Just what is music anyway?… and the Cheboygan Discorde?
ULTRA TOP SECRET: PRIORITY ONE
by direction of Commander, Emergency Military Command South (EMCS)
Document created by prisoner 1246 (Classified 1A)
Copy to Commander, Emergency Military Command Continental (EMCC)
Copy to Emergency Archive Group 1 (EAG 1) {Original to follow}
“Music can change the world.”
– Ludwig von Beethoven –
I am, I was, a well-known musician. My name I will not set down. I was one of the players of what they are calling The Cheboygan Discorde and, yes, one of those who deciphered how to play it. They tell me I am the only known surviving member of that reviled body.
Where I have been taken, I know not, nor will they tell me. I was drugged and brought here as soon as they suspected who I might be. My captors have graciously offered to allow me to live until the last days come here, if, I record what I know of what we did.
I freely give this account. I have committed no criminal act of which I am aware. My motives were innocent of this outcome. I am told this record is to be included in the Survival Capsule, with the few other documents which will become the sole record of the demise of mankind. The capsule is to be launched into space as soon as possible so that there may be some record of us besides the Voyager spacecraft. It may not matter at all in light of what I understand will happen.
“Leaders must encourage their organizations to dance forms of music yet to be heard”
– Warren G. Bennis –
It was said that a Star had fallen in the East and The Dance of One Hundred Days was revealed. Some claimed that it was ancient knowledge that should not have been re-discovered. Others said that a ship had come from the stars to bring revelation and rebirth to Mankind. Whatever the truth, it is far too late to care.
It was so simple. The Manuscript came, carried by what can only be described as zealots, across the seas, from the Far East and within it was the Convocation of the Chord of Harmony and The Dance of One Hundred Days. The movement spread, carried by music and dance. Music, Peace, and Love, but the underlying, unifying aim was to play the Chord of Harmony. Then, The Dance of One Hundred Days would begin and the world would be reborn.
Music and dance are fundamental to humans and when applied with religion and reformation, prove sufficient to gather large numbers of people together. And where better than in America, in the tradition of The Revival, Woodstock, The Rainbow Family, The Kool-Aid Acid Test, Rock Concerts and numerous other gatherings of people, for music, dance and some form of contemplation of the universe? That it happened at Cheboygan was but the twist of fate.
“There has always been a strong relationship between music and religion. It is because they both plug straight into the heart and can have real power for good or evil.
-Peter Gabriel –
It was all so natural and fundamental, people gathering in troubled times to attempt a symbolic rebirthing of the world. Yes, very natural and far more fundamental than anyone could have ever imagined. I see now that all the extra people and perhaps The Dance itself was only for obfuscation and insulation from the society of the world, sufficient to isolate and protect the convocation of musicians while they “deciphered” the meaning of The Manuscript and completed the playing of The Chord of Harmony.
It was simple, but it wasn’t obvious, maybe that’s why we didn’t understand until it was too late. The human ear has its own way of hearing the universe. The universe has its own way of doing things. Harmony is not the way of the cosmos; there lies chaos and discord as the norm. We have changed the sound relationships of the real universe as described by the mathematics, to sound relationships that please the human ear. That, too, has had its effect. It was part of our contribution to the harmony of the universe as we heard it, but it also made us believe we made sound that the universe heard as we did.
Think of the variety of that hearing and the music it has created! There are nearly sixty different scales that humans use to create their music and countless sub varieties of those. Yet all are made from the same notes, those natural sounds selected from within the hearing range of humankind. All of these and more were said to be within The Manuscript of the Convocation of the Chord of Harmony and The Dance of One Hundred Days.
Why would such an event not draw many musicians, among them, the best of students, innovators and musical genius of the times? We talked, made love, music and learned The Dance. Then, for us alone, there was the riddle of the Convocation of The Chord of Harmony. The sound, we would create, which was to begin The Dance of One Hundred Days leading to the re-birth of the World.
That seemingly undecipherable manuscript, proved plain as day to musical minds, almost as if it were meant to be so. Some noticed this and were comforted, while others who noticed were made vaguely uneasy. Human music scales are very definitive of the culture from which they spring. I guess we musicians should have perceived something in that.
Why would have anyone have thought to about doing this? Someone did and they knew or strongly suspected what would happen. We, of course, expected it to be, at best, symbolic of the desired event, the re-birthing of the world.
“Music can name the unnamable and communicate with the unknowable”
– Leonard Bernstein –
Some claimed that the names of God and the natural notes in the manuscript were the same. Thus to sound a note was to sound a name of God. Perhaps it was so. The trick was in the scale, the notes were those of the twelve octaves of the Chord of Harmony, the complete name of The Maker. If they were sounded all together, The Maker of All would be summoned to begin the World again in harmony!
The starting note turned out to be C at 2100 cm (16.35 Hz). 2100 cm is also 100 times the frequency of the microwave remnant of the Big Bang although no one realized this then and I doubt that we would have thought it relevant at the time. I am not sure if it is relevant now but I am grasping for anything that should have warned us.
This led us to think for a while that we had an equal tempered scale which was quite modern and led some to believe this was a hoax. It was neither. One of my interrogators said that he had heard that there was no sense in it, so why did it work? Even in the circumstances, I had to laugh. There were no cents in it. It was a natural scale, the mathematically correct scale. Not a tempered scale created by man for the delicate ear of man but the true scale, a just scale, the primal sounds of the universe itself, something, that only the physicists and perhaps a few musicians, would understand.
The scale, when we finally deciphered it, was a straightforward just scale of twelve octaves, seven notes each, eighty-four major notes.
Essentially, it was the universal tuning within the range of human hearing. It wasn’t a tempered scale but that wasn’t going to matter to human ears, for every note was to be played simultaneously, each note on its own instrument. We also discovered we needed to play the next note, a final high C, called “The Clarion” in The Manuscript.
This made a total of eighty-five notes. Each octave was to be played the number of seconds of its number and containing all of the octaves played before. Then after twelve seconds of the twelfth octave The Clarion would sound for seven seconds, calling The Maker and sounding the call for universal harmony. Thus, in a mere eighty-five seconds, music would change the world.
The computer/music geeks were essential; they helped set up the stage, create and balance the sound, their computers and oscilloscopes saving time and bringing the physical event together. Without them it would have been trial and error for eternity. I think that is how it was supposed to be, eternity. I suppose the geeks could have easily done it alone but it seemed such a human thing that we wanted to make as many of the notes on real instruments as we could.
No one understood that great care should have been taken before playing the Eleventh Octave, for contained within it were also the notes of the Primal Discorde and the Name of The Destroyer. The Destroyer is not at an opposite “pole” to the Maker, as one might suspect, but is contained within it; as all things are. Being a natural part of The Maker, The Destroyer’s name is contained within the Maker’s. His “Name” was within the Eleventh Octave.
The Tenth Octave is called “Before the Destroyer” and the Eleventh is called “After he is Passed.” The Twelfth is, of course, “The Maker.” The Tenth and Eleventh Octaves must be played in correct sequence to the others but the Eleventh is dangerous to play.
“ Music – the one incorporeal entrance to the higher world which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.”
– Ludwig von Beethoven –
It was so simple. The convocation had been “arranged” in such a way that the three crucial notes were in the back row. Whom ever or whatever came behind those musicians; prevented them from sounding their notes in the Eleventh Octave. I saw two of them from the corner of my eye, bluish-white, pale and translucent with large dark eyes, they appeared, standing behind the two players to my left. They touched the back of the musicians’ heads as the baton came down. Those players did not play the note to which they were assigned, they just sat frozen in silence while the chord was sounded. I did not play my note either, for I too, was touched from behind. Moreover, at the ninth second of play, the conductor dropped the baton, ending the Octave. Two seconds too soon. His visage paled into blue, he became yet the fourth of the wraiths which had appeared on the stage. Many players reacted to seeing them before they vanished in the shocked silence. I think the one who was the conductor took The Manuscript.
It is very important to play ALL of the notes of the Eleventh Octave for the correct time. You see, if three notes are NOT played, the right three notes, The Primal Discorde is sounded, The Name of the Destroyer. That is what we played; we called Him. He has come and He will take our world.
Upon the playing of the seventy-four notes of the incomplete Eleventh Octave, when the sound had died away, there was a long moment of complete silence. I do not mean silence as quiet or the lack of noise one might her in the depths of the wild, but the lack of sound. Profoundly nothing! Pleasing in its way to the trained ear.
Then began a deep rumbling within the earth as if giants were awakening, and so they were! Many of the convocation, the dancers and the spectators died then and there as the ground shook, split and great gasps of steam and sulfur began to issue forth. Soon fiery magma began to boil forth from the fissures and spread across the landscape. The barbaric acts of self-preservation and shameful deeds I did to effect my escape and survival pale to insignificance beside what we had done. The world around Cheboygan turned into a volcanic hell and commenced to totally rebuild itself.
My captors tell me that no scientific explanation can be discovered. The effect is advancing away from Cheboygan at a rate that will take the entire surface of the world in what seems to calculate out to about 100 days. Those few who live to dance the 100th day will have ever less to stand upon. Furthermore, they say the astronomers tell them, with no discernable cause, it appears that the Sun is about to go Nova; an event thought to be impossible.
It was simple. The Eleventh Octave should have sounded seventy-seven consecutive notes but three were stolen. Further, we played for nine seconds not the eleven it should have been. Nine times seventy-four equals Six Hundred and sixty-six, the full name of the Destroyer. Some of us knew the Destroyer was a part of the Maker but no one had quite thought of it in this way. We all missed the true meaning of the NOT sign on the Address to the Eleventh Octave in the Convocation. We took it to say, “Don’t steal the Octave.” I think it said, “Don’t let the Octave be stolen!” Somehow, we were maneuvered into calling The Destroyer before we called The Maker.
That is what happened. I do not know why. I do not know who or what we served in doing it. The blue wraiths looked like an alien from a Sci-Fi movie or perhaps something from folklore. I think we were led to do something that man was not intended or expected to do. We played The Primal Discorde. There was a risk to attempt to call The Maker. You see, though The Name of The Destroyer was within the name of The Maker, it should never have been sounded alone.
While it is true that sound is a separate issue from electromagnetic vibration, there is some correspondence in nature, I have heard that the sun and therefore probably all stars each vibrate with a bell like tone unique to themselves. Perhaps this led to intuitive knowledge that gave rise to the concept of the ‘Music of the Spheres’. I am not a scientist, I am a musician and therefore only vaguely aware of these things. In any case whether or not we understand the relationship there is one, and someone or something knew and led us to interfere with a fundamental universal process for purposes which we did not understand.
One of the computer geeks called it I think, when the first earthquakes started he shouted, “Hey dudes, bummer, I think we just pushed the reset button!”
“To many pieces of music finish too long after the end”
– Igor Stravinsky –
(no signature)
ULTRA TOP SECRET: PRIORITY ONE
Commander, Emergency Military Command South (EMCS)
EMCS – End Transmission
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end: The Cheboygan Discorde