Danielou

For those who have enjoyed Alain Danielou's MUSIC AND THE POWER OF SOUND, I'd
recommend his autobiographical THE WAY TO THE LABYRINTH. He spent many years
in India - 1939-1955, something like that. He and his friend had the
most Hindu of the palaces along the Ganges in Benares, so the Indian
government would bring guests there to give them a flavor of authentic
India. So he tells the story, anyway.

There's a great musical story. He built some kind of instrument for
experimenting with alternative tuning systems, something like that. This was
in WW2. The British sent some secret agents over to investigate, they were
worried that the thing was a spy contraption of some kind.

Danielou wrote another book about music - it's not listed in the Inner
Traditions publication, but I saw the book in MIT's library. It was some kind
of examination of the social and political forces making it difficult for
traditional music and traditional non-tempered tuning systems to survive. For
example the introduction of the harmonium to India by the British screwed
things up. Sorry I forget the title of this book.

After Danielou returned to Europe he ran the UNESCO program of recording
traditional music from around the world. I remember seeing those LP's years
ago. Never bought any. Now I regret it! It would be great to see those
recordings made available again. Maybe if the US pays its dues? Of course
they'll probably require dissolution of UNESCO before they (we) pay.

The Labyrinth of the autobiography's title has to do with Marsilio Ficino's
Academy, a seed of the Renaissance. Danielou ended up living on the site of
Ficino's academy. Thomas Moore's THE PLANETS WITHIN: THE ASTROLOGICAL
PSYCHOLOGY OF MARSILIO FICINO has a chapter on Music of the Soul: The Well
Tempered Life. I think the folks on this mailing list would quickly set him
straight about his choice for a chapter title!

Rene Guenon was perhaps the greatest advocate of "traditional wisdom" in this
century. He doesn't seem to take a musical perspective, however.

Another curious advocate of traditional musical wisdom is Marco Pallis. His
PEAKS AND LAMAS is a delightful travelogue. He trapeses around the Himalayas,
perhaps this was in the 1950's, I'm not sure. But he & his buddies hauled
around their fiddles and put on concerts of old English music for the
villagers. What a scene! I have one LP, ENGLISH CONSORT OF VIOLS, on
Turnabout - the notes on the back are signed by Marco Pallis, I imagine he
also performs but it doesn't seem to say. Anyway I love to play the record
and imagine some high mountain village, all the families gathered to hear the
wild foreigners and their music.

Jim Kukula

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