The Heavenly Musical Scales

With great Siyato Dishmayo, I am happy to announce that Yossi Tyberg and I are hard at work and B”H making progress in the creation of our next musical project, which we will hopefully name “The 10th Note.”

And just to refresh some of the memories of our first album in this series which was named The 8th Note, we are releasing a new and novel Lyric Video clip of the title song of that album. Here are a some thoughts and a short description of what was the inspiration behind the song.

The 8th Note

Chazal describe the musical instrument called the כינור “kinor” as a handheld, harp-like instrument used in the Bais Hamikdosh by the לויים Leviim to accompany their שירה Shira service and consisting of seven strings of different lengths. We believe that these seven strings were tuned to the identical seven steps of the musical scale which exists today. These seven strings and notes are then repeated again and again, proceeding from left-to-right, beginning at the lowest limits of human hearing and rising in pitch, ever higher until they reach the limits of what can be heard by the human ear, comfortably. The piano is a good visual example of this phenomenon, as it proceeds from the extreme left and almost indistinguishable lowest pitched notes, all the way to the upper right and once again, almost indistinct highest pitched notes. These seven notes comprise all of the music ever written in every single composition from the beginning of music up until the advent of Moshiach.

Chazal further tell us that when Mashiach arrives במהרה בימינו, this instrument will appear with an additional string, bringing the total number of strings from seven (7) to eight (8). This new Eighth note is alluded to in Sefer Tehillim where Dovid Hamelech writes about the שמינית – an Eight-Stringed Instrument.
Taking into account the limits of our understanding, this means that the Musical Scale now comprising seven steps will then contain an eighth step, or as we call it, The 8th Note. It is impossible to imagine today what this Heavenly Upgrade will do to the enhancement of our Musical Experience! This Eighth string will be tuned to a transcendental note, producing a sound nonexistent at this time.

Many attempts have been made in our times to try and access this “Eighth” note or sound, but all to no avail. As the eighth note of our scale at this time is not a new sound, but in fact, a repeat of the first note in a higher, or what is known as the next, octave… A..B..C..D..E..F..G…..A. What is incredibly interesting is that, Classical Composers of the past century have never ceased in their attempts to “break out” of this seven-note scale and somehow try and access something “beyond” what had been available heretofore. And though they may have succeeded in creating some music that sounds somewhat quite different than the classical music that came before them, they still could not add a single new note to the existing seven-note scale. It is almost as if there is an expectation in the Music World of a long-awaited, coming-soon, major musical “break out” on the horizon.

The lyrics in the title song of the album are based on a theory that this “Eighth Note” is not in fact a new additional step on the musical scale, but instead, a kind of all-encompassing, “source” note that consists of and gives rise to, the current seven notes blended together in perfect harmonic proportion. The example cited in the song is the pure white light that is diffused by a prism into the colors of the rainbow. Somehow all those colors are present in the White Light before they diffuse and yet when blended together in the proper proportions will produce a purity of white light. Similarly, the sounding of this Eighth Note will result in an exquisite sound representing all of music united into One Note.

A perfect unity of all people represented by a perfect unity of all song and music, soaring in praise of the One Above together with משיח צדקנו!
May this day come soon in our time.
במהרה בימינו אמן

Credits:
Composed by: Yossi Green
Original Hebrew Lyrics by: Oren Ne’ema
Guest Appearance: A.K.A Pella
Arranged by: Momy Levy
Off The Album: The 8th Note
Lyrical Video by: Yossi Zweig – Intelligent Noise LLC