Day 30 ~ Music

Music, music, music,

My head is full of music

and memories interlaced with tunes

Woven into patterns and wandering variations

New melodies unlocked by changing keys

The moods of major, minor

Triumphant shifts then pathos

To rest in lullaby and memories of dreams.

Day 28 ~ Festival

Music brought us all together

Sun or rain didn’t matter

We went dancing in the mud.

Student, hippy, drop-out, traveller, punk,

There was no real space between us.

Hendrix, Dylan, Floyd, The Clash, Sabbath and Santana

Floated us above the void.

Keith Richards punching rhythm bound us to the bouncing beat

and brought us prancing us to our feet

We had a vision; a world with no divisions,

Positive the world could change.

We were busy looking inward

So it’s not so strange

We didnt see ourselves surrounded

By the swiftly gathering chains.

DAY 24 ~ The Velvet Fist

If music is the food of love

Turn it down, don’t sing along.

All those words of sweet romance

Lull us in a lovestruck trance.

Loves and doves and stars above

Disguise the fist in velvet glove.

The honeymoons that don’t last long

Soon grow cold, as does the song.

Day 15 ~ Four Minutes of Mozart

The opening solo piano
repeats the same phrase twice,
building allegro, staccato,
with a sound that is sunny and bright.
At ten seconds
the orchestra enters
and repeats the piano’s part,
as we move into diminuendo
and the strings come to the fore.
The whole rises and falls.
The higher-pitched strings
float, glissando, up above it all.
The lower-pitched strings
hold an underlying staccato.
Between solo and orchestra,
the dynamic range expands.
Solo and tutti explore
emotional dialogues
to a turn of recognition
as they seek for a surprise.
A brief phrase of only four notes,
which is twice repeated,
without the final fourth note,
is then, repeated in full.
These notes are neatly pinpointed
by an increase in swelling dynamics
on each first note of the phrase.
After thirty-four seconds
a note takes the air
from woodwind sustaining a breath
leading into a swelling melody
from the strings with a smooth,
rich texture of resonant sound.
The original tune is repeated twice,
glissando, by the strings,
introducing the horn in the second repeat.
The sound becomes transparent,
while the dynamics slowly increase.
The structure consistently rises,
then cascades downward in ripples,
triples, suggesting a shifting breeze
coming to rushing crescendo
at moment 01:01.
There is a brief finality, at 1:04,
with an emphatic chord.
At 1:05 the piano solo
re-enters with tender grace
and a poignant interpretation
follows the melody.
There is a key change to the minor.
The heart lurches and weeps.
From 1:30 to 1:44 the orchestral accompaniment
gradually becomes emphatic,
more, with a falling scale
behind the rising solo
which is repeated only twice.
The next section concludes
with a final note, down,
on the piano at 2:08
and an orchestral chord
followed by a silence
of one brief vital pulse.
At 2:11 the piano
seeking heaven,
makes an allegro,
bright and joyous return
to the main melody
this is echoed
by the orchestra
with amplified dynamics
until 2:46,
when the orchestra plays
a stately passage,
which the soloist repeats.
At 2:53 the soloist brings
a series of ascending scales
in allegro repetitions
until 3:06 when it’s mirrored
in reverse
in repeating descending scales,
against a simple staccato beat.
This repeats with increasing dynamics
dancing until 3:17
skipping between
and then calms until 3:27.
The orchestra falls silent.
The soloist is alone,
seeking heaven,
with repetitious notes,
entering a rapidly descending scale
until 3:40 which reverses, to ascend,
before falling, pianissimo at 3:39.
There is again a pause of one pulse.
So fine, so touching, the heart skips a beat.
As the fourth minute begins
the solo brightly repeats, allegro,
the central melody twice.
The final ten seconds are tutti, played forte
with final force.
The piece is sometimes playful,
sometimes wistful and poignant,
more beautiful for the contrast
between yearning and joyousness.
Mozart plays with emotions
just as he plays with the keys.
Music surpasses words.

 
(Piano Concerto C Major K.415 Rondeau Allegro – which is actually 8 minutes long. I analyses half for this writing)

Day 14 ~ Shunning Poetry

In my teens I tried to write
But other voices squeezed my ear
In bed at night I oft times heard
The whisperings of sensuous Keats.
I thought that I should ‘modernise’
I sensed I should not be archaic,
Speaking from another time,
And so I read all the poets
Scrawling words on backroom presses,
The ones they published in black ink
That stained my stubby finger nails.
They shunned rhyme, rhythm, soundscapes
Often angry, sometimes clever.
Derivative, derivative
Was the cry that pinned me down.
So I put away all books
And went to listen, kept my silence,
As poets talked all night
Over wine and cigarettes.
I heard the need to find your voice,
The need to fall in love with words,
The need to see it as a puzzle,
Never driven by ideas.
Let sounds and music steer your way
And see the thoughts emerge

Afternoon Angels

Afternoon angels,
open-handed,
offer us
apocalypse apples
from the Nine Omens Orchard of Dread.

I awaken,
shaking my head.

There were birds
born of bullets,
packed in hospital ice,
their beaks, shrieking,
for lemon and life.

The rain ran in shivers
but found no swelled rivers.
I set the sails of the season.
Clouds.
Winds.
Shrouds.

In Covent Garden

i saw them in Covent Garden
an old Chinese man
with a face like a moon
his skin stretched tight over his cheeks bones
a peaceful look in his eyes
he played an instrument I’d never seen
clear bell notes in sunlight shone
a reminder of snow on high peaks
the girl played a wooden flute
she swayed on the breeze
fragile, a tender flower
just beginning to bloom
her eyes held no secrets
i was swept away on the tune

Caramel (a found poem)

‘I am melted’ she said,
sighing to music

like ice-cream?
like cheese?
like chocolate?
I asked her, concerned

”I think like hot fudge syrup,
yes like that”
thoughtfully she replied,
looking in my eyes,
dripping caramel

I’m so glad it’s not like a candle!
I would hate her to burn away and go out
leaving me with no light
especially on a such a magical night
as this

***************

the ‘melt’ music ~ The Way You Look Tonight by Dolls Combers

Faded

when you wake from a dream

into which you had drifted

if you sleep again quickly

you can dream it again

but it’s never the same

 

the scenery’s shifted,  it’s not as it seemed

where there were roses, there’s only a shadow

the windows are dimmed,  the doors won’t open

the music that played changed key long ago

 

the dream that you dreamed

has floated away

 

 

Snow

the howl of this desolate place

is the summation of me

out in the snowy wastes

alone, unloved and free

the wind is the music of flutes

leaping over my roof

pure and constant and clear