David Hykes (born
2 March
1953) is a
composer,
singer,
musician,
author, and
meditation teacher. He was one of the earliest
modern western pioneers of so-called
overtone singing, and has developed since
1975 a comprehensive approach to contemplative music which he calls
Harmonic Chant (harmonic singing). After early research and trips
studying Mongolian, Tibetan, and Middle Eastern singing forms,
Hykes began a long series of collaborations with traditions and
teachers of wisdom and sacred art, including His Holiness the Dalai
Lama, and the Gyuto and Gyume monks.
Hykes founded the
Harmonic Choir in
1975, and has performed and taught Harmonic Chant and the related
Harmonic Presence work in America, France, Germany, Italy,
Switzerland, Japan, Australia and many other countries. Of overtone
singing and his own study of the form, music theorist Charles
Madden writes, "David Hykes has done everything I had hoped to do,
and more." His choir incorporates both basic overtone signing as
well as additional advanced forms.
His work is organised within the
The Harmonic Presence
Foundation.
His song "Rainbow Voice" features in the film "
Blade" (1998).
Education
Educated
at Antioch
College
in Yellow Springs, Ohio
where he studied with avant-garde experimental filmmakers Tony Conrad and Paul
Sharits, free jazz with the Cecil
Taylor Unit, and contemporary, classical and medieval music
with John Ronsheim and David Stock. He received an M.F.A.
from Columbia University in
New
York
. For many years he studied North Indian raga
singing and the history of Indian music with Smt. Sheila
Dhar.
David Hykes is a
Dharma student of
Choky Nyima Rinpoche, who gave him the
name Shenpen Yeshe, "the Primordial Wisdom that brings happiness to
beings," and Tsoknyi Rinpoche. He completed twenty years of
spiritual studies in the Gurdjieff Foundations in New York, San
Francisco, and Paris, as a student of Gurdjieff's successors Lord
John Pentland and Dr.
Michel de
Salzmann. Over the years he has received teachings from Tibetan
Buddhist masters including Dhuksey Rinpoché and His Holiness the
Dalai Lama, as well as the
Gyuto and
Gyume Monks, whom he helped bring to the United States for the
first time in 1985-86.
References
- Bellamy and MacLean (2005) p.515
- Campbell (1989) p.64
- Madden (1999) pp.85-89, 95
- David
Hykes' Harmonic World
- Bellamy, Isabel and MacLean, Donald (2005) Radiant Healing:
The Many Paths to Personal Harmony and Planetary Wholeness
ISBN 0-97568-785-9
- Madden, Charles (1999) Fractals in Music: Introductory
Mathematics for Musical Analysis ISBN 0-96717-275-6
- Campbell, Don (1989) The Roar of Silence: Healing Powers of
Breath, Tone and Music ISBN 0-83560-645-7
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