The polymath Prof. HERMANN BECKH, Dr. jur. et phil. (1875-1937) is being rediscovered. This linguist, Orientalist and Christian priest - an active music-lover, who also wrote music - penned pioneer works on our musical system still respected by musicians and musicologists. Beckh also champions the music drama of Richard WAGNER. In The 'Parsifal' = Christ = Experience in Wagner's music drama - referring to Wagner's own letters and a most remarkable letter of Nietzsche - Beckh faces the deepest inner question of our time, identified by Wagner. In the poetic libretto and remarkable music of his final creation, Wagner presents the Grail legend and its imagery. The psychological drama and its ultimate solution is accessible to all those who reflect on their experience. Beckh's original insights bring a new and powerful light to the search for meaning of our age, for a knowledge of the heart. The reader meets the real Wagner, acknowledged by Bruckner himself as "the master".

The Parsifal=Christ=Experience in Wagner's music drama

Children's Books

Beckh, Hermann

Arts, Music & Photography

Anastasi Ltd

Excerpt from Verzeichnis der Tibetischen Handschriften der Koniglichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, Vol. 1: Kanjur (Bkah-Hgyur) S Index der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissen V. (b. B) scheften zu St. Petersburg, bevorwortet von J. J. Schmidt. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."

Verzeichnis der Tibetischen Handschriften der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, Vol. 1: Kanjur (Bkah-Hgyur) (Classic Reprint)

Religion & Spirituality

Buddhism

Forgotten Books

The alchemical tradition of understanding and working with substances to perfect or purify them is given a new perspective in this fascinating history. Beckh draws on his extensive knowledge of eastern religion, weaving it into Christian spirituality to present a unique overview of alchemy. The beginning and the end of the Bible are grounded in visionary pictures which draw out the nature and meaning of substance. In a great sweep from the primal matter of creation, to the precious stones of the New Jerusalem, Beckh explores the essence of substance. This is the first time that Hermann Beckh's work has been translated into English, making his ideas and insights accessible to a new readership.

Alchemy: The Mystery of Substance from Genesis to Revelation

Christian Books & Bibles

Floris Books

Hermann BECKH - The Language of Tonality Why are musical works named by their keys: "Mass in B minor", "Symphony in D major", and so on? Can certain things be said best, or even "only", in certain keys? Can we hear the essence of a key? Are "subjective" and "objective" relevant, or is there a higher synthesis? How could the common chord express so much musical variety for over three centuries, and for some decades concentrated in one city, Vienna, in Central Europe?  Hermann BECKH's (1875-1937) tone-zodiac - by 1922, not the first to be suggested - is still respected almost a century on. With it, he explores the motivating power in our tonal system as lived - nobody's invention, so in no way a "theory". The author - acknowledged polymath who also wrote music - played on the piano all the music mentioned in this pioneer study. In his explanation of tonality as an organising, creative principle, Beckh cites music from Bach - effectively the father of tonality - concluding with Wagner's music dramas. Beckh's apparently unique perspective on Wagner is one excellent reason to re-visit him, and Beckh, too, because his tone-zodiac invites access into the workshop of creation. Beckh extends the concept of "music" and "musical". The profession of music is not challenged, but upheld - from within. To see music as "abstract", or deriving from sonic vibrations are both challenged. Through Beckh's holistic intuition, the reader is invited "backstage" to research creativity itself. There is a practical path beyond the restrictions of dualism, beyond all "feel-good" factors - whether of "Mozart", "Wagner", or any other - in order to research "what is".  In-depth researchers already recognise Prof. Dr Hermann Beckh as a pioneer; musicians and music-lovers will gain innumerable enriching insights and stimuli. But even more, in telling us least about himself, and without notating a single musical example, the author is able to tell us a very great deal about the personality - of his reader. Beckh on Beckh, and by his colleagues: "In all other respects I stand on the shoulders of my predecessors in scholarship, and my particular view of life I owe to Rudolf Steiner; but in music, I feel I am really breaking ground."  Steiner himself said of him in this respect,  "Beckh ventures into provinces which I have not yet had an opportunity of investigating myself. And there is a great deal in what Beckh says about them."  There are not many people of whom Rudolf Steiner would have made such a remark. (Alfred Heidenreich. 1938)

THE LANGUAGE OF TONALITY in the music of Bach to Bruckner

Arts & Photography

Music

"Many ways could lead us closer to understand John's gospel. Alongside and with the Apocalypse   it is the most profound of all the documents of humanity,   with the most difficult content and   the one that carries most the future of humanity. Here we take the way that results from looking at the 'cosmic rhythm' in Mark's gospel. 'The gospel of Mark as the way to John; the gospel of John as the way to Christ' - so in all brevity and decisiveness runs the fundamental thought of this whole work, dedicated in its first part of Mark's gospel and beginning here the second part on John's gospel..." Thus Professor Beckh begins this uniquely original exposition - the sequel to Mark's Gospel: the Cosmic Rhythm. The unfolding story reads like a mystery drama, music drama and symphonic cycle - all within the covers of a two-volume work. Not surprisingly, then, like a musician who serves from the first note to the last, the author shows the revelation in the gospel. Hermann BECKH (1875-1937) is being re-discovered today. Even the term "polymath" is insufficient. This work has no sell-by date. As we approach the Centenary of the non-sectarian "Movement for Religious Renewal", we are in a better position today to appreciate who was at the spiritual helm. "In this monumental work, as the title suggests, another new aspect comes to the actual contemplation of the stars - the alchemical aspect. No chance connection! Novalis, with whose work Beckh knew deeply, had not for nothing significantly linked 'the stars' and 'the stones'. And so as a postlude of this book on John's gospel, in which the great question of transubstantiation precisely in connection with Johannine spirituality was discussed, appeared (1931) in his study on alchemy, Alchymie: the Mystery of the Material World-Dr Rudolf Frieling.

John's Gospel: The Cosmic Rhythm -Stars and Stones

From Buddha to Christ

History

World

Temple Lodge Publishing

As a Christian priest, Hermann Beckh was profoundly aware that the mystery of substance―its transmutation in the cosmos and the human being―was a mystical fact to be approached with the greatest reverence, requiring evermore profound scholarship and meditation. He viewed chemistry as a worthy though materialistic science devoid of spirit, whereas the fullness of spiritual–physical nature could be approached by what he liked to call “chymistry” or “alchymy,”thus including a millennium of spiritual tradition. 
This book is not limited to the conventional activities of Western alchemy or what can be found in the Bible, although he does unveil hidden riches in these. Nor should Beckh be considered merely as a widely recognized and learned professor with impeccable academic qualifications. Beckh writes on topics such as “Isis,” “the Golden Fleece,” traditional fairytales, and Wagner’s Parsifal in a way that enables the reader to glimpse the Mystery of Substance and to share the writer’s authentic experience of the divine substantia, the living reality of Christ in the world.Beckh’s Alchymy establishes a whole new standard and has become his most popular work. This is the first time that it has been translated into English, with updated footnotes, making his ideas and insights accessible to a new readership. This edition features translations of Beckh’s “The New Jerusalem,” in which theology is expressed best in verse; his exemplary essay on “Snowwhite”; observations on “Allerleirauh”; and a substantial excerpt from Gundhild Kacer-Bock’s biography of Beckh

Alchymy: The Mystery of the Material World

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Review\n“An abundance of books [by Beckh] came into existence whose significance perhaps will only be properly appreciated in the future.” (Emil Bock (1959))\nHermann Beckh’s lectures on language―published here in English for the first time―offer a unique and penetrating discussion of the origins and evolution of speech. Based on his professional knowledge of Tibetan, Sanskrit, and Pali―as well as complete fluency in at least six other ancient languages and nine modern languages―and accompanied by a heartfelt understanding of Anthroposophy, these lectures comprise an unparalleled marriage of academic and meditative insights. Moreover, they offer a valuable introduction to the author’s later works on music, the stars, and the gospels of Mark and John. 
The Source of Speech features Beckh’s complete series of articles on the subject that were developed during the early, “seeding” period of his life and work. These include “Rudolf Steiner and the East,” an unprecedented study of Steiner’s relationship to Sanskrit and Buddhist spirituality; “Let There be Light,” Beckh’s exploration of the six Hebrew words forming Genesis 1:3; articles devoted to the origins of language, Indian philosophies, and the names of the Divine in sacred texts; and essays published in Das Goetheanum that examine speech sounds, especially those of Sanskrit and classical Hebrew. 
Also included are contemporaneous reviews of Beckh’s articles by Albert Steffen and Eugen Kolisko and a lecture at the University of Berlin on academia, materialism, and undisciplined enthusiasm for Indian spirituality. 
After nearly a hundred years, Beckh’s perspectives and themes remain as exciting, relevant, and fresh as ever.

The Source of Speech: Word, Language, and the Origin of Speech: From Indology to Anthroposophy

“Beckh ventures into provinces that I have not had the opportunity of investigating myself.” ―Rudolf Steiner 
Lost for decades, the manuscript of Hermann Beckh’s final lectures on the subject of music present fundamentally new insights into its cosmic origins. Beckh characterizes the qualities of musical development, examines select musical works (that represent for him the peak of human ingenuity), and sheds new light on the nature and source of human creativity and inspiration. Published here for the first time, the lectures demonstrate a distinctive approach based on the raw material of musical perception. 
Beckh discusses the whistling wind, billowing waves, birdsong, and especially the theme of longing. Always remaining well grounded, Beckh writes from a cosmic context to penetrate perennial themes, from the yearning for real spontaneity and the “mystery background” that unites Heaven and Earthto thespiritual knowledge that can meet the needs of the twenty-first century. Beckh does not write as a musical specialistto explicate universal human concerns; rather, he writes from what is universally human to reveal music as a special concern for usall. 
In addition to the transcripts of fifteen lectures, this book contains a valuable introduction and editorial footnotes. It also features appendices that include Beckh’s essay “The Mystery of the Night in Wagner and Novalis”; reminiscences of Beckh by August Pauli and Harro Rückner; Donald Francis Tovey’s “Wagnerian harmony and the Evolution of the TristanChord”; and several contemporaneous reviews of Beckh’s published works.

The Mystery of Musical Creativity: The Human Being and Music

About the Author\nHermann Beckh (1875–1937) studied Law and later Sanskrit, becoming Professor of Oriental Studies at the University of Berlin. A master of ancient and modern languages, he wrote extensively on religious and philosophical subjects, including Buddhism, Indology, Christianity, alchemy, and music. In 1911, he heard a lecture by Rudolf Steiner and was inspired to join the Anthroposophical Society, where he became a valued coworker. In 1922, he helped found The Christian Community, a movement for religious renewal. His many books are gradually being translated from the original German and published in English.\nRudolf Frieling (1901-1986) was one of the founders of The Christian Community. Before becoming the leader of this movement for religious renewal in 1957, his work took him to Leipzig, Vienna, New York and Stuttgart. He is the author of many books on Christian thinking.\n“Astrology is a concern of the Christ and the work of [the Archangel] Michael.” ―Hermann Beckh 
During the brief window between the two World Wars, the Rev. Prof. Hermann Beckh led research at The Christian Community Seminary in Stuttgart. In those precious years he published on music, the gospels and the ancient Mysteries. By 1930, in his “Contributions to the Priests’ Newsletter,” he had produced the most far-reaching account of the cosmic order ever written. The typescript of that great work was destined to gather dust in the Berlin Archiv, however, until it was discovered in recent years. Published here for the first time, it is the crowning masterpiece to Beckh’s Collected Works. 
The translated and annotated text is accompanied by Rudolf Frieling’s profound application of Beckh’s principles of the cosmic starry order to the Creed of The Christian Community. The book also includes a number of appreciations and relevant book reviews. 
Through ever-deepening meditation guided by Rudolf Steiner, as well as his vast knowledge of Tibetan, Sanskrit, Pali and Avestan sacred texts―scarcely to be equaled in Europe at the time―Beckh came to the first-hand realization that human and cosmic life is ordered. He perceived directly that this cosmic order is good, as originating from the World-will; true, as from World-thinking; and beautiful, as from World-feeling. All three could be personally experienced in disciplined consciousness that can enter dream, sleep, and prenatal life. This, then, was Beckh’s method and inspiration, as shown in this extraordinary work.

The Language of the Stars: Zodiac and Planets in Relation to the Human Being: The Cosmic Rhythm in the Creed

Frieling, Rudolf

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