Ecstatic Audiations:
Two Esoteric
Performances/Practices
On this page, I present links to recordings, scores, composer notes, and scholarly perspectives on two short works composed in relation to mystical experience and esoteric practice
by composers Bill Alves and myself, Anne Dorothy Harley.
Sounds Ineffable sets Pali verses from the Therigatha, a collection of Buddhist writings that record the words and actions of early female monastics selected by the historical Buddha for special recognition. Specifically, Alves set two verses from the story of Uppalavana, on of two women disciples singled out by him for accomplishment in spiritual practice.
Audiation is a living work in that it is intended to perpetually grow and change. At each performance, audience members are encouraged to personally participate in the practice of this piece by uttering together names of loved beings who have passed away. The collective sound is combined with the recorded utterances of previous audiences in performance, and in turn, recorded and combined for future performances in an accreting sonic memorial.
Virtual audience members are also invited to send recordings of the spoken names of their loved beings who have passed for inclusion in the recorded material of this piece.
With each performance, the accompanying recorded sound cues accrete layers of memorialized names, becoming an increasingly complex sonic veil which receives new voices into its folds, attenuating eventually into the combined sound of the names of all beings ever alive. Here is a link to the accreted sound memorial in August 2025.
Please consider contributing your recording of a memorialized name to Audiation by recording your 2-3 second name on your phone and sending it to aharley@scrippscollege.edu.