The Sound of the Eternal
The Sound of the Eternal
Jeffrey Somers
The Inner Core of Music
2021 | 158pp pb | ISBN: 978-1-914002-15-1
These days we are bombarded with sound, and much of it is background music. It seems impossible to avoid it. Just try to find a restaurant anywhere between Land’s End and John o’Groats where you may eat to nothing more undefiled than the sound of munching. It should not be too difficult to accept that we have been sound desensitised.
This book aims to ignite an interest in ancient musical traditions through raising awareness of a number of masterworks on music and to demystify musical traditions and encourage people to overcome their fear of “alien” music. Perhaps in overcoming this fear of previously unknown musical traditions, some cultural barriers to mutual understanding may be removed.
Jeffrey Somers (M.A. F.R.A.S.) was born in London in 1936. He developed a life-long passion for music at a very young age through the discovery of Gustav Holst’s work. As a young man he travelled extensively in Europe and the Middle East searching for secular and religious musical traditions and spent 15 consecutive summers in southern Spain learning Flamenco guitar. He and his Japanese wife, Nobuko (who is trained in Shigin, a traditional Japanese singing tradition), spent many years collecting rare traditional music on their travels.