The Cranes of Ibycus

Ibycus Videos

2008-11-13T16:28:00.006-05:00

So a little visual music from myself and friends.

Back in the 90's, the videos used in this next piece, where shot with the idea of making a film about a crew of vampire hunters and their wacky adventures. We were in high school and the footage was left fragmented and on a hard drive for years...until now!
I set it to some music I orginally wrote for my friends website www.upupresults.com and expanded the song a bit with some funky guitar.

Working with a similar idea I got some footage from www.archive.org and made another short.

00_Seeing Sites_00

2007-03-11T19:04:00.000-05:00

Heres is a site by Eric Cailcane displaying his art work.

This site has original books from Kepler, Huygens, and tons of others worth browsing through.
Check it out.

2007-03-08T23:34:00.000-05:00

Blind leading the Blind

2007-03-07T14:36:00.001-05:00

Pierre Puget

_Harry Clarke

2007-02-28T21:36:00.000-05:00

Harry Clarke (March 17, 1889-1931) was an Irish stained glass artist and book illustrator. The following images are book illustrations he did from Faust, Edgar Allen Poe, Hans Christian Anderson, and others writers.

Decent into the maelstrom.

Go on, indulge yourself.

Silence - A fable

....

Gloria Levy

2007-02-28T21:29:00.000-05:00

Some odd folk music but I think the second song is very beautiful.
Jewish folk songs arranged for voice and guitar.

Enjoy!

Afro Rock!

2007-02-28T21:27:00.000-05:00

Here is an awesome album you may not have heard.

Afro Rock!

The forth song is my favorite, envy no good.

...

Parasites with artistic statements to make

2007-02-27T13:36:00.000-05:00

The carpenter ant in the picture above (genus Campanotus), and the bullet ant in the first film clip above (Paraponera clavata), have fallen victim to parasitic fungi of the genus Cordyceps, which manipulate the behaviour of their host in order to increase their own chances of reproducing.

The spores of the fungus attach themselves to the external surface of the ant, where they germinate. They then enter the ant’s body through the tracheae (the tubes through which insects breathe), via holes in the exoskeleton called spiracles. Fine fungal filaments called mycelia then start to grow inside the ant’s body cavity, absorbing the host’s soft tissues but avoiding its vital organs.

When the fungus is ready to sporulate, the mycelia grow into the ant’s brain. The fungus then produces chemicals which act on the host’s brain and alter its perception of pheromones. This causes the ant to climb a plant and, upon reaching the top, to clamp its mandibles around a leaf or leaf stem, thus securing it firmly to what will be its final resting place.

The fungus then devours the ant’s brain, killing the host. The fruiting bodies of the fungus sprout from the ant’s head, through gaps in the joints of the exoskeleton. Once mature, the fruiting bodies burst, releasing clusters of capsules into the air. These in turn explode on their descent, spreading airborne spores over the surrounding area. These spores then infect other ants, completing the life cycle of the fungus. Depending on the type of fungus and the number of infecting spores, death of an infected insect takes between 4-10 days.

In the not to distant future

2007-02-27T12:39:00.000-05:00

As soon as I get my new computer so that I can edit it for the web Ill be posting a video of Casals teaching a master class. In the mean time here is one of the best performances of Brahms Cello Sonata No.1 that I have been able to find.

Also check out this site MVGroup
This is the best place to get Documentaries on nature, history, etc.

Open Secrets
This site is good for looking up the flow of money in U.S. politics.

Star Gazing

2007-02-23T01:58:00.000-05:00

hum

Back to the Basics

2007-02-23T01:33:00.000-05:00

"A man comes to wisdom in many years of public life. He knows well that when the light of favor shines upon him, it comes not of necessity that he himself is important. Favor comes because for a brief moment in the great space of human change and progress some general human purpose finds in him a satisfactory embodiment." - FDR

Brahms and Furtwangler

2007-02-18T16:00:00.000-05:00

"Let who will only compare a Brahms motet or fugue with one of Bach's, a Brahms variation or sonata with one of Beethoven's, to become conscious of both their great kinship as well as their great diversity. This reaching back to Bach and Beethoven is a reaching back to the spirit of music and such kinship will, with great artists who live within a space of scarcely two centuries, always allow itself to be recognized since the fundamental view and feelings of mankind do not change so rapidly while everything more incidental in art is subject to the rapid changes of taste or even of daily fashion. "Durable music" was a favorite expression of Brahms'. He meant thereby that music which is deeply rooted in the sub-soil of the spirit of music and nowhere comes into conflict with it, as against the music which clings uncertainly to the surface of the incidental, and however originally it might be felt or however alluringly it might work, yet it will be too quickly dragged along by the passage of time, since it was not able to satisfy the deeper artistic demands of mankind." - Gustav Jenner

Jenner's short biography on Brahms is probably one of the most insightful into the character of this great composer. Brahms had taken on Jenner as a student later in life, but seeing that Brahms had not taught many this was a unique experience. The fact that he didn't teach much was tragic because this almost ensured that the Wagnerian movement, that was out to put an end to the "old form" of music, was sure to win. Jenner taught after the death of Brahms in the contrapuntal tradition of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, but his compositions were blacked out by the Wagnerian faction of Richard Strauss who took over control of the German music world after Brahms' death in 1897. Jenner continued to fight this "new music" mafia and created the university of Marburg as a center of learning against Wagner's Beyreuth.

"Brahms first requirement was that the composer know his text in detail. By this, of course, he also meant that he should be completely clear about the poem's structure and meter. Then he would recommend that before composing a poem I should carry it around in my head for a long time and should frequently recite it to myself aloud paying careful attention to everything pertaining to declamation, and especially noting the caesuras and later pausing while working this through. He placed great value on these caesuras and their treatment, and in fact, they are often an unmistakable sign that the composer is an artist who creates in confidence and freedom, and is not a dilettante poking around in the dark and dependent on every little accidental thing."

This was Brahms' approach to setting the poetry for his German Requiem; to carry the words and eventually the music around in the mind until he knew it in a very intimate way and then work it into a whole, in the mind, rather than just individual parts.

"I should learn to distinguish that it is one thing to imitate a form, and something else to conceive and execute music in the mind as form; and to recognize that form and thought exercise an essentially determining influence upon each other. Only he who creates a form in the mind creates freely and his forms might come to life, while in other cases the form becomes a shackle and degenerates into a template."

This reminds me also of Mozart's method. "So my manner of writing and elaborating . . .when I am, as it were, completely myself and of good cheer, say, travelling in a carriage or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep; that is when my ideas flow like a stream. Whence and how they come I can not say. These ideas that please me I retain in memory and hum them to myself, as I have been told. If I continue in this way it soon occurs to me how I may turn this or that morsel into a good dish; that is agreeable to the laws of counterpoint, and to the peculiarities of the various instruments, etc.
This inflames my soul whenever I am not disturbed. It grows continuously and I broaden it even wider and brighter, and the thing becomes truly almost complete in my head, even if it is long; so that from that point on, I view it with a single glance, exactly like a beautiful picture or a pretty girl, from above, in my mind. And I don't hear in my imagination the parts successively, one after the other, but I hear them all at once. That is truly a feast! All of this inventing, this producing, proceeds in me only as if in a powerfully beautiful dream; but overhearing everything together, that is the best. What has been thus produced is not easily forgotten, and this is probably the best gift the lord God has sent me.
When I am ready to write down my ideas, I take out of the bag of my memory what I've already collected there; in the way I've just described. For this reason, the committing to paper is done quickly enough, for everything is, as I've said, already finished, and it seldom differs on paper from what it was in my imagination." - Mozart 1790

The German Requiem

Of all the performances that I'v heard none can compare with Furtwanglers handling of Brahms. He is not a metronome like most conductors and can articulate the ideas in the music better than any I have found.

Furtwangler rehearsals Brahms Symphony No.4 in 1948,London

Stockholm November 19, 1948
Part One
Part Two

Text:

I. Chorus
Blessed are they that mourn:
for they shall be comforted.
-Matthew 5
They that sow in tears
shall reap in joy.
They go forth and weep,
and bear precious seed,
and shall come again with rejoicing
bringing their sheaves with them.
-PSALM 126

II. Chorus
For all flesh is like grass,
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls... -I PETER I
Be patient, therefore, beloved
until the coming of the Lord.
The farmer waits
for the precious crop from the earth
being patient with it
until it receives
the early and the late rains.
You also must be patient. -JAMES 5

III. Baritone & Chorus
Lord, let me know my end,
and what is the measure of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is.
You have made my days a few handbreaths,
and my lifetime is as nothing in your sight.
Surely everyone stands as a mere breath.
Surely everyone goes about like a shadow.
Surely for nothing they are in turmoil;
they heap up, and do not know
who will gather them.
And now, 0 Lord, what do I wait for?
Mr hope is in Thee. -PSALM 39

IV. Chorus
How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, indeed it faints
fOr the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh sing for joy
to the living God.
Happy are those who live in your house.
ever singing your praise. -PSALM 84

V. Soprano & Chorus
Ye now are sorrowful;
but I will see you again,
and your hearts will rejoice,
and no one will take your joy from you.
-JOHN 16
As a mother comforts her child
so will I comfort you.I
Behold with your eyes: but for a little
have I known SorrOW and labor
and found much rest. -ECCLESIASTICUS 51

VI. Baritone & Chorus
For here have we no continuing place,
but we seek one that is to come.
-HEBREWS 13
Behold, I show you a mystery:
we shall not all sleep,
but we shall all be changed;
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,
at the hour of the last trumpet.
For the trumpet shall sound,
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed.
Then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written:
Death is swallowed up in victory.
0 death, where is thy sting?
0 grave, where is thy victory?
-I CORINTHIANS 15
You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed
and were created. -REVELATI0N 4

VII. Chorus
Blessed are the dead
who from now on die in the Lord.
"Yes," says the Spirit,
"they will rest from their labors.
for their deeds follow them."
-REVELATI0N 14

Fisk Jubilee Singers

2007-02-18T15:50:00.000-05:00

The lost art of the negro spiritual.

1909-1911

1915-1920

Erinyes

2007-02-18T12:13:00.000-05:00

The Cranes of Ibycus - Schiller

Once to the song and chariot-fight,
Where all the tribes of Greece unite
On Corinth's isthmus joyously,
The god-loved Ibycus drew nigh.
On him Apollo had bestowed
The gift of song and strains inspired;
So, with light staff, he took his road
From Rhegium, by the godhead fired.

Acrocorinth, on mountain high,
Now burns upon the wanderer's eye,
And he begins, with pious dread,
Poseidon's grove of firs to tread.
Naught moves around him, save a swarm
Of cranes, who guide him on his way;
Who from far southern regions warm
Have hither come in squadron gray.

"Thou friendly band, all hail to thee!
Who led'st me safely o'er the sea!
I deem thee as a favoring sign, -
My destiny resembles thine.
Both come from a far distant coast,
Both pray for some kind sheltering place;
Propitious toward us be the host
Who from the stranger wards disgrace! "

And on he hastes, in joyous wood,
And reaches soon the middle wood
When, on a narrow bridge, by force
Two murderers sudden bar his course.
He must prepare him for the fray,
But soon his wearied hand sinks low;
Inured the gentle lyre to play,
It ne'er has strung the deadly bow.

On gods and men for aid he cries, -
No savior to his prayer replies;
However far his voice he sends,
Naught living to his cry attends.
"And must I in a foreign land,
Unwept, deserted, perish here,
Falling beneath a murderous hand,
Where no avenger can appear?"

Deep-wounded, down he sinks at last,
When, lo! the cranes' wings rustle past.
He hears, - though he no more can see, -
Their voices screaming fearfully."
By you, ye cranes, that soar on high,
If not another voice is heard,
Be borne to heaven my murder-cry!"
He speaks, and dies, too, with the word.

The naked corpse, ere long, is found,
And, though defaced by many a wound,
His host in Corinth soon could tell
The features that he loved so well.
"And is it thus I find thee now,
Who hoped the pine's victorious crown
To place upon the singer's brow,
Illumined by his bright renown?"

The news is heard with grief by all
Met at Poseidon's festival;
All Greece is conscious of the smart,
He leaves a void in every heart;
And to the Prytanis swift hie
The people, and they urge him on
The dead man's manes to pacify
And with the murderer's blood atone.

But where's the trace that from the throng
The people's streaming crowds among,
Allured there by the sports so bright,
Can bring the villain back to light?
By craven robbers was he slain?
Or by some envious hidden foe?
That Helios only can explain,
Whose rays illume all things below.

Perchance, with shameless step and proud,
He threads e'en now the Grecian crowd -
Whilst vengeance follows in pursuit,
Gloats over his transgression's fruit.
The very gods perchance he braves
Upon the threshold of their fane, -
Joins boldly in the human waves
That haste yon theatre to gain.

For there the Grecian tribes appear,
Fast pouring in from far and near;
On close-packed benches sit they there,
The stage the weight can scarcely bear.
Like ocean-billows' hollow roar,
The teaming crowds of living man
Toward the cerulean heavens upsoar,
In bow of ever-widening span.

Who knows the nation, who the name,
Of all who there together came?
From Theseus' town, from Aulis' strand
From Phocis, from the Spartan land,
From Asia's distant coast, they wend,
From every island of the sea,
And from the stage they hear ascend
The chorus's dread melody.

Who, sad and solemn, as of old,
With footsteps measured and controlled,
Advancing from the far background,
Circle the theatre's wide round.
Thus, mortal women never move!
No mortal home to them gave birth
Their giant-bodies tower above,
High o'er the puny sons of earth.

With loins in mantle black concealed,
Within their fleshless hands they wield
The torch, that with a dull red glows, -
While in their cheek no life-blood flows;
And where the hair is floating wide
And loving, round a mortal brow,
Here snakes and adders are descried,
Whose bellies swell with poison now.

And, standing in a fearful ring,
The dread and solemn chant they sing,
That through the bosom thrilling goes,
And round the sinner fetters throws.
Sense-robbing, of heart-maddening power,
The furies' strains resound through air
The listener's marrow they devour, -
The lyre can yield such numbers ne'er.

"Happy the man who, blemish-free,
Preserves a soul of purity!
Near him we ne'er avenging come,
He freely o'er life's path may roam.
But woe to him who, hid from view,
Hath done the deed of murder base!
Upon his heels we close pursue, -
We, who belong to night's dark race!"

"And if he thinks to 'scape by flight,
Winged we appear, our snare of might
Around his flying feet to cast,
So that he needs must fall at last.
Thus we pursue him, tiring ne'er, -
Our wrath repentance cannot quell, -
On to the shadows' and e'en there
We leave him not in peace to dwell!"

Thus singing, they the dance resume,
And silence, like that of the tomb,
O'er the whole house lies heavily,
As it' the deity were nigh.
And staid and solemn, as of odd,
Circling the theatre's wide round,
With footsteps measured and controlled,
They vanish in the far background.

Between deceit and truth each breast.
Now doubting hangs, by awe possessed,
And homage pays to that dread might,
That judges what is hid from sight,
That, fathomless, inscrutable,
The gloomy skein of fate entwines,
That reads the bosom's depths full well,
Yet flies away where sunlight shines

When sudden, from the tier most high,
A voice is heard by all to cry:
"See there, see there, Timotheus!
Behold the cranes of Ibycus!"
The heavens become as black as night,
And o'er the theatre they see,
Far over-head, a dusky flight
Of cranes, approaching hastily.

"Of Ibycus!" - That name so blest
With new-born sorrow fills each breast.
As waves on waves in ocean rise,
From mouth to mouth it swiftly flies:
"Of Ibycus, whom we lament?
Who fell beneath the murderer's hand?
What mean those words that from him went?
What means this cranes' advancing band?"

And louder still become the cries,
And soon this thought foreboding flies
Through every heart, with speed of light -
"Observe in this the furies' might!
The poets manes are now appeased:
The murderer seeks his own arrest!
Let him who spoke the word be seized,
And him to whom it was addressed! ''

That word he had no sooner spoke,
Than he its sound would fain invoke;
In vain! his mouth, with terror pale,
Tells of his guilt the fearful tale.
Before the judge they drag them now
The scene becomes the tribunal;
Their crimes the villains both avow,
When neath the vengeance-stroke they fall.