monstrous sound combinations from a completely non-musical sound environment.
- We present to your attention the conceptual installation 3’782100 Tadeum-Continuum2!
After which… ‘bang-bang, tap-…’ – well, we know it already, we’ve heard it.
***
Oh well, never mind them for now. But as for us, we’ll carry on with our own business, as is only natural.
`Two notes, C and D, taken simultaneously out of context from the modal-consonant complex – and the foundation is destroyed. It’s like ‘swinging a sledgehammer at concrete… and the concrete crumbles to dust!’
Now the question is: what sort of building, with its walls and roof, can be erected on concrete dust? And the answer here is obvious: an extremely unstable one. Consequently, one that is a priori deprived not only of a past and a present, but also of any future prospects for innovation and renewal – it will inevitably collapse and crumble.
It is a pity if one fails to see and understand this from the outset. When, to the detriment of the holistic, the natural, whole decades are spent trying to rectify the negligent, that which cannot be rectified at the level of its very nature. Is this not why the modern-day A. Skryabins, F. Liszt and other such geniuses like J. S. Bach have ‘disappeared somewhere’?
That is another question.
So here’s the question: if you’re a composer, why on earth would you take a sledgehammer of Dissonance and smash it into the very foundations of Consonance, thereby setting one against the other, or even destroying one of them altogether? And once again, the answer to this question is obvious: there is absolutely no reason, if you are a composer, to speak in human terms through musical sounds and… most importantly! Especially when you have something to say to people!
Yes, to that very Humanity to whom and for whom you speak and create.
` And if this is so, then it becomes clear that Dissonance is merely two consonances in a single sound, at the level of M2 and B2 [minor and major seconds]. Next to these, even the Seventh and the Tritone appear rather unconvincing in the realm of sound stimuli, given their geographical distance from one another. And they are more likely to carry the gene of modality.
For me personally, and even more so:
` The seventh is the reinterpreted existence of the world of Yavi, that very Universe of 12 tones, which in a simplified schematic form is identical to the Octave.
` And Triton is the manifested Ra, which created this world.
Where Ra itself is the fifth [E flat, B flat]. And Triton [E flat, A] is the sound of the host of Universes, including our own – which corresponds to the transformed First Source.
But more than that, indeed: amidst the multitude of resonating universes, one can easily discern the noble tonal and consonant equilibrium of the Circle of Fourths and Fifths, which is the very harmony of the symphonic order of the entire cosmos. It is, however, a mistake to waste one’s time searching for the Circle of Fourths and Fifths in reality, as it is generated by dissonant sound. For in that capacity, it simply does not exist.
We shall clarify this clearly below, when I turn directly to the ideology and aesthetics of the construct of Tonal Atonality.
In the meantime:
` Tonic – Subdominant – Dominant – Tonic, that is to say, C major – F major – G major – C major, that very primordial consonant-tonal bond which orders the phenomenal harmony of the world of Yavi. Thus defining its absolute equilibrium, which gives rise to the infinite diversity of That, including resonance.
But now, let’s try it with chords as well: C-D-E – F-G-A – G-A-B – C-D-E
Or like this: C-E-G# – F-A-C# – G-B-D# – C-E-G#
Or, how about this: C-C#-D# – F-F#-G# – G-G#-A# – C-C#-D#
Or…
But what difference does ‘how’ make, if one thing remains inevitable: that the less stable, as well as dissonant, Circle of Fourths and Fifths was created by me personally right here and now from the consonant-tonal original trinity, filled with the natural pull from the Tonic to the Subdominant, from the Subdominant to the Dominant, and from the Dominant to the Tonic.
So it turns out there is absolutely no need to destroy the originally natural course of events, in order to build something unnatural upon its ruins. For the unnatural is, a priori, merely one of the constituents of nature, akin to Life and Death themselves, where the former begets the latter, whilst the latter is the ‘dark side of the moon’ of the former.
And nothing more.
***
And to conclude the second part of my tonal-atonal narrative, a few words about the walls and roof of our Universe, which form an integral part of the foundation.
` C1 – the base, C2 – the roof, and this is held together by walls of 10 perfectly consonant tones: C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, which are identical to the bricks that build the infinite multitude of universes.
It is these very building blocks which, in their sequential consonant sound, complementing one another with a noble diversity of overtone combinations, create one of the most distinctive modes – the chromatic mode.
Just as, when all 12 consonant tones sound simultaneously in a cluster, a majestic picture of the world emerges, the divine diversity of which can be easily traced by releasing the sounds one by one. Thus, consonance acquires a new sonorous state, without losing its tonal content.
And it is no surprise, since even in this modified form it remains within the bounds of human speech, endowed with human meaning – comprehensible, and therefore stable. Hence, composers perceive the consonant-tonal genetics of such clusters as a foundation – a centre – that is identical to the tonic. Or as fully-fledged thematic material, which is equal in self-sufficiency to natural intonation, melodicism, harmonic sequences, and so on, right up to the plot levels, layers and complexes, which are equally tonal and atonal.
In such a cluster—a ‘sonic spot’—everything is present: the entire vertical and horizontal expanse of the world, with its primordial divine beauty, embodied in unity within diversity and diversity within unity.
` But if one were to remove this consonant-tonic meaning and leave only atonal dissonance without the natural interrelationships of certain selected sounds, then what would happen… is precisely what has been observed over the last century in the contrivances of the ‘avant-garde musical’ construct.
Whereas some juggle the aforementioned building blocks of the universe more deftly, forcibly compelling them to be unnatural, others are simply, frankly, talentless. Ask then: ‘Why does your “clang-blum-blum” consist of two “blum-blums” and one “clang”? Whereas from that… yes, yes, precisely from that multi-note “bdyin”, two building blocks were taken out, and eight were inserted?’
… that is to say, from this very moment I begin to genuinely sympathise with the questioner!
For, at best, he will hear the following in reply: ‘This is required by the algorithm I have created, which shapes the logical development of the piece!’
… in other words, it’s best not to ask why this particular algorithm has been implemented. Otherwise, you’re guaranteed to make a personal enemy for the rest of your life in the form of yet another ‘atonal juggler’. But, at worst, the enquirer will have a ‘carriage and a whole wagonload’ of unique concepts dumped on their head as a logical justification… for some sort of schizophrenic rambling, most of which will have ZERO connection to reality.
And before you know it, you’ll be saddled with the duty not only to be impressed by it, but also to delve into it and study it. Decades could be wasted on this, as I’ve already pointed out above.
And woe betide anyone who refuses to acknowledge the ‘atonal circus performers: clowns, jugglers, magicians’. For they will set about disparaging the unwelcome in every possible way and everywhere. True, they rarely resort to open confrontation, and even then it is the most ‘narrow-minded’ among them. Whereas the ‘far-sighted’ understand perfectly well just how insignificant, that is to say, how patently talentless their ‘cat-and-mouse games’ look against your backdrop, which faces the world with a human face, speaks in human language, and addresses something very important to everyone.
Ah… I almost forgot!
Whilst the ‘jugglers-magicians’, particularly advanced in their narrow-mindedness, will go so far as to accuse their opponent of, at the very least, fascism, Nazism and even chauvinism. And not just in music, which hinders global progress. A role in which, let’s say, I have found myself on more than one occasion. But that is a separate topic, and we shall return to it elsewhere.
`So here’s the question: is it worth using the sledgehammer of dissonance to smash down the walls of the Universe—walls built from a multitude of consonances that are tonally stable in isolation but form a cluster of dissonance when taken together—without losing their original tonal stability?
Of course not, if you are a Composer sent by God! You must indeed have something to say to people!
So it is with the roof of our Universe, which completes its divine trinity. And it doesn’t matter in what construct this is embodied. For every construct in this world is inherently tripartite:
foundation – meaning – realised goal;
beginning – middle – end;
tonic – subdominant – dominant;
exposition – development – finale;
… I can’t help myself now and will slightly mock the dissonant magicians: the birth of atonality [blum-bul] – the life of atonality [bul-bul-clang-clang] and… “dy-dy-dy-ns-s-s!” – the death of atonality;
And even if someone, whilst mastering the ‘through-form’, were to claim the opposite—that there is no beginning or end to their latest ‘masterpiece’—this would merely reveal the short-sightedness of the person making such a claim.
For:
- the moment they conceived of creating something within a certain structural framework, that was already the beginning;
- as soon as, after the first note, he added a dozen others – this irreversibly shaped the content in its development;
- as soon as he decided to end this construct with nothing, he ended it immediately with the goal thus achieved;
And so we have: beginning – development – end, that is to say, the Trinity, nature itself. And yet, trapped beneath the yoke of their own schizophrenic, hysterical and equally nonsensical concepts – the most tedious of all, bearing no relation to reality – many atonal, dissonant jugglers refuse to see or understand this.
In this connection, the following question naturally arises: is it worth destroying the roof of the Universe in order to see what is inside it and what it covers?
Of course not!
If you are the Author, you must surely have something with which to enrich this world in your capacity as a creator, a maker and a builder… to enrich and complement it in the name of life, rather than smashing it to smithereens with a sledgehammer. Only then will your consonant-tonal world perfect Reality, rather than destroy it.
` And that means: Hurrah!
The century-long gloom of Nature’s deliberately provoked conflict with itself is over!
` And that means: Hurrah!
Glory to ‘Tonal Atonality’, based on the principle of hierarchical generation, where the phenomenal whole does not conflict with itself, but is creative in its grandeur. In other words, with divine precision, the book reveals itself from page to page, just as is customary in Nature!
In the second section of my tonal-atonal narrative, I must define what is meant by ‘consonance’ and ‘dissonance’.
A curious question, to which, I suspect, any musician would respond with an indulgent smile, or perhaps even a Homeric roar of laughter. For at least the last 200 years, an endless number of theoretical works have been written on these subjects. And yet, I shall now explain what Consonance and Dissonance actually are.
Why is my clarification so important?
Simply because I will not speak of music as some abstract sphere of human activity, for it is not such a thing. For music is nothing other than an integral part of the very essence of nature itself, and certainly not an abstract manifestation of it. However, in order to best illustrate this position, we must first clarify the difference between Music and non-music.
So then.
Music is human speech of the highest order, but expressed through musical sounds.
This naturally leads to the following question: what sort of sounds are these that we call musical?
Firstly, a musical sound is always beautiful; it is noble in its multifaceted timbre; it is perceived as it should be by our ears, and therefore is perceived directly by the heart and soul.
And secondly, such a noble sound prompts us to experience feelings of happiness, joy, and a sincere interest in the world around us, a thirst to understand it, which is identical to an irresistible desire for our own creative self-realisation.
In other words, Music awakens in us a natural desire to know, recreate and creatively complement the Universe, to perceive it in all its divine fullness. And it cannot be otherwise, for Music is an integral part of perfection – one with the World of Manifestation, which was brought forth by the divine Ra.
This is what Music is, and therefore the musical sound itself.
It is inherently perfect, befitting the nature of Nature; its essence is exceptionally noble, which inevitably evokes a sincere, favourable response in human hearts and souls. And even when a musical sound is imbued with tragic drama, it directs our thoughts towards a blessed resolution of the problem, rather than a passive sympathy with it.
A musical sound, in all its components, carries the divine syllable of creation, not of destruction.
This is Music – life itself – the meaning of this world, resounding from top to bottom and from one end to the other.
` And now it becomes clear: if Music exists, then its opposite, Anti-Music, must also exist in some form.
Duality – it is precisely thanks to this state of affairs that we are able to determine what is what in this world.
` Right then, let’s make it clear right now that Anti-Music consists of sounds that cannot be identified with human speech, which is what characterises their non-musical quality.
Anti-Music does not exist; it is incapable of speaking or narrating, at best merely showing or depicting.
But what exactly and how—that will be covered in the next episode.
These sounds are, by their very nature, reflexive and physiological, or else arise entirely from inanimate structures. Naturally associated with such sounds are: the mechanical noise produced by various parts of industrial machinery as they grind and clatter against one another; household items that creak, crackle and rustle when in use; here too, the plopping of raindrops in puddles and the crackling of hail on rooftops during a storm; and even air pockets trapped in radiators are capable of something similar – a gurgling, hissing sound; not to mention the shuffling and clattering of human fingers across the bodies and strings of musical instruments, as well as the bodies of ‘avant-garde artists’ groaning and panting as they crawl over and under the grand piano; and as for the purely reflexive sounds and noises that animal physiology is capable of producing as a matter of course, at the level of rumbling in the stomachs and intestines, there is no need to even mention them. For these are precisely those non-musical sounds – the most primitive part of the acoustic environment of our universe, where the high aesthetics of spiritual and moral norms are absent.
And only a person of unsound mind, or indeed one who is aggressively insane, posing a threat to our divine Universe, could claim the opposite.
Why?
Let us recall what the characters, scurrying about on and under the piano, tell us in response to such questions: “If you don’t like it, don’t look! If it’s disgusting, then don’t listen! And anyway, you’re an uneducated fool, but we’re all about science!”
To which our reply must be just as brief and to the point: “As for liking it or not, go and tell that to yourselves in the mirror, though even it is unlikely to be impressed! Just as with your ‘scratching-snorting-clattering science’ sucked out of your avant-garde thumb, you’d be better off keeping it in your guts, where it belongs – in the womb of its magical conception! But as for us, we shall continue to perceive and understand your scientific-musical brain-dumpings from the standpoint of Nature, which has been tested for perfection and its creative viability over millennia.
` When it immediately becomes obvious that anyone can ‘avant-garde-style’ rumble with the sounds of their own stomach and intestines. Just as anyone can crawl over a grand piano, pluck its strings with their fingers, mutter daftly and howl like a beast whilst sprawled across its polished lid, and, moreover, not forgetting to trample all over the 7-octave keyboard with their filthy ‘avant-garde’ feet [incidentally, the last bit isn’t my imagination either; it’s all true].
Yes, that’s exactly how it is: anyone is capable of such foolishness and stupidity, the only difference being that not everyone is capable of such brazen, stupid boorishness. And a gifted musician-composer is a prime example!
Let me clarify this point, just to get ahead of myself a little.
For this reason alone, examples of so-called ‘avant-garde music’ differ little from one another in style and content, even to a musically trained ear. For this reason alone, so-called ‘contemporary avant-garde music’ is always a hysterical, uniformly screeching ‘March concert of cats’. Just as its second, and indeed final, emotional component might justly be described, say, as ‘dull, insipid drivel’, remaining, as it were, at the level of reflexive, physiological sounds and noises.
Even the most strenuous efforts to devise ‘avant-garde’ formative structures are powerless to breathe life into that hysterical deadness.
So we have established what Music is, and what its antithesis is. Just as we have established that only a few of us are capable of creating Music. Whereas anyone is capable of creating Anti-Music, where even a clever monkey’s antics with bananas against the backdrop of an elephant’s clumsiness in a china shop are no exception.
***
We now turn to the second part of this section, where we shall explain, just as briefly but clearly, what consonance and dissonance are.
Truly, such a way of framing the question can only make a modern musician laugh. As if to say, what’s the problem? Open any textbook on elementary music theory, and there you will find a detailed answer to your rather strange question. And yet, having established this fact, I shall once again base my conclusions on the natural essence of these two phenomena, rather than on the theoretical fabrications of certain musicologists. Incidentally, only a handful of them actually deserve that title, just as is the case with composers.
So!
` What is Consonance?
My answer: Consonance is a trinity, literally, not figuratively.
Let us reflect!
Music is always a sound that is pleasing to the human ear, inspiring us to feel noble emotions. And all this is simply because it is imbued with beauty—harmony—for it is itself an integral part of nature. Whereas nature itself is founded on three pillars:
1. The Source – the foundation;
2. Meaning – the central essence of all things;
3. The Summit – the realised divine purpose.
In other words, our Universe, like any building, is perfectly and enduringly stable thanks to its Foundation, Walls and Roof. This is what makes our human life possible in the World of Manifestation.
Likewise, any musical composition, as well as any of its components, is tripartite. At the same time, this tripartite nature may not be immediately apparent in its structure, but such a structure will always embody the Source, the Meaning and the Final Goal... even when the intended aimlessness is itself a goal.
To illustrate this formula in action more clearly, let us consider how it manifests itself directly in Consonance.
`Any consonant sound, taken in isolation, is inherently triune, for it is composed of three components: the low register, the middle register and the high register, which is what accounts for its phenomenal stability. That is why the consonant sound speaks of itself as nothing other than a foundation – within it there is clearly a naturally equal balance of all its components.
And the fact that such a structure is the primary foundation raises not the slightest doubt in the human mind, just like any other Source – the beginning that prompts us to think and act in a creative direction.
` This last circumstance leads us to the second foundation, which is equally clear and stable – consonance.
` Furthermore, our creative energy is unambiguously directed towards the third pillar, but now with the accumulated awareness of the path travelled, which was undertaken for the sake of returning to the starting point, in order to enrich it with new understanding, knowledge and possibilities. These are precisely what we have gained during our ascent through the three levels.
Or as our Ancestors used to say, ‘travelling beyond three seas… beyond thirty-nine lands, into the third-ninth kingdom, into the third-tenth realm’. This is the Tonic – Subdominant – Dominant – a trinity with a return to the Tonic. Thanks to this natural cycle, our universe not only remains consistently perfect, but also expands with new structures—worlds—which are identical to the divine purposes realised in Yavi.
Yes, that is indeed the case — the harmony of nature presupposes precisely this sequence of sound, mode and harmony comprising three noble Consonances, united in a ring. That is to say, in the Circle of Origin, the foundation of which is the native land – the Fatherland; the majestic walls – Family, Clan, Nation; and this is crowned by our outstanding achievements, which are worthy of the roof of the Universe.
Here they are, the three divine hypostases. Knowledge: unity in multiplicity, and multiplicity in unity, where the noble sound of Consonance is embodied through musical tones. That is why it is comprehensible, perceived sensually – an integral part of each of us, which is what makes it essential for human consciousness throughout life – here and now.
In other words: I invite you to the Native Hearth, built upon the unshakeable foundation of nature, fortified by the walls of human meaning and sheltered by the roof of the universe – timeless knowledge, tested by millions of generations of the human race for the common good. So live your life — do not grieve, but live in harmony with reality. Or as our great Ancestors used to say: ‘For the good of the Family and in harmony with Nature!’
So we have clarified what Consonance essentially is: unity within diversity, and diversity within unity. And now it is time for us to do the same with Dissonance.
` The thing is, Dissonance is by no means the opposite of Consonance; it is an integral and natural part of it.
Why?
But the thing is, it’s just like the far side of the moon – it seems to be the same, yet it can never be the one that faces us. On the far side, the terrain is different, and the light falls upon it differently. Hence the different nuances and shades, in which, alongside the steady pull of the dominant towards the tonic, subdominant and dominant supports now take precedence. Here it is, yet another meaning that expands the divine scales of Consonance, now known as Modality.
Which, in turn, is worthy of expanding the sphere of your dwelling on your native soil, when you erect your towers and mansions wherever you deem fit, provided it does not run counter to the original nature, which has aided you on the path to the modal—the expanded possibilities of Consonance.
As we can see, were it not for Consonance, there would be no Modality – and vice versa. They are not continuations of one another, nor do they oppose one another, for they are one whole.
Here, too, lies the atonal – dissonance, the emergence of which is simply impossible without the tonal – consonance.
Doubt it?
Then try to mumble something completely incoherent and disjointed that clashes with the common sense of human natural awareness. After which, try to impose this, albeit logically constructed, nonsense as the norm for humanity... will it work?
It hasn’t worked already!
For it is not fitting to put the cart before the horse amidst divine beauty.
That is precisely what universal harmony is for.
Yet those few who attempted to find glimmers of noble consonance within their atonal, dissonant murmurings succeeded. In doing so, they expanded the tonal and modal realms with the atonal—albeit by setting one against the other—but they succeeded. Thus, the world’s musical heritage was enriched with new shades of noble sound, which are today known as Pointillism, Dissonance, Sonorism, Aleatoric music, Layered Music, Polystylism, Minimalism, right through to Post-Romanticism and Neoclassicism. Although, let me emphasise once more that if all this shines with anything, it is, first and foremost, with experiments in a construct which, for the most part, is either neurotically hysterical or, to the point of primitive dreariness, utterly devoid of substance. And only in a few instances, and with rare exceptions, does it become meaningful, that is, capable of telling the story of what matters most – of life itself. Which is what brings such a dissonant, atonal construct closer to Music rather than anti-music.
Rarely, perhaps, but it does happen.
And so be it.
***
But now, whilst remaining within the context of what has been said above, and following the natural course of things, it is necessary to shed even more light on the ‘dark side of the moon’.
` Yes, that is indeed the case – Dissonance is merely one of the manifestations of Consonance.
Just as everything in this world is perceived through duality – by comparison: light with dark, white with black, hot with cold, light with heavy, soft with hard, firm with fragile, day with night, summer with winter, and so on, and humanity, with its set of characteristic traits and features, is no exception.
However, it is important to understand that this method, all the same, is merely one of many means of understanding the world, but not the World itself. Although, I agree, these days there are many who are keen to confuse cause with effect, but that is a somewhat different topic and not for discussion here.
Therefore, Consonance, being nature itself, is the primary cause. Whereas Dissonance, being a reinterpreted part of the former, is its consequence.
And it cannot be otherwise!
Let us see how this works in Nature, and therefore in Music.
Here it is, the Universe: the foundation, the walls, the roof – a natural, perfect structure for dwelling in the world of Yavi.
In our case, this is the Octave [C1 – C2].
` Where the perfect consonance C1 is the foundation;
` The equally perfect consonances [comprising the octave structure with its natural ascending and descending intervals – # ь] D, E, F, G, A, B – these are the walls;
` But C2 [the natural conclusion of this consonant structure] is the roof.
And what should be particularly noted here is this: if we simultaneously reproduce all 7 or 12 consonant tones of the octave, we will obtain exactly the same thing – an extremely natural, stable sound. For it contains all the intonational, sonic and harmonic components that exist in Nature [quarter-tone intervals, that is to say, the entire spectrum of overtones, right here].
And this means that from this construct, any construct existing in the world of Yavi can be reproduced, be it consonant, dissonant, tonal or atonal. But more than that, through compositional methods, each of us can create something entirely new from it.
Which is what constitutes the natural stability of the natural state – its tonal resonance, its primordial consonance, where Life generates ‘itself’ in the infinite manifestation of universes. This is what this primordial, sonorous object actually represents. And for such an object to lose its intonational and harmonic nobility in an author’s creative work, one must possess a ‘special gift’.
` But now let’s isolate one of the components of this structure—for example, the note D—and play it together with the root note, C.
We get a B2 [major second]—a dissonance that needs no proof. For it sounds jarring to the ear.
So here is the question: how did it come about that two consonances produced a negative result – dissonance – whilst losing their original harmony?
It could not have been otherwise, for the structure was destroyed in the attempt to pass off a part of it as the whole. This is, so to speak, the same as living in a house without a foundation or a floor, or without a roof, or even attempting to enter a house with no walls at all – that is to say, with no support for the roof.
Is such a thing possible?
Of course not!
- In the first case, your life would become unbearable due to living conditions unsuitable even for a prolonged stay in such a structure, let alone living in it. For the sake of the experiment, a dugout or other similar dwelling without a foundation is recommended – move in and see how you get on. Afterwards, you’ll tell us that a chronic runny nose isn’t the worst thing you’ve inherited from such a lifestyle.
- Secondly, move in and live without a roof. In other words, after the first rain… and even if the experimenter proves to be the most resilient, after the first frosts they will certainly tell you themselves what it’s like to have no roof over your head 24 hours a day.
- But in the third case… that’s not a mere coincidence at all, but a ward in a psychiatric clinic, where patients are permitted not only to live in buildings without walls to support the roof, but also to walk through walls that aren’t there. Doctors allow their patients so many things.
And yet, for many decades now, at the instigation of avant-garde cultural figures, humanity has been suggested, in one way or another, to inhabit this world without a foundation or a floor beneath their feet, exposed to the winds without walls and to the rain without a roof over their heads.
Or rather.
Without natural support, without meaningful substance, and consequently, without a proper, natural understanding of one’s life goals when interacting with Reality.
Which is, for the most part, what the ‘contemporary avant-garde’ amounts to, slyly passing off a fragment of the whole as the whole itself, and even attempting to establish this travesty—which cripples a natural perception of the world from school days onwards—as an unquestionable norm.
But, from a musical point of view, this inversion achieved the following: the close, simultaneous sounding of the two consonant tones ‘C and D’ destroyed the foundation. Consequently, this construct was deprived of its natural equilibrium, which is tantamount to the loss of conscious meaning.
- The sequential division of an interval into seconds – yes, this makes sense, for it harmoniously complements one set of overtones with another, which is characteristic of human speech, where ‘A and B… were sitting on a pipe’, rather than on each other’s heads.
- Simultaneous interval-taking, however, does not, for here it unconsciously mixes the duality of two triads—that is to say, their overtones—into a chaotic, meaningless jumble. In which C1, if it is represented as a foundation at all, is only a kind of misunderstanding, which is precisely what D1 has become outside the context of the rest of the Octave’s hierarchical structure.
And so, for the momentary Dissonance to acquire a certain pleasing form – a natural, sought-after content – it must interact with a consonant-tonal environment, with that which is inherently endowed with a stable, and therefore humanly comprehensible, meaning.
Or let’s put it this way, projecting this situation onto everyday reality: a ‘dissonant incident’ outside a tonal context is equivalent to a combination of a burdock, just plucked from the roadside, and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel 'The Idiot', which is wrapped in that burdock. But if you’re asking yourself a question here, it’s only of the following sort: ‘…‘The Idiot’ … burdock… where on earth did all this come from?!.. and what’s that got to do with me?! What utter nonsense!’
This situation is nonsensical simply because, in every respect, it runs counter to the natural order of things. Which is why your very presence here is devoid of any meaning—in other words, because there is no need in your life for such an unnatural ‘still life’.
For this reason alone, 90% of atonal and dissonant music is either a monotonous ‘semi-unconscious tedium’ or a monotonous, neurotic and hysterical ‘March cat concert’, which is completely devoid of musical aesthetics – of good taste and style. Although, I agree, the extreme analogy is incorrect, for a cat’s concert, however you look at it, has a fairly clear, precisely directed meaning, whereas …
No, really, personally I would like to learn to distinguish these ‘titans of constructive solutions’ by ear – to distinguish them by the composer’s style and the meaning of their content. And all this without reading the notes, as is customary when listening to music, which speaks for itself through its sound, rather than by poring over intricately written sheet music! But, it seems, it is not to be! For without knowing ‘which is which’ by their first and last names… the task is simply impossible. When even a flawlessly contrived logical construct of their dissonant atonalities fails to save the day.
All of this is, from the very first to the very last non-musical sound, a dead end for human perception.
And whatever you call all this avant-garde ‘blah-blah’, ‘tick-tick’, ‘tryn-dlin’, it remains just what it is: utterly indistinguishable from its kind due to its lack of originality, the latter having been replaced by primitive, talentless, monstrous sound combinations from a completely non-musical sound environment.
- We present to your attention the conceptual installation 3’782100 Tadeum-Continuum2!
After which… ‘bang-bang, tap-…’ – well, we know it already, we’ve heard it.
***
Oh well, never mind them for now. But as for us, we’ll carry on with our own business, as is only natural.
`Two notes, C and D, taken simultaneously out of context from the modal-consonant complex – and the foundation is destroyed. It’s like ‘swinging a sledgehammer at concrete… and the concrete crumbles to dust!’
Now the question is: what sort of building, with its walls and roof, can be erected on concrete dust? And the answer here is obvious: an extremely unstable one. Consequently, one that is a priori deprived not only of a past and a present, but also of any future prospects for innovation and renewal – it will inevitably collapse and crumble.
It is a pity if one fails to see and understand this from the outset. When, to the detriment of the holistic, the natural, whole decades are spent trying to rectify the negligent, that which cannot be rectified at the level of its very nature. Is this not why the modern-day A. Skryabins, F. Liszt and other such geniuses like J. S. Bach have ‘disappeared somewhere’?
That is another question.
So here’s the question: if you’re a composer, why on earth would you take a sledgehammer of Dissonance and smash it into the very foundations of Consonance, thereby setting one against the other, or even destroying one of them altogether? And once again, the answer to this question is obvious: there is absolutely no reason, if you are a composer, to speak in human terms through musical sounds and… most importantly! Especially when you have something to say to people!
Yes, to that very Humanity to whom and for whom you speak and create.
` And if this is so, then it becomes clear that Dissonance is merely two consonances in a single sound, at the level of M2 and B2 [minor and major seconds]. Next to these, even the Seventh and the Tritone appear rather unconvincing in the realm of sound stimuli, given their geographical distance from one another. And they are more likely to carry the gene of modality.
For me personally, and even more so:
` The seventh is the reinterpreted existence of the world of Yavi, that very Universe of 12 tones, which in a simplified schematic form is identical to the Octave.
` And Triton is the manifested Ra, which created this world.
Where Ra itself is the fifth [E flat, B flat]. And Triton [E flat, A] is the sound of the host of Universes, including our own – which corresponds to the transformed First Source.
But more than that, indeed: amidst the multitude of resonating universes, one can easily discern the noble tonal and consonant equilibrium of the Circle of Fourths and Fifths, which is the very harmony of the symphonic order of the entire cosmos. It is, however, a mistake to waste one’s time searching for the Circle of Fourths and Fifths in reality, as it is generated by dissonant sound. For in that capacity, it simply does not exist.
We shall clarify this clearly below, when I turn directly to the ideology and aesthetics of the construct of Tonal Atonality.
In the meantime:
` Tonic – Subdominant – Dominant – Tonic, that is to say, C major – F major – G major – C major, that very primordial consonant-tonal bond which orders the phenomenal harmony of the world of Yavi. Thus defining its absolute equilibrium, which gives rise to the infinite diversity of That, including resonance.
But now, let’s try it with chords as well: C-D-E – F-G-A – G-A-B – C-D-E
Or like this: C-E-G# – F-A-C# – G-B-D# – C-E-G#
Or, how about this: C-C#-D# – F-F#-G# – G-G#-A# – C-C#-D#
Or…
But what difference does ‘how’ make, if one thing remains inevitable: that the less stable, as well as dissonant, Circle of Fourths and Fifths was created by me personally right here and now from the consonant-tonal original trinity, filled with the natural pull from the Tonic to the Subdominant, from the Subdominant to the Dominant, and from the Dominant to the Tonic.
So it turns out there is absolutely no need to destroy the originally natural course of events, in order to build something unnatural upon its ruins. For the unnatural is, a priori, merely one of the constituents of nature, akin to Life and Death themselves, where the former begets the latter, whilst the latter is the ‘dark side of the moon’ of the former.
And nothing more.
***
And to conclude the second part of my tonal-atonal narrative, a few words about the walls and roof of our Universe, which form an integral part of the foundation.
` C1 – the base, C2 – the roof, and this is held together by walls of 10 perfectly consonant tones: C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, which are identical to the bricks that build the infinite multitude of universes.
It is these very building blocks which, in their sequential consonant sound, complementing one another with a noble diversity of overtone combinations, create one of the most distinctive modes – the chromatic mode.
Just as, when all 12 consonant tones sound simultaneously in a cluster, a majestic picture of the world emerges, the divine diversity of which can be easily traced by releasing the sounds one by one. Thus, consonance acquires a new sonorous state, without losing its tonal content.
And it is no surprise, since even in this modified form it remains within the bounds of human speech, endowed with human meaning – comprehensible, and therefore stable. Hence, composers perceive the consonant-tonal genetics of such clusters as a foundation – a centre – that is identical to the tonic. Or as fully-fledged thematic material, which is equal in self-sufficiency to natural intonation, melodicism, harmonic sequences, and so on, right up to the plot levels, layers and complexes, which are equally tonal and atonal.
In such a cluster—a ‘sonic spot’—everything is present: the entire vertical and horizontal expanse of the world, with its primordial divine beauty, embodied in unity within diversity and diversity within unity.
` But if one were to remove this consonant-tonic meaning and leave only atonal dissonance without the natural interrelationships of certain selected sounds, then what would happen… is precisely what has been observed over the last century in the contrivances of the ‘avant-garde musical’ construct.
Whereas some juggle the aforementioned building blocks of the universe more deftly, forcibly compelling them to be unnatural, others are simply, frankly, talentless. Ask then: ‘Why does your “clang-blum-blum” consist of two “blum-blums” and one “clang”? Whereas from that… yes, yes, precisely from that multi-note “bdyin”, two building blocks were taken out, and eight were inserted?’
… that is to say, from this very moment I begin to genuinely sympathise with the questioner!
For, at best, he will hear the following in reply: ‘This is required by the algorithm I have created, which shapes the logical development of the piece!’
… in other words, it’s best not to ask why this particular algorithm has been implemented. Otherwise, you’re guaranteed to make a personal enemy for the rest of your life in the form of yet another ‘atonal juggler’. But, at worst, the enquirer will have a ‘carriage and a whole wagonload’ of unique concepts dumped on their head as a logical justification… for some sort of schizophrenic rambling, most of which will have ZERO connection to reality.
And before you know it, you’ll be saddled with the duty not only to be impressed by it, but also to delve into it and study it. Decades could be wasted on this, as I’ve already pointed out above.
And woe betide anyone who refuses to acknowledge the ‘atonal circus performers: clowns, jugglers, magicians’. For they will set about disparaging the unwelcome in every possible way and everywhere. True, they rarely resort to open confrontation, and even then it is the most ‘narrow-minded’ among them. Whereas the ‘far-sighted’ understand perfectly well just how insignificant, that is to say, how patently talentless their ‘cat-and-mouse games’ look against your backdrop, which faces the world with a human face, speaks in human language, and addresses something very important to everyone.
Ah… I almost forgot!
Whilst the ‘jugglers-magicians’, particularly advanced in their narrow-mindedness, will go so far as to accuse their opponent of, at the very least, fascism, Nazism and even chauvinism. And not just in music, which hinders global progress. A role in which, let’s say, I have found myself on more than one occasion. But that is a separate topic, and we shall return to it elsewhere.
`So here’s the question: is it worth using the sledgehammer of dissonance to smash down the walls of the Universe—walls built from a multitude of consonances that are tonally stable in isolation but form a cluster of dissonance when taken together—without losing their original tonal stability?
Of course not, if you are a Composer sent by God! You must indeed have something to say to people!
So it is with the roof of our Universe, which completes its divine trinity. And it doesn’t matter in what construct this is embodied. For every construct in this world is inherently tripartite:
foundation – meaning – realised goal;
beginning – middle – end;
tonic – subdominant – dominant;
exposition – development – finale;
… I can’t help myself now and will slightly mock the dissonant magicians: the birth of atonality [blum-bul] – the life of atonality [bul-bul-clang-clang] and… “dy-dy-dy-ns-s-s!” – the death of atonality;
And even if someone, whilst mastering the ‘through-form’, were to claim the opposite—that there is no beginning or end to their latest ‘masterpiece’—this would merely reveal the short-sightedness of the person making such a claim.
For:
- the moment they conceived of creating something within a certain structural framework, that was already the beginning;
- as soon as, after the first note, he added a dozen others – this irreversibly shaped the content in its development;
- as soon as he decided to end this construct with nothing, he ended it immediately with the goal thus achieved;
And so we have: beginning – development – end, that is to say, the Trinity, nature itself. And yet, trapped beneath the yoke of their own schizophrenic, hysterical and equally nonsensical concepts – the most tedious of all, bearing no relation to reality – many atonal, dissonant jugglers refuse to see or understand this.
In this connection, the following question naturally arises: is it worth destroying the roof of the Universe in order to see what is inside it and what it covers?
Of course not!
If you are the Author, you must surely have something with which to enrich this world in your capacity as a creator, a maker and a builder… to enrich and complement it in the name of life, rather than smashing it to smithereens with a sledgehammer. Only then will your consonant-tonal world perfect Reality, rather than destroy it.
` And that means: Hurrah!
The century-long gloom of Nature’s deliberately provoked conflict with itself is over!
` And that means: Hurrah!
Glory to ‘Tonal Atonality’, based on the principle of hierarchical generation, where the phenomenal whole does not conflict with itself, but is creative in its grandeur. In other words, with divine precision, the book reveals itself from page to page, just as is customary in Nature!
3.
In other words, all that remains for you to do is to visualise what I am talking about. Or, to be more precise, simply to look at Reality itself, which is right here in front of you and all around you.
Just look.
Let me clarify here: the ideology of Tonal Atonality and its technical construct are, in fact, an inseparable whole, including at the physiological level, without any theoretical additions or complications.
` So here is the question: how did it come about that Tonal Atonality came to dominate as an ideological-technical concept in my work?
- The answer will consist of several parts, the first of which is obvious: I was born with it, Tonal Atonality; it is encoded in my genome as one of the integral components of human wholeness, of its original natural self-sufficiency.
And this is as clear as ‘two times two equals four’.
Therefore, it would be right to pay closer attention to the remaining parts of this answer.
***
` Stop right now and look straight ahead.
What do you see?
- That’s right, it will be a multitude of different material objects, both household items and those outside your home: the floor, walls and ceiling; the bed, chair, armchair, coffee table, kitchen table with cutlery; the bookcase with books; the sideboard with various household utensils; the front door. And standing next to it is a loved one, with their feelings, thoughts, and personal attitude towards you and your surroundings, inviting you to step out into the yard. Do not hesitate; step over the threshold of the front door and follow your loved one.
Step out of the room onto the street.
` Stand side by side, arm in arm, and now look straight ahead together.
What do we see?
- Indeed, the same variety of nature: the lawn on your plot, mown since yesterday evening; slightly to the left, a greenhouse with a removable roof; to the right, a strip of woodland with a variety of trees; behind the greenhouse, a section of the fence that frames your ‘family nest’; behind the fence, a row of fluffy fir trees, planted by you as well; whilst among the firs, a tall metal electrical box is visible; to the left and further away, street lamp posts with electric wires strung along them; the wires run along the roofs of the neighbouring houses; but these, in turn, merge through the horizon with the heavens, where the sun Yarilo and the summer clouds dwell.
Is that right?
Yes, it is all true: wherever you may be, right before you and all around you, just as in your personal relationships with other people, you will find nothing other than manifestations, in one form or another, of reality – the world of Yavi.
Now pay attention!
And so, in all this infinite multitude of divine incarnations of Ra, you will find not a single dissonance, let alone any atonal presence – any instability. If the latter is capable of making itself clearly felt in anything at all, it will be merely the consequence of some violent alteration of the absolute stability of Nature – a new state and form of it, which we call Reality.
Re [re] All – an ancient Slavic-Aryan sacred concept denoting: All, reinterpreted and transformed [altered] in some way.
Here, All is, literally, ‘the entire fullness of reality here’, that is to say, the phenomenal multiplicity of Ra’s manifestation in the world of Yavi.
` Let’s see if that’s the case.
And we see.
- The floor in your home: the joists form the foundation; the ‘subfloor’ constitutes the middle layer; the floorboards, screwed to the ‘subfloor’, form the uppermost layer of this physical object. Which is natural, and therefore absolutely stable [tonally] within its composite [consonant] set, united in a trinity. Where the first is invariably paired with the second, and the second with the third. This is the most suitable construct for a person to master this world throughout their entire life.
Or put another way.
- your first meeting is the starting point in your relationship; your growing interest in one another is the middle stage of development; your life together is the final stage of this three-part construct.
Furthermore, from these same perspectives, we come to know the whole host of the material objects mentioned above, as well as the situational nature of all manner of human relationships. And in each of the universal multitude, only logical consonance will be present from the outset – clear and comprehensible in content and form, and therefore natural – the most sought-after by humans in reality. At the same time, each of these actual consonances will be tripartite in its structure and will inevitably tend towards strengthening its natural integrity by uniting with its like into a triune system.
Thus, by filling in the gaps and creating absolute stability—the tonal construct of harmony in our Universe, where: the mown lawn of your plot; the greenhouse with its removable roof; the trees; the fence; the fluffy fir trees; the electrical box; the street lamps; the roofs of neighbouring houses; and beyond – the heavens – the sun Yarilo…
So here is the question: does Dissonance actually exist as an independent, self-sufficient entity with its tonal-harmonic instability? It does not! It simply does not exist in such a capacity in Nature.
Which is obvious!
And if instability manifests itself in some way within an environment of inherent stability—that is to say, in reality, and subsequently in the real world—then this is already a ‘man-made phenomenon’, which is merely a special case of a unified whole—its yet another natural property.
And nothing more.
So it follows that if you are a true Author, which is what nature itself is, then there is no need for you to seek out what does not exist a priori, let alone destroy yourself in an attempt to create something new. For from birth, being an integral part of this world, knowing, realising and perceiving it in a human way, you feel with every cell of your body that its instability is merely a particular instance of the whole – which is inherently stable. And to obtain something atonal within an entirely tonal environment, there is no need to oppose, let alone destroy, the former for the sake of the latter. It is enough, for example, to do the following.
***
Unity in Diversity, Diversity in Unity.
Let’s keep looking closely.
A greenhouse, then a fence, fluffy fir trees, posts, the roofs of neighbouring houses, and so on. All these objects, as we have already observed, are individually phenomenally stable [consonant-tonal] in their triunity.
So here is the question: what exactly has enabled us to gain such a clear vision and understanding?
The answer: this faculty is called Object Vision, which allows a person to perceive every object in the reality surrounding us not only separately from others, but also in all its constituent parts.
We have seen it.
But now let us look at the ‘dark side of the moon’, that is to say, let us try to discern the originally dissonant properties of a consonant structure. And another innate ability of the human eye will assist us in this. This type of vision is already known as Diffuse or Peripheral Vision. But we shall call it Spatial Vision, which, in the context of my worldview, sounds more aesthetic.
So.
` We fix our gaze directly ahead and begin to look spatially, as if through a multitude of objects.
In the process:
- the greenhouse overlaps with the fence;
- the greenhouse and the fence with the fluffy fir trees;
- the greenhouse, the fence and the fluffy fir trees with the roofs of the neighbouring houses;
And so on, right up to the very edge of the sky and the sun within it.
Thus, the natural multitude has been transformed into an equally natural entity – a natural unity – which we now perceive as a patch of colour. In music, this would be equivalent to a tonally stable sonorous or clustered sound.
Now, pay attention!
So, in this case too, the visual-objective patch remains entirely consonant and stable, tonal. Consequently, it remains as comprehensible as before, and extremely convenient for human perception and use. And this is hardly surprising, since we have, by and large, changed nothing here; we have not invented, created or destroyed anything unnatural. We have merely looked at our familiar reality in a slightly different way, without setting ourselves against the Universe—and thus against ourselves—since we are an integral part of it.
I think it is now becoming clear why I state so confidently that Music is human speech, but expressed through musical sounds. Why, if it is Music, it inevitably enters into a dialogue with the listener – speaking directly to them in their native language and revealing something of great importance within the whole of humanity, and thus the entire universe. That is why its conceptual constructs are imbued with natural meaning and beauty. For Music is nature itself – the tonal resonance of the divine perfection of this World.
If this is not so, then it is not Music.
So we have clarified what the worldview concept – the ideology of Tonal Atonality – represents, including at the physiological level.
` It is a compositional system that exists beyond the limitations of methods such as ‘expansion’, ‘destruction’, ‘contrast’ and similar destructive qualities. For, like everything in this world, Tonal Atonality is based on the consonant-tonal harmony of nature. It is, therefore, a hierarchical structure in which divine perfection begets itself, thus replenishing and complementing the world of Manifestation with new examples of phenomenal genius.
The phenomenal genius of the Universe is expressed in the consonant-tonal unity of its multiplicity, just as it is in the multiplicity that strives towards its unity.
Or, to put it in the form of a thesis:
` Tonal Atonality is a duality in which the Multitude is expressed in Unity, and Unity in the Multitude.
Therefore, as an author adhering to this concept, I am entirely free from any consonant-dissonant or tonal-atonal prejudices, and from any ideological, conceptual, stylistic, genre-based or structural constraints. Consequently, I am guided by a single goal: to enter into dialogue with humanity, so as to tell it, in human language, about something very important – something natural and equally essential to it – in order to subsequently affirm it through my outstanding deeds.
And even now I fully understand that for this to come to pass, one must possess both innate and acquired distinctive uniqueness, which in turn will give rise to the optimal form for such a dialogue.
` And the guarantee of this is your blood, your genetics, your Ancestral Traditions.
For it is only thanks to these naturally acquired – innate – qualities that you are able to view the World with fresh eyes, that is to say, to perceive its universal diversity, which strives, through natural consonant-tonal – natural – gravitations, towards its divinely majestic Unity.
***
So here we go… as we Russians say: ‘If you’ve called yourself a grape, then climb into the cart!’
I suppose I’m off there too.
In other words, right now I’m going to reveal one of my creative secrets—that is to say, one of the methods of my unique vision of our existence, as mentioned a little earlier, which I use quite often during the creative process.
… leaving behind, or to be more precise, beneath us from one end of the visible horizon to the other, my own ideas and meanings and the multipolar levels of content of my new tonal-atonal composition.
Let’s say:
- directly on course, further north, lies the main tonal-atonal complex [feeling, concept, person, object, event] – a melody, an intonational series based on this melody, the structure of this intonational series in the form of chords… not the essence, just as not the essence are all manner of combinations of the main material. What matters is this – here it is, distinctive in its sound, right in front of you – at 12 o’clock in the afternoon;
- to the left, at 9.00 pm in the late evening, the polyphonic texture [one of the fragments of the composition], in all its possible tonal-atonal combinations, dictated by the main material;
- on the right, at 3.00 pm, homophonic-harmonic structures [another fragment of the development], in all tonal and atonal variations possible in relation to the main material;
- slightly higher, at 1.30 pm, consonant-modal combinations of melodic and harmonic structures of the main material in development;
- mirroring this, that is to say, on the left hand at 10.30 pm, dissonant-atonal combinations, generated by the main material and constituting an integral part of it;
- whilst from the South, indeed, to the East and West – virgin lands awaiting their filling with all manner of constructs of the kind listed above, limited only by the composer’s imagination.
Where the free Falcon soars freely above the earthly Ur and speaks in meanings that are unified in substance, entirely at its own discretion. Provided that this ‘discretion’ engages in dialogue with Humanity in a language it can understand, and on matters of importance to everyone—in other words, in a truly human way.
Which is, for us, our native tongue – the language of the Music of this world.
***
How does it actually work?
Take my violin concerto ‘From the Heart to the Sun’ as an example. And what’s more… it’s almost amusing to even mention it.
And yet.
My friends—mostly musicians—all asked, without exception, after hearing the piece for the first time: ‘I’d already decided, judging by the exposition, that the form was a mess… but now tell me, how did you manage it? To take such disparate opening episodes… and then this enchanting magic with such a brilliant finale… something that shouldn’t have happened!’
“It worked, as you can see!” I replied without beating about the bush. “But for the details, let us turn to the ‘Beliy Naliv’ apple tree, which for many years delighted my mother, my father and us—their children, united by blood with our Lineage—our People—our Nation—with its fragrant fruit. And thus, with Bright Rus’ – the glorious Aryan patrimony, my Motherland!”
And again, I shall repeat myself.
Repetition, after all, is the mother of learning!
How many times have the terms ‘atonality’ and ‘dissonance’ been mentioned here? As the saying goes, too many to count.
But if we now go back and review what has been said, we will find that the discussion has centred exclusively on tonal sound and its fundamental basis – consonance. Meanwhile, atonal-dissonant constructs were assigned a secondary role, for that is precisely what they are – merely a part of the tonal whole, its derivative. In other words, try removing a single brick from a building and constructing an identical building from that single brick… it won’t work!
This requires the full complement of reality’s components – the foundation, the walls, the roof.
And this is what Nature is – a tonal-consonant construct, the ideal means for creating, recreating and complementing the divine harmony of Yavi.
And this means: the first is Consonance, the second is Dissonance, as one of the derivative parts of the first. And never the other way round, in accordance with the laws of the Universe.
Consequently, there are no opposites in Music either, for it is hierarchical from North to South and from East to West – from the first to the last of its absolutely consonant and equally tonally stable C notes.
***
But never mind.
I shall leave it at that, lest these explanations risk turning from the good news of guidance into the authority of a mentor’s diktat. Which is not at all characteristic of Tonal Atonality, with its soaring falcon-like heights and boundless valleys and depths, stretching straight from here across the Celestial Iris into the infinity of the universal RA.
To know…
Glory to the Gods – Our Ancestors!
But to us, their descendants, have a good day!
УКА | UCA:
xVK-1xxxx`26`x-RAxN-xxf
` A-CVK
TONAL ATONALITY
And now for the aesthetic and practical concept that forms
the basis of this compositional technique.
In other words, all that remains for you to do is to visualise what I am talking about. Or, to be more precise, simply to look at Reality itself, which is right here in front of you and all around you.
Just look.
Let me clarify here: the ideology of Tonal Atonality and its technical construct are, in fact, an inseparable whole, including at the physiological level, without any theoretical additions or complications.
` So here is the question: how did it come about that Tonal Atonality came to dominate as an ideological-technical concept in my work?
- The answer will consist of several parts, the first of which is obvious: I was born with it, Tonal Atonality; it is encoded in my genome as one of the integral components of human wholeness, of its original natural self-sufficiency.
And this is as clear as ‘two times two equals four’.
Therefore, it would be right to pay closer attention to the remaining parts of this answer.
***
` Stop right now and look straight ahead.
What do you see?
- That’s right, it will be a multitude of different material objects, both household items and those outside your home: the floor, walls and ceiling; the bed, chair, armchair, coffee table, kitchen table with cutlery; the bookcase with books; the sideboard with various household utensils; the front door. And standing next to it is a loved one, with their feelings, thoughts, and personal attitude towards you and your surroundings, inviting you to step out into the yard. Do not hesitate; step over the threshold of the front door and follow your loved one.
Step out of the room onto the street.
` Stand side by side, arm in arm, and now look straight ahead together.
What do we see?
- Indeed, the same variety of nature: the lawn on your plot, mown since yesterday evening; slightly to the left, a greenhouse with a removable roof; to the right, a strip of woodland with a variety of trees; behind the greenhouse, a section of the fence that frames your ‘family nest’; behind the fence, a row of fluffy fir trees, planted by you as well; whilst among the firs, a tall metal electrical box is visible; to the left and further away, street lamp posts with electric wires strung along them; the wires run along the roofs of the neighbouring houses; but these, in turn, merge through the horizon with the heavens, where the sun Yarilo and the summer clouds dwell.
Is that right?
Yes, it is all true: wherever you may be, right before you and all around you, just as in your personal relationships with other people, you will find nothing other than manifestations, in one form or another, of reality – the world of Yavi.
Now pay attention!
And so, in all this infinite multitude of divine incarnations of Ra, you will find not a single dissonance, let alone any atonal presence – any instability. If the latter is capable of making itself clearly felt in anything at all, it will be merely the consequence of some violent alteration of the absolute stability of Nature – a new state and form of it, which we call Reality.
Re [re] All – an ancient Slavic-Aryan sacred concept denoting: All, reinterpreted and transformed [altered] in some way.
Here, All is, literally, ‘the entire fullness of reality here’, that is to say, the phenomenal multiplicity of Ra’s manifestation in the world of Yavi.
` Let’s see if that’s the case.
And we see.
- The floor in your home: the joists form the foundation; the ‘subfloor’ constitutes the middle layer; the floorboards, screwed to the ‘subfloor’, form the uppermost layer of this physical object. Which is natural, and therefore absolutely stable [tonally] within its composite [consonant] set, united in a trinity. Where the first is invariably paired with the second, and the second with the third. This is the most suitable construct for a person to master this world throughout their entire life.
Or put another way.
- your first meeting is the starting point in your relationship; your growing interest in one another is the middle stage of development; your life together is the final stage of this three-part construct.
Furthermore, from these same perspectives, we come to know the whole host of the material objects mentioned above, as well as the situational nature of all manner of human relationships. And in each of the universal multitude, only logical consonance will be present from the outset – clear and comprehensible in content and form, and therefore natural – the most sought-after by humans in reality. At the same time, each of these actual consonances will be tripartite in its structure and will inevitably tend towards strengthening its natural integrity by uniting with its like into a triune system.
Thus, by filling in the gaps and creating absolute stability—the tonal construct of harmony in our Universe, where: the mown lawn of your plot; the greenhouse with its removable roof; the trees; the fence; the fluffy fir trees; the electrical box; the street lamps; the roofs of neighbouring houses; and beyond – the heavens – the sun Yarilo…
So here is the question: does Dissonance actually exist as an independent, self-sufficient entity with its tonal-harmonic instability? It does not! It simply does not exist in such a capacity in Nature.
Which is obvious!
And if instability manifests itself in some way within an environment of inherent stability—that is to say, in reality, and subsequently in the real world—then this is already a ‘man-made phenomenon’, which is merely a special case of a unified whole—its yet another natural property.
And nothing more.
So it follows that if you are a true Author, which is what nature itself is, then there is no need for you to seek out what does not exist a priori, let alone destroy yourself in an attempt to create something new. For from birth, being an integral part of this world, knowing, realising and perceiving it in a human way, you feel with every cell of your body that its instability is merely a particular instance of the whole – which is inherently stable. And to obtain something atonal within an entirely tonal environment, there is no need to oppose, let alone destroy, the former for the sake of the latter. It is enough, for example, to do the following.
***
Unity in Diversity, Diversity in Unity.
Let’s keep looking closely.
A greenhouse, then a fence, fluffy fir trees, posts, the roofs of neighbouring houses, and so on. All these objects, as we have already observed, are individually phenomenally stable [consonant-tonal] in their triunity.
So here is the question: what exactly has enabled us to gain such a clear vision and understanding?
The answer: this faculty is called Object Vision, which allows a person to perceive every object in the reality surrounding us not only separately from others, but also in all its constituent parts.
We have seen it.
But now let us look at the ‘dark side of the moon’, that is to say, let us try to discern the originally dissonant properties of a consonant structure. And another innate ability of the human eye will assist us in this. This type of vision is already known as Diffuse or Peripheral Vision. But we shall call it Spatial Vision, which, in the context of my worldview, sounds more aesthetic.
So.
` We fix our gaze directly ahead and begin to look spatially, as if through a multitude of objects.
In the process:
- the greenhouse overlaps with the fence;
- the greenhouse and the fence with the fluffy fir trees;
- the greenhouse, the fence and the fluffy fir trees with the roofs of the neighbouring houses;
And so on, right up to the very edge of the sky and the sun within it.
Thus, the natural multitude has been transformed into an equally natural entity – a natural unity – which we now perceive as a patch of colour. In music, this would be equivalent to a tonally stable sonorous or clustered sound.
Now, pay attention!
So, in this case too, the visual-objective patch remains entirely consonant and stable, tonal. Consequently, it remains as comprehensible as before, and extremely convenient for human perception and use. And this is hardly surprising, since we have, by and large, changed nothing here; we have not invented, created or destroyed anything unnatural. We have merely looked at our familiar reality in a slightly different way, without setting ourselves against the Universe—and thus against ourselves—since we are an integral part of it.
I think it is now becoming clear why I state so confidently that Music is human speech, but expressed through musical sounds. Why, if it is Music, it inevitably enters into a dialogue with the listener – speaking directly to them in their native language and revealing something of great importance within the whole of humanity, and thus the entire universe. That is why its conceptual constructs are imbued with natural meaning and beauty. For Music is nature itself – the tonal resonance of the divine perfection of this World.
If this is not so, then it is not Music.
So we have clarified what the worldview concept – the ideology of Tonal Atonality – represents, including at the physiological level.
` It is a compositional system that exists beyond the limitations of methods such as ‘expansion’, ‘destruction’, ‘contrast’ and similar destructive qualities. For, like everything in this world, Tonal Atonality is based on the consonant-tonal harmony of nature. It is, therefore, a hierarchical structure in which divine perfection begets itself, thus replenishing and complementing the world of Manifestation with new examples of phenomenal genius.
The phenomenal genius of the Universe is expressed in the consonant-tonal unity of its multiplicity, just as it is in the multiplicity that strives towards its unity.
Or, to put it in the form of a thesis:
` Tonal Atonality is a duality in which the Multitude is expressed in Unity, and Unity in the Multitude.
Therefore, as an author adhering to this concept, I am entirely free from any consonant-dissonant or tonal-atonal prejudices, and from any ideological, conceptual, stylistic, genre-based or structural constraints. Consequently, I am guided by a single goal: to enter into dialogue with humanity, so as to tell it, in human language, about something very important – something natural and equally essential to it – in order to subsequently affirm it through my outstanding deeds.
And even now I fully understand that for this to come to pass, one must possess both innate and acquired distinctive uniqueness, which in turn will give rise to the optimal form for such a dialogue.
` And the guarantee of this is your blood, your genetics, your Ancestral Traditions.
For it is only thanks to these naturally acquired – innate – qualities that you are able to view the World with fresh eyes, that is to say, to perceive its universal diversity, which strives, through natural consonant-tonal – natural – gravitations, towards its divinely majestic Unity.
***
So here we go… as we Russians say: ‘If you’ve called yourself a grape, then climb into the cart!’
I suppose I’m off there too.
In other words, right now I’m going to reveal one of my creative secrets—that is to say, one of the methods of my unique vision of our existence, as mentioned a little earlier, which I use quite often during the creative process.
A view from the height of the Soaring Falcon
… and so, let’s begin, that is, let’s take flight…
… leaving behind, or to be more precise, beneath us from one end of the visible horizon to the other, my own ideas and meanings and the multipolar levels of content of my new tonal-atonal composition.
Let’s say:
- directly on course, further north, lies the main tonal-atonal complex [feeling, concept, person, object, event] – a melody, an intonational series based on this melody, the structure of this intonational series in the form of chords… not the essence, just as not the essence are all manner of combinations of the main material. What matters is this – here it is, distinctive in its sound, right in front of you – at 12 o’clock in the afternoon;
- to the left, at 9.00 pm in the late evening, the polyphonic texture [one of the fragments of the composition], in all its possible tonal-atonal combinations, dictated by the main material;
- on the right, at 3.00 pm, homophonic-harmonic structures [another fragment of the development], in all tonal and atonal variations possible in relation to the main material;
- slightly higher, at 1.30 pm, consonant-modal combinations of melodic and harmonic structures of the main material in development;
- mirroring this, that is to say, on the left hand at 10.30 pm, dissonant-atonal combinations, generated by the main material and constituting an integral part of it;
- whilst from the South, indeed, to the East and West – virgin lands awaiting their filling with all manner of constructs of the kind listed above, limited only by the composer’s imagination.
Where the free Falcon soars freely above the earthly Ur and speaks in meanings that are unified in substance, entirely at its own discretion. Provided that this ‘discretion’ engages in dialogue with Humanity in a language it can understand, and on matters of importance to everyone—in other words, in a truly human way.
Which is, for us, our native tongue – the language of the Music of this world.
***
How does it actually work?
Take my violin concerto ‘From the Heart to the Sun’ as an example. And what’s more… it’s almost amusing to even mention it.
And yet.
My friends—mostly musicians—all asked, without exception, after hearing the piece for the first time: ‘I’d already decided, judging by the exposition, that the form was a mess… but now tell me, how did you manage it? To take such disparate opening episodes… and then this enchanting magic with such a brilliant finale… something that shouldn’t have happened!’
“It worked, as you can see!” I replied without beating about the bush. “But for the details, let us turn to the ‘Beliy Naliv’ apple tree, which for many years delighted my mother, my father and us—their children, united by blood with our Lineage—our People—our Nation—with its fragrant fruit. And thus, with Bright Rus’ – the glorious Aryan patrimony, my Motherland!”
And again, I shall repeat myself.
Repetition, after all, is the mother of learning!
How many times have the terms ‘atonality’ and ‘dissonance’ been mentioned here? As the saying goes, too many to count.
But if we now go back and review what has been said, we will find that the discussion has centred exclusively on tonal sound and its fundamental basis – consonance. Meanwhile, atonal-dissonant constructs were assigned a secondary role, for that is precisely what they are – merely a part of the tonal whole, its derivative. In other words, try removing a single brick from a building and constructing an identical building from that single brick… it won’t work!
This requires the full complement of reality’s components – the foundation, the walls, the roof.
And this is what Nature is – a tonal-consonant construct, the ideal means for creating, recreating and complementing the divine harmony of Yavi.
And this means: the first is Consonance, the second is Dissonance, as one of the derivative parts of the first. And never the other way round, in accordance with the laws of the Universe.
Consequently, there are no opposites in Music either, for it is hierarchical from North to South and from East to West – from the first to the last of its absolutely consonant and equally tonally stable C notes.
***
But never mind.
I shall leave it at that, lest these explanations risk turning from the good news of guidance into the authority of a mentor’s diktat. Which is not at all characteristic of Tonal Atonality, with its soaring falcon-like heights and boundless valleys and depths, stretching straight from here across the Celestial Iris into the infinity of the universal RA.
To know…
Glory to the Gods – Our Ancestors!
But to us, their descendants, have a good day!
With the deepest respect and reverence for Humanity, the Russian composer Vyacheslav Kazarin.
Rus, Moscow, 7534 years since the creation of the world in the Star Temple ` Russia,
Moscow, 28 May 2026
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