Ingredients of Culture Human culture has always relied on three elements: "information learned within a lifetime, its intergenerational transmission (oral tradition), and the imitation that enables this transmission. (Tomlinson p. 37)" In other words, our ability to remember, teach, [...]
I was recently asked, "does a native Western Buddhist Liturgy even need music?" "Absolutely!" I've been ruminating since then, on the speed and fervency of my response. Since the ancient Greeks, Western culture has used music to navigate the boundary between the secular and the sacred. Music is one of [...]
This post will discuss the basics of Chinese music theory (Yuelü), the very "tip of the proverbial iceberg." In the context of a blog post, it is simply not possible to detail the richness and depth of the Chinese [...]
Tuning Forks, invented 1711 by John Shore When an "A" (A4) is played on a piano, whether in Taiwan or California, the resultant musical tone will almost certainly be vibrating at 440hz (440 vibrations per second). [...]
Hualien from Amitabha Monastery Next week Sarah and I will be going to visit Dharma Master Heng Yin at Amitabha Monastery. This visit corresponds with our 3rd wedding anniversary, which Heng Yin attended, creating [...]
Relaxed in Taiwan My life seems to be all transitions recently. In Western music, transitions are sections of music characterized by harmonic motion and nonthematic passagework; passages of musical instability between sections of stability. Dharma Drum Mountain [...]
