Would you like to come on the radio and record a ten minute
interview, talking about your favourite piece of classical music?
It sounds great but then you get thinking….anything too high
brow I'm going to look like a smart Alex. Anything too lowbrow and I will look
a numpty.
So I emailed back, Are you ok with something that everybody
can hum?
Oh yes, he said, you are a crime writer.
I got the subtext there ( no exclusion on numpties).
BBC Scotland. No need for weather forecast, just look out window
BBC Scotland. No need for weather forecast, just look out window
Not an easy choice. Ben, the lovely production assistant gave
me some advice. ‘Something that means a lot to you, something that you really
relate to or is linked with a special event in your life or your career.’
Inside the BBC
Inside the BBC
I was still stumped. But after a think I picked the one that
made me seem slightly less psychotic than the one I really wanted to choose. O
Fortuna is my favourite but I decided on
the Danse Macabre.
I listen to O Fortuna while walking the dog
just before I write something a bit ‘stalky’ and ‘gruesome’. What I
didn’t realise is that Mondegreens for O Fortuna is some kind of national
sport. Just google, YouTube, O Fortuna Misheard Lyrics, strap yourself in to
prevent injury as you fall about laughing.
You'll never think about North Korea again without imagining an octopus in boots.
(You can see why I felt it best to avoid talking about that piece of music now,
I would have been locked up.)
But what fun a crime writer can have with the ‘ dance around
death’ that is Saint Saen’s Dance Macabre. It’s very clever with its little
question and answer. Are ye dancing? Are ye askin? The fact that it is death
who is doing the asking adds a little frisson.
It started off as a tone poem – just a little narrative told
in seven minutes. In old folklore at
Halloween Death goes back to the graveyard and asks the dead to rise and
dance. (Again on YouTube you can see skeletons doing breakdancing and aerobics to
the tune.) It starts with the harp
sounding the 12 chimes of midnight, and ends with the cock crowing the new dawn
(oboe). If you listen carefully you can hear the dialogue between death and the
dead. I did read somewhere that the violin is tuned slightly differently to
give it that discordant sound, it just feels slightly uneasy as it reaches the
ear. Somewhere in the middle is a sample of tone of the Gregorian chants from
the Requiem Mass.
The Lord Of The Danse
The Lord Of The Danse
The ‘Danse Macabre’ poem which was written two years before the
orchestral piece, was all about liberty and egalitarianism - death being the
great leveller - The Grim Reaper will summon representatives from all walks of
life to dance, the emperor will dance with the pauper. And the tone of the poem
does suggest that there is a ‘desire for amusement’ while amusement is still
possible.
“Emperor, your sword won't help you out
Sceptre and crown are worthless here
I've taken you by the hand
For you must come to my dance
Whether rich or poor, all are equal in death."
The English translation of the poem by Henri Cazalis says
‘Striking a tomb with his heel,
Death at midnight plays a dance-tune,
You can hear the cracking of the bones of the dancers.
A lustful couple sits on the moss
So as to taste long lost delights.
A veil has fallen! The dancer is naked.
Her partner grasps her amorously.
The lady, it's said, is a marchioness or baroness
And her green gallant, a poor cartwright.
Horror! Look how she gives herself to him,
Like the rustic was a baron.
When the Danse Macabre was first premiered it was not
received with overwhelmingly enthusiastic reviews. The audience found it rather disturbing.
But since then it has grown in popularity,
Anna Pavlova danced to it, the world record score in ice skating womens
short programme was to it, it has
anchored Sherlock Holmes and Jonathan
Creek. It was used in Hedda Gabler and
The Turn Of The Screw. It is the great
non verbal clue that Something Bad Is About To Happen.
The best versions I think must be by the full orchestra. I’m not too keen on the grand piano duet
version, too clean, too clinical, while
I admire the technical skill- there seems little humour in those versions.
Henri Cazalis
Henri Cazalis
But…
There is a young Dutch organist called Gerd Van Hoef, he
looks about 12 but I think he is 20? He plays it on the local organ and what a
noise he makes! It’s fabulous! For a clumsy dude like me, to see his feet and
hands fly over those keyboards producing that noise, nodding at his pals to
pull out or push in the stops at the right time... it takes me back to
Esmerelda and the bells the bells….
Gerd- pulling out all the stops.
Gerd- pulling out all the stops.
Which brings me neatly onto the subject of
synaesthesia. I am a synaesthesetic ( I
think most writers will be) and I was surprised when I saw a TV programme that
pointed out it wasn’t normal, ( that’s normal in the scientific sense). But all it means is that stimulation to certain
parts of the brain lead to excess stimulation or association with other parts
of the brain. Even as I write this I’m thinking, Isn’t everybody synaesthetic in
some way? Why do some musical chords make us (universally) feel fearful.
Is it A flat minor that is the
most sinister chord? No jokes about
pianos going down coal shafts….
Singing the rainbow...
Singing the rainbow...
All music has a colour, surely? Most music has a vision that goes along with
it? Surely that’s why folk close their
eyes to listen – are they not all watching the accompanying film that is
playing on the back of their eyelids. …
Or is it just me….
Caro UK 04 04 2014
Its' just you.
ReplyDeleteSure, but where does Neil Diamond fit in on the color chart?
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I'd have given anything to be in the studio for your interview, but you'd have probably made me humm as you read the poem and, once realizing how off key I am even at humming, relegated me to playing the triangle as did every music teacher in my grade school. I think I'll stick to humming birds.