The Music of Words and Poetry - Epoch Times | Print...
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March 3–9, 2017 C5 @EpochArts TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts e Music of Words and Poetry By Evan Mantyk “Four score and seven years ago ...” Even if you can’t tell me where these six words come from, there is a good chance that you recognize them. But why? ey do not offer wis- dom or a witty saying; they are just numbers. In fact, you remember this phrase because of the music behind the words. e phrase falls into a simple rhythm, the iambic, which is often mim- icked in poetry. If you don’t recall from your high school English class, an iamb is a pair of syllables, or sound units, with the first syllable being unstressed and the second stressed. In the opening words to President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, there are four iambs (stressed syllables in caps): 1. four SCORE; 2. and SEV; 3. en YEARS; 4. aGO. It is subtle, but the persistence of these rather meaningless six words in my brain and yours seems like compelling evi- dence of the power of musi- cal language. Here we’ll look at some clas- sical poems that draw on this enchanting musical power to render beauty in ways that are not only enjoyable but also inspiring. ey may even help you write your next greeting card message or Facebook post. e selected poems are written about music, but musical-sounding words the- oretically can be used on any topic. Even death and war, as Lincoln showed. ese poems must be read aloud for you to hear the music. Preferably to a room of rapt spectators, but by your- self is fine, too. We begin with an excerpt of an exceptionally musical poem by the great Romantic American poet Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849). Here, Poe uses the reverse of an iamb, called the trochee, with the first syllable being stressed and the second unstressed. He uses brilliant repetition, rhyme, alliteration, and other techniques to create a poem that seems to dance off the page. Next is a poem by living poet J. Don Shook, a writer, actor, director, and producer who formerly worked for NBC in New York. His poem brings to life Beethoven’s final and greatest symphony, written after the legendary composer had already gone deaf. Finally, we have a sonnet from living poet C.B. Ander- son, who was the longtime gardener for the PBS televi- sion series “e Victory Gar- den.” If you listen closely, you’ll hear in each line a steady and exquisite rhythm of two soft beats followed by one hard beat, called an ana- pest. Here is the first line with the hard syllables capitalized: “just as WHITE as a BLANket of NEW-fallen SNOW.” e Bells (First Stanza) By Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) Hear the sledges with the bells— Silver bells! What a world of merriment their melody foretells! How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, In the icy air of night! While the stars that oversprinkle All the heavens, seem to twinkle With a crystalline delight; Keeping time, time, time, In a sort of Runic rhyme, To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells From the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells— From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells. Paean to ‘Ode to Joy’ By J. Don Shook I heard the “Ode to Joy” today, ten thousand times at least. I could not hold my heart at bay, engorging on a feast of melody, of majesty, of rhythmic palpitations, while soaring in full harmony with Heaven’s exaltations. e clustered chords embraced my soul, sustaining strains sublime of resonance beyond control above the staff of time. Celestial voices raised the theme in joy that did inspire a cadence that would surely seem born of the inner fire of he who could not hear one note with which he could discern the artistry, that as he wrote, past tribulations spurned. e “Ode” exploded with the might Beethoven had released and blessed the earth with such delight perversion’s rapture ceased. I heard the “Ode to Joy” today, ten thousand times too few. Water Music By C.B. Anderson Just as white as a blanket of new-fallen snow Is the noise of a waterfall cresting a brim And ebulliently thrashing the basin below. But the sound of a freshet resembles a hymn, Its discrete iterations like chants that were spoke By the guardian spirits of hillside and dale, Yet complex, contrapuntal and clearly baroque. e continuo rain, the percussion of hail And the basso profundo of groaning black ice May accompany geysers erupting with steam To engender a numinous pearl of great price In the heart of a mind at the edge of a dream. e symphonic fantasia that water creates Is a blend of its various physical states. Evan Mantyk is president of the Society of Classial Poets (ClassicalPoets.org). He teaches literature and history in upstate New York. You may send your comments, feedback, and, of course, poetry to Submis- [email protected] “Sappho and Alcaeus” by Lawrence Alma-Tadema. PUBLIC DOMAIN ALL PHOTOS BY SAMIRA BOUAOU/EPOCH TIMES ITSMEJUST/ SHUTTERSTOCK Manhattan Chamber Players at rehearsal. said, but that is what happened. ey bonded over their tremendous love for violin and great music- making, and “it was such a kinship.” Peskanov became involved with Bargemusic gradually at first, but by 2003, he had promised to work on programming and artistic directing, and soon he was turning down big engagements with orchestras to work on the project instead. In 2005, he officially became the president, exec- utive director, and artistic director, and Bloom retired in 2008. Being so hands-on, he is able to program con- certs according to whatever schedule he would like. ere are engagements two years out already confirmed, but he still has the flexibility to add concerts in a month or two, if he so wishes. Peskanov programs everything from early music to new music, with every instrument and ensemble instrumentation he can think of. “I just have that appetite, I love it,” he said. Other presenters, when faced with 10 pianists with widely different reputations—maybe one is a specialist, another recently won a big com- petition, another is sometimes so-so and some- times so inspired, and so on—have to make tough choices to fill seats. “Well, when you have as many concerts as we do, I will invite them all,” Peskanov said. If they all have talent and potential, they deserve a chance to be heard and a presenter who will showcase them properly, he said. Peskanov tries to invite young musicians to give solo recitals as well as play some chamber music, to help them along with their careers. It’s been heartening to see musicians come to the barge when they’re starting out, then return years down the road, after they’ve become household names, he said. Peskanov constantly has people contacting him about playing at Bargemusic. All too often, he says, they try too hard to be different, as there is a lot of pressure to stand out in order to make a career. He wishes people would simply play with complete sincerity and bring great joy to their work. en the expression is all them, and there is nobody else like them. “When that depth of expression comes, it is going to be amazing,” he said. ese great moments multiply when playing with others, he added. “It’s a wonderful feeling when you play with someone, and you know how to assist someone to make them sound more beautiful—just to let someone do something even more beautifully, to let them have that time. It’s in very subtle things.” He aims to have Bargemusic be a place that allows people to “experience and express culture, real culture, that deep culture that takes years and years and your whole life to express,” a live experience that can’t be replicated. “When it hap- pens during a live performance, there’s nothing like it, nothing. And that’s why people still come.” Poetry If you are a really fine musician and performer, sooner or later, you will be invited to perform at the barge. Mark Peskanov, artistic director, Bargemusic Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, Violist “What we would do in the past, for fun, was call each other up and go to someone’s apartment and play,” said Milena Pajaro- van de Stadt, violist with the in-demand Dover Quartet. She immediately accepted when Fleming had the idea to form MCP with this group of friends who admire each others’ musicianship, because “we feel like we have a lot to share.” Chamber music is by nature intimate, and therefore more rewarding when you are playing with those you care about, she said, but there are practical benefits to playing with friends as well. “It’s also more efficient,” Pajaro-van de Stadt said. You don’t end up skirting around issues or dealing with formalities if you’re unhappy with something in the music. “When you’re playing with friends, you can be completely blunt and no one takes it personally because we all know we’re in it because we love playing with one another.” Pajaro-van de Stadt has been with her string quartet for eight years, and in that time the ensemble has developed its own unique voice and intuitive language. What MCP does is allow her to broaden her perspective, playing with people she doesn’t normally and picking up different musical sparks of inspiration. At a recent rehearsal, Pajaro-van de Stadt played violin, a rare occurrence, in one piece, and viola, her main instrument, in another. Piano was actually her first instrument. In school, she tried as many instruments as she could, but it was in the viola that she felt she had found her voice. “It drew me to it because I felt like it had a real depth of soul,” she said. “I find a lot of composers use it very specifically, in very poignant or soulful melodies. It has a very distinctive color in the group, and I love to be in the middle of everything.” Andrea Casarrubios, Cellist Andrea Casarrubios, a cellist with Trio Appassionata, is one of the newest additions to MCP, having joined only about a year ago. MCP didn’t need another cellist at the time, Fleming said, but she played so beautifully that he felt he needed to invite her. When Casarrubios learned about MCP, she thought, “the groups is a little bit like a dream.” The connection between the people Casarrubios is performing with is one of her top priorities, so playing with wonderful people makes everything that much better—both for the performers and the audience, she said. “Everyone on the roster is basically the best person and musician you could ever possibly find,” said Casarrubios, who also plays piano, teaches, and composes. “Really, some of the best music experiences of my life have been with members of this group, because they’re all at such a high level musically, and as human beings they are also extraordinary.” Luke Fleming, Violist and Artistic Director Fleming currently splits his time between teaching viola at the university level at Fei Tien Academy of the Arts in upstate New York and serving as artistic director for MCP. As an artistic director, he strives to enable music- making at the highest level, with no gimmicks. He creates all of MCP’s self-presented programs, drawing from the roster of musicians for each concert. Occasionally, a musician will ask for a certain piece to be programmed or will request to play a certain part, but “actually, it hasn’t happened all that often,” Fleming said. As a violist, Fleming sees his role as playing the bones of the melody and filling out that internal structure. “I love that the viola in chamber music is generally what we call the inner voices. It’s filling out the harmonies, and it’s part of the intricate web that makes the melody greater than it would be on its own,” Fleming said. “It’s helping the melody sing—I love that about the viola’s role.” For him, great chamber music requires unanimity in the approach of all musicians involved, something MCP’s musicians already had from their similar backgrounds. Most of the musicians have played at the same music festivals, or met through Musicians from Marlboro, a concert tour during which they spend several days at a time playing with their peers and absorbing lessons from senior musicians. GHENADIE/SHUTTERSTOCK
Transcript of The Music of Words and Poetry - Epoch Times | Print...
March 3–9, 2017
C5@EpochArts
TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts
The Music of Words and PoetryBy Evan Mantyk
“Four score and seven years ago ...” Even if you can’t tell me where these six words come from, there is a good chance that you recognize them. But why? They do not offer wis-dom or a witty saying; they are just numbers.
In fact, you remember this phrase because of the music behind the words. The phrase falls into a simple rhythm, the iambic, which is often mim-icked in poetry.
If you don’t recall from your high school English class, an iamb is a pair of syllables, or sound units, with the first syllable being unstressed and the second stressed.
In the opening words to President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, there are four iambs (stressed syllables in caps): 1. four SCORE; 2. and SEV; 3. en YEARS; 4. aGO. It is subtle, but the persistence of these rather meaningless six words in my brain and yours seems like compelling evi-dence of the power of musi-cal language.
Here we’ll look at some clas-sical poems that draw on this enchanting musical power to render beauty in ways that are not only enjoyable but also inspiring. They may even help you write your next greeting card message or Facebook post. The selected poems are written about music, but musical-sounding words the-oretically can be used on any topic. Even death and war, as Lincoln showed.
These poems must be read aloud for you to hear the music. Preferably to a room of rapt spectators, but by your-self is fine, too.
We begin with an excerpt of an exceptionally musical poem by the great Romantic American poet Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849). Here, Poe uses the reverse of an iamb, called the trochee, with the first syllable being stressed and the second unstressed. He uses brilliant repetition, rhyme, alliteration, and other techniques to create a poem that seems to dance off the page.
Next is a poem by living poet J. Don Shook, a writer, actor, director, and producer who formerly worked for NBC in New York. His poem brings to life Beethoven’s final and greatest symphony, written after the legendary composer had already gone deaf.
Finally, we have a sonnet from living poet C.B. Ander-son, who was the longtime gardener for the PBS televi-sion series “The Victory Gar-den.” If you listen closely, you’ll hear in each line a steady and exquisite rhythm of two soft beats followed by one hard beat, called an ana-pest. Here is the first line with the hard syllables capitalized: “just as WHITE as a BLANket of NEW-fallen SNOW.”
The Bells (First Stanza)By Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
Hear the sledges with the bells—
Silver bells!What a world of merriment
their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!While the stars that
oversprinkleAll the heavens, seem to
twinkleWith a crystalline delight;Keeping time, time, time,In a sort of Runic rhyme,To the tintinnabulation that
so musically wellsFrom the bells, bells, bells,
bells,Bells, bells, bells—From the jingling and the
tinkling of the bells.
Paean to ‘Ode to Joy’ By J. Don Shook
I heard the “Ode to Joy” today,ten thousand times at least.I could not hold my heart
at bay,engorging on a feastof melody, of majesty,of rhythmic palpitations,while soaring in full
harmonywith Heaven’s exaltations.The clustered chords
embraced my soul,sustaining strains sublimeof resonance beyond controlabove the staff of time.Celestial voices raised
the themein joy that did inspirea cadence that would
surely seemborn of the inner fireof he who could not hear
one notewith which he could discernthe artistry, that as he wrote,past tribulations spurned.The “Ode” exploded with
the mightBeethoven had releasedand blessed the earth with
such delightperversion’s rapture ceased.I heard the “Ode to Joy” today,ten thousand times too few.
Water MusicBy C.B. Anderson
Just as white as a blanket of new-fallen snow
Is the noise of a waterfall cresting a brim
And ebulliently thrashing the basin below.
But the sound of a freshet resembles a hymn,
Its discrete iterations like chants that were spoke
By the guardian spirits of hillside and dale,
Yet complex, contrapuntal and clearly baroque.
The continuo rain, the percussion of hail
And the basso profundo of groaning black ice
May accompany geysers erupting with steam
To engender a numinous pearl of great price
In the heart of a mind at the edge of a dream.
The symphonic fantasia that water creates
Is a blend of its various physical states.
Evan Mantyk is president of the Society of Classial Poets (ClassicalPoets.org). He teaches literature and history in upstate New York. You may send your comments, feedback, and, of course, poetry to [email protected]
“Sappho and Alcaeus” by Lawrence Alma-Tadema.
PUBLIC DOMAIN
ALL PHOTOS BY SAMIRA BOUAOU/EPOCH TIMES
ITSMEJUST/ SHUTTERSTOCK
Manhattan Chamber Players at rehearsal.
said, but that is what happened. They bonded over their tremendous love for violin and great music-making, and “it was such a kinship.”
Peskanov became involved with Bargemusic gradually at first, but by 2003, he had promised to work on programming and artistic directing, and soon he was turning down big engagements with orchestras to work on the project instead. In 2005, he officially became the president, exec-utive director, and artistic director, and Bloom retired in 2008.
Being so hands-on, he is able to program con-certs according to whatever schedule he would like. There are engagements two years out already confirmed, but he still has the flexibility to add concerts in a month or two, if he so wishes.
Peskanov programs everything from early music to new music, with every instrument and ensemble instrumentation he can think of. “I just have that appetite, I love it,” he said.
Other presenters, when faced with 10 pianists with widely different reputations—maybe one is a specialist, another recently won a big com-petition, another is sometimes so-so and some-times so inspired, and so on—have to make tough choices to fill seats.
“Well, when you have as many concerts as we do, I will invite them all,” Peskanov said. If they all have talent and potential, they deserve a chance to be heard and a presenter who will showcase them properly, he said.
Peskanov tries to invite young musicians to give solo recitals as well as play some chamber music, to help them along with their careers. It’s been heartening to see musicians come to the barge when they’re starting out, then return years down the road, after they’ve become household names, he said.
Peskanov constantly has people contacting him about playing at Bargemusic. All too often, he says, they try too hard to be different, as there is a lot of pressure to stand out in order to make a career. He wishes people would simply play with complete sincerity and bring great joy to their work. Then the expression is all them, and there is nobody else like them. “When that depth of expression comes, it is going to be amazing,” he said.
These great moments multiply when playing with others, he added. “It’s a wonderful feeling when you play with someone, and you know how to assist someone to make them sound more beautiful—just to let someone do something even more beautifully, to let them have that time. It’s in very subtle things.”
He aims to have Bargemusic be a place that allows people to “experience and express culture, real culture, that deep culture that takes years and years and your whole life to express,” a live experience that can’t be replicated. “When it hap-pens during a live performance, there’s nothing like it, nothing. And that’s why people still come.”
Poetry
If you are a really fine musician and performer, sooner or later, you will be invited to perform at the barge.Mark Peskanov, artistic director, Bargemusic
Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, Violist“What we would do in the past, for fun, was call each other up and go to someone’s apartment and play,” said Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, violist with the in-demand Dover Quartet. She immediately accepted when Fleming had the idea to form MCP with this group of friends
who admire each others’ musicianship, because “we feel like we have a lot to share.”
Chamber music is by nature intimate, and therefore more rewarding when you are playing with those you care about, she said, but there are practical benefits to playing with friends as well.“It’s also more efficient,” Pajaro-van de Stadt said. You don’t end up skirting around issues or dealing with formalities if you’re unhappy with something in the music. “When you’re playing with friends, you can be completely blunt and no one takes it personally because we all know we’re in it because we
love playing with one another.”Pajaro-van de Stadt has
been with her string quartet for eight years, and in that time the ensemble has developed its own unique voice and intuitive language. What MCP does is allow her to broaden her perspective, playing with people she doesn’t normally and picking up different musical sparks of inspiration. At a recent rehearsal, Pajaro-van de Stadt played violin, a rare occurrence, in one piece, and viola, her main instrument, in another.
Piano was actually her first instrument. In school, she tried as many instruments
as she could, but it was in the viola that she felt she had found her voice.
“It drew me to it because I felt like it had a real depth of soul,” she said. “I find a lot of composers use it very specifically, in very poignant or soulful melodies. It has a very distinctive color in the group, and I love to be in the middle of everything.”
Andrea Casarrubios, CellistAndrea Casarrubios, a cellist with Trio Appassionata, is one of the newest additions to MCP, having joined only about a year ago. MCP didn’t need another cellist at the time, Fleming said, but she played so beautifully that he felt he needed to invite her.
When Casarrubios learned about MCP, she thought, “the groups is a little bit like a dream.”
The connection between the people Casarrubios is performing with is one of her top priorities, so playing with wonderful
people makes everything that much better—both for the performers and the audience, she said.
“Everyone on the roster is basically the best person and musician you could ever possibly find,” said Casarrubios, who also plays piano, teaches, and composes. “Really, some of the best music experiences of my life have been with members of this group, because they’re all at such a high level musically, and as human beings they are also
extraordinary.”
Luke Fleming, Violist and Artistic DirectorFleming currently splits his time between teaching viola at the university level at Fei Tien Academy of the Arts in upstate New York and serving as artistic director for MCP.
As an artistic director, he strives to enable music-making at the highest level, with no gimmicks. He creates all of MCP’s self-presented programs, drawing from the roster of musicians for each concert. Occasionally, a musician will ask for a certain piece to be programmed or will request to play a certain part, but “actually, it hasn’t happened all that often,”
Fleming said.As a violist, Fleming sees his
role as playing the bones of the melody and filling out that internal structure.
“I love that the viola in chamber music is generally what we call the inner voices. It’s filling out the harmonies, and it’s part of the intricate web that makes the melody greater than it would be on its own,” Fleming said. “It’s helping the melody sing—I love that about the viola’s role.”
For him, great chamber music requires unanimity in the approach of all musicians involved, something MCP’s musicians already had from their similar backgrounds. Most of the musicians have played at the same music festivals, or met through Musicians from Marlboro, a concert tour during which they spend several days at a time playing with their peers and absorbing lessons from senior musicians.
GHENADIE/SHUTTERSTOCK
