I love everything about this essay, especially listening to Shaft for the first time in decades. It IS a great song and it WOULD be a great background for the Odyssey. How enchanting to learn about Međedović - how happy it makes me to think that maybe just maybe something like this pulsating background was how Homer himself may have sung it. (Also, thanks for the Rouse recommendation - yes I got it on Kindle just now and no I am not a kid and yes I anticipate this will finally get me all the way through the Odyssey.)
Interesting that you make no reference to The Iliad. Without The Iliad the Odyssey is just a travel adventure. Planes, trains, and automobiles (see the John Candy movie) by other means. The Iliad is what gives The Odyssey its heft. The Iliad gives the Odyssey its moral and emotional weight. It's about a man suffering the staggering loss of his friends and comrades in basically a stupid war fought for no benefit to him. He gains nothing out of it. His kingdom wasn't in danger and he had no reason to fight. But he gave his word, his promise, to another ruler. He kept his word and his self respect. Now he has to keep his word to his wife. He loses basically everything, his friends, his compatriots in battle. After the fall of Troy the Greeks killed every male above the age of 12, raped all the woman and took them back to Greece as slaves. Odysseus sails home with none of that. Just his crew. No gold, no spoils of war, just his crew. And on the journey home he loses them, more because of their own selfishness and petulance than anything else Still they were his crew and a captain is responsible for his crew. He loses everything except his faith in his wife and family. He keeps his word to her and she keeps her word to him. The Odyssey is a story about a man keeping his word even to others who don't deserve it but most importantly to those who do.
Literature or song? Is song the most overlooked form of literature? Or is it a separate cultural form altogether? Possibly the most widely performed and enjoyed of all present day cultural forms, yet somehow deemed inferior to poetry or music. Maybe giving the Nobel for literature to a singer/songwriter a few years back should have opened up more of a debate.
Great piece Ted, thank you! Just a musical note: Međedović’s performance (by its sound and your good description of its effect on audiences) is (in my opinion) closer to the great minimalist works of composers like Terry Riley (example: "In C") and Steve Reich (examples: "Drumming," "Music For Eighteen Musicians") than anything else produced in the past 100 years. I say this not only because of the minimalist works' repetitive nature...but as someone who has both heard Steve Reich's ensemble perform his work and also performed them myself, I can tell you they are 100% trance-inducing. (Far more than any electronic music or jazz ever created).
Take a Steve Reich work and add vocals, and you get very close to this—I'm thinking of Reich's works with vocals like "Different Trains" which uses recorded vocal fragments of Holocaust survivors...and "Desert Music," which uses poetry by William Carlos Williams.
I heard Reich debut a piece at the Library of Congress, and I can tell you he bristled at a question about "trance music." He pretty much said, "I don't write trance music."
OMG, this is freaking AWESOME!! And yes—definitely ritualistic in intensity (especially the first one). I'm gonna be watching these repeatedly for a while and want to learn more about these artists!! Thanks for posting!
That's interesting what you're saying about reading. I'm plowing through your Great Books series, just finished the Analectics, and was curious why Confucius placed so much emphasis on music. Maybe for the same reason -- to educate the common people who didn't read.
I'm talking with a big publishing house right now about this (and other possible projects). This is all just a matter of reaching agreement with a trustworthy editor.
I saw John McLaughlin with Shakti in the 70s at my college. I was heavily into Fusion, Prog, Jazz, but I had never experienced anything like this. Along with the musical fireworks, there were passages that were trance-like. It was otherworldly. It changed my perception of what a live musical experience could be. Not long after, Chicago played at our very small college before a major world tour. It's a long story how that happened, but they were testing out a new massive sound system and played lengthy trance-inducing jazz pieces that never were played live elsewhere. Not commercial enough. I almost fell off the bleachers from going into some kind of mellow state. (No drugs were involved on my part!)
One place to find trance inducing ritualistic music is at old time festivals like Clifftop, where musicians sit in circles and jam for hours on fiddle tunes
I can't believe with your huge following that I can actually talk to you! Very unusual thank you! I'm trying to save civilization with the knowledge Renaissance and was hoping that somehow we could do something together so that your large audience maybe can make this thing go viral.
The tradition of sung epics is alive in Kyrgyzstan, where the Epic of Manas is regularly performed by manaschy (Manas + chy, the “-er” agentive suffix. The y is the ı of Turkish or close to Russian’s ы). There are or used to be excerpts of performances on YouTube.
I am also a fan of classicism….but up to a point. The core meaning of being a “conservative” after all ultimately means preserving a bedrock of certain value systems over an extended period of time. When at least some Republicans were actually intelligent, you could piece together some positive aspects of this notion. It’s why I used to occasionally like to watch William F. Buckley or John McLaughlin pontificate back in the day. At least they passionately cared about =something=. To a large extent study of the liberal arts in universities shared aspects of both classicism and forward-looking humanitarian thinking. In other words, the study of the liberal arts potentially offered the best of both worlds.
That said, I was slightly alarmed recently to see an article in Harper’s about how the GOP is now engaged in trying to mess with the humanities in colleges. I suggest taking a look at a recent article in Harper’s, “Can the GOP save the humanities?” Here’s a quote: “In the years since Trump was first elected, the GOP has shifted its battle tactics. Rather than just letting humanities departments die off, red-state legislatures have flooded public universities with something like a Works Progress Administration for academics. These new programs, dubbed civic centers, are designed to reclaim and “save” the humanities from their capture by the left, reinstate ideological diversity in higher education, and restore Great Books programming." Food for thought as they say.
I also really loved The Odyssey at that age. I think I got introduced to it through Tony Atkinson’s version! Looking forward to seeing Nolan’s movie adaption.
Thank you for reminding me of one of the most engaging courses I experienced in college: Albert Lord’s “The Oral Tradition”. (Yes, that woke Harvard). From Beowulf, Gilgamesh, the Kalevala to Homer and beyond. Lord brought the oral tradition forward to the then-current movie Bonnie and Clyde, which had through lines back centuries to tales of heroes in many divergent cultures. (I think he was also a friend of actress Faye Dunaway. ) You are so right to remind us that stories passed down from oral tradition can be both entertaining and meaningful in the dystopian 2020’s.
I love everything about this essay, especially listening to Shaft for the first time in decades. It IS a great song and it WOULD be a great background for the Odyssey. How enchanting to learn about Međedović - how happy it makes me to think that maybe just maybe something like this pulsating background was how Homer himself may have sung it. (Also, thanks for the Rouse recommendation - yes I got it on Kindle just now and no I am not a kid and yes I anticipate this will finally get me all the way through the Odyssey.)
Interesting that you make no reference to The Iliad. Without The Iliad the Odyssey is just a travel adventure. Planes, trains, and automobiles (see the John Candy movie) by other means. The Iliad is what gives The Odyssey its heft. The Iliad gives the Odyssey its moral and emotional weight. It's about a man suffering the staggering loss of his friends and comrades in basically a stupid war fought for no benefit to him. He gains nothing out of it. His kingdom wasn't in danger and he had no reason to fight. But he gave his word, his promise, to another ruler. He kept his word and his self respect. Now he has to keep his word to his wife. He loses basically everything, his friends, his compatriots in battle. After the fall of Troy the Greeks killed every male above the age of 12, raped all the woman and took them back to Greece as slaves. Odysseus sails home with none of that. Just his crew. No gold, no spoils of war, just his crew. And on the journey home he loses them, more because of their own selfishness and petulance than anything else Still they were his crew and a captain is responsible for his crew. He loses everything except his faith in his wife and family. He keeps his word to her and she keeps her word to him. The Odyssey is a story about a man keeping his word even to others who don't deserve it but most importantly to those who do.
Literature or song? Is song the most overlooked form of literature? Or is it a separate cultural form altogether? Possibly the most widely performed and enjoyed of all present day cultural forms, yet somehow deemed inferior to poetry or music. Maybe giving the Nobel for literature to a singer/songwriter a few years back should have opened up more of a debate.
"But I will insist that Rouse is the superior version for a youngster." Agreed! And, if I'm honest, for many adults.
Great piece Ted, thank you! Just a musical note: Međedović’s performance (by its sound and your good description of its effect on audiences) is (in my opinion) closer to the great minimalist works of composers like Terry Riley (example: "In C") and Steve Reich (examples: "Drumming," "Music For Eighteen Musicians") than anything else produced in the past 100 years. I say this not only because of the minimalist works' repetitive nature...but as someone who has both heard Steve Reich's ensemble perform his work and also performed them myself, I can tell you they are 100% trance-inducing. (Far more than any electronic music or jazz ever created).
Take a Steve Reich work and add vocals, and you get very close to this—I'm thinking of Reich's works with vocals like "Different Trains" which uses recorded vocal fragments of Holocaust survivors...and "Desert Music," which uses poetry by William Carlos Williams.
I heard Reich debut a piece at the Library of Congress, and I can tell you he bristled at a question about "trance music." He pretty much said, "I don't write trance music."
"Ritualistic intensity"...
Like this? (Would Homer approve?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8STADdZ0hac
Or this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmTRaSg2fTQ
OMG, this is freaking AWESOME!! And yes—definitely ritualistic in intensity (especially the first one). I'm gonna be watching these repeatedly for a while and want to learn more about these artists!! Thanks for posting!
That's interesting what you're saying about reading. I'm plowing through your Great Books series, just finished the Analectics, and was curious why Confucius placed so much emphasis on music. Maybe for the same reason -- to educate the common people who didn't read.
Please, Ted, when will you publish music to raise the dead in paper or at least as a single PDF?
I'm talking with a big publishing house right now about this (and other possible projects). This is all just a matter of reaching agreement with a trustworthy editor.
I saw John McLaughlin with Shakti in the 70s at my college. I was heavily into Fusion, Prog, Jazz, but I had never experienced anything like this. Along with the musical fireworks, there were passages that were trance-like. It was otherworldly. It changed my perception of what a live musical experience could be. Not long after, Chicago played at our very small college before a major world tour. It's a long story how that happened, but they were testing out a new massive sound system and played lengthy trance-inducing jazz pieces that never were played live elsewhere. Not commercial enough. I almost fell off the bleachers from going into some kind of mellow state. (No drugs were involved on my part!)
Shakti were mind-boggling! I agree regarding the trance-like aspect of some of their works. See my comment above about the music of Steve Reich...
One place to find trance inducing ritualistic music is at old time festivals like Clifftop, where musicians sit in circles and jam for hours on fiddle tunes
I can't believe with your huge following that I can actually talk to you! Very unusual thank you! I'm trying to save civilization with the knowledge Renaissance and was hoping that somehow we could do something together so that your large audience maybe can make this thing go viral.
The tradition of sung epics is alive in Kyrgyzstan, where the Epic of Manas is regularly performed by manaschy (Manas + chy, the “-er” agentive suffix. The y is the ı of Turkish or close to Russian’s ы). There are or used to be excerpts of performances on YouTube.
Here's a film version of a Korean legend, with rhapsode: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chunhyang_(film)
I am also a fan of classicism….but up to a point. The core meaning of being a “conservative” after all ultimately means preserving a bedrock of certain value systems over an extended period of time. When at least some Republicans were actually intelligent, you could piece together some positive aspects of this notion. It’s why I used to occasionally like to watch William F. Buckley or John McLaughlin pontificate back in the day. At least they passionately cared about =something=. To a large extent study of the liberal arts in universities shared aspects of both classicism and forward-looking humanitarian thinking. In other words, the study of the liberal arts potentially offered the best of both worlds.
That said, I was slightly alarmed recently to see an article in Harper’s about how the GOP is now engaged in trying to mess with the humanities in colleges. I suggest taking a look at a recent article in Harper’s, “Can the GOP save the humanities?” Here’s a quote: “In the years since Trump was first elected, the GOP has shifted its battle tactics. Rather than just letting humanities departments die off, red-state legislatures have flooded public universities with something like a Works Progress Administration for academics. These new programs, dubbed civic centers, are designed to reclaim and “save” the humanities from their capture by the left, reinstate ideological diversity in higher education, and restore Great Books programming." Food for thought as they say.
https://harpers.org/archive/2026/07/republican-machines-ann-manov-humanities/
I also really loved The Odyssey at that age. I think I got introduced to it through Tony Atkinson’s version! Looking forward to seeing Nolan’s movie adaption.
Thank you for reminding me of one of the most engaging courses I experienced in college: Albert Lord’s “The Oral Tradition”. (Yes, that woke Harvard). From Beowulf, Gilgamesh, the Kalevala to Homer and beyond. Lord brought the oral tradition forward to the then-current movie Bonnie and Clyde, which had through lines back centuries to tales of heroes in many divergent cultures. (I think he was also a friend of actress Faye Dunaway. ) You are so right to remind us that stories passed down from oral tradition can be both entertaining and meaningful in the dystopian 2020’s.