Thoreau, from May 27, 1851:
I saw an organ-grinder this morning before a rich man’s house, thrilling the street with harmony, loosening the very paving stones and tearing the routine of life to rags and tatters, when the lady of the house shoved up a window and in a semiphilanthropic tone inquired if he wanted anything to eat. But he, very properly it seemed to me, kept on grinding and paid no attention to her question, feeding her ears with melody unasked for. So the world shoves up its window and interrogates the poet, and sets him to gauging ale casks in return. It seemed to me that the music suggested that the recompense should be as fine as the gift. It would be much nobler to enjoy the music, though you paid no money for it, than to presume always a beggarly relation. It is after all, perhaps, the best instrumental music that we have.
A complex quote, for as you will hear below, it is not clear which is the kinder gift.
mp3: Chiappa Barrel Organ – Daisy Bell and Oh Mr. Porter
[tags]Thoreau, barrel+organ[/tags]
It was a rainy day here on Bowen Island, so I pushed around some pieces of my blog. Readers familiar with the evolution of Parking Lot over the past four years will remember that I once devoted a great deal of time to reading poetry and collecting the work of poets I admire. I have reset those collections, and you can find them on the sidebar in the “Collections of poetry” page. The Denise Levertov collection is still one of the most popular pages on this whole site.
Also in the sidebar is a restoration of a page that has also been popular over the years. Forty Meditation Practices is a small collection of forty ways to practice in four positions. No excuse now.
Finally, there is the page that contains links to my Webjay playlists called simply Free Music. There you will find the “Parking Lot Soundtrack” to which I will now add the following track, a traditional Norwegian song hauntingly sung in a tomb by Unni Løvlid. Enjoy the beauty!
[tags]Denise+Levertov, Seamus+Heaney, Derek+Walcott, Jorie+Graham, poetry, meditation[/tags]
Digdig: Rene Lacaille and Bob Brozman: An amazing collaboration between American guitarist Bob Brozman, and Reunion accordionist, Rene Lecaille. Enjoy!
There are many ways of producing overtones in music. Anyone who vibrates air in a tube for a living produces overtones as their way of making music. THis includes brass players, didgeridoo, alpenhorn and so on. Buglers get their notes strictly from overtones, as they have no keys on their instruments. And of course, vocally, it is possible to produce overtomes as well, giving the eerie sounds of Tuuvan throat singing.
i love overtones because they remind me that there is so much more to the music than what is immediately audible. It is a good teaching that the ethereal lives in the mundane.
Today I stumbled on the site of the Swiss duet Stimmhorn and I found some amazing overtones. Have a listen for yourself.
My friend Viv McWaters sends this note from Australia:
“I’m just back from three days at the Port Fairy Folk Festival where I immersed myself in great music and bands and came away with lots of thoughts about how facilitators can learn a lot from musicians.
The stand out performer was Harry Manx – a Canadian Blues/folk performer who combines traditional blues, amazing slide guitar, mohan veena, mandolin and harmonica and vocals with traditional Indian music. He says on the CD notes “Mantras for Madmen”: ‘When the silence between the notes says as much as the notes themselves, like the gap between the breaths, it’s all good. The way I see it, Blues is like the earth and Indian music is like the heavens. What I do is find the balance between the two.”
I’d be happy if I could facilitate half as well as he performs – seamlessly collaborating with his harmonica player and percussionist; connecting with the audience; reading the mood; improvising when a guitar string breaks; changing the pace; being silent; and making everyone feel privileged to be alive and here, now. That’s what I aspire to be able to do when I facilitate.”
Yup, me too. Here’s Harry, a fellow Gulf Islander, hailing from Salt Spring Island to the south of us here.