Golgotha to Rozabal - Symphonic poem

Opus 12 — Timing: 22:11
for orchestra with 4-part choir & organ pedal

Short choral / orchestral work extracted from the symphonic poem:

Listen on YouTube…

A refreshing different view of the life and death of 'Jesus'…

This symphonic poem derives from an early study (1978) that I had entitled Fantasia on a Motif of Ralph Vaughan Williams. The motif in question is the descending three-note one — a semitone followed by a minor third — that dominates the dramatic opening of Vaughan Williams' 6th Symphony and in fact crops up in many of his works. It is also a motif that belongs in some of my music (witness my 4th Symphony) because of the similarity of some of the modes I employ.

Golgotha was the site of the crucifixion of the 'great spiritual teacher'* who subsequently became known as Jesus, Issa and various other names, and Rozabal is the name of the building that today houses what according to many people now is the tomb of the historical 'Jesus', in Srinagar (Kashmir). According to their line of research, Jesus was known as Yusu (Yuz) Asaph in the Far East during his long life after recovery from the crucifixion (NOT resurrection, for the crucifixion quite badly injured him but didn't kill him, and a properly functioning — i.e., genuinely intelligent — person would understand that resurrection is a simple impossibility!).

* I put this in quotes, because when you truly understand what was and is really going on you wouldn't use the word 'great' for anyone doing that sort of thing, even though such individuals have undoubtedly been powerful and charismatic personalities in their particular ways. To understand more about the extremely troublesome source of 'spirituality', which guides these so-called 'spiritual teachers', please see Exit 'spirituality' — Enter clear-mindedness.

This work was composed in 1996, and it wasn't till 2007 that I began in earnest to understand that 'spirituality' itself is a seriously troublesome sidetrack given to us by the garbage in order to keep us away from genuine self-actualization (which latter would get us free from garbage interference and influence), and into the control and indeed captivity of the garbage.

'Jesus', like any supposedly genuine 'spiritual teacher', was thus — no doubt completely unawarely — operating as an instrument or agent of the garbage, notwithstanding all his good intentions. It's necessary therefore to understand that I composed this work in ignorance of the real situation, and thus in order not to be led further astray by any apparent religious or 'spirituality' message in this work it's necessary for the listener to let go of all 'spirituality' subtext and regard the subject of this work as being a legend, which reflects in a generalized sort of way something of the human condition in people's underlying ongoing struggle to become free of garbage interference and control.

I don't claim any 'moral high ground' in what I say about Jesus and other 'spiritual teachers', particularly because I myself got misdirected into operating as one for a few years, and that was an important learning experience for me, enabling me to have an 'inside view' of what was really going on — given my exceptional mental clarity and focus, which enabled and motivated me to hold all my experiences / observations up to proper scrutiny.

Please think of Golgotha to Rozabal, therefore, as NOT making a religious or 'spiritual' statement of 'faith' or 'truth' (which could only be about belief and illusory realities — not about the 'reality' of 'What Is'), but as being akin to one of Sibelius' great symphonic poems based on Nordic legends (though of course my work sounds very different!).

In this music the exotic melismatic melodies suggestive of transcendent wisdom quickly become wreathed in fear and menace, and eventually all hell breaks out, yet in this context the simple uprightness of he who is open to the truth beyond belief (i.e., the truth of 'What Is' — not the 'visionary' and 'spiritual' experiences with which the garbage would seek to ply us) stands out with an agonizing poignancy.

After a passage that could well reflect Jesus' recovery from the crucifixion injuries, we hear the exotic melodies that opened the work, but some of them, now at double speed, are more like colourful birdsong, suggestive of the later part of his life in the Far East.

Finally in an ethereal other-worldly octatonic fugal section a four-part choir sings briefly of the death of Jesus — that is, his natural death* at an old age in Kashmir. It draws to a climax on the words: Stretched he then his legs t'wards the west and his head t'wards the east and passed away. This leads on to a receding processional coda with the final birdsong melismata and sections of the choir floating in the texture, repeating the phrases 'Yuzu passed away', 'his legs t'wards the west' and of course 'his head t'wards the east'.

* Again, it's important NOT to take the particular description of his death as a statement of precise historical fact. My use of the particular text is simply part of the legend that I represent in this musical work.

Although conceivably 'Jesus' / 'Yuzu Asaph' did know how to die in the most natural, dignified and peaceful manner possible, it's pretty unlikely that he would have ritually laid himself out pointing in a specific direction to die — though again perhaps his (actually garbage-sourced) beliefs might have caused him to do so. More likely, the description of his death given in the text that I use is just part of the legend that grew up about him after his death.

Anyway, to ritualize your life or your death in any way is to keep yourself under some measure of garbage control, and therefore that's nothing to be admired nor looked up to when you read of supposedly 'great' people doing such actually very silly (and, to put it mildly, extremely unhelpful) things.

In fact it was apparently pure coincidence that the 'baying' motif in the faster sections of the work, and certain rhythmic figures, seem to be declaiming Crucify him!. The truth (sic) is that I'd composed all that on a purely musical basis before I ever thought to drag poor old 'Jesus' into it! …But then again, the more aware person would comment But what is 'coincidence' anyway?.

Text used in the choral section

This is adapted from Shaikh-us-Sadiq, in Kamal-ud-Din, Sayyid-us-Sanad Press, Iran, 1881, as quoted in A Search for the Historical Jesus by Fida Hassnain.

At the approach of death, sent he for his disciple Babaad, and made he his last will.

Gave he also directions about carrying on his mission of peace.

Gave he directions about the sepulchre where he would breathe his last.

Stretched he then his legs towards the west and laid he his head towards the east, and breathed his last breath.

Stretched he his legs towards the west and his head towards the east.

He passed away.

Yuzu, he passed away,
His legs towards the west,
His head towards the east…

Postscript

This music work of mine aside, let's now consider for a moment the significance of the Golgotha to Rozabal scenario on a historical basis…

I would gently point out that over the centuries the Church has sought to suppress all accounts of the life of 'Jesus' that could be seen to contradict their own clearly partially fictional account, as given in the Bible — which fact straightaway informs anyone with even an ounce of down-to-earth common sense that the Biblical and any other religious doctrinal view on the subject must be at best seriously unreliable, and be more directly and frankly describable as harmfully dishonest distortions of the historical situation, if not complete fabrications.

Holger Kersten, in his book Jesus Lived in India and a few other titles, did a sterling job in seeking to put forward an alternative, rationally based version of the life of 'Jesus' that actually made sense (for a change!) and corresponded much better with potentially more reliable historical sources, and indeed showed how many weird and cryptic details in the Biblical accounts of the life of 'Jesus' actually made sense only if his (Kersten's) own attempted synthesis of the real historical situation were more or less correct — such as 'Jesus' surviving the crucifixion and living to an old age out in the East.

Kersten also held up to the light the real significance of the Turin Shroud as a vitally important piece of historical evidence, and carried out retrospective detective work that showed pretty clearly that right into current times the Roman Catholic Church, and particularly the Vatican, has sought by means foul rather than fair, to 'prove' that the Shroud isn't genuine and is of Medieval age.

So inconsistent of them, too, in still regarding the Shroud as some sort of holy relic!! Surely, that in itself gives their game away to a considerable extent!

In particular, Kersten demonstrated pretty conclusively that the supposed radiocarbon dating of the Shroud was a complete fraud staged by the Vatican, involving the paying of a hefty backhander to unscrupulous 'scientists' to carry out the 'dating', using samples that they'd allowed a Vatican official to 'switch' so that the result supposedly for the Turin Shroud was actually from a piece of somewhat similar-looking Medieval cloth instead. See The Jesus Conspiracy by Holger Kersten and Elmar Gruber (apparently long out of print but available from various second-hand outlets).

Indeed, the 'dating' of the Turin Shroud just had to be wrong anyway because of a mass of other forensic evidence from studies on samples from it, which all pointed to its being about the right age and having been in the right geographical region to be the genuine article. Also, as far as I know, nobody has convincingly shown Kersten's own observations on the Shroud image (which point to the 'body' that it covered having been STILL ALIVE), to be better explained by a hypothesis different from his one.

Yes, and although so many people were greatly relieved to accept that the Shroud was (purportedly) a Medieval fake, the obvious thing that their beliefs blocked them from doing was to ask themselves how in the name of Winnie-the-Pooh such a convincing 'fake' could possibly have been produced in Medieval times (that would be virtually impossible even nowadays), and for what purpose!

Quite as grotesque as believing that the Moon is a giant Gruyère cheese! — Seriously!

Kersten's work has been widely dismissed and discredited — but I have to say that ALL such dismissals that I've seen have been on the basis of challenged belief and orthodoxy (just more belief), and NONE has put forward any genuine historical evidence that makes the Biblical accounts of the life and death of 'Jesus' prevail in any way over the picture built up by Kersten through his at least largely rationally based researches.

I don't mean at all that Kersten got everything right, particularly with regard to some historical correlations he claimed to be significant but were probably on pretty shaky ground, but at least he was doing his level best to step right outside the stranglehold of belief and orthodoxy and to apply a rational basis to his own researches, and, regardless of any 'rough edges', came up with seriously important and ground-breaking findings, which have still not been found significantly wanting on any rational, belief-free basis.

It's true that 'scholars' appear to have almost universally dismissed his work — but then that's hardly surprising, because 'scholarship' is NOTHING to do with genuine, rationally based scientific research, and instead is very much about maintaining particular orthodoxies by quoting other writers rather than carrying out genuinely useful original research based on real factual observations. A scholar seeks to sound convincing by quoting early writers on a subject — but inevitably selecting those sources that don't challenge his / her beliefs on the particular subject. — What's the use of that for getting to the truth of anything?

I really do despair of 'Humanity' and its almost universal dysfunction in its twisted thinking about almost everything!

— Well, except that there does now appear to be some hope or indeed even great hope for the future if my own little 100% rationally-based experiment / adventure called Project Fix the Human Condition really is working out and isn't just a false trail…

Then such fabrics of continual twisted thinking and both personal and systemic deceptions would rapidly become a thing of the past. — Just imagine whole civilizations that are honest at all levels, of all calamitous things, and fully in touch with 'What Is' instead of their favourite 'information' source's packs of lies!

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