Buddhatone is primarily a musical meditation. Technically it’s a text based process composition, wherein form and treatment – but not the material – are given in the score.
It can be performed by any number of players and with any kinds of sounding sources, as long as it is possible to follow the instructions.

The composition comes in two parts. The first one is an individual, introverted part; the second an extroverted part, divided from each other by the dot in the score.

In the first section the player should find a sound, completely independent of his surroundings, making this sound a part of himself. The musician must concentrate completely on this sound, feeling that it really comes from within. If it doesn’t feel right the player can quit his sound abruptly and restart.
The sound should grow forth and can change over time with the musician.

The definition of “sound” [Swedish: klang] is a persistent audibility of any kind. A rhythmic repetition is also a sound, which enables elongated sounds with sources that by nature are not producing long rings.
Elongation is no end in itself, so one should not utilize, for example, circular breathing, if that is not the sound one actually wants to achieve. Chords are sounds, and it’s all right to shift between two tones or sounds. However, a melody is not a sound. Two tones are all right, but more than two constitute a melody. If one repeats a rhythm, one should try to vary the rhythm, play irregularly and avoid stereotyped or exaggerated patterns. It’s ok to take a break now and then in the sound when one feels that it can live on inside, even if one isn’t playing.
The important thing is that the sound [klang] comes from within, that it is a Buddha tone.

It is an individual decision to begin the second part of Buddhatone. The transition should not be synchronized or preconceived. Each musician decides when time is ripe.
When one has passed the dot in the score and begun the second section one cannot go back and restart the first part, before the dot.
In the second part the player should open his ears, find a sound in his surroundings and slowly transform his own sound so that it dissipates into the other sound and becomes a part of it. This can be done several times, until only one sound remains.
The piece is finished when the sounds have left all the players. There is no reason to stop playing because others have. The ending is fully individual. Therefore the duration of the piece is also individual.

If you play Buddhatone by yourself, you should use sounds from your environment in the second part.

It is advantageous to play Buddhatone in a somewhat subdued light. If there is an audience, the people should have the chance to read the score before the performance.

Buddhatone was written within the framework of the Great Learning Orchestra A4 project.

Buddathone is dedicated to The Great Learning Orchestra.

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