A unique eight-disc series of piano recordings, called The Seven Tones of Balance and Musical Ecology of The Mind, offers a musical-therapeutic treatment based on the musical wisdom of Pythagoras.

Daniel Levy is the composer and performer of this music, recorded on the Syntony label.
The heptachord lyre and the ancient Pythagorean instrument, the monochord, are here substituted by the piano, which is one of the best instruments for reproducing tonal expression and dynamic shading, whether produced by strings, percussion, tone or voice.

Q
I'd like to talk to you about the Seven Tones of Balance and I feel it is appropriate to refer to my own listening experience. I found that the highly evocative power of your music allows access to a kind of 'memory' that goes beyond the ages. I believe this experience is, to a certain extent, related to the archetype to which Pythagoras referred. What is this archetype and how does it affect the act of 'balancing' and then of healing?

A
Of all the experiences of the human being, sound is among the most familiar and compatible. It is intangible, yet concrete; it is as familiar as it is mysterious. In the case of the Seven Tones of Balance and the CD dedicated to the Musical Ecology of the Mind, it is the Tone that helps us to assimilate the beneficial effects of Pythagoras' Musical-Therapeutical treatment. Tone is a specific quality inherent in the space of the music that the human hearing perceives as sound and which the mind, which has developed according to a specific culture, immediately recognises as music. The Tone is a series of sounds that conveys meaning to the listener's consciousness; it has been loaded with information from the source of the Sound in the musical space. While a single note has a meaning only if it relates to another note, the tone contains bio-psychical states, specific qualities and character. It is a living organism in an ocean of organisms. The human being, by listening (and depending on his or her level of attention, intention and conscious participation) is placed in a close relationship with this organism, which is a living entity, a sonorous being, able to lead him or her towards increased awareness, and from there to balance. The levels become gradually more elevated, dissolving all the anomalies that the psyche has produced in the human organism, thanks to the stimuli that constantly target the mind. Balance is produced because something disappears and something else appears; by emptying and filling; by diminishing the excess and by giving abundance to what is lacking. The archetype, then, lies in the Tone. The listener comes into this natural space and takes what he or she needs; the tone then acts as a spring from which all the hearing, diffused throughout the whole organism, drinks. Healing begins by clearing the fog and all of the psychical dust gathered over time and allows a meeting to take place between ourselves and the life of primeval sound that forms us.

Q
The sound and music consciously addressed by the music-therapist can, without a doubt, resolve the emotional and mental blocks that cause physical disease. How does this process happen? What is the relationship between sound vibrations and the psycho-physical structure?

A
In my experience, the musician/therapist does not try to address sounds. In accordance with profound, modern Pythagoric wisdom, Sound is intelligent; it knows where it has to go, what it has to fill, which aspects to soothe, which crystals to dissolve and where to establish its effect. This process is one of absolute sincerity of purpose, ensuring that one's own experience does not become an obstacle to the unequivocal intelligence of sound. Because of our culture, we are in the habit of regarding sound as a vibration of air that can, at most, produce something of beauty. This narrow concept is a long way from the idea of treating an intelligent essence with one's own intelligent energies, but without any kind of manipulation or interference.
As far as the relationship between sound's vibration and the psycho-physical structure is concerned, I can say that every civilisation has always recognised a relationship between the two. Add to this the fact that water is an excellent conductor of sound (the sound waves are longer and run 4.5 times faster through water); that the human body is about 66% water and the brain 80% water, then we can see how well our organism can relate to sound vibration and respond to its stimuli.

Q
The resonances of the piano captured in the recordings of the Seven Tones of Balance have a specific role in balancing the listener's psycho-physical energies. By listening actively, one can perceive the aura being ‘massaged’. What are the harmonics of sound? Why is it that most of the therapeutical capacity lies in these?

A
Listening to the Seven Tones increases the potency of the listener’s psycho-physical energies in the same amount as the listener's 'string' is able to be vibrated. I'd better explain that. It is not a matter of effort or concentration but more a disposition towards avoiding interference with the flow or current. However, even if the Seven Tones is used as background music, it produces, by the same principles, a change in atmosphere wherever it is played. This change penetrates ever-increasing spaces. The four Tones related to lack of vitality, depression, fear and anxiety/irritability can neutralise and balance these states, thanks to the action of the harmonics. Additionally, mathematical aspects aside, it is a fact that when a string vibrates at 256 Hz, we refer to it as C and we hear what we think of as a single sound. But while we are listening to this sound, many other notes are sounding at the same time. These are the harmonics and they contribute to the global colour of the sound and to the specific timbre of the musical instrument.
What is interesting is that most of the energy of the sound is concentrated in this part of the spectrum. For this reason, the therapeutical properties of the music are in the harmonic space.

Q
The music you have composed is based on Pythagorean aesthetic rules that are within our comprehension. I feel many people would like to know which musical scales your compositions are based on. For that matter, what is a musical scale? When we talk about the essence of a musical scale, are we coming back to the archetypes?

A
The musical scales are the holders or containers of emotions, non-verbal thought and intuition. Without the musician, the scale is an empty container. The musician/therapist tries to penetrate the content of musical intervals. The scales are like the genetic codes of Music. There is a 'biomusic' that creates worlds, a reality that is scientific, artistic and therapeutic at the same time. If something were not true, beautiful and good at the same time, it would not be valid.

Q
Can you tell us something about the effects of the music most commonly listened to today, especially by young people in night-clubs and so on? That deafening volume...

A
This is a vast subject. It isn't volume alone that has the greatest effect, but the content of the music, which touches only low, instinctive areas. If we only had this type of music, it would be as if we were living on the lowest planes of human existence. But there is something other than this ‘basement’, especially in young people. It would be interesting to take them to the higher levels of their own 'home', through the Music and its wisdom.

Q
One of the Syntony CDs is called Musical Ecology of the Mind. This title allows one to consider the power of the ecology of the music and the need to diffuse a music that is largely beneficial, music with an ability to counterbalance the huge amount of musical information present in the ether. What is happening in this environment, the air which surrounds us? Although we are not aware of it, how is it affecting us?

A
This is addressed to the mind. The mind is a place of transit for impulses moving from the inside to the outside, and vice versa. The channels are often not filtered, confusion dominates and the ability to discriminate diminishes when millions of stimuli are intruding on the only space where the action originates. The Sound is infectious. Noise pollution is the result, just as thoughts and feelings vibrate at various speeds in the air. We can absorb many germs by hearing and accepting what we hear. The music of Musical Ecology of the Mind is addressed to those who want to be suitable receivers of positive energy and the affirmation of human values, starting from their own psychic base. The Music creates antibodies and an immunity to that which deforms and devitalises.

Q
How can we increase, or better still, refine our own level of listening? In other words, how can we achieve more profound levels of listening?

A
By encouraging ourselves to gain more and more meaning from silence. All forms of ‘deafness’ caused by high volume and noise pollution have made noise synonymous with life and silence synonymous with death.
There is a cacophony and a euphony inside all of us. We need to regain possession of the latter. Silence and listening are the systole and diastole of the heart.

Q
Is it true to say that, in the Seven Tones of Balance, there are various keys of listening depending on the listener's need and sensitivity?

A
Yes. The most important thing is to let the Tone act with confidence. One should not 'believe' or 'think' but we should be confident about the reality of the state of Balance that the music can offer, without asking for anything.

Q
According to Pythagorean Life by lamblichus, Pythagoras used to create musical treatments and adaptations for his disciples; using these treatments, he was usually able to change or reverse irrational and unwanted emotions such as grief, fear, obsession, over-excitability and depression. What qualities does a musician need in order to produce real, profoundly therapeutic music? Is it possible to learn this healing art?

A
Syntony is based on the principle of resonance. The musician/therapist has to learn to resonate sympathetically in order to sense what is needed. This method of healing has been created not from the therapist's knowledge, but from understanding and true compassion without superiority. MUSIC IS a gift. Its source is from time immemorial and it is irrevocably interwoven with global health. Musical therapy is not a modern invention - it is truly ancient. Yet it is of our time. It is inevitable today that we should be rediscovering and diffusing the values and the extensive research and experience that Pythagoras showed us the path to. In a unique and unexpected way, Music can assist with the search for a global state of health that is so intense today.


Positive Health Magazine, UK.