As luck would have it, I'm currently reading Tales of Genji, another oft-cited contender for the title of "first novel," in this case, from the 11th Century. Murasaki Shikubu's work provides a fascinating counterpoint since, much of the time, one can't help but see the prose as an excuse to get to the "music." That the term "Waka" (和歌) translates not as "Japanese poem," but "Japanese song" is often neglected by Western literary commentators, who've worked very hard to obscure the importance of singing to this tradition. Why do they think Genji's playing his kin-harp all time?
Japanese is timed by mora, not syllables, as in some European language, or stress as in English. It's not, 5-7-5 syllables for a haiku - it's 5 units of language, 3 units of pause, 7 units of language, 1 unit of pause, then 5 more units of language, 3 and more units of pause. That's 8 unit's a line - or common time: You can read more here:
It seems to me the more "balanced" approach of novels like Tales of Genji is a model worth considering, along with the very different trajectory of Japanese culture before the Meiji Restoration. Reading this chapter also brought to mind how things have followed a different pattern in Bollywood, and it would be interesting to consider how it relates to what's discussed here. There's a lot to think about.
A similar change happened in astronomy around the same decade. The old Greeks were trying to hear the music of the spheres. The Arabs and Persians who picked up their tradition were still trying to discern the rhythm of God's will. Kepler marked the end of the old and the start of the Endarkenment, when astronomers stopped listening and started cataloguing.
Another musical religious hero story: once he established peace, King David appointed 288 families of musicians "to make music before the Lord." I believe that we are made in God's image: and the way that music resonates in us is an echo of how important music is to Him.
Thanks, Ted! I used to be one who would be referred to as a “Singer-Songwriter” until I lost my ability to sing because of medical issues. ( strep for one..). I now just write songs and attempt to convey the melody the best I can. Belonging to various songwriting sites, I answered a “Prompt” challenge last October, themed to the upcoming holiday. Working on the offered title, I covered several pages of yellow legal pad, and still dissatisfied that I hadn’t scratched the surface of what I wanted to say, I started a fresh sheet. It was a bit spooky that what I recognized coming from my Sharpie, was just what I wanted to say. Fast forward to December, another prompt, same results after 6 drafts of dissatisfaction- my brain was fried, but my hand kept going- and produced something unique to me at least...It was surreal to me to see what was produced after the digging-in. By the way, on Albert Lord/Millman Parry, I have the 2 books: The Singer Of Tales, and The Singer Of Tales in Performance. Grateful to have found them, but as I’m not a Scholar, they were hard for me to read. I appreciate YOUR Scholarship, as you do enlighten my Dark Pockets.🎼🎶🤹
The troubadours are a good example of what was once a viable means of conveying the news and mysteries through song. If they existed today they would be encoded and stripped of their charisma to move people hearts and minds. They were people singing to a rapt audience. There were no distractions competing for their attention and messages.
This post resonates strongly with me, Ted. I took a course called "The Rise of the Novel" as a post-grad English student in the 80s and either wasn't taught or completely forgot that the novel was a reaction against previous portrayals of heroes. i also, around that time, picked up a kind of contempt for what I thought of as romantic sentimentality. Your explanation makes total sense to me because I can see how being deluded into following those with a more cynical, profit-driven approach to books and music led to a dimming of my own spark. I left behind the urge to sing powerful songs of my own in favour of listening to what others produced. I want to recover that urge, and I want the world to do the same. May we all be more expressive of our desires and more willing to frame our experiences in narratives that will inspire, challenge, inform and warn other would-be heroes.
To me, the greatest hero of them all, Jesus Christ, lost His hero music starting in 1969 when the Catholic mass went from Latin to vernacular languages and also stopped singing the mass. Things descended quickly into both musical pablum and verbal squalor.
Very interesting observations. I note that, in spite of your claim that people have forgotten how to listen, podcasts and other forms of aural entertainment (movies, YouTube, TV, TikTok, etc.) are all media which requires that one listen. And, in fact, I find most podcasts impossible to listen to. I wonder what the difference is between the stuff I mention, and the oral cultural tradition to which you refer.
An aside. Re Disney. In the 1930s my father was a well known commercial artist in Detroit and Disney told my father that he was going to California to make moving picture cartoons and invited my father to go with him. My father thought it was a crackpot idea and stayed in Detroit.
I've read this section of the chapter twice and I still can't properly understand it. It seems like a complete reversal of the last one. In the last section, he demonstrated how music created the antihero. He mocked the "more mainstream" King Arthur. While I'm no Arthurian expert, the legend is chock full of heroism, courage, and valor. Granted, fidelity not so much.
In this section, he extolls the heroic virtues of the old bardic song stories and derides Don Quixote, Moll Flanders, and Tom Jones. I still don't understand the difference between the heroism of the bards and that of Arthur. An anti-hero is traditionally a central character who lacks the conventional heroic attributes. Don, Moll, and Tom are definitely antiheroes. What makes them so much worse than Robin Hood? Even Homer Simpson can be an antihero. He's violent, lazy, cowardly, gluttonous, stupid, and selfish. Yet, he's one of the most beloved characters in television history. I guess I don't understand what makes a hero/antihero high or low quality.
It would help if he provided examples of the works of these old singing sages. Are there youtube links to them that I've missed from previous sections?
Just read the book up to this point. It's life changing. As a singer and songwriter and chanter, this book is literally a godsend. It has changed the course of my art and therefore my life. Every aspect of this is high knowledge pointing to wisdom and power. Thank you.
As luck would have it, I'm currently reading Tales of Genji, another oft-cited contender for the title of "first novel," in this case, from the 11th Century. Murasaki Shikubu's work provides a fascinating counterpoint since, much of the time, one can't help but see the prose as an excuse to get to the "music." That the term "Waka" (和歌) translates not as "Japanese poem," but "Japanese song" is often neglected by Western literary commentators, who've worked very hard to obscure the importance of singing to this tradition. Why do they think Genji's playing his kin-harp all time?
Japanese is timed by mora, not syllables, as in some European language, or stress as in English. It's not, 5-7-5 syllables for a haiku - it's 5 units of language, 3 units of pause, 7 units of language, 1 unit of pause, then 5 more units of language, 3 and more units of pause. That's 8 unit's a line - or common time: You can read more here:
https://haikupresence.org/essays/haiku-rhythm-and-the-arches-of-makudo/
It seems to me the more "balanced" approach of novels like Tales of Genji is a model worth considering, along with the very different trajectory of Japanese culture before the Meiji Restoration. Reading this chapter also brought to mind how things have followed a different pattern in Bollywood, and it would be interesting to consider how it relates to what's discussed here. There's a lot to think about.
A similar change happened in astronomy around the same decade. The old Greeks were trying to hear the music of the spheres. The Arabs and Persians who picked up their tradition were still trying to discern the rhythm of God's will. Kepler marked the end of the old and the start of the Endarkenment, when astronomers stopped listening and started cataloguing.
http://polistrasmill.blogspot.com/2021/11/astrometeorology-9-and-final-back-to.html
"anyone seeking wisdom still needed to know all the right songs."
And still does, she says, as she listens to Leonard Cohen.
Your book makes me very glad that , with a few notable exceptions, I stopped going to the movies and watching TV twenty years ago...
Another musical religious hero story: once he established peace, King David appointed 288 families of musicians "to make music before the Lord." I believe that we are made in God's image: and the way that music resonates in us is an echo of how important music is to Him.
I think Sir Thomas Malory was anticipating the Holy Hand Grenade
Thanks, Ted! I used to be one who would be referred to as a “Singer-Songwriter” until I lost my ability to sing because of medical issues. ( strep for one..). I now just write songs and attempt to convey the melody the best I can. Belonging to various songwriting sites, I answered a “Prompt” challenge last October, themed to the upcoming holiday. Working on the offered title, I covered several pages of yellow legal pad, and still dissatisfied that I hadn’t scratched the surface of what I wanted to say, I started a fresh sheet. It was a bit spooky that what I recognized coming from my Sharpie, was just what I wanted to say. Fast forward to December, another prompt, same results after 6 drafts of dissatisfaction- my brain was fried, but my hand kept going- and produced something unique to me at least...It was surreal to me to see what was produced after the digging-in. By the way, on Albert Lord/Millman Parry, I have the 2 books: The Singer Of Tales, and The Singer Of Tales in Performance. Grateful to have found them, but as I’m not a Scholar, they were hard for me to read. I appreciate YOUR Scholarship, as you do enlighten my Dark Pockets.🎼🎶🤹
The troubadours are a good example of what was once a viable means of conveying the news and mysteries through song. If they existed today they would be encoded and stripped of their charisma to move people hearts and minds. They were people singing to a rapt audience. There were no distractions competing for their attention and messages.
For whatever it's worth "TV Tropes" has carved up and catalogued pretty much every convention and plot device known to humanity.
This post resonates strongly with me, Ted. I took a course called "The Rise of the Novel" as a post-grad English student in the 80s and either wasn't taught or completely forgot that the novel was a reaction against previous portrayals of heroes. i also, around that time, picked up a kind of contempt for what I thought of as romantic sentimentality. Your explanation makes total sense to me because I can see how being deluded into following those with a more cynical, profit-driven approach to books and music led to a dimming of my own spark. I left behind the urge to sing powerful songs of my own in favour of listening to what others produced. I want to recover that urge, and I want the world to do the same. May we all be more expressive of our desires and more willing to frame our experiences in narratives that will inspire, challenge, inform and warn other would-be heroes.
To me, the greatest hero of them all, Jesus Christ, lost His hero music starting in 1969 when the Catholic mass went from Latin to vernacular languages and also stopped singing the mass. Things descended quickly into both musical pablum and verbal squalor.
An English translation of what was sung:
May these mysteries, O Lord,
in which we have participated,
profit us, we pray,
for even now, as we walk amid passing things,
you teach us by them to love the things of heaven
and hold fast to what endures.
= = =
Is now spoken as:
Father,
may our communion
teach us to love heaven.
May its promise and hope
guide our way on earth.
Very interesting observations. I note that, in spite of your claim that people have forgotten how to listen, podcasts and other forms of aural entertainment (movies, YouTube, TV, TikTok, etc.) are all media which requires that one listen. And, in fact, I find most podcasts impossible to listen to. I wonder what the difference is between the stuff I mention, and the oral cultural tradition to which you refer.
I find myself thinking about Native American Songs and the Singers who maintain the tradition of indigenous music.
And yet here we are, reading your prose in mellifluous paragraphs ;-)
An aside. Re Disney. In the 1930s my father was a well known commercial artist in Detroit and Disney told my father that he was going to California to make moving picture cartoons and invited my father to go with him. My father thought it was a crackpot idea and stayed in Detroit.
I've read this section of the chapter twice and I still can't properly understand it. It seems like a complete reversal of the last one. In the last section, he demonstrated how music created the antihero. He mocked the "more mainstream" King Arthur. While I'm no Arthurian expert, the legend is chock full of heroism, courage, and valor. Granted, fidelity not so much.
In this section, he extolls the heroic virtues of the old bardic song stories and derides Don Quixote, Moll Flanders, and Tom Jones. I still don't understand the difference between the heroism of the bards and that of Arthur. An anti-hero is traditionally a central character who lacks the conventional heroic attributes. Don, Moll, and Tom are definitely antiheroes. What makes them so much worse than Robin Hood? Even Homer Simpson can be an antihero. He's violent, lazy, cowardly, gluttonous, stupid, and selfish. Yet, he's one of the most beloved characters in television history. I guess I don't understand what makes a hero/antihero high or low quality.
It would help if he provided examples of the works of these old singing sages. Are there youtube links to them that I've missed from previous sections?
Just read the book up to this point. It's life changing. As a singer and songwriter and chanter, this book is literally a godsend. It has changed the course of my art and therefore my life. Every aspect of this is high knowledge pointing to wisdom and power. Thank you.