Silence is not an absence of sound

"Silence is not an absence of sound 

but rather a shifting of attention 

toward sounds that speak to the soul."  

- Thomas Moore -

Today is the birthday of Thomas Moore, Irish poet, singer and songwriter, and famous for that poignant song "The Last Rose of Summer". He was also a good friend of Lord Byron and Shelley. Sir John Stevenson set the poem to its widely known melody, which was published in December 1813.

"The Last Rose of Summer" is a poem by the Irish poet Thomas Moore. He wrote it in 1805, while staying at Jenkinstown Park in County Kilkenny, Ireland, where he was said to have been inspired by a specimen of Rosa 'Old Blush'. The poem is set to a traditional tune called "Aislean an Oigfear", or "The Young Man's Dream", which was transcribed by Edward Bunting in 1792, based on a performance by harper Denis Hempson (Donnchadh Ó hAmhsaigh) at the Belfast Harp Festival. The poem and the tune together were published in December 1813 in volume 5 of Thomas Moore's A Selection of Irish Melodies. The original piano accompaniment was written by John Andrew Stevenson, several other arrangements followed in the 19th and 20th centuries. [Wiki]

The lyrics of the poem compares the last rose of summer of our twilight years... a poignant  reminder of the passing of time.   

The Last Rose of Summer

'Tis the last rose of summer,
    Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
    Are faded and gone;
No flower of her kindred,
    No rose-bud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes
    To give sigh for sigh!

I'll not leave thee, thou lone one.
    To pine on the stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping,
    Go, sleep thou with them;
Thus kindly I scatter
    Thy leaves o'er the bed,
Where thy mates of the garden
    Lie scentless and dead.

So soon may I follow,
    When friendships decay,
And from love's shining circle
    The gems drop away!
When true hearts lie wither'd,
    And fond ones are flown,
Oh! who would inhabit
    This bleak world alone?

(c) April 2020. Tel.  Autumn Reflections. All rights reserved. 

Enjoy open-handed blessings

I hear it. I read it all over the written forms. Lots in social media too. This comparison of anything, or of some celebrities. Who is better. Who is best.

Let's enjoy benevolent blessings instead of comparing them unnecessarily - be it songs, poems, inventions, composers, musicians, writers... you know what I mean. Okay, I confess I'm a die-hard Mozartian, but this doesn't necessarily mean I don't love Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Beethoven, Mendelssohn or Bach. And many more...  


Franz Liszt's Liebestraum No. 3 ("Dream of Love")



There's hardly any day I'm not in YouTube searching for a video that I can feature in my blogs.

These strong comments relating disagreements about different renditions! We are fortunate in having so many fantastic pianist, cellist and violinists, to name few talents, and brilliantly playing the same sonata in different ways. And they're free. As to performances, for example, a Mahler symphony to that of Haydn's. Or a Chopin to that of Liszt. Or in conducting, Bernstein to that of Karajan. In a way, it's what makes a composer brilliant - when their work is subject to many views or interpretation.


Frederic Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu (Op. 66)



It's likely that even the composer himself might not have played his work the same way every time. We have heard of great composers revising their work few times. 

All great musicians are good and listening to them and their versions is certainly a pleasure.  Let's enjoy and savour each note that vibrates into the air!  




Video Credit: 

Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu (Op.66). Uploaded by Rousseau. Accessed May 30, 2020.

Franz Liszt's Liebestraum ("Dream of Love"). Uploaded by Rousseau. Accessed May 30, 2020. 




(c) April 2020. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.   

The Dangling Conversation

I've enjoyed songs of Simon & Garfunkel but there are three in particular I've loved through the years: The Sound of Silence, The Boxer and The Dangling Conversation.

It's The Dangling Conversation I'm listening to now...


The Dangling Conversation is a song written by Paul Simon, first released in September 1966 as a Simon and Garfunkel single “The Dangling Conversation”/“The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine”. Apparently the song never made it onto the UK charts. Simon was surprised that it was not a bigger hit. It was released a month later as a recording on the Simon and Garfunkel album more popular Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.


The theme of The Dangling Conversation is a failed communication between lovers. It starts in a room washed by shadows from the sun slanting through the lace curtains and ends with the room “softly faded”. The lovers now read from different poet: Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost, two of my favourite poets. Wonderful mention for anyone familiar with these two great poets.


Simon has compared this song to The Sound of Silence, but says The Dangling Conversation is more personal. Indeed, it is... 

Below, Simon & Garfunkel Through the Years - The Dangling Conversation (Live In Concert).  (Accessed April 27, 2020.)  Thank you very much, Simon & Garfunkel. 




(1)
It's a still life water color
Of a now late afternoon
As the sun shines through the curtained lace
And shadows wash the room
And we sit and drink our coffee
Couched in our indifference
Like shells upon the shore
You can hear the ocean roar
In the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs
The borders of our lives

(2)
And you read your Emily Dickinson
And I my Robert Frost
And we note our place with book markers
That measure what we've lost
Like a poem poorly written
We are verses out of rhythm
Couplets out of rhyme
In syncopated time
And the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs
Are the borders of our lives

(3)
Yes, we speak of things that matter
With words that must be said
"Can analysis be worthwhile?"
"Is the theater really dead?"
And how the room is softly faded
And I only kiss your shadow
I cannot feel your hand
You're a stranger now unto me
Lost in the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs
In the borders of our lives



(c) April 2020. Tel. Autumn Reflections. All rights reserved.

I'll take you home again, Kathleen

An old loved song came rushing by. All because I wanted to listen to Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, 2nd movement ...


"I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" is a popular song written by Thomas P. Westendorf in 1875. The music is loosely based on Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Flat Minor Opus 64 Second Movement. In spite its German-American origins, it is widely mistaken to be an Irish ballad. In fact, for many years it's what I thought too.

Westendorf, then teaching at the reform school known as the Indiana House of Refuge for Juvenile Offenders in Hendricks County, Indiana, wrote it – apparently – for his wife, whose name was Jennie, ot Kathleen. In a way, it's a kind of "answer" to a popular ballad of the time, "Barney, Take Me Home Again," composed by Westendorf’s close friend, George W. Brown, writing under the nom de plume of George W. Persley.

Melancholy... full of memories.  




Video Credit:

 Jim Finnegan - I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen. Uploaded by mihaireal. Accessd April 26, 2020

Resources: 

I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen. Wikipedia. Accessed April 26, 2020. 

(c) April 2020. Tel. Autumn Reflections. All rights reserved.

Sniffed out from my past journals (2)

Something worthwhile I've done, and still doing, whilst in social distancing due to COVID-19. I've managed to clean-up and re-organise my 21 journals, including to-dos, rumblings, quotes, moment-outburst, raw notes, all sorts... nota bene. This will be an on-going activity, but hereon, better organised. In this post, I have sniffed them out from these past journals as a process of re-organising - my own thoughts, and quotes from my readings, from watching TV or from listening to a favourite radio program.

There's nothing satisfying hearing someone say something exactly what we want to say, or reading the right words that reinforces what we believe in. Or letting out pent-up sentiments. Liberating. Healing.


Continued from 'Sniffed out from my past journals, Part 1'

When you read a line that is so well-written, you just close the book and stare at the wall for a minute... I don't know with you, my mind occasionally go wild with fantasies, other times, I'm stilled, quieted at the thought of what becomes of the character I so relate to.

Nowadays, I find life getting more complicated. We can only hope for the best. I'm rapt listening to one of my favourite Tchaikovsky music Symphony No. 6 "Pathetique". This particular music is sad, melancholy. It makes me think about life, myself, what I've done... where I am going. In musical  terms, thank God for the beautiful adagio in the first movement that brings gentle harmony to the chaos of living represented by molto allegro and more turbulent allegro vivace in the succeeding movements. When my emotions overwhelms, I rumble a lot, and takes a while to quiet down. Like Tchaikovsky's music, I look forward  relishing the Finale's 'adagio lamentoso', mournful, yes, but still a beautiful adagio.     

Some music touch us in powerful ways and leave an impression that makes us change our outlook in life. The various musical movements goad me to rethink and re-evaluate my life  journey. For instance, Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique" parallels to my journey, dramatic twists and turns in life. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying the moment, and grabbing the inspiration from this beloved maestro's enchanting creation that has meant much through the years.   

Listening:

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 "Pathétique" / hr-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra) ∙ Lionel Bringuier, Dirigent ∙ Accessed April 27, 2020.   

Inspired Pen rests... 

(c) April 13, 2020. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.

(c) April 2020. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.

Sniffed out from my past journals (1)

Something worthwhile I've done, and still doing, whilst in social distancing due to COVID-19. I've managed to clean-up and re-organise my 21 journals, including to-dos, rumblings, quotes, moment-outburst, raw notes, all sorts... nota bene. This will be an on-going activity, but hereon, better organised. In this post, I have sniffed them out from these past journals as a process of re-organising - my own thoughts, and quotes from my readings, from watching TV or from listening to a favourite radio program.

There's nothing satisfying hearing someone say something exactly what we want to say, or reading the right words that reinforces what we believe in. Or letting out pent-up sentiments. Liberating. Healing. 


* The true profession of a man is to find his way to himself..." - Hermann Hesse

* Time is like a river. You cannot touch the same water twice because the flow that has passed will never pass again. Enjoy every moment of your life.

* Gene Kelly did it best! Walking and singing in the rain is fun especially with rain a bit warm. Or running away from the waves on the beach one lovely day. Sensations! That's what makes it fun. Simply enjoy. Don't think.

* Voltaire: "Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats."  

When a loved one dies, we don't want to let go, but we have to let go. We move on, for our life is for the living, BUT we don't forget, for they are loved ones who left us.

The beautiful  thing about memories is that they are ours whether they are good or bad. They belong to us, no matter where we are now. 

*Friendship. True pleasure consists not in the multitude of friends, but in the worth and choice.

* Every one and then, we deserve some fun. How much fun choco is! Instead of how to lose those pounds in two weeks.  

Mark Twain:

"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."

"Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience. This is the ideal life."

Colin Powell: "A dream doesn't become reality through magic, it takes sweat, determination and hard work."

Maya Angelou: "My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive, and to do so with (some) passion, (some) compassion, (some) humor, and (some) style.

The sea. The relentless sea! Not just the beach but the ocean - simultaneously calming and energising, inspiring and rejuvenating. (Whilst musing over the sea, allow me to indulge my senses with one of my favourite concerts with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs: A Sea Symphony by Ralph Vaughan Williams, based from the poem of the same name, by famous American poet - Walt Whitman. Here's a link from YouTube - A Sea Symphony.  Unfortunately our performance has no video recording. (Thanks to uploader Colin). 

This writing pen deserves a rest to withdraw from seemingly tireless thoughts.

(c) April 2020. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.