Thank you very much for the breakdown and impromptu music history lesson! As a piano player myself, this has definitely given me inspiration for adding more and varied music to my group’s rituals. Thanks again and Blessed Samhain!

I am WyndSinger, the one who helped Osh with the music for this ritual. It was a tremendous experience.
Brief background is that I am a classically trained musician (oboe, English horn and voice…branching out into many other things including harp).
Most of the pieces I reference are real compositions which evoke (at least to me) the essence and spirit we were trying create. The ‘orchestra’ and all music was internalized but could easily be created in ‘real life’.
The specific pieces are:
“La mer” by Claude Debussy, a French impressionistic composer. This piece is a poem created by the music to evoke the sea (this the title).
“9th symphony” by Ludwig von Beethoven. The last movement has a very moving theme which has been called the “Song of Joy”. It flows through many permutations including the march which is described in the ritual.
The “Butterfly jig” is a traditional Irish/Celtic slip jig, a traditional dance, which to me is especially joyous.
The ‘Church modes’ derive mainly from the sacred music we have from the medieval days (the majority of the surviving music from that time period is Catholic/sacred in nature because the monks wrote them down). They are generally described by the spacing between the notes (steps and 1/2 steps). Look at a piano keyboard. You will notice the white and the black keys. We will deal with the spacing of the white keys only for this description.
If you play all the keys from C to C (the white key which is immediately to the left of the two black keys), you will play what we Westners think of as a ‘Major’ scale. This equates to the Ionian church mode.
Move to the next white key to the right, you find yourself on the note D. D to D on the white keys is the Dorlan mode. Much of the traditional Celtic music is in this mode. It as a ‘Minor’ sound to it with a slight twist.
The next note up is E, which equates to the Phrygian mode.
F to F is the Lydian mode
G to G is Mixolydian
A to A is Aeolian (or modern day’s “Minor” scale)
B to B is Locrian

If you are a musician, I would strongly encourage you to play around with the different modes. They allow for some interesting (and possibly startling) variations on what might be the ‘normal’ way of playing.
Like Osh, I tend to desire music in my rituals, whether it is just a drum or harp or any combination of instruments (including the human voice).

Music is unique to each individual. If the things I describe here don’t speak to your heart, then change them. Find something that does. Or make up your own. Improvisation (the art of creating music on the spur of the moment) is a great tool to reach the God/dess within.
I do hope that this helps. Please feel free to ask more questions. I am happy to answer as I can.
Blessed Samhain to everyone.

Joyous Samhain Ocean!

Kelly

Blesséd Be and Happy Samhain to you too!