Studio Hermetica – Celestial Gate

Please enjoy this meditation which has been composed for World Sound Healing Day, 2025. I based this piece on Russian composer Alexander Scriabin’s mystic chords and scales. As with some of my earlier pieces, I used the chord to create a tone cluster, and overlapped the scales to create a Shepard Tone effect. The piece is in ternary form, with three sections, each 3 minutes long. The first and last are the aforementioned Scriabin-based idea, which is quite eerie but on working with it, two things struck me: firstly, it reminded me of the line from C S Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, where Aslan is described as not being ‘safe’, but that ‘he is good’ – I think that these tones carry that sentiment; secondly, it made me think of how when one meditates, it can feel very strange letting go and moving to that higher place. Therefore, the middle section of this piece goes to a tranquil F major chord, with F pentatonic arpeggios rising up to evoke an air of peace, before the Scriabin idea returns to carry to you another, higher place. The piece was composed and realised using Musescore, LMMS and Ardour, with additional tones from a Yamaha Motif. The artwork, which is just the image I wanted of a Celestial Gate, taking you to a higher level, is from Vecteezy and is entitled Portal To Another World, created by Ahasanaraakter.