February, 2001 Monthly Feature : Each month I have been putting together some of my favourites to share with you. Archives
The Troubadour
[ Begin to charm, and, as thou strok'st mine ears With thy enchantment, melt me into tears. Then let thy active hand scud o'er thy lyre, And make my spirits frantic with the fire. That done, sink down into a silvery strain, And make me smooth as balm and oil again. |
Song, musical poetry, is the voice of the individual: the presentation, through a seamless integration of words and music, of the personal thoughts and feelings of the creator. Combining the arts of music and poetry, and placing them in the service of Love, follows in the tradition of the lyric poet, the singer-songwriter, the poet-musician - the troubadour.
Music reaches us on a deeper level than verbal communication. Spoken language is used to pass on complex and concrete ideas. Music cannot communicate these ideas, but unlike verbal communication, music can be a conduit for feelings and abstract thoughts. Music can inform us in ways words cannot. The marriage of words and music in song presents thought and feeling as an integrated whole. By the time you have heard and really digested the content of the million decisions made in a song - notes chosen, patterns reinforced or broken, voices exchanging roles phrase by phrase, The artist is revealed to you in complex and intimate ways. In the end you know a version of that Troubadour, his mind and soul and heart, as well as you know yourself.
One of most important aspects of music is its unifying power. Music reconciles opposites: not distinguishing between physical and spiritual pleasure or happiness and grief, music moves only to unite them. After joining together what had been apart, music allows us to transcend those differences. The song brings forth past memories,thoughts, and feelings - and synthesizes from them a completely new concept. This is in itself a new experience, and one which is very much more profound and stirring then the individual experiences of which it is composed.
Troubadours are skilled in the art of foreplay. Wedding imagination and hope; a glance, a touch of the hand, a word of greeting can be transformed into an event of crucial character, so that the relation of lovers whose contacts are purely visual and audible can be more deeply sensual than the physical union.
Sometimes, when the Troubadour creates and the audience is open to new ideas, the culmination of this communication can be a form of ecstasy. Oblivious to distinctions between self and surroundings, stimuli and response, past and present; consciousness and behavior become as one. It is in truth, a mystical experience.
K.M.G.
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With what attentive courtesy he bent Over his instrument; Not as a lordly conqueror who could Command both wire and wood, But as a man with a loved woman might, Inquiring with delight What slight essential things she had to say Before they started, he and she, to play. Francis Cornford |
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