WHEN THE MUSIC DIES We’ll forget a while the wholesale murders going-on in Gaza, until such time as we are called upon to bear witness, at which point Netanyahu’s defense will be found wanting, alongside the arguments of every homunculus who is, at present, supporting him. When a Musician dies, whole bits and pieces of the World fall away with him. I should know. My Father was a musician, a virtuoso straddling three (musical) worlds, and the epithet across his gravestone records the fact that he was just, such a musician (I wrote the epithet, in part based upon a poem written by my mother while they were alive). I’m not talking about the technical skill, on guitar, piano or accordeon (all three applying in the case concerning). I’m not even talking about the peculiar originality of the individual musician, though musical sensibility and personal touch (‘style’) is part of the unique equation. I am talking about the repertory; I’m talking about the stock of songs and musical culture that die away with them, universally known, or obscurely remembered, or otherwise, but which we all have to learn again or they will be forever lost. This was the essential apprehension behind the success of Don McLean’s Anthem song “American Pie” (“The Day the Music Died”), referring specifically to the losses of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Vallens and “The Big Bopper” (Jiles Perry Richardson), when their plane crashed in February of 1959. McLean, of course, was writing from within the bubble of American Exceptionalism. There was much that the song necessarily ignored, including how often it had happened before, and how often it would happen again, but barring some somewhat surrealistic lyrics, including their references to a subject that he knew nothing about (“death”, for to speak authoritatively about death, you must have learned something of it yourself during your life – the deaths of others will not do -), their intention was correct, and so was their execution. When a Musician dies, the whole world laments what is lost, for what is lost, no less than in Painting, or in Literature, but in a far more ephemeral form, represents a conquest of the world by the musical spirit, a victory, or series of victories, which we all share, in which we rejoice, and which we celebrate, because they enrich our lives as only the victories of culture over the world, can (nothing else can). The pictures below are of Carlos Gardel, Joseph Zarb, Paco de Lucia, and Gordon Travis. When a Musician dies, “The Devil” does indeed “Laugh with delight” (Don McLean “American Pie” 1971).
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 01:27:25 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015