Ron Benvenisti

Jammin' With The Torah!
Torah & Tanach Generated Music:

Tehillim (Psalms)
Verse 1 "Ashre Ha'Ish"
(Jazzy/Pop - voices are digital - not Kol Isha)

Eicha (Lamentations)
Verse 1 (Classical Piano and Strings)

Eicha (Lamentations)
Verse 1 (Yeshivish Freilach! - The Ninth of Av WILL become a festival!)

Az Yashir (Song of the Sea) Shemot Beshallach (Exodus Chap.15, V.1)
(Orchestra & Harp)

The Harmony of the Ten Spheres
Moses Trumps Pythagoras by a Millennium

Perceiving “the harmony of the spheres.
The Hellenes attributed this faculty to
Pythagoras. Ancient Arabic tradition
conferred this honor also upon Moses.”

Alfred Sendrey, Music in Ancient Israel

The 10 vertical Sephirot on one of the
Tablets of the Law and their
10 or 15 Horizontals
Reprinted from Archives for Mosaical Metrology and Mosaistics (AMMM) vol. 2, no. 4 (1997) p. 22
by courtesy of BAALSCHEM PRESS Verlag,
Bahnhofstr. 19, D-35745 Herborn 1,
GERMANY. Thanks to Ed Metzler.
Special Thanks also to Stan & Levanah Tenen and to my wife Doris who brought their pioneering work to my attention.

What Bach could have taught Spinoza about Judaism...

By Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

Coltrane and Kabbalah?

"I had a doctorate disertation that detailed Trane's use of the text of his Love Supreme poem as a structural compositional framework of the entire suite. Trane did study Cabballah so we know that he was aware of the mystisism of letters and numbers(which we call notes instead of rates). There is a direct link in that system between numbers and letters, in fact they are the same thing. The letters are notes that make up melodies or words. By singing the melodies in the correct way you gain direct experience of that name, power or function. If we assume that he was at least partially aware of this system then we can easily see how he was thinking when he applied this same concept to his own compositions. The disertation went into how many repetitions Trane used for different phrases, what that symbolism of those numbers was, and how they were linked to the peom that was revealed to him by a superhuman entity (at least not his rational concious mind). Trane said that he recieved the entire record as a complete composition all in a single flash of inspiration."

*The classical Hebrew lyre was a rectangle, which had 10 strings according to Josephus Flavius, just like the Ten Commandments were written on the Tablets of the Law in 10 vertical columns, known as the 10 Sephirot or spheres. The Hebrew name for a lyre is Kinnor, which was early personified in Greek mythology as Cinyras.

For writing purposes, there were 15 horizontal lines on every tablet, resulting in 150 squares of one tenth of a cubit each. Their musical relevance was first suggested to me by the musical note b, which is a semitone below c and generally defined as 8/15, while the c above it is half the string or 7.5/15. If 15 is the common denominator of the frequency ratios, we immediately get the upper tetratchord of the Octave, namely a = 9/15 = 3/5 and g = 10/15 = 2/3.

Since the division of the Octave (c : c' = 1/2) into any number (= n) of equal intervals is the n-th root of 1/2, and hence an irrational number, the main problem in designing our musical scale by Moses in 1441 B. C. E. was mathematical. The solution was found by mathematical interpolation from a good approximation for the middle of the Octave, and by subdividing each half-octave into three tones or six semitones, thus supplying the precise frequency ratios of our diatonic scale.

Of course, all this was calculable 3 1/2 thousand years ago, for (7/10)² = 49/100 and 50/100 = 1/2, so that the middle of the Octave is close to 7/10, and each half is easily divided into 3/10 and 3/15. This explains the relevance of Mosaical matrixes, namely of tenths and fifteenths for music. While the horizontal division into fifteenths is used for the upper tetrachord, as explained above, the lower tetrachord makes use of the division of each of the Tablets of the Law into 60 Manah weight-stones by 6 vertical and 10 horizontal lines (see the first three adjoining diagrams).

The precision of this method is beyond what the human ear can hear, and what the human voice or musical instruments can produce. The frequency ratios obtained by interpolation bring about an aberration of plus/minus 1 percent or less from the even-tempered standard, as elaborated on the first adjoining chart. Of the frequency ratios, all are less than 1/8-tone off the even-tempered standard, 5 less than 1/16-tone, and 2 less than 1/32-tone, if compared with the values on the second adjoining chart. Already the quartertone between two semitones is hardly appreciated.

Reprinted from Archives for Mosaical Metrology and Mosaistics (AMMM) vol. 2, no. 3 (1995) p. 30 by courtesy of BAALSCHEM PRESS Verlag,
Bahnhofstr. 19, D-35745 Herborn 1,
GERMANY.

Ron Benvenisti's SOUNDASSETS Music Bio E-mail Ron In memory of my beloved teachers: Tony Aless Elmer Bernstein Jan Gorbaty Your sweet memories and profound legacies are an enduring gift. Thank you.	Piano & Keyboards Music Production Composing & Arranging Sound Design & Programming Digital Recording Editing Mixing & Mastering Artist Development Music Education Music Enablement for Persons of Diverse Needs	Take the "Jewish Music Math Test" Jammin' With The Torah! Torah & Tanach Generated Music: Tehillim (Psalms) Verse 1 "Ashre Ha'Ish" (Jazzy/Pop - voices are digital - not Kol Isha) Eicha (Lamentations) Verse 1 (Classical Piano and Strings) Eicha (Lamentations) Verse 1 (Jazz Quartet with Guitar) Eicha (Lamentations) Verse 1 (Yeshivish Freilach! - The Ninth of Av WILL become a festival!) Az Yashir (Song of the Sea) Shemot Beshallach (Exodus Chap.15, V.1) (Orchestra & Harp) Bereishit (Genesis Chap. 1) (Orchestra) More to come, G-d willing. Ocean County Gazette Article The Harmony of the Ten Spheres Moses Trumps Pythagoras by a Millennium Perceiving “the harmony of the spheres. The Hellenes attributed this faculty to Pythagoras. Ancient Arabic tradition conferred this honor also upon Moses.” Alfred Sendrey, Music in Ancient Israel The 10 vertical Sephirot on one of the Tablets of the Law and their 10 or 15 Horizontals Reprinted from Archives for Mosaical Metrology and Mosaistics (AMMM) vol. 2, no. 4 (1997) p. 22 by courtesy of BAALSCHEM PRESS Verlag, Bahnhofstr. 19, D-35745 Herborn 1, GERMANY. Thanks to Ed Metzler. Special Thanks also to Stan & Levanah Tenen and to my wife Doris who brought their pioneering work to my attention. What Bach could have taught Spinoza about Judaism... By Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo Coltrane and Kabbalah? "I had a doctorate disertation that detailed Trane's use of the text of his Love Supreme poem as a structural compositional framework of the entire suite. Trane did study Cabballah so we know that he was aware of the mystisism of letters and numbers(which we call notes instead of rates). There is a direct link in that system between numbers and letters, in fact they are the same thing. The letters are notes that make up melodies or words. By singing the melodies in the correct way you gain direct experience of that name, power or function. If we assume that he was at least partially aware of this system then we can easily see how he was thinking when he applied this same concept to his own compositions. The disertation went into how many repetitions Trane used for different phrases, what that symbolism of those numbers was, and how they were linked to the peom that was revealed to him by a superhuman entity (at least not his rational concious mind). Trane said that he recieved the entire record as a complete composition all in a single flash of inspiration." David Valdez Ron was given a copy of "Harmonizing The Jewish Modes", by Isidore Freed, published in 1958, which belonged to John Coltrane. Ron & Maestro Wilbur Wittemann perform Ron's Afro-Latin Arrangement of "Shir HaMa'alot" (Psalm 126) at the "Access Art" Presentation at the Historic Strand Theater in Lakewood: "Breaking Down Cultural Barriers Through Music" The classical Hebrew lyre was a rectangle, which had 10 strings according to Josephus Flavius, just like the Ten Commandments were written on the Tablets of the Law in 10 vertical columns, known as the 10 Sephirot or spheres. The Hebrew name for a lyre is Kinnor, which was early personified in Greek mythology as Cinyras. For writing purposes, there were 15 horizontal lines on every tablet, resulting in 150 squares of one tenth of a cubit each. Their musical relevance was first suggested to me by the musical note b, which is a semitone below c and generally defined as 8/15, while the c above it is half the string or 7.5/15. If 15 is the common denominator of the frequency ratios, we immediately get the upper tetratchord of the Octave, namely a = 9/15 = 3/5 and g = 10/15 = 2/3. Since the division of the Octave (c : c' = 1/2) into any number (= n) of equal intervals is the n-th root of 1/2, and hence an irrational number, the main problem in designing our musical scale by Moses* in 1441 B. C. E. was mathematical. The solution was found by mathematical interpolation from a good approximation for the middle of the Octave, and by subdividing each half-octave into three tones or six semitones, thus supplying the precise frequency ratios of our diatonic scale. Of course, all this was calculable 3 1/2 thousand years ago, for (7/10)² = 49/100 and 50/100 = 1/2, so that the middle of the Octave is close to 7/10, and each half is easily divided into 3/10 and 3/15. This explains the relevance of Mosaical matrixes, namely of tenths and fifteenths for music. While the horizontal division into fifteenths is used for the upper tetrachord, as explained above, the lower tetrachord makes use of the division of each of the Tablets of the Law into 60 Manah weight-stones by 6 vertical and 10 horizontal lines (see the first three adjoining diagrams). The precision of this method is beyond what the human ear can hear, and what the human voice or musical instruments can produce. The frequency ratios obtained by interpolation bring about an aberration of plus/minus 1 percent or less from the even-tempered standard, as elaborated on the first adjoining chart. Of the frequency ratios, all are less than 1/8-tone off the even-tempered standard, 5 less than 1/16-tone, and 2 less than 1/32-tone, if compared with the values on the second adjoining chart. Already the quartertone between two semitones is hardly appreciated. Reprinted from Archives for Mosaical Metrology and Mosaistics (AMMM) vol. 2, no. 3 (1995) p. 30 by courtesy of BAALSCHEM PRESS Verlag, Bahnhofstr. 19, D-35745 Herborn 1, GERMANY.	ä"á
Hear Ron Live: Shir HaMa'alos Salsa Achas Shoalti Jazz Piano Trio A Foggy Day In Lakewood Town Autumn Leaves Exodus Blast From The Past: Skverer Nigun (Totally Original Electronica from 1985) High Fives (Based on Circle of Fifths from 1976) Unreleased: Yaron Gershovsky & Ron Achas Shoalti (Tzvi) HaKa'el (Tzvi) (original mixes prior to distributor's mix) Activate It! The Legendary Rock B'Simcha @ Mekor: WARNING: HARD ROCK Yosi Be Good (Yosi P.) Jumpin' Jack Flash (Goin' to Shul) Born To Be Frum The Lakewood Jazz Ensemble Exodus Big Band Score Naomi Shemer's Eucalyptus (Big Band Arrangement in progress) A Simple Jew Teivath Noach Blog in Dm LazerBeams (Rabbi Rambo) Meru Foundation Reuben Hoch Chassidic Jazz Project In memory of my beloved teachers: Tony Aless Elmer Bernstein Jan Gorbaty Each of your sweet memories and profound legacies is an enduring gift. Thank you. Zaidy Avi at Nachum Segal ZaidyAvi at MostlyMusic Hear Samples Tzvi: "Aneinu Hashem" at Mostly Music Zaidy Avi Samples: Sharing Shabbos Kosher Kol Yisrael Jewish Child Two By Two Ivdu Hi There Brochos B'Shem	Torah & Tanach Generated Music The Amazing Songs of the Dolphins: An astounding pattern of melodic modes which are unique to each dolphin and are equivalent to musical notes and chords has recently been discovered by Speak Dolphin Research. These dolphin "songs" are beautiful, yet, so complex that the human ear cannot decipher them without the aid of technology. To help the human ear make sense of these complex dolphin sounds, musicians play these musical patterns or "dolphin songs", which are available on the Dolphin Code CD. Remembering Reb Shlomo Carlebach: November 3, 2009 is 15th the anniversary of the passing of HaRav Shlomo Carlebach. Here is the English translation of the touching words said by HaRav Yisrael Meir Lau, Shlita, at the funeral of this unique siritual and musical soul. BMG Mashgiach on "Kosher" Music Rav Matisyahu Solomon Speaks Out "Even coarse secular music... can be used to grow spiritually." How to Know if a Song is Rooted in Kedushah: Rav Brazil What Bach Taught Spinoza About Judaism Music Teaches Why Halacha Trumps Philosophy 'The Midnight Rabbi' Helps Struggling Yeshiva Students With Music He's part social worker, part rocker, and all rabbi Lakewood Music Program Lakewood Music Program Survey Results Why should my child learn to play an instrument? “Because there are so few things in life that give a child an opportunity to see the connection between effort and success. This is the goal of all education, and music teaches it best.” Richard Kanter, Chicago Symphony Orchestra TCO Agenda The Power of Music - Candie's Story Torah & Tanach Generated Music Over the last two decades I have worked on a very personal project of interpreting the Hebrew Alphabet according to the tones of various musical scales (according to Jewish Mystical tradition - learn more from Rabbi M. Glazerson ). Most of my efforts, like the work of others, have yielded particularly"non-musical" results, or at least a music that was not familiar at all without a significant amount of "explanation". I don't believe that music needs to be "explained". It should simply be heard and experienced. It is my firm conviction that this harshness was caused by the inherent limitation of interpreting the 22 letters of the Aleph-Beit into the limitations of the 7 notes in the diatonic scale as was the mystical tradition. Until now! Recently I employed a novel method to include the 5 Sofit letters which have never been considered by tradition. Perhaps this is not a surprise as these 5 letters have significance for our current time, just before the revelation of Mashiach. Applying the 5 Sofit letters allows the full application of the entire standardized 12 tone chromatic system. This scale (as derived from the mathematical and musical frequencies of the Luchot - The Tablets of The Ten Commandments given to Moses (see diagram on the right). Instead of only 22 letters (according to tradition), I have now mapped all 27 letters of the full Alef-Bet to obtain the more complete and accepted 12 tone chromatic scale, and therefore inclusive of all musical scalar and harmonic subsets, particularly the major and minor modes, the traditional scales of nigunim and Jewish liturgy become accessible to the mystical application of the Aleph-Bet to yield familiar and new music which makes sense to our ears for the first time in history! The pentatonic scale formed by the Sofit letters join the diatonic scale of the basic Alef-Bet to yield the complete chromatic system that encompasses and includes the music of all cultures. Taking verses, in the original Hebrew alphabet, from Torah and Tanach thus yields musical results which are more in "tune" with the fundamental laws of musical physics, (as indicated by the mathematical application of the measurements of the Tablets of Moses, based on the Talmudic interpretation). For the first time in history, the full spectrum of chromatic harmony is available to the Kabbalistic interpretation while still being faithful to that tradition. The discovery of this method is significant. By extending the harmonic range from the 7 note diatonic domain to the full 12 note spectrum of chromatic harmony, the musical results are not only more sophisticated according to harmonic theory and physics but more "listenable" without any explanations necessary or limitations. The melodies are truly musical, pleasing and identifiable, the harmonic relationships are subtle, more complex and interesting to the ear and the emerging melodic motifs are theoretically logical and most significantly - pleasing to the ear. Quite honestly, I am stunned, not surprised, but pleasantly awe-struck! I have now "re-mapped" some familiar verses with this new method putting together sketches in various settings by quickly assigning basic arranging context in terms of tempo, style and various instrumentations. Examples are in the MP3 links above right. I am very excited about this and with G-d's help plan to continue this work and refine the musical settings and arrangements of these and additional verses. This music is extracted directly from the the text! Whoever has heard them agrees that the results are simply astounding, particularly the musical quality and the ability of the verses to "adapt" to various musical styles from liturgical to classical to jazz, rock and pop! It is with great humility and gratitude to the L-rd for allowing me to continue my work in this otherwise arcane arena of Kabbalistic Science and share this profound musical discovery and place it squarely in the mainstream of contemporary music. My special gratitude to the continuing research of Stan Tenen of the Meru Foundation; Dr. Edward Metzler, J.D. founder of the Archives for Mosaical Metrology and Mosaistics; Maestro Wilbur Witteman, Lakewood's 30 year plus music ambassador, Lakewood Jazz Ensemble, Georgian Court University, Lakewood High School Music Chairman, Lakewood Citizen of the Year. I hope you will be inspired with the magnificent sense of awe and joy that I feel as you sit back and listen to the beauty and pertinence of Torah and Tanach as has never been heard or revealed in this manner until now. "There are many paths for music to touch the soul, it's not the music per se (which at it's source is a holy creation for sure) but the musician's respect for its divine origin and awareness of its power and impact." - Ron Benvenisti, BA The Cooper Union, Graduate Jewish Studies Yeshivah University, AFM Local 802 Scholarship CUNY Master of Music Program, National Institute of Science and Technology, National Endowment of the Arts and NYS Council on the Arts Fellow and Speakers Bureau. © 2006-2009 Ron Benvenisti - All Rights Reserved Torah and Tanach Music Production is Patent Pending Check out BlueCoat's FREE K9 for a safe and clean (Kosher) Internet experience.
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