Serial Disappointment —
Barraqué’s Emotions & Music
“I want no more ‘Decembers’” ~
Jean Barraqué to Michel Foucault, soon after the premiere of Séquence in 1956
In composition, forms don’t flow as planned
Sometimes – just like in love. Sometimes the scheme
With mathematics, no matter how grand
The pure conception, has to bend. A scream
Or something far too like it makes a squint.
Ignoring it would save the pattern but
Destroy the lyricism in the dint
That passion makes. A formulaic strut
Disrupted by emotion and deep pain
Will undergo a rearrangement of
The theory. Loss and degradation strain
The spider-silk like impetus of love.
Devotion cannot thrive alone on pangs.
Lurking in ambush on the edge are fangs.