CONSPIRATORIAL OLD SALT

There exists a certain subtype of elderly gentleman who cultivates a dogged slyness, wryness, and generally boyish conspiratorialiness which he nevers fails to impart to the younger generation on the slightest provocation. He habitually wears a wrinkled grin which belies an otherwise crusty demeanor, and, as he speaks, creeps ever closer to his interlocutor until he eventually delivers his point -- or, most likely, punchline -- with an enormous upper-body gesture aimed directly at one or other of the same interlocutor's ears. Where does this subtype dwell, you ask? He dwells nowhere, but roams the ins and outs of existence in a pickup with 370,000+ miles on it he's owned for 27 years ("And I've only got two payments left"), and stops for nothing. Except gas. And cigarettes.

And thus ends a belated and dismal attempt to channel a slightly better-adjusted latter day Thackeray.

And reminder to self to write on Holst/Keats connection.

MEUS CAVALOS NÃO COMEM ARROZ: DUOLINGO

My horses don't eat rice.

I've been plugging along in Duolingo now for about a week, tapping out translations to appease the slightly deranged specimen of avian viridity pictured at left. It's not exactly plunge-in-headfirst immersion like I'm used to, but I can't imagine it could hurt anything. The system itself is as streamlined as a greased neutrino, and works just dandy on my iDevice of choice. I would take issue with the lack of up-front and out-in-the-open vocab/grammar lists -- of course this would be solved if I actually bothered to take notes and/or spend 10 seconds on Google -- but Duolingo makes the process of taking a neverending stream of pop quizzes so palatable that it's hard to really fault it.

For no particular reason, I choice to go with Portuguese as a first taste of Duolingo. Unfortunately, this may've been a poor choice when it comes to actually writing a review of same, since the lingo bears such a close resemblance to Spanish/French that it's difficult to tell how well that trippin' bird's actually teaching me. So guess I'll just check in once I start Irish. Or Russian, which is supposedly coming online in the Fall/thenabouts. Once Russian and Yiddish are put up, I will be a happy, happy goy.

SILLY SONGS WITH GUSTAVUS

The horror^2.

Reason numero uno I can't take Holst seriously (besides the mug featured in previous post): The lower brass part in Dirge for Two Veterans reminds me of the theme song to Veggie Tales. En fait, I literally can't hear that song without seeing Larry the Cucumber's terrifying visage. (Let's face it folks, that cucumber's mouth is one mind-number of a black abyss.) But still, Larry the Cucumber. Playing a dirge. I'm sorry, it just happens.

That being said, I should really give Holst some slack for sounding like a film composer since he seems to've indirectly written the score for two-thirds of the Hollywood movies out there by way of film composers ripping off his stuff.

GUSTAVUS THEODORE VON HOLST BY JUPITER

Can you say dweeb?

I've always had some trouble getting into his music -- smacks overmuch of a self-important film soundtrack -- but Holst has just jumped up a few rungs in my estimation by having enrolled himself in the University College London at age 21 to learn Sanskrit. Kudos Gustavus. Apparently he caught a substantial whiff of the whole craze for exotic Orientalism that ripped through Europe at the time. Or he just read too much Max Müller. I should know all this, but I've really never looked into the man with much thoroughness. Listening to BBC's Composer of the Week bit on him as we speak. Still get too much soundtrack vibes for my taste

Tidbit: Holst is an archaic way of referring to a resident of Holstein (of Schleswig-Holstein fame). The name Holstein in turn derives from a  Saxon tribe variously referred to as Holcetae, Holsati, Holtzati, (per Adam von Bremen); in Holsatiam, Holsatiis (Saxo Grammaticus); Holcete (Annalista Saxo), etc. Bremen interprets the name thusly: "Holcetae, dicti a silvis, quas accolunt."

Johannes Hoops' Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde (accessed gracias Google) etymologizes like so: 1) holt (cf. Holz, Gehölz, Wald) + 2) sat, setio -seton, -seti, -cetae, -saten, -sazon sind auf germ. *setjon, "einer der irgendwo sitzt, lebt, 'Bewohner.' " = Waldsassen, Waldbewohner. In fine: Holst < Holstein < Holt + *setjon = wood-dwellers.

Drool if you must.

THE LAST QUESTION: ARE WE THERE YET?

Paul Lehr. 'Nuff said.

Gonna repost this one cuz it leads with one of my personal all-time favoritest short stories (ergo the entire list must be just fine, oder?) and cuz it puts one of Paul Lehr's glorious hallucinatory extravaganzas front and center.

But just what might that short story be you ask? Oh, just Isaac Asimov's shiveringly delightful The Last Question, which manages to bring a parable-like, anecdotal poignancy to a (literally) out-of-time cosmic scale. I've gone said it before, gone say it again: Non coerceri maximo, contineri minimo, divinum est.

Anyway, the only other story out of the list that I've read is Escape from Spiderhead by the posterchild of every literate American yuppie's pretentious post-DFW mind George Saunders and, while it may not be entirely to my taste, I'll grant that it isn't too shabby in terms of writing.

Since I've been trying to streamline my interests lately -- and, yes, I've resorted to quickie iPhone quizes for some language maintenance -- figure it's as good a time as any to brush up on some shorts stories. And if they're mind-bending as all-get-out, so much the better.

ANGELICA BILTÀ: OUR MAN LANDINI

Daaaaw

If Hildegard von Bingen's the Woman, Francesco Landini's the Man. At least among awesome 13th century composers. Anonymous 4's The Second Circle: Love Songs of Francesco Landini is absospiffinlutely luvverly.

And the NPR website just informed me that the Anonymous 4 group will be retiring this year. And there was much weeping and gnash-gnash-gnashing

Title text is taken from Landini's ballata for 2 voices, S. 54 Angelica biltà venut' è in terra. And here's the text:

Angelica biltà venut' è in terra. 

Dunque ciascun c'ama veder belezza, 

virtù, atti vezosi e legiadria,

vengha veder costei che sol vagheza, 

arà die lei si com' l'anima mia. 

Ma non credo con pace tanta guerra. 

Angelica biltà.

To be perfectly honest I'm not totally sure what the "ma non credo con pace tanta guerra" refers to.

BLOG BACKLOG: UPDATES

Afraid my productivity has slipped a bit of late. Not sure if it's work-related or just getting old. Current status of projects:

Still working through Schulenberg's The Keyboard Music of J.S. Bach a few pieces at a time. Today I listened to a little trio of minuets (BWV 841-843) Bach seems to have used pedagogically. About half-way through. The sheer exhaustiveness of it is impressive, and it complements listening quite well, particularly as Schulenberg doesn't address the listening experience as much as editorial, manuscript and musicological issues behind the song.

Also about halfway through the complete Kinder- und Hausmärchen of the Grimm Bros, which is about as peculiar as you might expect. Unfortunately that's about the only language work I've got at the moment, although I watched a French film pretty much every night in January.

 

MUSIC OF THE SPHERES: NOTE TO SELF

Hildegard von Bingen is joining Boethius as one of the patron saints of my Music of the Spheres superhypernovel.

Why? Because this. And because Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum is Music of the Spheres material, that's why.

HILDEGARD VON BINGEN

Just listened to Sequentia's sublime rendition of Hildegard von Bingen's O vis aeternitatis (~ Power of eternity), the first track on their Canticles of Ecstasy album. Also found (via this page) a link to a image of the original manuscript repro'd below.

Old lady von Bingen is one of the most interesting of many interesting personalities from the Middle Ages. She invented a language, alphabet, composed music, wrote mystical works -- what's not to like? Shamefully, this is the first time I've actually heard any of her music.

Image below's Blatt 466 of the Rupertsberger Riesenkodex, which contains a copy of O vis aeternitatis. The Riesenkodex anthologized all the works of Hildegard von Bingen 12th century style. 466-81 contain her musical compositions. I must needs read this.

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CARMINA BURANA

Bache, bene venies
gratus et optatus
per quem noster animus
fit letificatus.

Thus begins the Clemencic Consort's 3 CD recording of a selection from the Carmina Burana - a collection of Golliard poems/texts/songs from the 11-13th century. Basically, the equivalent of a satirical college student magazine/newspaper done medieval style.

ONE THING I WILL SAY

One thing I will say about working Saturday evenings, you hear some weird music on NPR. The Taco Cats are all the rage in Seattle.