After a couple of requests by readers to render my recent translations of the Yeshe Tsogyel songs into musical format, and inspired by the personal visit and blessing of Guru Padmasambhava in the late hours while finishing them, today I spent a few hours putting a melody and background music track to the original Tibetan (with subtitles in English).
I am on the road still (so to speak) and do not have any expensive recording studio, or equipment and just my laptop, Clipchamp and a few sound samples. However, as a trained classical pianist and music-lover I had an idea how the melody and background might sound. Taking a classic Tibetan melody I added some bells, echo, strings and tried to create a sense of the melancholy, longing yet magic and mystery of Yeshe Tsogyel’s songs. There are some off-beats, and a little dissonance (which are kind of deliberate), and the vocal track was done in one take, I wanted to have an authentic feel to it, with some echo effects added in for that valley echo type vibe!
I felt rather melancholy and fed up myself when I sang this first song, weary of all the worldly and sexist corruption of Buddha Dharma. Perhaps that comes out in my vocals, which were recorded quickly in one long take. I am not a native Tibetan speaker, but nonetheless like several other singers on Youtube who have recorded mantras and songs, I tried my best to create something for those who love Tsogyel and find her life and words inspiring. My last foray into music and mantra recording was the 2nd Karmapa, Karma Pakshi Om Mani Padme Hum mantra given to him by dakinis!
After recording that, I was approached by two professional musicians/arrangers who offered to create an album with me. One of them disappeared after offering to do that publicly on my FB (perhaps my hater fans, as I call them, had sabotaged it yet again) but another is still in touch and we are waiting for a good time and place to do it. Watch this space!
In any case, I did this Tsogyel song all by myself and that is the magic and mystery of the blessings of Tsogyel, Guru Padmasambhava and modern technology! Emaho!
For a podcast interview with Adele Tomlin and scholar, Dr. Jue Liang about her work on Tsogyel, see here. For original research and translations on Tsogyel, see here.
Adele Tomlin, 5th December 2024. Copyright.
Chinese translation of song