by phillipw | Dec 22, 2024 | MU
Olympus and Mount Helicon Inside Us Always Our singing starts when mind and heart awake A pen or tongue. The singing might be notes Or words, composer or the poet. Blake Or Brahms begins inside us. Singing floats Out from our fingers or our mouths. The lips Then...
by phillipw | Sep 5, 2024 | MU, SY
Perfume as Music in Christ’s Ears Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If you could play a sky-time orb, which one Would you pick up? The moon as tambourine Might fill your night-time, or the midnight sun...
by phillipw | May 5, 2024 | IS, MU, PA
Some Things Seem Eternal in Palestine Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The melding rests here drying in the sun. The mix has cinnamon and cloves thrown in Among the pink and purple petals. Spun Among them...
by phillipw | May 1, 2023 | BL, GO, MU
Before the Foundation of the World Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem I never can feel certain of any truth, but from a clear perception of its beauty. ~ John Keats If we were forced to choose between a...
by phillipw | Jan 31, 2023 | MU, ST
The Opposite of Agnostic Swooning The reason God made starlings fly was for Those murmurations. Nothing else about These birds is worth the trouble. Swoop and soar In each elastic shape–they leave no doubt That they are Sky Divinity’s broad span, As...
by phillipw | Aug 25, 2022 | AS, BL, MU, PH
The Music of the Sphere Known as a Black Hole https://twitter.com/Phoenix22555220/status/1562149765839732740?s=20&t=D3UNCn1z5-0dtrIopqEVRg Beyond the realm of Seven Sisters, sound Reverberates away from total death. The hole That makes this seethe is like a giant...
by phillipw | Nov 6, 2021 | BO, DU, GA, Ho, MU, PA, PH, SE, SI, ST, WH
Jalousie in Natural Light—Avant la Rêve For Mrs. Pat Silver and Bob Stubbs She chose a piece called “Jalousie” for flute And keyboard that was strange to both the boys, But then the both of them were teens. To suit The ceremony “Jalousie” had poise But sounded...
by phillipw | Sep 7, 2021 | DE, HU, MO, MU
Butterflies Sing with the Tongues of Zen and Angels Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Let’s say that butterflies could sing. What songs Would come from them? Perhaps their first Would be selected from the...
by phillipw | Aug 29, 2021 | HA, ME, MU
At Last Explain the rise of scents, those melodic Perfumes that we call music. There were drums And rhythms, but what brought on rhapsodic Cantabile is hidden. Passion thrums Through men and women, mango girls and boys, And one night...
by phillipw | Aug 13, 2021 | MU, PH
Countryside Composition The russet sun selects the pheasant’s tail. It shines more gold than copper in that light From heaven in the evening though more pale. The sun strikes more than that. It wants to write A poem or a nocturne for the dark To come,...
by phillipw | Aug 4, 2021 | BI, LA, MU, PA, SK
Apassianato The skylark’s struggle is its fluttering Or so it looks. The skylark’s flying seems To be a form of airborne stuttering At best upon on the slightest breezy streams Of air, yet even so near halting moves And swoops predict a victory...
by phillipw | Aug 4, 2021 | BI, LA, MU, SK
A Shimmering Coronet Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Like ripples in the clouds the skylark’s song Strikes ever changing in its slants and shades. Since such a tiny throat could be so strong That it...
by phillipw | Aug 3, 2021 | BI, FA, LA, MU, SK
Cleaving Above Upon the smaller island even there A skylark lives and sings. It lives and sings And rises to the highest heights through air. The rapture of the lark swells up and springs To levitate so far above the farm And farmer that his...
by phillipw | Aug 1, 2021 | BI, MU, RA, SK
Invisible Music Made Opaque The rain falls down as if in chords, as if A symphony in quietness, playing on The quietest of instruments as stiff As thin percussion ones with brushes drawn Across them, metal brushes on a drum. The only notes we hear as notes...
by phillipw | Jul 29, 2021 | BE, BI, MU
Through a Skylark “Things more true and deep” ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley The skylark rises up, up, up as straight As winds allow. Straight, straight, straight, straight his air As well except that its bright curling spate Is ever changing like all...
by phillipw | Jun 3, 2021 | MU, PE, PY, SY, TC
Outside the Painted Cave Before men thought of poetry, they fell In love with paintings on a petal’s tongue. It started ringing in its silent bell So utter they could almost hear it. Swung From it came colors so much like a song They almost gave men melody, at...
by phillipw | Mar 29, 2021 | CO, MU, SO, SY
The Music for Saints’ Ears The snow is like two perfect music realms. It came in perfect purest notes as flakes All night and now the vision overwhelms. In dark it manifested white as lakes Turned first to ice, then covered with true white. High symphonies first...
by phillipw | Mar 28, 2021 | CO, KO, MU, SI
“in music out of sight” Korean courts heard music long ago And watched silk dancing, swirrrrrƏls of silk sleeves. These musics and these patterns were aglow In royal eyes and ears beneath tiled eaves Of palaces but now the motions, notes, And melodies are so far...
by phillipw | Mar 1, 2021 | GI, IL, ME, MU, PH, SY
lluminated Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The secret bird refuses to be known. Its color is a flavor still unnamed, More like a smell than scarlet, a tone, Shennai in voice perhaps. It...
by phillipw | Feb 7, 2021 | AU, FA, FU, MU, Uncategorized
Curve, Raggedness, and Tininess Squared Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The thusness of the mushroom is increased By one orange leaf which falls upon it, so, An autumn colored cloth a Druid priest...
by phillipw | Jan 30, 2021 | DA, JA, MU
January Daffodils The daffodils are shouting up above Midwinter snow. They shout Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! HA! And Happy! Happy! HAPPY! All in love With yelling yellow, filling snow with awe Of promises of spring, blooms feel quite smug That they have sprung up there...
by phillipw | Dec 25, 2020 | AL, AN, CH, FE, KI, MU
The Cambridge Christmas Choir Trinity The beauties vary. One young man whose throat Appears to have no voice box sings high Inside the chapel. Melodies devote Themselves from him like angels in the sky Above sopranos and the trebles. He Turns into miracles the...
by phillipw | Dec 2, 2020 | AN, BA, EU, HA, JA, LY, ME, MU, MY, OR
Lyrical Light and Annihilation The harp is not of heaven alone. Its strings Have been to Hades on the saddest trip. A gilded harp may seem to have the wings Of Hermes. It may ride an Argo ship Which has one eye to see its way to fleece And gold, to beauty’s...
by phillipw | Nov 28, 2020 | CR, DO, GO, ME, MU, PH, SP, SU
Still God Amphibole Tremolite-121232. By Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10140515 Suppose that God could resurrect you whole, By quarks and hadrons, nth particle by Nth...
by phillipw | Nov 24, 2020 | A, CL, ED, EN, MU, NO, PE, PH, PI
“Orpheus with his lute made trees” Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem For Philippe Entremont What use is music lacking fingers, strings, And tremolo, the purity of voice Of flute in Grieg’s concerto,...
by phillipw | Nov 12, 2020 | DE, DI, MU, NE, SE, VI
Flies “I am a crazed dingo with fresh babies lying in a circle around me.” ~ Jaime Mathis, It Rises and Falls In Dennis Nilsen’s dreams a garland of Young men is laid out all around him for His delectation. They had wanted love (Or maybe Smirnoff...
by phillipw | Nov 2, 2020 | CO, CY, GE, Ho, MU, NA, PO, PR, ZY
Zyklon B The darkness hangs so heavy it might make A sound if struck. The darkness is like black So weighty nightmares might begin to shake If they encountered it. Hearts might attack It. Hearts are only hearts, though. They are made Of blood and...
by phillipw | Oct 16, 2020 | HE, MU, PE, PO, SE, SI, SO, VA
The Point of Poetry and Song Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A poem or a song can be as fierce As knife points. They are neutral, though, about The hole they make. They care not whom they pierce...
by phillipw | Sep 15, 2020 | AB, AN, MU, RE
Laius and Jocasta, Medea, etc. Simone de Beauvoir speaks of passion “born from love to murder love.” Does she mean women (or their men) who want Abortions after passion (or just sex Or lust)? Does she mean women born to haunt The cosmos with those listless babies,...
by phillipw | Aug 4, 2020 | BE, EA, LI, MU, OR, PH, PO, SO, Uncategorized
Initiations “Every word was once a poem” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, “The Poet” “A single letter was a matter of life and death.” ~ Anne Michaels The alphabets came late, like virgins to A wedding feast. The clauses, words, and grunts Of love were...
by phillipw | Jul 20, 2020 | AN, AR, DE, DO, IM, JE, MU, OL, OR, PI, PO
Πιερία Pieria Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Pieria was laid with plains and peaks, The highest one Olympus, when the gods Set forth the world. Poseidon’s seashore speaks And gives...
by phillipw | Jul 16, 2020 | AP, DI, GO, LI, ME, MU, PO, RH
The Cavern Leading to the Muses When Linus first invented rhythm with A melody in song, the beauty came Ideal — so lovely that a sacred myth Could not compete. Apollo could not tame A thing so perfect, so he had to kill The poet. Deity must never lose With humans,...
by phillipw | Jul 13, 2020 | AR, IN, MU, NO, PA, PO, TI, TS
Piéria Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “the Muses’ ancient home between the roots of Olympus and the sea; to where ‘Pēneus rolls his fountains Against the morning star’.” ~ F. L....
by phillipw | Jul 12, 2020 | AM, AN, AR, MA, MU, PO, ST
Music, Poetry, and Architecture, All from Mathematics Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The poet Amphion rebuilt the streets And temples, houses, and the stoa of The ruined Cadmeia. His lyric beats Were...
by phillipw | Jul 6, 2020 | JA, MA, ME, MU, OR
Dissonance in Early Poetry Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse The primal poet sang at Jason’s feast, At Jason’s wedding to Medea. Gods Are vile: the marriage’s allure deceased As Orpheus’s melody, at odds With fate, began to fill...
by phillipw | Jul 6, 2020 | AN, IN, MA, MI, MU
Daedalus and Icarus Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “The natural rhythms of Greek [poetry] tend ‘downward,’ falling” ~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 14 How strange it is to think that ancient...
by phillipw | May 27, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, PA, TI
7/8 II suggest you read this sonnet in tandem with “Prime,” one of the sonnets in the sonnet sequence about Parry in the general Encyclopedia Sonnetica.] “Jerusalem” and “I was glad” have made Us think of him as if he were no more Than...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | BL, CH, HU, MU, PA, SA, WE
Inklings “We hear of his composing chants and hymn-tunes when he was about eight”. Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1928), 55 Some chants and melodies for hymns at eight Gave childhood hints, yet first among the strong To forge him...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | BR, CH, ED, HI, Ho, HU, MU, PA
Holy Innocence We wonder if the organist who spelled Out basic counterpoint and how to write Down harmony knew that this later swelled To eight-part glory in a music bright As heaven’s capital with streets of gold And gem foundations. Highnam’s Edward...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, PA, SA, TW, WE
Early Sprinkling by Samuel Sebastian Wesley From Twyford deeper waters start to flow. At least that is the place where Wesley poured The priming of the well. The master’s glow Went down into the learner’s core. The chord Struck then could not be banished by the will...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | BA, CH, JO, LU, MU, PA, SA, WE
The Music Historian “Johann Sebastian Bach: the Story of the Development of a Great Personality (1909), [was] rated by The Times as his most important book” ~ Wikipedia Nobility and grandeur at the height Of music, that is what the boy was taught By Wesley. ...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | BA, CH, HU, JO, MU, PA
At the Solitary Age of Twelve— Seven and Twelve Being Holy Numbers The first of seven early music books Reveals a boy methodical as Bach. He studies Bach’s first 48. He looks In detail, analyzing. “Let us talk,” He seems to say, “Just you and I alone. You...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, PA
Harmony in Horticulture So chants and hymn tunes seem to be his first Attempts and one, an LM tune, was for The Church of England hymnal. This young burst Of writing, this foundation made the soar To heights his possibility. From these, These simple seeds, his...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, ET, HU, MU, PA
Revising Early Compositions at the Age of Seventeen, Eton In 1865 at seventeen The Eton schoolboy cast his eyes back through His early compositions. With their sheen Of amateurishness he held the view That they should be revised or put away. Imagine being so advanced...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, ET, HU, MU, PA
Forced Freedom Emily Daymond surveys the Eton schoolboy’s self-assessment of his music while a teenager reacting partly to his composition teacher giving him only fugue and canon assignments. At Eton Hubert’s music was addressed By him in daily entries in...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, PA
Intellectualized Emotion The young Parry put into his jottings that his favourite among them all was “my grand fugue in G major with three (own) subjects.” “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp.” ~ Robert Browning He kept on writing at the tough one though,...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, OR, PA, SC
Greatness Rises On February 22 the grand Fugue rose from all the instrument the first Time. Strength, complexity and subjects fanned Out through the air. The young man’s music burst Out from mere theory and ink when played By Dr Elvey. Augmentation...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, PA, SC
A Canon “Written in School” —in a Geometry Lesson? His later comment on his childhood work Remarks on one of these, a canon, that It was “Written in School.” Did he shirk His classroom duties, hiding where he sat Behind the others doing problems from A lesson...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, PA
“and goes on thus contentedly to the end” He learned to change a canon’s form when need Required a shift. He might repeat a tune Two measures later underneath the seed He planted. Still, if that did not commune When he went on in combination, he Would then commit the...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, CL, ET, HU, LU, MU, PA
Heart Trouble Where does music come from? Does it come from Heart wounds? No. Music is at first derived From minds. It offers mathematics’ thrum For ears. At Eton teenage Parry thrived On music and on sport in spite of heart Disease becoming palpable. ...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | AN, AU, BA, CH, HU, IN, JO, LU, MU, PS
Psalm 130 From out of depths of sorrow came the sounds Of Parry’s anthem (first of all) “In my Distress.” The music came from deep chest wounds Und Bach and Luther. Anguish reaches sky And heaven only when the music climbs From sources such as...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, ET, Ho, HU, MU, PA, PE
The Pergola of Composition “There is also a setting of Horace’s Ode ‘Persicos odi puer apparatus,’ for A.T.B.B. ‘written in school [Eton College] , February 22, 1865’ ”. ~ Emily Daymond, 77 As strange as ancient Persia might have seemed To sixteen-year-old Parry...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MA, MU, PA, SC, SH, WI
With a Pretty Ding, Dong, Bell “This has a very pretty madrigalian ‘Ding, dong, bell’ ending.” ~ Emily Daymond, 77 At 15 Hubert tried his hand at straight Poetic madrigal, a Shakespeare song, In “Tell Me, Where is Fancy Bred?” The gate Of fancy is our eyes and where...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | BA, CH, HU, MU, PA
O Head Full of Blood and Wounds Before his fourteenth year the boy wrote down A melody like Bach’s “O Haupt voll Blut Und Wunden,” but the sixth note did not frown. Instead it mounted up. It took a route More positive. Prophetic nearly, one Might say, when looking...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, PA, SC
Prime [I suggest you read this poem in tandem with the sonnet called “7/8” in the general Encyclopedia Sonnetica.] The first real piece by Parry, or the one He called his first, reveals through notes his clear And sweet imagination. He has...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, ET, HU, MU, PA, SC
Strength through Dedication At Eton Parry moved to start the task Of bettering his pieces written there, An early sign which shows that he would ask Himself to work perfection through his care And dent of work, a tough composer from The start—and strained to win at...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, HU, MU, PA
“Thoughts of . . . Summer half, 1865” A piece just eight bars long is pregnant with Vague meaning and with secrecy. A man (Not quite) is burdened with Victorian myth Of sex as tight as whalebone girdles can Impose on him. On top of that he’s just a boy At school...
by phillipw | May 25, 2020 | ET, HU, MU, PA
A Lively Hope– A sonnet sequence on the childhood, Eton College years, and music of Sir Hubert Parry [FOR AN ILLUSTRATED VERSION OF THIS SONNET SEQUENCE GO TO https://classicalpoets.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/A-Lively-Hope.pdf where it was first...
by phillipw | May 21, 2020 | BO, MU, PO
World Book Is there a book which you would choose to be The World when this one is destroyed, say, slim Selections of this earth’s best poetry On silk imprinted and with gilded trim? Or would you choose an ivory book of runes Encrypting lost religions...
by phillipw | May 21, 2020 | AN, MU, RE, SA, WI
A Tenor in the Choir His face is like a student I once taught; Not just the pupil’s eyes, the brightness, too, And humor in the face, with freckles fraught, A gratifying galaxy, a slew Of them across his cheeks, his brow, his nose. It seems as if each stipple...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | AN, CR, CU, EG, MU, SE
Pious, Pious, Pious Papyri Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem If you were set the challenge, “Think about The most surreal conflation of some facts From distant times,” I wager (with no doubt That I would...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | BA, CO, FO, GA, JE, LU, MU
Foucault Addresses Barraqué After his Death Invisible inside sapphiric blue, Pale beauty was the hidden man. Your need To hide–conceal yourself, seek to subdue All revelation of your soul, impede Not only others but your mouth and hand From searching out your...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | HE, LO, MU, RO
Beyoncé, Beethoven and Bach Job 38:7 The woman sings her peppermint-ish thing. The Germans do their heavy stomach stuff, A fugue, a symphony and Wagner’s Ring Mit Heldentenors set against her fluff. Bob Dylan and Bob Marley offer wells With rhythm and guitar and...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | DE, LO, MU
Music is Not Composed of Ideals Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem An aria forever means what you Will be. A Donizetti sea of notes, Or Wagner in a score (Luzern-like blue), A song that Mendelssohn...
by phillipw | May 17, 2020 | AN, MU, OR, PO, Uncategorized
The Soaring of the Tenor Voice Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When Orpheus was on the “Argo,” he Was cox. He beat the rhythm of the oars’ Strokes for the heroes as they sailed the sea Of myth. His...
by phillipw | May 13, 2020 | AR, IN, MU
The Vanishing Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem A perfect poem that a poet knew (Or nearly knew) attempted to escape From in his ribs and mind. It almost grew. He got a glimpse of it, its shining...
by phillipw | May 13, 2020 | FE, ME, MU, RI, RO, WA
The Descent from the Scottish Highlands and Luzern Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The melodies that go on long and fine, And long and long, without a gap or pause Streamed out from Mendelssohn. An...
by phillipw | May 12, 2020 | BI, KI, MO, MU
What Understanding Does: a Pair of Sonnets Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Son of man, can these bones live?” ~ Ezekiel 37:3 When faith is in retreat, then scripture reads More beautifully,...
by phillipw | May 10, 2020 | MU, PO
Guillaume de Machaut Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When strictest music and trim verse forms come Together, then is beauty found. Across In England Chaucer listened to succumb To Guillaume’s...
by phillipw | May 6, 2020 | AN, BO, HE, IN, LO, MU, RO, ST
Never Land Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Ordinarily, romantic love is a popular theme in ancient India’s epics as well as in numerous plays that revolve around the romances of...
by phillipw | May 6, 2020 | MU, PE
Morning Stars Sang Together “Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion” The music of the perfect spheres was heard By no one. Melodies or chords they made Stretched out like silence. They became absurd. Copernicus and Galileo swayed Them into nothingness. ...
by phillipw | May 3, 2020 | AN, Ho, MU, OE, PO
Magnetized Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Just as a magnet attracts iron rings and induces in those rings the power to attract others, so the Muse inspires a chain of people possessed by...
by phillipw | Apr 26, 2020 | LE, MU, VE
Donna Leon I’m tired of Donna, not of Venice, though. Brunetti is still likeable enough And Paola’s improved a bit. The slow Starts to the crime plots make it tough For readers used to fiction of this kind, Detective novels. Some might think,...
by phillipw | Mar 21, 2020 | MU, PO
Cacti and Porcupines “fixing emblazoned zones and fiery poles” ~ Wallace Stevens in “The Idea of Order at Key West” If I composed in music, I would fix Its tones like amber set on fire and launch The rhythms into space. The notes would mix With flames at...
by phillipw | Mar 11, 2020 | ME, MU
Mendelssohn without the Strains of Music How plain and stultified is music on The printed page, but stiff black staves and straight Blocked measures have a graceful antiphon Of phrase marks and of oval notes. Collate These with the treble clef and bass clef to Obtain...
by phillipw | Mar 10, 2020 | AN, HE, LE, MU
Whistling in Koranic Wind “We will meet in the Paradise of free souls to which you will never have access.” ~ Antoine Leiris addressing the islamists who murdered his wife, Helène Muyal Helène Muyal A sentiment so lovely must be true. At least the part of us some...
by phillipw | Mar 10, 2020 | KI, MU
King’s Dreary The sky lies blue on top of still canals In Cambridge. Perpendicular, the thrust Of King’s attempts to leave the drear locales And gravity behind. The sound of trust Arises from the boys’ voices in The soaring chapel...
by phillipw | Mar 5, 2020 | IN, MA, MU
Progressive Mathematics as Stanzas When poetry was mathematics back In distant, ancient India, the lines Were full of meanings that our poems lack Today. With sinuousity of vines Instead of straight or angled equals marks And long equations on the smoothed out...
by phillipw | Mar 3, 2020 | MU
Pathetique, Movement Four, First Parts ….. Most beautiful is music which is sad. This music is most beautiful because It follows rules of longing, pain unclad By silk, or any of the convent laws Of stoicism, but, instead the codes In agony, and these invade...
by phillipw | Jan 27, 2020 | MO, MU
The 12 Ensemble in St James’s, Piccadilly, Twentieth-Century Music Like ghosts refusing to waver because They are in a church, strings abandon form. An eeriness gripped, disabused of laws, A tremoloed intensity, not warm By any means, gnashes, sails, gnaws and slides...
by phillipw | Jan 24, 2020 | MU
The Muse Where silence is, no music can exist As long as quietude remains. Relief Comes flooding in a man who has been kissed By love or even lust as strong as grief. When silence is replaced by roaring sound, That sound we name amour, then need...
by phillipw | Dec 30, 2019 | AA, KO, MU
A-ak A-ak—one of three forms of ancient Korean court music Now think of things that have no connection With you, or almost none. A-ak measures From eons past, beyond resurrection, Those notes and rhythms that once were treasures Of thin...
by phillipw | Nov 28, 2019 | MU
Composed Chaos on Radio 3 A virus in ensemble with the slink Of lizard made this drivel. Break it on Your skulls. Reject it or the sounds will stink. If it were only boring, you could yawn The noise away, but it’s annoying. The virus is like AIDS. It got its grip...
by phillipw | Nov 27, 2019 | MU
[I read a newspaper article about a composer who has written an opera about alzheimer’s dementia. Among other things the composer learned about dementia is that the musical abilities of the patient do not disappear while so much else in the brain is...
by phillipw | Nov 19, 2019 | AN, MU, PO
The Greek Gods Must Have Loved Simplistic Singing Fragment of Oxyrynchus hymn, Wikipedia The ancient Greeks were primitive about Their choral music. It was like a grade School choir in unison, with notes devout In worship of Apollo. One lyre played— Or aulos with...
by phillipw | Oct 15, 2019 | MU
Schematics vs. Rubato A music that is mostly logic breaks The purpose. Why make strictest melodies And madrigals that imitate stone snakes In formal basalt if the urge to please Is what should be consulted for the ear? If every sterling sound is settled...
by phillipw | Jul 24, 2019 | MU, RE
………..Religion in its Place “Music continuing the beauty of poetry without its idea” ~ Maurice Rollinat You know how music pieces for a choir Or smaller sets of human voice will end With instrumental music, with no fire Of words aflame...
by phillipw | Jul 24, 2019 | MA, MU
Pious, Pious, Pious Papyri If you were set the challenge, “Think about The most surreal conflation of the facts From distant times,” I wager (with no doubt That I would win the bet) that certain acts In ancient Egypt would be well beyond Your best (or worst)...