Black Swan

                                   Natalie Portman in Black Swan

Yesterday I attended a screening of  the latest Darren Aronofsky film, the controversial  Black Swan. Set in  New York in the gruelling world of  a Ballet company in rehearsal, it’s the story of  Nina  who has to prove herself capable of performing the dual lead role of Odette/Odile in Swan Lake. The theatrical director thinks  she is too much a perfectionist and although technically  able to perform the part of Odette, the white swan, out of touch with her inner, sexual self  to  perform the role of Odile, the black swan.

It should be remembered that in some ways the dual role of white swan/black swan in Tchaikovsky's perennial masterpiece is the Hamlet role in the ballet world. It requires that the dancer not only projects the pure innocence of the white swan heroine, but also the seductive femme fatale role of the black swan. There's  not too many dramatic roles which demand acting both the goodie and the baddie.

It’s a slow burner of a film which deliberately plays tricks upon the viewer. Natalie Portman’s acting throughout totally engages the audience to empathize with her fate as she confronts her possessive and manipulative mother, jealous peers and predatory director.  Issues such as body image, sexuality, rivalry, madness, obsessiveness and the quest for perfection are explored as Nina’s psyche  slowly unravels under pressure into  a deceptive hallucinatory world.

Natalie Portman has already won numerous awards for her acting in Black Swan and may yet well win more in the coming Oscar season. Personally I feel she deserves to. She acted a  not dissimilar role of  disintegration of personality in Milos Foreman’s 'Goya’s Ghosts' (2006).

 Black Swan has been compared in its decent into paranoia and madness to Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, Repulsion and The Tenant as a psycho-drama. It's as scary as the aforementioned Polanski films in horror and subtle deception of the viewer.  Film critics  however seem to be sharply divided between hate and admiration of Black Swan, some considering Aronofsky’s offering  to be shallow, pretentious and stereotypical in its portrayal of ambitious women, and those who consider it  redeemed by compelling performances  and direction.

 Black Swan shares some of the thematic concerns of Powell and Pressburger’s 1948 ballet film The Red Shoes in its portrait of artistic destruction in the quest for perfection. In essence however Aronofsky's Black Swan is a  horror psycho-drama which exploits the physical and mental pressures of ballet for its own artistic agenda.

                   Prima ballerina Irena Kolesnikova in the role 
                     of the black Swan in  Swan Lake

Cosmo's Factory

 Probably the greatest American 70’s rock album ever !

 Can it really be 40 years ago today that I purchased for my birthday at the princely sum of 39 shillings and 11 pence, the album 'Cosmo's Factory'?  As a choirboy the  singing of John Fogerty, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s front-man simply astounded me.  Not only did he pen the band’s numerous hits, playing  a mean, lean, clean and bluesy lead guitar, but also sang  like some crooning Mississippi swamp bull-frog. It was unknown to me and to most Brit’s probably, that in fact the band hailed from Berkeley, California and  were  not from the south at all, but  were  creating a highly original pastiche, inspired by the music of New Orleans and the bayou swamp lands. In fact their first ‘hit ‘Proud Mary’ alludes to New Orleans.  When Tina Turner covered 'Proud Mary' it regenerated her career.  But what a lot of people don’t know is that  the British band Status Quo's  mega-hit  ‘Rockin’ all over the world’   was also penned by J .C. Fogerty.

Emerging out the late 60’s Creedence  Clearwater played at the swan-song  festival of the 60’s,‘Woodstock’, but because of the over-indulgence of the previous act, Grateful Dead, they didn’t appear on stage until 3 a.m. Not too surprisingly  given the circumstances, the footage of their performances is long lost.

 It’s just the sheer joy of hearing Creedence’s tight, 3 minutes  of feelgood songs with strong melodies which makes them  continue to be one of the most played bands on American radio. The quintessential all-American band, as  American as Mom's apple-pie, they have now sold over 26 million records world-wide. When other bands went for a slick studio production Creedence’s ‘keep it simple’ style ensured that they were as good to hear live as in the studio.

 During their meteoric and short-lived rise to fame CCR spawned number one hit after hit  in America and the UK.  Powered by the driving bass and drums of Stu Cook and Doug Clifford with Tom Fogerty on rhythm guitar CCR became the sound of early 70's American pop-rock. However, a grueling schedule of near non-stop recording sessions and touring meant that the  band did not last long with artistic conflicts between band-members, notably between John and his elder brother Tom Fogerty.

 At first hearing many believe the band’s  2 minute hit-single ‘Travelling Band’  on 'Cosmo's Factory'   to be a 50’s song, but its evidence  of  J.C.Fogerty’s genius to pastiche classic 50’s pop in an updated way. Every track on ‘Cosmo’s Factory’ is a classic.

One of the most amazing rock-guitar solo’s ever occurs on Cosmo’s Factory.  Fogerty, who is easily a guitar virtuoso equal to Carlos Santana or Jimmy Page,  covers Marvin Gaye’s ‘I heard it through the Grapevine' with soulful vocal and blistering guitar solo.  His funky soul-based guitar playing on the track confirms him to be  a musical  adept  of many genres, including country and western,  R 'n' B, pop, rock  and soul music.

I had the pleasure of seeing John Fogerty interviewed on a T.V. chat-show a few years ago.  A modest, soft-spoken, American gentleman, ever the musician-trooper he continues to successfully tour and is popular in  Scandinavian countries.

Tonight  I hope to be celebrating my birthday with  friends and a 1970’s cold war drink, vodka and coke, cranking  up the volume for what is quite simply in my humble opinion, the greatest guitar solo ever  - as heard on the 11 minute studio jam track of Creedence's cover version of ‘I heard it through the Grapevine’.  

Today is the birth-dates of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lewis Carroll and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. It is also World Holocaust Memorial Day.

Stargazer lily

                             When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
                             I summon up remembrance of things past. 

The translated English title of Marcel Proust's vast novel A la recherche du temps perdu originates from Shakespeare's Sonnet 30. The Stargazer lily was created in 1978 by Leslie Woodriff, a lily breeder in California, USA.

Dad

My father died on January 22nd 1996, aged just 60, 15 years ago today. He was a sailor when this photo was taken on his wedding day. Just a few days before he died I picked up a copy of Sir Thomas Browne for the first time since my undergraduate days. On the day he died I had a numinous experience and several coincidences in my life occurred.  I remember my father's sound advice  - specialize in order to become an authority upon a subject. 

The figure of the cucullatus  points to the hooded, that is, the invisible one, the genius of the departed, who reappears in the child-like frolics of a new life, surrounded by the sea-forms of dolphins and tritons. The sea is the favourite symbol for the unconscious. -Jung CW 9 i 298.

The Fiery Angel

Set in Renaissance Germany and the world of  magic and occult arts, ever since its first publication in 1907, Valery Bruisov's novel ‘The Fiery Angel', has been controversial. It’s full title is indicative of both its subject matter and stylistic tone

The Fiery Angel or a True Story in which is related of the Devil, not once but often appearing in the Image of a Spirit of Light to a Maiden and seducing her to Various and Many Sinful Deeds, of Ungodly Practises of Magic, Alchymy, Astrology, the Cabbalistical Sciences and Necromancy, of the Trial of the Said Maiden under Presidency of the Eminence of the Archbishop of Trier, as well as of Encounters and Discourses with the Knight and thrice Doctor Agrippa of Nettesheim, and with Doctor Faustus, composed by an Eyewitness. 

Written in an archaic style as if a Gothic romance or Renaissance adventure travelogue and with meticulous attention to historical detail, the story of Renata is narrated by the Knight Ruprecht, recently returned to Germany from his travels in America. Ruprecht recollects his tale from his first encounter with the beautiful Renata who is in a frenzied state. He tells of their relationship, study of the occult together and quest for the fiery angel of Madiel. Eventually the Inquisition are summoned to investigate Renata’s disturbed behaviour at a convent where an outbreak of collective hysteria erupts.

The three-cornered relationship between Renata, an attractive young woman who experiences visions, the Knight Ruprecht and Madiel, the fiery angel who manifests himself as the red-headed Count Heinrich and with whom Renata has an obsessive relationship, was in fact mirrored in the real-life menage-a-trois  between the novelist Bruisov himself, Nina Petrovskaya, a young 19-year old girl and fellow symbolist-decadent author, Andre Bely.

The Russian literary critic and novelist Valery Bruisov became a leading figure amongst Decadent and Symbolist artists of his time. He attended seances, spiritualistic meetings and lectures by scholars of the esoteric and became familiar with leading authors of occultism. Popular interest in the occult, the writings Madame  Blavatsky, founder of the theosophy movement and Rudolph  Steiner were enormous throughout Russian society during the first decade of 20th century. Bruisov's own complete knowledge of esoteric topics is evident throughout the novel which is in essence, like  Andre Bely’s ‘Petersburg’ (1916) a major  novel of  Russian Symbolism. 

It's often during epochs of intense socio-economic upheaval that Apocalyptic prophecies and visions proliferate along with revived interest in the occult arts. The early years of 20th century Russia were no exception to this phenomenon. The artistic movement of Russian Symbolism emphasised the  transcendent aspects of the arts to near religious status. 

Russian symbolist art’s messianic role is exemplified in Mikhail Vrubel's  'Six-winged Seraph' of 1904 (above painting). Composed as a kind of inner vision to the artist, reminding him of his mission and utterly Symbolist in theme and creed, Vrubal’s painting endeavours to rouse its audience from the trivia of everyday existence to awareness of spiritual phenomena. Moving in the same artistic circles, its impossible Bruisov was not aware of Vrubal’s  painting.

In brief, in the absence of social and political reform in Russia, the arts became imbued with religious fervour. The artist Kandinsky in his essay ‘Concerning the spiritual in art' (1911)  stressed this  religiosity of art, stating-

‘Every man who steeps himself in the spiritual possibilities of his art is a valuable helper in the building of the spiritual pyramid which will someday reach to heaven’.

                                       Valery Bruisov 1873-1924

In Bruisov’s novel the heroine Renata falls victim to religious intolerance and an all-too-literal interpretation of a single line of Biblical scripture, Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to live. ( Ex. 22 v. 18) This single verse tragically endorsed genocide throughout Renaissance Europe. Over-zealously interpreted by an exclusively male legislative and judiciary it resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of lives, mostly single women, especially those who were young and attractive, or old and ugly, throughout Europe over three centuries.

In essence the subject-matter of ‘The Fiery Angel’ is that of the complex relationship between sexuality and spirituality. Written only a few years after Sigmund Freud’s seminal work of psychoanalysis ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’ (1900) psychiatry eventually abandoned concepts such as female hysteria. Today the heroine Renata would be diagnosed as perhaps suffering from a bi-polar disorder or  old-fashioned existential angst. 

'The Fiery Angel' has a precedent in the French Symbolist writer Joris-Karl Huysman’s  novel La Bas (1891) with  its description of  a black Mass. Aspects of its subject-matter are also echoed  in Aldous Huxley’s novel,  'The Devils of Loundon' (1953) with its depiction of religious hysteria. More importantly the general theme of the occult along with the Passion of Christ also occurs in Mikhail Bulgakov’s  masterpiece ‘The Master and Margarita’ (1940).

Incidentally it's a curious cultural coincidence that the Russian craze for occult learning during the pre-revolutionary years of the 20th century coincides with a similar cultural phenomena in 1650's England. Both historical  epochs were  characterised  by political instability and uncertainty. Following the civil war, execution of Charles I and establishment of the Protectorate of Cromwell  large portions of English society, unsure of direction, apprehensive of an impending apocalypse, searched for new knowledge and spiritual guide-lines. The same social phenomena occurred  in Russia centuries later. While England experienced the trauma of civil war, deposition of Monarch and a radical change of Government and then engaged in popular interest in esoteric affairs, early 20th century Russian interest in the occult preceded the horrors of world war, regicide, radical change of government  and civil  war. 

Bruisov fleetingly alludes to the city of Norwich in 'The Fiery Angel'  and there exists a curious connection between  Czarist Russia to Norwich worth exploring; for the actions of the archetypal historical character associated with the occult, the charismatic, haemophiliac-healing 'Mad Monk' Rasputin can be linked to a 17th century Norwich resident.  Among the alchemical manuscripts Rasputin is recorded to have stolen from the Romanov Czar’s Imperial Library were those by the English physician Arthur Dee when resident  physician to Czar Mikhail circa 1614-30 in Moscow. When Arthur Dee, eldest son of the Elizabethan magus John Dee, left Moscow he eventually settled at Norwich where he befriended the physician Thomas Browne.

When Arthur Dee died in 1651 a flood of esoteric literature began to  pour from British printing-presses. Many important esoteric titles made their first appearance in the English language during the 1650's decade,  including those of  the magus Cornelius Agrippa, author of 'Three books of occult philosophy' who makes a significant appearance in the action of  'The Fiery Angel'.

Arthur Dee’s close associate Thomas Browne confidently defended a belief in  angels in his Religio Medici declaring -

Therefore for Spirits I am so farre from denying their existence, that I could easily beleeve, that not onely whole Countries, but particular persons have their Tutelary, and Guardian Angels: It is not a new opinion of the Church of Rome, but an old one of Pythagoras and Plato; there is no heresie in it, and if not manifestly defin'd in Scripture, yet is it an opinion of a good and wholesome use in the course and actions of a mans life, and would serve as an Hypothesis to salve many doubts, whereof common Philosophy affordeth no solution. R.M.Part I:33

 Edition consulted -

'The Fiery Angel' by Valery Bruisov published by Dedalus  2005  with an  afterword by Gary Lachman

Sloth

In response to  love of the Potto and as an excuse for neglecting blogging here's a photo of my new mentor. 

Sloths live in the rain-forests of  south America and have an extremely low metabolism. Like many animals they are rapidly becoming an endangered species. I can just about make the effort to find a Sir Thomas Browne connection here. Remarkably, somehow the worthy physician knew of the Sloth.  In what must be one of the very earliest recorded references to the creature and with typical  humour he makes the moral observation-

 To strenuous minds there is an inquietude in overquietness, and no laboriousness in labour; and to tread a mile after the slow pace of a Snail, or the heavy measures of the Lazy of Brazilia were a most tiring penance, and worse than a Race of some furlongs at the Olympicks. -Christian Morals  I:33

Santa's little Painter

I have only this morning returned home from a  long night-flight and secret meeting to post this exclusive photograph, acquired  through a mutual business contract with Santa. Here's Vincent, the chief painter of toys for Santa. Vincent's seen  here taking a well-earned rest from his brush activity. He's quite a dedicated artist throughout the year, busy mixing colours and  painting toys  in Santa's Lapland Workshop. In fact he's looking positively well lit-up, inspired by all the lovely colours he paints on toys for children, big and small!

   A Merry Christmas to one and all!

Mary's Steps

Last weekend, a rare evening's jaunt out to the theatre, a short walk to the  UEA Drama studio, located on the campus of the University  of East Anglia. The final year drama students  had staged a medieval mystery play entitled ‘Mary’s Steps’ for four nights only; the production included over 20 scenes including the Creation and Fall, the Passion of Christ and the Assumption of Mary.  Ingeniously, the play conceived by  Anthony Gash and assisted in direction by Ant Cule and Tom Francis, included several ‘Frame’ scenes in which the action focused upon a meeting between two medieval Christian mystics of the region, Margery Kempe and  Julian of Norwich. The portrayal of their quite different temperaments and approach to spiritual matters fittingly framed  the medieval mystery play.

Acted in the the round, the set was admirably configured upon the  Jungian Quaternary principle, with four entrances and exits, heaven and hell opposite each other from which  a procession of  monks, bishops, angels, Mary and Joseph, Adam and Eve, Satan and his pantomime cohorts, the Parliament of Heaven,  Christ and Pilate and personifications of the seven deadly sins among many others, occupied the central round with some fine acting.  One sensed  throughout the staging of 20 scenes that the production included a strong collaborative element amongst the cast.  The delivery of quite a difficult middle English text throughout was excellent and clear. It can’t have been easy remembering such lines as -

The twelfte is meknes that is fayre and softe. In mannnys sowle withinne and withowte: Lord, mun herte is not heyyed on lofte Nyn myn eyn be not lokynge abowte.

But in fact as the  programme notes to the production of   ‘Mary’s Step’s’ inform, the re-enactment  of what is known as the cycle of ‘N-town’ Medieval mystery plays involved research  upon quite a number of topics for its realization. These included- How to read a Church, 15^th century Ecclesiastical History, Liturgy, Music, Iconography, clothing and costume, Law and Government and Domestic arrangements. Such research contributed greatly to the credibility of the production. The end result of such labours however, involving a whole term’s rehearsal was a thoroughly stimulating evening’s entertainment, the psychological intensity of the enactment of the Passion of Christ central  to the whole drama. The two girls sitting beside me were suitably shocked and squeamish at the graphic physicality of  blood  and violence as hammer and nails were used  in the crucifixion scene. But there was also puppetry, acrobatics and humour interspersed throughout the performance.

There were also several moving passages of music, sung well if self-consciously; at times one wished for stronger accompaniment of either whistle or harp  to add colour and support, but still  a fine selection of polyphonic music, one can’t go  too wrong with  the music of von Bingen and Desprez.

But in essence the final year  UEA drama students achieved  their goal,  none other than the restoration of an important piece of East Anglian cultural history no less, a  pageant  of theological tableaux not without humour, but equally informative upon the didactic entertainment  of the Medieval age, which held their audience  enthralled as much now as during the Middle Ages. It may be quite some time before the resources and inclination are available for another scholarly  re-enactment of a medieval mystery play  in Norwich.

 In addition to the  enactment of a  medieval passion play, ‘Mary’s Steps’  included  a portrayal of Julian of Norwich (c. 1342 – 1416).  The fame of Julian of Norwich continues to grow world-wide, ever since T.S.Eliot quoted her in his poem 'Little Gidding' the fourth of his  four quartets.  It has now become an introductory commonplace to trot out the fact that she is the first woman to be identified as such, to write in the English language. Julian's ‘Revelations of Divine Love’  a recording of her ‘showing’  of the Passion of Christ, and reflection upon the meaning of her revelations, are a spiritual classic and one of the most up-beat  statements about  God’s loving-kindness. There are at least three increasing well-known texts by Julian which are frequently quoted. The exacting research of the  production  of ‘Mary’s Steps’  pinpointed Julian’s description of the human condition neatly in her parable of a lord and his servant (chapter 51 Long text). Julian's hazel-nut vision can never be quoted too often -

At the same time, our Lord showed me a spiritual vision of his familiar love. I saw that for us he is everything that we find good and comforting......In this vision he also showed a little thing, the size of a hazel-nut in the palm of my hand, and it was as round as any ball. I looked at it and thought, 'What can this be?' And the answer came to me, 'It is all that is made.' I wondered how it could last, for it was so small I thought it might suddenly disappear. And the answer in my mind was,'It lasts and will last forever because God loves it; and in the same way everything exists through the love of God'.

The contrast between Margery Kempe’s at times gushy spirituality  with Julian’s quiet, inner mystical visions was neatly marked in ‘Mary’s Steps’; it was an inspired idea to place  Margery Kempe amongst the audience, as heart-on-her sleeve, she  melodramatically  responded to  the enactment of the Passion of Christ. ‘Mary’s Steps’ concluded with Julian’s  meditation upon her famous words  -'All shall be well'; here's a  fuller  quote  from chapter 27 -

And because of the tender love which our good Lord feels for all who shall be saved, he  supports us willingly and sweetly, meaning this: 'It is true that sin is the cause of all this suffering, but all shall be well, and all shall be well,  and all manner of things shall be well. These words were said very tenderly, with no suggestion that I or anyone who will be saved was being blamed. It would therefore be very strange to blame or wonder at God because of my sin, since he does not blame me for sinning.

The whole performance  of 'Mary's Steps' lasted  almost 3 hours, so a big well-done to all involved in such a  marathon production which never remotely  flagged. The cheers of relief back-stage were also a joy to hear!

                                                               Step this way!

It was amusing to see that in order to leave the studio and re-enter the world  the audience had to walk through the dog’s mouth entrance to Hell!

Postscript:

To be honest I often have mixed feelings about my old alma mater, as one of the last new Universities to be built UEA is a mere 50 years old, against a backdrop of a City over one thousand years old . Because the University's  fragile identity felt the need to  ‘borrow’ the city’s motto for its own (Do different) without adopting the City’s place-name I feel, as a half-century resident Norvicensian, a need to  speak out here.  Recent events  have not always seen the UEA  make a  positive contribution towards the reputation of the City.  Town and gown’s relationship remains very poor  because UEA’s recent ‘doing different’ has included a  rapid succession of short-stay vice-chancellors, the reputation of the School of climatic research exposed under world-media scrutiny and now a lecturer in Law convicted and imprisoned; UEA's lack of direction will hopefully be stabilized  in developing a medical teaching relationship  with the nearby University Hospital. Must do better!

It’s very important to remember however  that this catalogue  of failures  is  solely the fault of the academic institute itself and not the fault of  its students whatsoever.

In the same week as the debate and vote upon whether student tuition fees should be hiked up, effectively pulling the draw-bridge up for access to higher education for many, here was a  university theatrical production which in its own modest way restored an important piece of cultural history to the region. It’s not exactly rocket-science to understand the importance of such artistic projects to society as a whole.  But again this is more to do with the talent of students than the  knee-jerking  compliance of academic institutions to Government directives. Sometimes those controlling the purse-strings  of finance know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Link to   photo's of costume rehearsal
 Here's a link to the excellent website dedicated to Julian, maintained by Julia Bolton Holloway Julian of Norwich website

The best paperback edition  of Julian available -

 Revelations of Divine Love ed. Elizabeth Spearing. Penguin 1998

Irradiation of Peacock feathers

Near the end of the sixth book of Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica there's a good portrait of  the worthy 17th century Norwich physician engaged upon his essentially Baconian  quest.

At the  conclusion of a chapter entitled A further digression upon blackness there is evidence of the refinement of Browne's senses and  his appreciation of beauty. In  chapter 12 of book  6 Browne alludes to one of his numerous chymical experiments. Several paragraphs are devoted to the use and effects of  various acids and vitriol, the causes of blackness in nature and speculation upon  its causes and origins in human skin. 

The study of optics was also of particular interest to Browne and optical imagery  frequently occurs in  his writings. One strongly suspects his use of the word irradiation, ' to shine brightly' (the near synonymous iridescence is later in origin, 18th century from iris, rainbow) to describe the well-known optical effect when viewing a peacock's feather, is one of Browne's many medical-scientific neologisms. These include the words medical, pathology, hallucination, electricity and ambidextrous, as the complete Oxford English dictionary testifies.

In a tone of near mystical apprehension and barely suppressed joy, Browne concludes his scientific investigations upon blackness, waxing lyrical upon  the beauty of colour thus-.

And this is also apparent in Chymical preparations. So Cinaber becomes red by the acide exhalation of sulphur, which otherwise presents a pure and niveous white. So spirits of Salt upon a blew paper make an orient red. So Tartar or vitriol upon an infusion of violets affords a delightfull crimson. Thus it is wonderful what variety of colours the spirits of Saltpeter, and especially, if they be kept in a glass while they pierce the sides thereof; I say, what Orient greens they will project: from the like spirits in the earth the plants thereof perhaps acquire their verdure. And from such salary irradiations may those wondrous varieties arise, which are observable in Animals, as Mallards heads, and Peacocks feathers, receiving intention or alteration according as they are presented unto the light. Thus Saltpeter, Ammoniack and Mineral Spirits emit delectable and various colours; and common Aqua fortis will in some green and narrow mouthed glasses, about the verges thereof, send forth a deep and Gentianella blew. 

Who ? Us ?

Photo:Matt Dunham

While on the way to the theatre  a real-life drama occurs. The staggering ineptitude of Royal security to just cruise into a volatile environment  oblivious to potential danger is what amazes one most. A defining image of a dreadful year, even though it looks as if posed for a 1970's album cover.

Gnome in the Snow

  

Gnomes are hardy creatures and can endure the most severe conditions,  rarely grumbling at the weather no matter how adverse.

Woodlands Snow # 2

Snow is so very photogenic, I just couldn't resist one more post now that a fresh fall has arrived.

Woodland Snow

The first snow before Christmas in 17 years has arrived in England. It's strange to see snow while leaves still remain on trees. Whether it's a sign of global warning which produces extremes of weather is debatable. Actually 'Snow stopped play' is the big surprise tactic England Cricket team may employ in order to win the Ashes in Australia.

Sir Thomas Browne on America

Because America accounts for  approximately  60% of visitors to  this Sir Thomas Browne centred blog, I thought it would be a nice gesture to record a few facts about his interest in America.

It’s an extraordinary fact and testimony to his curiosity that each of Sir Thomas Browne's major writings  mentions America.  During his lifetime mass emigration from Europe to America established and developed. According to Wikipedia, itself a great American success story, the earliest English settlements were the Virginia colony in Jamestown in 1607 and the Pilgrim’s’ Plymouth Colony in 1620. The 1628 chartering of the Massachusetts Bay Colony resulted in a wave of migration; by 1634, New England had been settled by some 10,000 Puritans. Between the late 1610’s and the American Revolution, about 50,000 convicts were shipped to Britain's American colonies. Another source of early American settlers, were those known as religious dissenters. Because England’s King Charles  believed that his rule was a God-given right he felt justified in persecuting those who disagreed with him. Waves of repression led to the migration of about 20,000 Puritans to New England between 1629 and 1642, where they founded multiple colonies.

It was against this historical background, one of political and religious ferment in England under the rule of King Charles I that the newly qualified medical doctor Thomas Browne penned Religio Medici, a Montaigne-like discourse upon the Christian virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity. Its labyrinthine digressions includes the zoological query -

'How America abounded with beasts of prey, and noxious Animals, yet contained not in it that necessary creature, a Horse, is very strange'.

In fact America was the home of the horse until its eventual extinction in the last Ice Age. Not until the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century was the horse re-introduced to the continent of America. Today,  a little more than a quarter (28%) of all the world's horses are stabled in the USA.

Throughout his life Browne was a keen geographer, botanist and zoologist; it was therefore inevitable that he would lend an eager ear to the numerous reports about the New World which sporadically arrived in England. In his encyclopedic endeavor Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646-76) he refers to America on several occasions. Indeed its very opening address describes his painstaking labors in not only compiling an encyclopedia but also in debunking common fallacies as - 'but oft-times fain to wander in the America and untravelled parts of truth'.

Browne's encyclopedia also includes reports of the natural history of America, including the giant phalanges spider, speculation as to why the skin-pigmentation of American natives differs from African natives and a geographical comparison of the Gulf of California to the Red Sea. Browne also notes in Pseudodoxia Epidemica that the Swiss alchemist-physician Paracelsus symbolically equated America as representing the hind-quarters of the world noting-

'…of the Geography of Paracelsus, who according to the Cardinal points of the World, divideth the body of man; and therefore working upon humane ordure, and by long preparation rendering it odiferous, he terms it Zibeta Occidentalis, Western Civet; making the face the East, but the posteriors the America or Western part of his Microcosm'. 

Browne’s encyclopedia was a European best-seller, translated into several languages and reprinted with additions and amendments no less than six times in his life-time. It found itself upon the book-shelves of many educated English families and its introduction of work-in-progress enquiry paved the way for suceeding scientific journalism.

Throughout his life Browne kept abreast of the latest developments of the early scientific revolution. Although not credited for making any significant scientific discovery himself, he nonetheless coined many new technical words which were useful to scientific and medical debate. The words ‘electricity’ ‘pathology’ and ‘hallucination’ for example, are just a few of the many neologisms he introduced into the English language. Indeed, a careful scrutiny of the Oxford dictionary reveals that Browne’s name occurs as the source or first usage of a word in the English language more than any other author. 

Browne's informed reading made him an appreciative supporter of William Harvey's recent medical discovery. In correspondence to a young student he wittily advised -

'be sure you make yourself master of Dr Harvey's piece De Circul. Sang (Of the circulation of the blood); which discovery I prefer to that of Columbus' ............(i.e. that of America)

The demands of his medical profession along with a need to earn an income to support his large family allowed Browne little leisure-time for writing, however  during the 1650s, under the newly-established Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, he penned two Discourses  ‘Urn-Burial’ and ‘The Garden of Cyrus’ (1658).

Fully intended to be one whole literary work, as their highly-polarised themes, imagery, symbolism and  epistemology makes  abundantly clear, publishers however continue to print them separately; an act initiated by Victorian appreciation of the stoicism and funereal pomp of ‘Urn-Burial’, but wholly against artistic intent and bewilderment at its diptych companion. 

The opening lines of  ‘Urn Burial, or a brief discourse upon the sepulchrall Urnes lately found in Norfolk’, notes how America was undetected by European explorers for centuries and compares its 'discovery' to an archaeological find.

'That great antiquity America lay buried for a thousand years; and a large part of the earth is still in the Urn unto us'.

In the dedicatory epistle of The Garden of Cyrus Browne with characteristic subtle humour remarks to his patron upon the great volume of printed information on American botany being published at the time, joking -

'you who know that three full Folio's are yet too little, and how New Herballs fly from America upon us, from persevering enquirers'.

It’s also in ‘The Garden of Cyrus’ that Browne employs proper-place names as highly evocative symbols; for example, the place-name of Persia is invariably employed to symbolize pagan antiquity. In contrast, the proper-place name of America is used to represent the new,  unknown and exotic. At the Discourse's conclusion Browne contemplates the fact that the world consists of time-zones and prophetically links Persia (modern-day Iran ) to America as if opposed thus:

'The Huntsmen are up in America, and they are already past their first sleep in Persia'.

‘The Garden of Cyrus’ has been likened as a work of prophecy and compared to the Biblical Book of Revelation by the American literary scholar, Frank Huntley. Indeed its  American scholarship which has most fruitfully interpreted Browne throughout the 20th century notably by Frank Huntley, and Jeremiah Finch, Dean Emeritus of Yale University whose life-long study of Browne included a publication of a  facsimile of the 1711 Sales Auction catalogue of Browne’s library. 

It was sometime in the 1670s when introduced to a English translation of the prophecies of Nostradamus that Browne made astounding predictions on America’s future. 

His miscellaneous tract – ‘A prophecy concerning the future State of Several Nations’ (Miscellaneous Tract 12) is a quasi-oracular pastiche of the Lyons physician's barely intelligible predictions. It questions the morality of the growing Slave-trade almost two centuries before its eventual abolition -

'When Africa shall no longer sell out its Blacks to be Slaves and drudges to the American Tracts'.

Equally remarkable Browne 'predicted’ in his ‘prophecy’ that sometime in the future America would protect its wealth and be a Nation which vigorously pursued happiness in his highly-original phrase, ‘American Pleasure’.

'When America shall cease to send out its treasure but employ it instead in American Pleasure'.

Ever helpful to his perplexed reader Browne adds this explanatory note:

'That is when America shall be better civilized, new policied and divided between great Princes, it may come to pass that they will no longer suffer their Treasure of Gold and Silver to be sent out to maintain the Luxury of Europe and other parts: but rather employ it to their own advantages, in great Exploits and Undertakings, magnificent Structure, Wars, or Expeditions of their own'.

But perhaps most extraordinary of all, at a time when America was only a fledgling colony Browne prognosticated  it to become equal in wealth to Europe-

'When the New World shall the old invade, nor count them their Lords but their Fellows in Trade'.

Once more helpfully expounding his ‘prophecy’ with the foot-note-

'That is, When America shall be so well peopled, civilized and divided into Kingdoms, they are likely to have so little regard of their Originals, as to acknowledge no subjection unto them: they may also have a distinct commerce between themselves, or but independently with those of Europe, and may hostilely and pyratically assault them, even as the Greek and Roman Colonies after a long time dealt with their Original Countries'.

And here one must include Browne's thoughts upon war, the greatest threat to humanity's survival. In correspondence to his youngest son, Browne moralises upon why wars begin- 

'The cause of this war was that of all wars, excess of prosperity. As wealth arises spirits rise, and lust and greed of power appear; thence men lose their sense of moderation, look with distaste on the prosperity of others, revolve disquiet in their mind, and throw over all settlement, for fear lest their enemies’ wealth be firmly established, they put their own to risk; and finally (as happens in human affairs) fall into slavery when they seek to impose it, and earnestly courting good fortune, experience disaster'.

Thomas Browne’s observations upon the botany, zoology and geography of the New World and its political future are remarkable for their earliness in history; from reports of the superabundance of her natural resources, geographical size and the sheer determination of her founding settlers, led  him to apprehend America to be a land with a bright future.

See also -

The huntsmen are up in America

Thomas Browne and China

Thomas Browne and Japan

The Tenant

Recently I watched Roman Polanski’s  film, ‘The Tenant’  (1976) based upon a novel by Roland Torpor. It’s the last in a trilogy of  Polanski's  so-called ‘Apartment’ films which includes  'Repulsion' (1965) and ‘Rosemary’s  Baby' (1968).

Unusually the central role is acted by Polanski himself who plays the part of  Trelkowski,  a polite and introverted young man  who rents an apartment in Paris with a disturbing history. When first viewing the apartment, the concierge (Shelley Winters) informs him that the apartment is only available because the previous tenant, Simone Chou jumped  from the fourth floor in a suicide attempt and is now critically injured in hospital. When Trelkowski visits Simone he discovers that she is bandaged from head to toe. He also meets Simone's friend Stella (Isabelle Adjani) at the hospital. However, when Simone sees Trelkowski, she emits a loud, blood-curdling scream.

Trelkowski soon comes to believe the various residents in the large apartment block are conspiring against him, subtly attempting to change him into the previous tenant Simone, no less; thus when asking for Gauloise cigarettes at a cafe he is repeatedly handed  a packet of Malboro, the choice of the previous tenant. Trelkowski soon comes to realise that the terms and conditions in renting his new Parisian apartment are near unendurable. Although he lives a quiet life neighbours constantly complain of his making noise, an evening entertaining his friends is curtailed by the Landlord who disapproves of his activities. Trelkowski becomes convinced that strange occurrences are happening in the large block of flats. He discovers a tooth embedded in the wall having recently lost a tooth himself and notices that various tenants stand transfixed and motionless in the bathroom opposite his flat for long periods.

Trelkowski's basic good nature is highlighted when Rufus, a young man who had a romantic attachment to Simone visits him. Rufus breaks down when informed that Simone attempted suicide and  has died as a result of her injuries, however, Trelkowski spends a long evening consoling and drinking with him. The two part company at  dawn at a Metro station  with Rufus pleading eternal gratitude for Trelkowski's kindness.

It's when Trelkowski comes home one day to discover his flat has been burgled and many valuable items gone that he begins to break down. Convinced that the residents are attempting to make him change into Simone and commit the same act of suicide, he buys a wig and dresses in clothes left by her in the wardrobe. He then sits  out the night in his cross-dressing clothes waiting for his would-be assailants.

‘The Tenant’ is a film of pure Kafkaesque nightmare and hallucinatory paranoia as it draws to its inexorable conclusion. The genius of Polanski’s direction ensures that the viewer is never completely sure as to how much the conspiracy  Trelkowski believes is happening  to him is in his imagination and how much is for real.

Some critics have called 'The Tenant' a slow and clumsy film, however Polanski’s  more than competent acting, ably supported by  a very young Isabelle Adjani, who becomes his lover too late to rescue him from his fate, ensures that ‘The Tenant’ is as disturbing to view now as when first screened in 1976.

 

Haydn Symphonies

Throughout this year I've been listening to Joseph Haydn's complete cycle of 104 symphonies recorded  on 33 CD’s in total. In doing so I've gained a new insight into his important contribution to the development of the symphony and acquired a much better understanding of Haydn's genius. 

But first no discussion upon Haydn's symphonies can be made without mention of the recently deceased musicologist, the American-born H. C. Robbins Landon (March 6, 1926 – November 20, 2009). Robbins Landon dedicated his life to the study and appreciation of Haydn's music and was quite simply the most authoritative writer on Haydn in the 20th century.  My following small essay is very much in the shadow of his scholarship.

In many ways Joseph Haydn was the original working-class hero of the classical music world. Born in 1732 the son of a wheelwright, he reached the heights of European fame through sheer industriousness.  When he began writing symphonies, the genre was little more than a simple, pleasant diversion, a celebration of the sheer joy of having any leisure-time whatsoever to listen to music. However, by the end of an approximately thirty-five year period of composition from roughly 1760-95 Haydn almost single-handedly, made the symphony into a musical genre which appealed to listeners of all levels of society and was capable of serious philosophical and political expression.

Haydn's good fortune was to be commissioned in 1766 as composer in residence to Prince Esterhazy at his new palace at Eisenstadt located in the Hungarian marshes. Being relatively isolated from the influence of major compositional trends, life at the Esterhazy palace gave Haydn the liberty to develop his own ideas. The Prince's demand to hear new musical works also meant that Haydn was obliged to be extremely inventive with the orchestral resources available to him.

The musical influences upon Haydn are numerous and varied. These include the folk music of eastern European nations, in particular Croatian folk music with its steady beat and witty melody, gypsy music and Viennese street music.  Although he was geographically isolated from major musical trends and fashions there was however one composer who Haydn studied closely and with great interest, Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach (1714-88) the eldest son of the great Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).

Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach's influence upon Haydn cannot be over-estimated. Although Johann Sebastian Bach had several sons who composed music, the music of his eldest son C.P.E. Bach is generally considered to be the most original and influential. In complete contrast to his father's music of sacred and civic utility, baroque ornateness, well-ordered harmony and cosmic, contrapuntal dance, the music  of C.P.E. Bach is often moody and changeable,  impassioned and introverted. With its jagged, lop-sided themes, abrupt silences obliging the listener to attentiveness, C.P.E. Bach's music is a fine example of the German movement of Sturm and Drang (Storm and Stress) with its emphasis upon  Empfindsamkeit (Sensitivity); its  range includes music even of a negative emotional nature such as anger encompassed within individual sensibility. No more so than in his short three movement symphonies which  explode  with tense dynamic phrases, syncopated  rhythms, sudden silences and  abrupt tempo changes into tranquil and calm slow movements.   The  E minor symphony of C.P.E. Bach  (WQ178) is often credited as an early Sturm und Drang symphony. From its very opening bars the listener is thrown into a world where nothing is predictable or certain and in which sudden and startling  phrases erupt from no-where. Its  opening movement  is set at a frantic tempo which persists throughout its five minute duration. In sharp contrast its adagio is one of utter calm before a final resolving short movement. If Haydn is credited as  'the father of the symphony', C.P.E. Bach is in many ways the grandfather of the symphony.

Haydn’s early symphonies are simple, three movement divertimenti before eventually opting  to include the popular dance movement  all the rage throughout Europe, the minuet. Among those still regularly performed are those influenced by the so-called Sturm und Drang movement. They are characterized by the use of minor keys and expressions of angst and passion. Indeed one of Haydn's symphonies during this time is entitled La Passione.  Haydn's Sturm and Drang symphonies although containing future elements of his symphonic development are  in many ways utterly uncharacteristic of the path in which he was follow in composing symphonies,  it is however worthwhile looking at what the artistic movement of Sturm and Drang was exactly.

Sturm and Drang   was an artistic movement  in which individual subjectivity and extremes of emotion were given free expression Much of this new found artistic sensibility was  a kind of 'rage against the Machine' and a reaction by artists against the constraints of the dominant philosophy of the era, namely  rationalism, imposed upon the Arts by the Enlightenment movement and  as a protest for the emotions of the individual  to be recognised.  In many ways it is the precursor to the much more important artistic movement of early Romanticism. In England this new irrational and dark artistic movement  is characterized  by Horace Walpole's novel 'The Castle of Otranto' (1764) which is  often considered the first ever Gothic novel.

The German literary work of this period which reflects 'Empfindsamkeit' or sensitivity best  is Goethe's 1773 novella, 'The sorrows of young Werther' a work  of  teenage angst, doomed love and suicide. It's been proposed that Goethe's romantic novella influenced the 17 year-old Mozart when writing his own impassioned 'Sturm and Drang' symphony, the so-called 'little' G minor symphony of 1773, K183. Mozart's teenager temper-tantrum symphony stands quite apart from his other symphonic compositions, it was not until 1788 that he employed the use of a minor key in a symphony, using the key of G minor once more in his much better-known symphony K550. Its rewarding to compare Mozart’s early G minor symphony of 1771 whose opening  bars became better-known through their use in the curtain-raising sequence of Milos Foreman's 1984 film 'Amadeus'  to Haydn's own G minor symphony no.39 of 1768.

The use of minor keys in the concert-hall  in the first half of the 18^th century was considered   socially unacceptable for the 'negative' emotions which they express,  however, a prime artistic concern of the Sturm and Drang movement was to rouse the audience, to even startle or shock, keeping the listener in a state of anticipation and attentiveness.

 Significantly Haydn is noted as the composer whose works contain more silence than any other composer. The use of silence often has a deep physiological and psychological effect upon the listener.  Haydn uses the dramatic effect of silence in his symphonies in a number of different ways, primarily to stimulate alertness and anticipation but more often for comic effect. Haydn's symphonies demonstrate him to be the master of silence in music. In  his symphony no. 39  however silence creates an eerie, spooky effect, unsettling to the listener.

Joseph Haydn was famed for his sense of humour  fittingly for someone born on April 1^st (All Fool’s day). A sense of humour pervades his symphonic compositions. In fact, he is the only composer who has ever made me laugh out loud. In his 'Farewell' symphony  the members of the orchestra leave the stage two-by-two, a hint to the Prince that even musicians need a holiday. In the  ‘Surprise’ symphony  a loud chord crashes suddenly out of nowhere to wake the audience up, and throughout his symphonies there are trick and false endings in which the music suddenly stops and starts again , soft-loud phrases, sudden accelerations, out-of-step soloists and compostional  devices guaranteed to grab the attention of the inattentive concert-goer. In symphony no. 60 entitled Il distratto (The Distracted One) Haydn’s famous sense of humour is shown to full effect. Not only does the symphony include an unprecedented 6 movements but it momentarily plunges into quoting an earlier Haydn symphony before remembering itself while its final movement instructs the first violinists to re-tune in its opening bars.

 By the time  of  the adagio of symphony number 76 in E flat some quite modern features occur, anticipating the symphonies of his most famous pupil, Ludwig van Beethoven and paving the way for Romantic composers such as Schubert and Schumann.  In the Adagio of symphony 76 the listener is lulled into a cosy  mood of  intimacy only to be awakened by a truly startling, war-like, strutting second theme bursting onto the scene, which in turn slowly  fades back to the original mood of calm cosiness.

Just as no two games of Chess are ever completely identical no  two Haydn symphonies are really the same. Although their exposition, development and resolution often conform to a strict formula, in effect the miracle of Haydn's symphonies is their sheer inventiveness.  Written over a thirty year period  Haydn’s symphonies demonstrate the plastic and  protean nature  of the four movement symphonic structure.  The sheer variety and inventiveness in which he bends and shapes his material along with his original orchestration and overall effect, hopping from one musical key to another to explore the full potential of tonality, shuffling varied combinations of instruments and ensembles, using trick devices  such as silence to keep the listener alert and in anticipation,  Haydn's symphonies grow  in size, stature, volume and power throughout the decades of the 1770's and 1780's to the culminate in the magnificent last 12  symphonies  first performed in London in the 1790's. 

Like the German-born composer Handel before him, Haydn recognised that in the absence of any serious composer of their own,  the English were willing to commission and pay good money to hear fine musical compositions. Many of Haydn's symphonies have nick-names and the 12  London symphonies are no exception. Included amongst them are the 'Oxford', the 'Surprise' ,'The Drum-roll' ,the Military and the 'London.' A contemporary review from The Times dated 17^th February 1792 stated of Haydn's music-

‘Novelty of idea, agreeable caprice, and whim combined with all Haydn’s sublime and wonton  grandeur, gave additional consequence to the soul and feelings of every individual present.

And indeed an appreciative and perceptive review of Haydn’s ‘Military’ symphony No.100 which is well worth reading  from the Proms season of 2009 can be found here.
 

Haydn is credited as the father of the symphony  for his development of its form, demonstrating the infinite variety of expression available within its four movement form. Alongside this development he also explored the dimensions of tonality and the various effects which could be achieved using   varied combinations of instruments, in effect, the development of orchestration.

 Often beginning the symphony with an brisk-paced, witty and inventive movement, though  in  later symphonies  opening  with a short, brooding adagio, Haydn's symphonies  progress with a second movement, usually in a contrasting  key and mood in the form of  an intimate, deeply expressive, leisurely adagio. The third movement   invariably is  a minuet, a light-hearted, toe-tapping   invitation to the dance.  Haydn's symphonies often conclude with  an exciting last movement of orchestral brilliance and technical wizardry, thematically related to the opening movement.

Like his greatest pupil Beethoven, Haydn's symphonies are not famed  for having memorable and lyrical  melodies as much as exhibiting dazzling  organising  and inventive skills in their arranging and developing of  musical material. Haydn recognised the potential within each of the four  individual movements of the symphony's structure to express different aspects and characteristics of the composer's sensibility which he fully developed and exploited. Indeed, Mozart is quoted as once saying  of Haydn that there was no one else, 'who can do it all - to joke and to terrify, to evoke laughter and profound sentiment - and all equally well'.

 In the Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov’s view  Haydn was the greatest of all orchestrators . His influence can be discerned notably in his most famous pupil Beethoven's smaller  scale symphonies numbers 4 and 8 and homage is made to him  by 20th century composers, notably in the back to basics, scaled down in size and scope of Prokofiev's  first symphony (1917) in D major, the so-called 'Classical' symphony and even in Shostakovich's 9th symphony (1953) in its mood  of light-hearted jollity and humour.

In many ways listening to a Haydn symphony is like being  cordially invited by a master horologist to inspect the inside workings of a clock. All the pieces matter! Those who complain that his symphonies sound all the same simply are not listening. To be sure original melodies may be far and few, but  if today Haydn is seen as a little four square, with his level-headed calmness, sobriety and jovial good humour, its an indication of just  how far removed from a sane, at ease and harmony with the world,  the modern listener has become. 

Here's a useful list of the dates of the most famous of  Haydn's symphonies for reference. They are all great to listen to,  but especially those with a nickname. I've also added the dates of the most important Mozart symphonies in bold type for comparative reference. 

No.22 The Philosopher (1764); no. 26 in D minor, Lamentations,  nos.27-29 (1765);  
no. 30 in C ,Alleluja,  no. 31 in D Hornsignal ,  nos. 32-42 (c.1768) includes no. 39 in G minor,
 
Mozart Symphony no. 25 in G minor K183 (1773)

 

 no.43 in E flat Mercury (1772);  no. 44 in E minor, Trauersinfonie (1772);  no. 45 in F sharp minor Farewell  (1772) 

no.49 in F minor,La Passione (c.1768) no.52-52 (1773);  nos. 54-59 (1774);  no.60 Il Distratto (1774);

 nos. 61-72 (c.1779);  no.73 La Chasse (1782); 

Mozart 'Linz' Symphony no. 36 in C major (1783)

nos.74-81  (1781-84); 

Paris Symphonies nos 82 -87 -  no.82 in C, The Bear, no.83 in G minor, The Hen, no.84 in E flat, no.85 in B Flat, La Reine, no.86 in D, no.87 in A (1785-86): no.88 in G, no. 89 in F, no.90 in C, no 91 in E flat (1787-88);

 W.A Mozart - Symphonies 39-41 K549-551 (1788)  

London Symphonies  (1791-95)

no.92 in G The Oxford (1789); nos. 93-104  

no.94 in G  The Surprise,
no.95 in C minor,

no.96 in D  The Miracle, no 97 in C, no. 98 in B flat, no.99 in E flat,

no.100 in G The Military, no.101 in D The Clock, no.102 in B flat,

no.103 in E flat The Drumroll, no.104 in D The London.