subscribeAug 27, 2008
what can i say now that’s not as indistinguishable as two instruments hitting the same note at the same time with the same vibrato?
Since we’re being honest, I’ll offer this:
Vibrato has always made me sad.
Manipulating air, bending
a perfectly serviceable tone
for no reason other than to inject
something uniquely human.
Why must we put on such displays,
approach our music as if every piece
were a dirge that we should heave
and huff our way through, taking up
and expelling oxygen in bursts,
the way our mothers breathed
when they pushed us into the world,
begged to be rid of us and, once they were,
relaxed back into natural respiration.
Because vibrato is impossible on the clarinet,
it comes closest to the squawk of a goose.
And if you blow into the nose holes
of a goose that’s been felled, or so I am told,
you can play it’s clean brittle song.
It’s hard to hear a conversation like this without wanting to join in… Particularly as I’m a singer as well as a poet…
[...] 28, 2008 · No Comments Dear Dana and [...]
[...] Depression August 30th, 2008 This entry is part 6 of 6 in the series Blogging the AppalachiansDear Dana, [...]
Vibrato as world’s breath sustained, stopping time — an opus contra natruum? And does all music come from the dead? (Hermes fashioned the first musical instrument out of the shell of a tortoise he had slain.) Is all art stolen fire?
Brendan, I like the questions you ask, the way you think. You’re my kinda person.
[...] this conversation and invite others to join in, because why not? It’s a world-wide web. See Dana’s response to me, and Lirone’s response to [...]