Flight Artifact

 We were told to create something, anything. An artifact that had to do with flight. OK, great, flight. Kristen had said that she wanted to collaborate on a song, I thought it was a great idea. A straight ahead cheesy flying song, one part hilarity, one part parody, and one part guilty pleasure. Then in my english class, I stumbled upon the poem "The Windhover" by Gerard Manley Hopkins. It was a  gorgeous poem that had this enthralling quality about it. It was an ecstasy, an ecstatic declamation, a world of flight in this bird. Then I had the great idea. What if I were to read the poem aloud and have musicians spontaneously respond to me. Jack Kerouac did a similar thing and release three albums of this material. Great idea. Better yet when we got Rachel involved. Now we had saxophone and guitar, a strange pairing, but one that has a beautiful interaction. This recording was the first take. I wanted to make sure the musicians didn't fall into a pattern of regularity. They had the poem read to them once, then it was time to record. Not the best recording technology (garageband all the way!) but certainly good enough to see the intent.

This was a lot of fun to do, and explored some serious ideas that I'd love to delve into more. The idea of a spontaneously responding musician. The idea of ecstasy as it relates to flight. Vertigo. Falling. All these great musical and poetic ideas that can combine to make some of the most moving material. Is our piece the greatest? No, it is a little rough. But does it bring about some seriously intriguing topics? Yes it does.

 

 The Windhover

Voice: Corey Smith

Guitar: Kirsten Carey

Tenor Sax: Rachel Mazer

The Windhover

Gerard Manley Hopkins

 

To Christ our Lord

 To Christ our Lord This epigraph dedicated the poem to Jesus while echoing the Latin phrase, Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, the Jesuit motto meaning “To the Greater Glory of God.”

I caught this morning morning's minionminion favorite, darling; also, an underling or servant, king-

    dom of daylight's dauphindauphin prince; a French historical term, along with “chevalier”, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding

    Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding

High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimplingwimpling rippling wing

In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,

    As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding

    Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding

Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here

    Buckle!Buckle! to bend, attach; prepare for flight or battle. The verb could be descriptive of the bird’s action, or it could be the speaker’s imperative. AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion

Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!chevalier French word for “knight” or “champion”; pronounced Chev-ah-leer, to rhyme with “here” and “dear”

     

   No wonder of it: shéer plódshéer plód slowly, laboriously, and without break; these accent marks, inserted by Hopkins, tell the reader to place more accent or emphasis on those syllables when reading aloud makes plough down sillionsillion Fresh soil upturned by a plow (“plough”)

Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dearah my dear Compare with the same phrase in the poem “Love (III)” by George Herbert, a poet Hopkins admired.,

    Fall, gallgall to become sore, crack, or chafe themselves, and gash gold-vermilionvermilion a vibrant scarlet color.