Blessed Dhyana
for Guitar
Notes from the composer
Blessed Dhyana was composed from August to November 2002.
Dhyana is a Sanskrit word that refers to an altered state of consciousness resulting from the practice Raja Yoga. It is one of three states that make up what Patañjali, the yogi who compiled the Yoga Sutras in c. 500 BC, termed Samyama.1 Samyama literally means self-control, and is used to refer to the act of intense meditation. The three resulting states are Dharana (fixing the mind on a single thought or object), Dhyana (a uniting of the Subject and Object), and Samhadhi (lit. “Union with God”).
In actual practice, trying to fix ones mind one this single thought or object is very difficult. One finds that everything seems to be going along perfectly well, so well that one loses the awareness of concentrating. Suddenly one realizes that they have been distracted for some unknown period of time and have lost their concentration.
To represent this, I choose to work within a modified sonata form. The first theme is driving and propulsive. It represents the active process of focusing ones awareness in the act of meditation. The second theme is more lyrical and represents the passage into Dhyana as one loses one self in the process. There are also a series of musical interruptions that offset these two themes throughout the piece. The recapitulation reverses the order of the themes and the melody of the first theme is displaced from the bottom voice to the top voice.
[1] Patañjali. Yoga-Sutras III: 1-4
Performance History
Premiered August 22, 2003
Aris Lanaridis at VII International Guitar Congress Festival (Corfu, Greece).
March 13, 2004
Ben Cantu, guitar.
April 12, 2005
Jonathan Leathwood, guitar.
October 2010
George Bachman, guitar
Audio
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