DoveSong II: A project for the Millennium
by Don Robertson
As we move into the new millennium, many people are beginning to realize that our planet is going through an extremely critical transition period. Climate change, political, moral and financial upheaval are indications of this very precarious state. The price that was paid for the 20th century's industrial and social progress has resulted in the gradual destruction of our planet's foundations...it's water, air, land, and the alarming disappearance of ancient indigenous cultures. This planetary destruction has been clearly echoed in the art, music, films and literature of the 20th century.
Negative Music
Classical music changed radically when European and American composers and educators began writing and teaching discordant music. Because of this, the natural foundation on which music had been dependant for so many centuries was completely disassembled. Ancient Chinese philosophers had warned us about unsavory music that would come into being during uncertain times, and the discordant music that emerged at the beginning of the 20th century was an example of this. Our classical music tradition failed us, telling us to "just get used to" the ugly, discordant classical music that was being composed by the 20th century's atonal and serial composers. Our popular music tradition also failed us when it opened itself to the destructive heavy metal music using purposely distorted sounds from guitars that were sometimes destroyed on stage. This music, along with music that utilizes electronically altered unnatural tones, is mass-marketed by the media industry to our impressionable youth through radio, TV, films, video games and sports events.
My Dawn Album
I first began to understand all of this in 1968. The following year, I issued a proclamation with the music of my first album, Dawn, released by Mercury Records. In this album I demonstrated the fact that both negative and positive music existed. In 1970, I published my book Kosmon. In its pages I presented my understanding of negative and positive music and demonstrated what I had named the duochord, the four-note chord that I had discovered to be the basis of negative harmony. Additionally, I warned of global warming, pollution of the food chain, and the coming disaster that would occur in popular music. My early-warning system fell mainly on deaf ears for many years. Just after the turn of the century, however, my Dawn album was re-issued in Italy on the Akarma label, and now more people have become interested in what I have been saying for forty years.
Our Choice
The planet cannot sustain the kind of lifestyle that the fortunate have enjoyed during the previous century. There will be sacrifice, and decisions that we now make must be based on what is best for all, not just for ourselves, our societies, politics, philosophies and religions. We have learned something valuable that had not previously been understood: everything that we do effects everything else. Instead of being political, religious, or nationalistic, we now realize that we can align ourselves with what we love to do, and by our actions, contribute to the healing of all life on the planet. The problems that the world faces now cannot be solved by governments or religions; they can only be solved by individuals. As Bob Dylan so aptly pointed out: we are either busy being born, or busy dying....as individuals or collectively.
Change Must Begin with Music
If we are going to create change, it must begin with the music. Now almost completely gone from American public school education, music - because of its tremendous effect on our psychology and emotional state through its property of resonance - plays a vital role in our lives. Fortunately, young composers and musicians are now moving away from the negative influences of the 20th century. Equipped with an understanding of the harmonic foundation of creation, they are realizing that consonant music is nature's most pure form of expression.
My Goal
My goal is to reach the composers and musicians who recognize that 21st century music is all about harmony, balance, and beauty. As each one of us turns our attention away from the confusion of the past 100 years - the stress, the unhealthy food, the pollution and war, we begin to understand the importance of aligning ourselves with the pulse of the Universe, the harmonic laws that were demonstrated so long ago by our great philosophers, Plato and Pythagoras.
Don Robertson
January, 2010
