"INTERVIEW NOVALIS" 01.12.2003
HARMONIC VOCAL MUSIC, TUNING AND SINGING TO PERSONS
or
HARMONIC VOCAL MUSIC, TUNING AND SINGING TO PERSONS AND NATURE
Thomas Heinrich Schmöckel, since 1988 you are practising harmonic vocal music.
What is that supposed to be?
Harmonics are existing in every voice. Many people think that harmonic vocal music is comparable to high-sounding singing, but it is a very relaxed and simple form of singing and tuning. I am choosing a basic tone in a comfortable pitch and try to adjust myself to it.
How do you practice that?
I am listening to the tone. By a light modelling of the space in the mouth - one could also say by intensive listening - you notice that the tone does not consist of only one tone. Every sound contains harmonics, a complete scale of harmonics which determines its timbre. When I am sitting and tuning I am listening into the sound and I start enjoying the harmonics that appear and become audible. For me this is a - may be even the most - relaxing way of meditation. I am tuning, listening, let the harmonics happen, forget to think and enter into the whole sound of this one tone.
That is continuing to sound?
Yes, first I stick to the tone. Later on I may be decide to choose another tone. I let myself be guided by the sounds that try to find an outlet.
Could one say that after a certain time it is not you who is singing but it is singing inside you?
Yes, that is perfectly right. I do not think any more but let myself be guided. I am.
If it is not you who is singing, who or what is it then?
I can not express exactly what it is but I notice that it is a certain way of existing, of letting things happen, in the ideal case a form of oneness with myself and all the things that are surrounding me. Thinking is coming to an end and the observer is coming out and observing, without judging anything. It is as if your intellect is getting a new function. Not to analyse and judge, but to observe and perceive.
How long can you remain in this condition?
You cannot control it. Sometimes only seconds, sometimes minutes, in rare cases hours.
Could you please describe in detail such a longer lasting state of consciousness?
The event I am just thinking about is a very profound one with harmonics and tuning. We were three persons in a little chapel. We were just letting guide us and reacted on the sounds of the others. And due to the fact that space and time were perfectly right something special happened to us, to each of us three. I felt at ease with my body and was surprised and at the same time enthusiastic, and I invited this ease to spread all over my body while singing. Then I noticed that "It" touched me. I gave up control and let it happen. I mainly did that with my eyes closed. From time to time I felt encouraged to open the eyes and to look.
What did you see?
Once I looked directly at a silver cross, into the eyes of Jesus and an intensive ray of light from eye to eye reached me. I was frightened by this power and at the same time overwhelmed and I was looking as long as I could. I felt that it was some kind of "light initiation". Soon later I moved on and there was a shining of light in the church. I knew, if I had not been afraid, I could have seen a spiritual being. The whole event was lasting some hours that appeared to be minutes.
So you had some kind of Christian experience. Isn’t it true that the practice of harmonic vocal music and also gongs derive from the Eastern cultures?
I would call it spiritual experience, in this case with Jesus Christ, but also with the universal light that was shining through Jesus. I first got to know harmonics in Europe. There you can find ancient roots of this kind of vocal music, e.g. the Gregorian music. In Europe you could observe the development of a particular harmonic vocal music that was not that complicated and therefore much easier to learn. It is rather aimed at creating physical relaxation but also to make the harmonics clearly audible and to play with them, to sing melodies. In the Asian culture harmonic vocal music is often called larynx music. It sounds as if the tones are squeezed out. In Tuva (North of Mongolia), in East Sibiria, in Mongolia, but also in Tibet and India you can find very interesting Asian harmonic vocal music cultures. We Europeans should not forget that also the "Semen" - the original population of Lapland - is cultivating harmonic vocal music in "Joiken". Joiken - translated free - means: "I sing you, I sing me". Every seed has its own joik, i.e. some kind of own signature tune that is traditionally sung in nature.
How did you come in close contact with this people?
My first stay in Northern Norway was on the Lofoten. There, I had my first seminars and concerts, one of it in a big old sardines oil tank. After these events I intended to go home. The way home was far away - 3500 km - and there was still a week time left at my free disposal. That is when I heard a deep, very deep inner voice telling me: "Go North as far as you can!". After most urgent repetitions I decided to give in. So I continued my way as far as possible to the North - until Cap North. Years later I continued my voyage. Again and again I was moving to the North of Norway, that is why I met the "Semen" on a festival called Riddu Riddu. On this festival organised by the Semen every year in July, I also met friendly members of other primitive people besides the locals: the Tuviena, singers of the Altai mountains, East Sibiria, Innuits and the North American Indians. Nearly all of them presented the very rhythmic harmonic vocal music of their culture.
Does the vocal music have an effect on nature?
Yes. Harmonic vocal music is a "natural vocal music". The harmonic sequence in itself is harmonious. In every voice and every instrument harmonics are audible. For example the tones of a horn that are produced without valves are also called natural tones. These natural tones are harmonics of instruments. If you are consciously singing harmonics, you are automatically moving in conformity with natural laws. So it is natural that harmonic vocal music and natural sounds have an effect on nature. For example, you can sing at sick places in nature, in a group at best. Harmonic intervals have cosmic natural laws. The same natural laws have been proved in physics and mathematics.
If sickness and dissonance is existing in nature: Is it possible to help finding a way back to harmony and recovery by harmonic vocal music?
Of course. You can not defend yourself. If I am opening myself to the harmonic sound something happens to me automatically. The natural order is reestablished. The "harmonics" are effective.
Also in the human body? Supposing that a person with a heavily aching shoulder and with limited motion abilities is going to see you and asking for your help. What would you do then?
I start my work without aiming at a specific result. I can never promise complete healing. What I am doing is the following: I get into the right mood, i.e.: I try to contact the utmost divine authority and ask for guidance. Then I ask the person I am going to sing to in a spiritual way whether or not it is all right to tune to him. I only start my work when feeling a clear Yes, when it is all right from both sides. First, I concentrate on the shoulder, I am singing the tones that are coming, appearing, arising ... As a reaction, pictures are being formed in front of my inner eye. I continue my work while staying in permanent communication with the shoulder and my guidance. Then it may happen that I do not sing directly to the shoulder but reach a different region: another part of the body or an aura layer. Therefore singing to persons is like an adventure. You can find the answer to the sick shoulder in places you never thought before and the context of the problem is becoming comprehensible.
How does harmonic vocal music function? How do harmonics arise? Can you learn it?
It is rather easy to learn the singing of harmonics, i.e. to produce and also to hear individual tones. Anyway, harmonics are already existing in the normal sound of the voice, as well when talking as when singing, so it is first of all a question of listening to them. Of course, additionally there are techniques that simplify the learning of harmonics. It is particularly important to reduce the speed: for example you cannot suddenly realise the movement from I to U in the space of the mouth, but through a long breath. When moving from I to U it is useful to work a stop in, that is to say the Ü. When trying out this exercise I recommend to sing first from I to Ü in one breath with a regular changement in the space of mouth. The same applies to the Ü-U exercise. Try it out five times and take your time doing it. Then continue to sing the sequence from I to Ü to U. Besides the mere technical exercise in which you can hear the harmonic sequence from high to low, it is also a very energetic exercise. Someone told me that the Tibetan believe that originally human beings came to earth with this sound. Furthermore, you can practice this exercise in reverse order, too, from U to Ü to I. The most important thing about this exercise and all other exercises is - I repeat it - the regular slowness. I would like to remind you that the harmonics have already been existing a long time ago and the spaces want to be discovered where we can best listen to them. A single breath and the repetitions are really every time some kind of voyage of discovery - an adventure.
How do you work with your harmonic choir, what kind of pieces do you sing and how are they produced?
The singers are moving in given themes, discussed sequences, like inner films or fixed structures, into which the harmonic singers can integrate more or less individual structures. The pieces aim at creating a certain mood, at a musical expression of a history and of course also at expressing the world of harmonics and its characteristics. Furthermore, the effects of harmonic singing are meant to reach the listeners. Through the whole year I am working comprehensively with the members of the chorus to improve the voice and self-consciousness and the technique of singing harmonics. Due to the fact that the singers can feel the effects of harmonics in themselves, they are able to transfer their knowledge to others. Concerts are taking place in churches or other exciting localities.
But we also work in the nature and we are tuning and singing for various projects. This year we have initiated a light temple through the landscape of Angeln in Northern Germany.
Now, you are not only working with the singing of harmonics but also with gongs. What is the special thing about it?
The first time in my life I experienced gongs was on a festival in Erlangen. Fifteen different gongs with a diameter between 50 cm and 1,50 m have been played in a church. The two gong players have been producing as well low as loud gong sounds and I could feel how the tones did not only reach the ears but the swinging could be heard through the whole body. That is why I started being played to more frequently by a gong player. Many years later, I had my first gong. In between, I used the gongs as well in concerts as in the harmonic singing to persons. I particularly like the gong playing in nature because the sound is not coming back to me spreading into the nature.
Gongs are instruments full of harmonics. They let many harmonics sound clearly at the same time and therefore have an intensive effect on body, soul and mind. Many people only think of gongs as “alarm bell”, to bring people together for lunch or as special fixing points in pieces of music. But the sounds of gongs are worth to be looked at more closely.
Gongs are still sounding two or three minutes later. These sounds are perfectly suitable for relaxation, harmonisation, well being and for singing vocal music to persons and nature. The gongs as well as the harmonics bear transforming qualities in themselves.
Nevertheless, you also use them at certain times to place some emphasis differently? As announcement that something different is going to happen next?
Retreats also belong to my work: four to eight days to „Search one’s heart“. During that time the breath, the tuning and the silence are very important. Every three hours a new cycle is beginning, consisting of breath, tones and silence. Therefore I use a gong.
But usually I use gongs for concerts and gong-sound-voyages. Gong sounds are very often compared to spherical music and used for it. Many participants of the gong-sound-voyages are reporting about inner and outer deep voyages, even into the universe sometimes.
Thomas Heinrich Schmöckel, thank you very much for the interview.
Fon +49-(0)461-4808497, Fax 4808545, - - - Email: Schmoeckel@HYNRICKS.de - - - Homepage: www.HYNRICKS.de