This is an excerpt from half of the performance of Levitation Practice in the High-Order Modal Stasis of Samā', a two-hour piece performed on the death anniversary of Pandit Pran Nath. I hosted a gathering at Studio Ma in Seattle to perform works inspired by him and a select few banishes he wrote in Raag Yaman. Noel Kennon presented a two-hour piece for sine tones and voice before Levitation.

The composition featured two voices, tanjore tambura (lent to us graciously by Xanna Seto), harmonium, shruti box, and viola. It was a test of sorts, as Russell had no musical experience, and Tae and Katrina had some from their past, but are not currently practicing musicians, though they are now in their own ways. Noel, Jocelyn and I were the only technical musicians from the piece, yet it carried many into a sort of trance state, as I was told afterward. The test was to form an ensemble made up of a few musicians but also of artists and individuals with little to no experience or current practice. This led to the formation of the ensemble in Selected Drift in Dream Stasis (performed January 17th, 2020), which featured six (half) performers without this musical background. Additionally, for both Dream Stasis and Levitation, these performers had no experience with the instrument they were given.

In the program notes below, I discuss some details of the tuning aspect. As a practice in listening, one can pay only their attention to the overtones throughout the entire work, noting how they change with the inclusion of the harmoniums as a result of shifting from just intonation into equal temperament.

Program Notes from the event:

Meditation on impermanence, non-attachment, equanimity, and continuous body of clarity and not-knowing, transient individual dreams of self and selflessness, sonic/physical exploration of zero/no-time void.

An offering to God and the absence of divinity.

Performed by
Ensemble Dhikr Allah

Joey Largent - voice, composition
Jocelyn Beausire - voice
Katrina Wolfe - tanjore tambura
Noel Kennon - viola, voice
Russell Christenson - harmonium, voice
Tae Kim - shruti box, voice

Durationless composition for intuition/feeling-based improvisation within a custom modal system.

The piece was performed on June 13th, 2019 at Studio Ma in Seattle at the memorial for Sri Faquir Pandit Pran Nath. The piece was written for two to six voices, viola, tambura, harmonium, and shruti box, and lasted 1.5 hours. Partially composed in just intonation, the inclusion of the harmonium and shruti box adds both fullness to the piece, yet disrupts the pure intervals with that are formed between the harmonics of the tambura, voices, and viola with an equal tempered tuning. This inclusion provides an intentional dissonance to the piece as it utilizes a custom modal scale of endless wandering, similar in many ways to Raga Todi, which includes further intervals such as 10/9, 16/15, 7/5, 8/5, 7/4. The performers were given the notes and a loose structure for the whole piece, but no fixed direction on movements, timing, and dynamics. Some of the performers had little to no musical background or recent musical experience, yet were a part based on their heightened and beautiful intuition and feeling-based ability above all else. The piece was arranged as a linear stack, growing to its peak, then coming to resolve. These intentional choices were incorporated to allow the performers and listeners to have access to drifting into a deep state of divine union and resolve, similar in many ways to the states of Samadhi found through meditation.

This piece serves as the prelude to a larger work, Selected Drift of Dream Stasis.