I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.
He questioned softly why I failed?
“For beauty,” I replied.
“And I for truth – the two are one;
We brethren are,” he said.
And so, as kinsmen met a-night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.
Emily Dickinson, 1924.
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
W.H. Auden, 1938
I’m also currently doing some research into the Greek myths that enmesh the Trojan War (because Greek myths are fucking great). I just found this devastating poem by Yeats about Leda’s rape by Zeus when he appeared to her in the form of a swan. She subsequently gave birth to his daughter, the infamous Helen, and Cassandra, who would murder her husband Agamemnon for sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia.
Leda and The Swan
A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?
A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.
Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?
W. B. Yeats, 1865– 1939
Author: Andrew Bovell
Published: 1996
Synopsis: “Two couples set out to betray their partners…
A lover returns from the past and a husband doesn’t answer the phone… A woman disappears and a neighbour is the prime suspect… Contracts are broken between intimates and powerful bonds are formed between strangers.
In Andrew Bovell’s masterfully interconnected polyphony, an evocative mystery unravels at the same time as a devastating tale of disconnection between individuals, partners and communities.” (Taken from Australian Plays, which can be accessed here.)
What moved me: what moved me is the reason I cannot choose an image for this play. It is a polyphony: a simultaneous combination of a number of parts, each forming their own melody whilst also harmonising with each other. The sensation of reading this play, or listening to this play, is of being enmeshed in a musical tapestry in which you must choose a strand for your ears to pay attention to whilst you are surrounded by the throb of the weave.
I’m developing an idea for a show at the moment that studies the dissonance and necessity of love during wartime. A challenge that I’ve set for myself is to focus on rhythm within the work, which I’ve previously never given much thought to. With this in mind, I’m trying to create a framework of sound within which to develop the ideas of this piece. I’m crowdsourcing this research (many minds are always better than one) in response to the question ‘What music makes you think of war?’ These have been the responses so far:
1. Edgard Varèse – Ionisation (1929–1931)
2. Krzysztof Penderecki – Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima
3. Gustav Holst – The Planets – Mars, the Bringer of War
4. Tchaikovsky – 1812 Overture
5. Rameau – Castor et Pollux, Tristes apprets, pales flambeaux
6. Bob Dylan – All Along the Watch Tower
7. Bruce Springsteen – Born in the USA
8. The Black Angels – Young Men Dead
9. The Cranberries – Zombie
10. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
11. The Clash – Rock The Casbah
12. Albinoni – Adagio in G Minor for Strings
13. The Last Post
14. any and all bagpipes
All suggestions are welcome.
vimh 