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Really quite amazing things I can't explain
I've given up on being productive for the evening, because "Written by the Victors" has stuck with me, and will probably stick with me for a while, and has caused me to think about things.
Namely, time and music I really, really like.
It's one of those stories that participates so deeply in time--the past, present, future--and where there's so much of it, no horizon or ceiling, but at the same time there's not enough. I feel the same way about it as I feel about the end of Leah and Springwoof's The Body Holographic, which always makes my heart stutter and twist in my chest, it's so inutterably beautiful. Not just because of the characters, but because of their relationship to time--not history (though that's part of it, I guess) but the way they reach out and inhabit places as far as I myself can travel, and when I advance a little more into the future, they're still there, and even recede from me, so I have to chase after them even though I know I'll never catch them.
Augustine once wrote that he knew what time was until someone asked him to define it, and then the knowledge of it would leave him. And I can't explain it either, how thinking about the stretch of time, all its potentialities, makes me dizzy and euphoric and feel full of potential myself, like I could jump in a car or a space ship and drive forever. It's the same way I feel looking up into a clear sky at night--just infinity, forward and back and everywhere around, everywhere to go.
Okay. I'll try not to wax rhapsodic any more tonight *wry look* But before I go, one more rec for you all, a music one this time.
Thomas Tallis, "Spem in alium" and "Blessed are those who be undefiled"
Tallis was a Renaissance composer of liturgical music, and wrote both Latin and English pieces for Henry VIII, Mary Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth. "Spem in alium," one of his most famous pieces, is a motet for forty voices, and is... well, please listen to it, because I can't find the words to describe it. And before you run screaming away from religious music, let me say this:
I'm not religious, but for me, beauty is almost an article of faith in the way I see the world; if the pastor at my (profoundly) Christian school had had me listen to this, I would have been an instantaneous and unquestioning believer, instead of the cynic I am today. The first time I heard "Spem in alium" was when I was half asleep and NPR came on, and I lay there in bed dying in the music, one of the few times in my life I really have been ecstatic--divorced from my body, with a beautiful, ordered world spread out before me.
Namely, time and music I really, really like.
It's one of those stories that participates so deeply in time--the past, present, future--and where there's so much of it, no horizon or ceiling, but at the same time there's not enough. I feel the same way about it as I feel about the end of Leah and Springwoof's The Body Holographic, which always makes my heart stutter and twist in my chest, it's so inutterably beautiful. Not just because of the characters, but because of their relationship to time--not history (though that's part of it, I guess) but the way they reach out and inhabit places as far as I myself can travel, and when I advance a little more into the future, they're still there, and even recede from me, so I have to chase after them even though I know I'll never catch them.
Augustine once wrote that he knew what time was until someone asked him to define it, and then the knowledge of it would leave him. And I can't explain it either, how thinking about the stretch of time, all its potentialities, makes me dizzy and euphoric and feel full of potential myself, like I could jump in a car or a space ship and drive forever. It's the same way I feel looking up into a clear sky at night--just infinity, forward and back and everywhere around, everywhere to go.
Okay. I'll try not to wax rhapsodic any more tonight *wry look* But before I go, one more rec for you all, a music one this time.
Thomas Tallis, "Spem in alium" and "Blessed are those who be undefiled"
Tallis was a Renaissance composer of liturgical music, and wrote both Latin and English pieces for Henry VIII, Mary Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth. "Spem in alium," one of his most famous pieces, is a motet for forty voices, and is... well, please listen to it, because I can't find the words to describe it. And before you run screaming away from religious music, let me say this:
I'm not religious, but for me, beauty is almost an article of faith in the way I see the world; if the pastor at my (profoundly) Christian school had had me listen to this, I would have been an instantaneous and unquestioning believer, instead of the cynic I am today. The first time I heard "Spem in alium" was when I was half asleep and NPR came on, and I lay there in bed dying in the music, one of the few times in my life I really have been ecstatic--divorced from my body, with a beautiful, ordered world spread out before me.
no subject
Have you had the chance to hear the King's Singers perform some of Tallis's music? It's incredibly ethereal, haunting and beautiful. You can hear a bit from it here (http://www.kingssingers.com/recordings/rec_speminalium.htm). I also have a wonderful recording by the Tallis Scholars.
Thanks for the file--I'll listen to it this morning--should give me a *much* better outlook on the day.
*hugs*
~Kris
no subject
It's such a wonderful religion to have! I have a Tallis Scholars recording too, and it's pretty much on constant rotation on my computer and iPod--just incredibly beautiful.