THE MUSIC OF YOUR THOUGHT

“Immortality is to live your life doing good things, and leaving your mark behind.” - Brandon Lee

Coming back to the New What's Going On blog this week. I have gone into the woodwork the last few weeks as there have been many things happening to me and around me: Illnesses, a death, some friends leaving Australia, and I have been busy preparing for a couple of art exhibitions that I had committed to some months earlier.

I’m sharing a French song I’ve written with you today. I’ll give you the lyrics and the translation if your French is a little rusty.

This song and all my music you can find in my “Otidorchestre”  channel or listen to it on YouTube,  Spotify,  Amazon, Deezer, Flo, Pandora, and other music sharing sites.

La Musique de Ta Pensée

« De tous les chiffres de l'alphabet,
C’est le cramoisi que j'adore… », dit-elle ;
Et je la regardai, déconcerté,
Amusé aussi par sa propension à colorer
Jusqu’au plus terne des sujets.

« La mer, elle vole si bien, chassant les rochers
Tandis qu'ils s'élèvent vers le fond… »
Je lui ai souri, me prélavant dans le soleil
De ses hyperboles, m'approchant au plus près de son étoile
En ce court instant d'un périhélie hyperbolique.

« De ton toucher, j'aime la musique et le miel, »

Murmura-t-elle, sous un souffle de ciel ;
Et j'ai chanté l'onde de ma main, trace de soie,
Sillon de sucre où mon âme se noie.

« Mes pensées secrètes vivent dans un tiroir fermé à clé dans mon ventre… »
J'acquiesçai, en caressant son nombril,
Voulant ouvrir ses cachettes les plus intimes
Pour m'y perdre tout entier.

« J'apprécie l'honnêteté des pégases
Qui, en période de mue, avouent ne plus savoir voler… »
Remarqua-t-elle pensivement, caressant mon omoplate,
Et à cet instant, je sus... oui, je le sus pertinemment...

« De ton toucher, j'aime la musique et le miel, »
Murmura-t-elle, sous un souffle de ciel ;
Et j'ai chanté l'onde de ma main, trace de soie,
Sillon de sucre où mon âme se noie.

Alors que je me préparais à un aphélie perpétuel,
Que je l'avais perdue, à jamais...
Dernière lettre muette d'un alphabet désormais sans chiffres.

The Music of Your Thought

“Of all the numbers of the alphabet
I adore crimson…”, she said;
And I looked at her bemused,
Amused too, by her propensity to add colour
To even the dullest topic.

“The sea, she flies so well, chasing rocks
As they rise up to the bottom…”
I smiled at her, basking in the sunshine
Of her hyperboles, approaching nearest to her star
In that single moment of a hyperbolic perihelion.

Of all the music of your touch,
I love sweetness…”, she added;
And I sang with my hand,
Leaving a trace of honey, treacly, sticky,
On her smooth skin.

“My secret thoughts live in a locked drawer

In my belly…”
I nodded, as I caressed her navel,
Wanting to open up her innermost
Secret hiding places to lose myself into.

“I appreciate the honesty of pegasi
Who in their moulting season admit they cannot fly…”
She pensively remarked, stroking my shoulder blade,
And at that moment I knew,
As I prepared for a perpetual aphelion,
That I had lost her, evermore.

TRAVEL TUESDAY 201 - WILSONS PROM, AUSTRALIA

“Wilderness is a necessity there must be places for human beings to satisfy their souls.” - John Muir 

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

Wilsons Promontory is a peninsula that forms the southernmost part of the Australian mainland and is located in the state of Victoria. South Point at 39°08′06″S 146°22′32″E is the southernmost tip of Wilsons Promontory and hence also the southernmost tip of mainland Australia. Located at nearby South East Point, (39°07′S 146°a25′E) is the Wilsons Promontory Lighthouse. Most of the peninsula is protected by the Wilsons Promontory National Park and the Wilsons Promontory Marine National Park.

The first European to see the promontory was George Bass in January 1798. He initially referred to it as “Furneaux's Land” in his diary, believing it to be what Captain Furneaux had previously seen. But on returning to Port Jackson and consulting Matthew Flinders he was convinced that the location was so different it could not be that land. Bass and Flinders recommended the name Wilsons Promontory to Governor Hunter, honouring Flinders’s friend from London Thomas Wilson. Little is known of Wilson except that he was a merchant engaged in trade with Australia.

The promontory has been a national park, to one degree or another, since 1898. Wilsons Promontory National Park, also known locally as “the Prom”, contains the largest coastal wilderness area in Victoria. The site was closed to the public during World War II, as it was used as a commando training ground. The only settlement within Wilsons Promontory is Tidal River which lies 30 kilometres south of the park boundary and is the focus for tourism and recreation. This park is managed by Parks Victoria.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

TRAVEL TUESDAY #154 - ELEPHANT ROCKS, WA

“People are so difficult. Give me an elephant any day.” - Mark Shand 

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

The Elephant Rocks are a well known landmark of the dramatic Denmark coastline on Western Australia’s south coast, located in the William Bay National Park about 15km west of the Denmark town centre. With a small stretch of the imagination, these tall rounded granite boulders resemble a herd of elephants bathing in the cold Southern Ocean waters.

A short walk trail from the carpark takes you to a lookout over Elephant Rocks. The trail then descends between the rocks to a sheltered cove. This is a lovely place for a swim but be aware that strong currents sometimes run through this cove. Providing a stark contrast to the granite that dominates this section of coast, a strip of black dolerite lines the eastern edge of the bay. You can walk from Elephant Rocks around the rocky headland to Greens Pool. As well as enjoying the marvellous views, you can also do snorkelling, swimming, fishing and bushwalking there. Not forgetting of course your camera to take some stunning photos of this amazing place. 

Denmark is a coastal town located on Wilson Inlet in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, 423 kilometres south-south-east of the state capital of Perth. At the 2016 census, Denmark had a population of 2,558; however, the population can be several times the base population during tourist seasons.

Denmark is a rural town with timber milling, orcharding, beef cattle and dairy farming as its primary industries. Excellent soil and climate attract wine growers, with tourism being the fastest growing business in Denmark. There is limited commercial fishing in Wilson Inlet. Denmark has no harbour. The town is home to the Western Australian College of Agriculture – Denmark, a 560 hectare working farm and educational facility for Year 10, 11 and 12 students providing specialist education in farming and farm-related studies. Denmark was awarded the title of Australia's Tidiest Town in 1998. On the Denmark River near Wilson Inlet there is a wooden Heritage Railway bridge where several walking trails come together including the Bibbulmun Track, which runs from the Perth region to Albany, and the “Denmark–Nornalup Heritage Trail”. Denmark is on the South Coast Highway, and is serviced by the TransWA public transport system. The town has an airstrip for small planes.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

MUSIC SATURDAY - DOMENICO GALLO

“Obscurity can be a fire of ambition in those who have stalwart souls.” - Taylor Caldwell

Domenico Gallo (1730 – ca 1768) was an Italian composer and violinist. Born in Venice in 1730, Gallo composed mostly church music, including a “Stabat Mater”. Gallo also composed violin sonatas, symphonies and possibly violin concertos. One collection of his music contains six sonatas for two violins and a second includes thirty six trio sonatas. No doubt some more of his works may be lurking in manuscript form in some dusty cupboard in some Venetian library…

Some trio sonatas by Domenico Gallo were long attributed to Giovanni Pergolesi, including those upon which Igor Stravinsky based his music for the ballet “Pulcinella”. In fact, half of the surviving works by Gallo were once attributed to Pergolesi, probably because Gallo was little known, Pergolesi was famous and his name would sell the music. It is unfortunate that so little is known of this composer and that so little of his music has come down to us.

Here are the set of twelve trio sonatas that was ascribed to Pergolesi, who died in 1736. They exemplify early forms of the sonata and make for wonderful listening, their familiarity being due to the popularity of “Pulcinella” by Stravinsky.

POETS UNITED - BEAUTY

“Were it not for music, we might in these days say, the Beautiful is dead.” - Benjamin Disraeli

Poets United this week has as its theme “Beauty”. Contributors are asked to share a poem where beauty speaks to the readers…

Sometimes a few notes of a song half heard while one is rushing past another car on the road, or when one changes radio station, a few fleeting notes, can bring back with great strength memories of the past. Vivid images that one thought were forgotten are quickly resurrected. A snatch of melody, that someone hums in the street, a few mumbled words of lyric are enough to rekindle flames amongst the cold ashes. Music speaks to our soul and the only way for us to answer is with our heart. When our heart sings, the melody will cause our brain to raise a white flag, defeated.

The Child in the Truck

The streets, empty and cold.
The morning, grey and cloudy.
The leaves of yesterday’s paper
Waltzing with the wind on wet asphalt,
While bleary-eyed the newspaper boy
Sourly announces a newer version of the news.

And I, serene, relentlessly introverted,
Listen to your rhythms
Leaving your melodies to wander aimlessly
In the deserted alleyways of my mind.
Your verses loiter, lingering
In room after room of grey matter
Proselytising from my memory
Images - pale, faded, ideal…

“Oh, my precious urban loneliness,
Grey-dressed, frigid sister,
How slowly you unravel round me!
You unsex yourself,
And in your newly muscular grip
You tighten your wily snares
To entrap me with no hope of escape.”

Bathed in the wan, grey morning light
That tiny child looks feebly, wide-eyed
Through the dirty window of the truck.
And in the stark beauty of waiting
Sits silent and alone, abiding
The inexorable loss of innocence.

ART SUNDAY - RAPHAEL

“Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.” - Oscar Wilde
 
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (March 28, 1483 – April 6, 1520), known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the triumvirate of great masters of the High Renaissance period of Italy. Raphael was especially noted for the grace and beauty of his paintings and became a model for this high renaissance style of art.
 
Raphael was born in the Italian city of Urbino in the Marches area of Italy. His father was a court painter and Raphael followed in his father’s footsteps, achieving a wide education in the arts, literature, and social skills. This enabled Raphael to move easily amongst the higher circles of court society and useful in advancing his career in gaining artistic commissions. The elegant and highly decorative style of Raphael contrasted with the more eccentric genius of Michelangelo. Michelangelo, arguably came to be the more revered artist, but, he certainly lacked the refinement of Raphael in dealing with others and unlike Raphael often found himself in dispute with his customers…
 
By the age of 18 years, Raphael was already considered a Master painter with considerable talent. He gained his first commissions, including the Mond Crucifixion in 1503. From about 1504, Raphael spent considerable time in Florence where he was influenced by the explosive artistic culture of the City. As he was the contemporary of Leonardo and Michelangelo he had plenty of opportunity to interact with these and other major artists. Michelangelo had a terrible temper and had the habit of easily falling out with other artists – Raphael proved to be no exception. Whilst Raphael absorbed the Florentine artistic tradition he was experiencing, his talent was more attuned to the classic form of perfection in form and composition. This was a somewhat different direction to the flair, inventiveness and genius of Leonardo and Michelangelo.
 
After Michelangelo had completed the Sistine Chapel, he complained that Raphael had even gone as far as “plagiarising his work”, though this was not the case. This can be seen to be a back-handed compliment where Michelangelo acknowledged Raphael’s genius. Raphael’s career blossomed and in 1508 he was invited to Rome by Pope Julius II. Whilst Michelangelo was working on the Sistine Chapel, Raphael was given rooms in the Vatican to paint. The rooms that he painted were considered some of the greatest Italian art on display. The first room known as the Stanza della Segnatura included the masterpieces – “The School of Athens”, “The Parnassus” and the “Dispute”.
 
By 1511 Raphael had one of the largest art schools in Rome, with over 50 pupils. It is said Raphael was not just a genius of art but also excellent at managing and inspiring his pupils, helping the school become a famous place of art. As well as a painter, Raphael was also a noted architect, draughtsman, and with Raimondi a printmaker. He died in April 6 1570, aged only 37. Yet, he left behind a considerable legacy and was celebrated even during his lifetime, with thousands of people attending his funeral.
 
Raphael’s life was short, but while he lived he was one of those geniuses who continually evolve and develop. He had an extraordinary capacity (like, though greater than, Picasso’s) to respond to every movement in the art world, and to subsume it within his own work. As a portraitist, Raphael is an observer, effortlessly cutting through the defences of his sitter, yet courteously allowing whatever image the sitter’s ego would seek to have portrayed. This represents a duality, looking beneath the surface and yet remaining wholly respectful of the surface, gives an additional layer of meaning to all his portraits. The two portraits shown here were both believed to be self-portraits of Raphael. We now know that one is of Bindo Altoviti (c. 1515) and the other is definitely a self-portrait (1504-06).
 
There is a congruency between these two portraits, but they are also quite different. Although the poses are in counterpoint, Raphael’s earlier self portrait is rather stark and honest, where the artist has stripped himself down to the essentials, the eyes looking at the observer serenely yet searchingly. “This is me and this is how I look at the world”, Raphael pronounces.
 
 Bindo Altoviti was handsome, a successful banker, and rich: Not unlike Raphael himself, in his later years. Although there is a feeling of fellowship in the work, the sitter’s face is sensitively fleshed out and the technical proficiency of the artist is laid out for us. Half the face is in shadow, as if to allow the sitter his mystery, his maturing, his own destiny. The lips are full and sensual, balanced by the deep-set eyes with their confrontational stare, almost defiant. The ruffled shirt is half-covered by the young man’s locks, calculatedly casual, at odds in their dandyish profusion with the plain beret and the rich but simple doublet. He holds a darkened hand dramatically to his breast, maybe to show off the ring, maybe to indicate psychic ease. This is a more accomplished work, complimentary to the sitter and well-suited for ostentatious display, while at the same time retaining the precepts of classic beauty and understated simplicity.

MATHEMATICS AWARENESS MONTH

“Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.” - Albert Einstein
 

April is Mathematics Awareness Month. This an annual event that was created to increase public understanding of, and appreciation for, mathematics. It began in 1986, when President Reagan of the USA issued a proclamation establishing National Mathematics Awareness Week. Activities for Mathematics Awareness Month generally are organised on local, state and regional levels by college and university departments, institutional public information offices, student groups, and related associations and interest groups. Although this is a USA event, it is now spilling out to other Anglozone countries and to some other countries as well.
 

This year, Mathematics Awareness Month will focus on the Mathematics of Sustainability. Being human means continually balancing our needs with the world’s resources while operating within the laws of nature. Mathematics helps us better understand these complex issues and is used by mathematicians and practitioners in a wide range of fields to seek creative solutions for a sustainable way of life. Society and individuals will need to make challenging choices; mathematics provides us with tools to make informed decisions.
 

Students often start to question the need for learning mathematics at school. Once arithmetic has been mastered, and the more abstract mathematical concepts begin to be taught to them, it is not uncommon to hear in a school: “What is maths good for? Why should I learn it? How on earth is this relevant to me in my future as a..?” It is not difficult to answer these questions, especially if one is a maths teacher, however, putting the answers in the right language and right context for a class of malcontented young people to appreciate is a challenge.
 

Ever since there were humans in existence, there have been problems that required immediate and practical solutions. Whether the problems were over basic requirements like sustaining sufficient amounts of food or major accomplishments like constructing functional and durable buildings, problems such as these remain with us to this day. Successful problem solvers are able to understand what is expected of the problems they face by understanding the details surrounding the question at hand, which is the most important step to solving problems. After patiently examining the details, paying attention to the details, intelligent choices are made as well as the beginning steps of developing a strategy. The plan must be carried out in an order that makes sense. So careful planning, possibly by justifiable experimentation, must take place. Once an actual solution is obtained, it must be tested to determine whether or not it is reasonable. This is what maths is all about.
 

Maths problems that are covered in class force us to use many, if not all, of the detailed methods of problem solving. The theory provides us with the methods of arriving at solutions in the most efficient way. Each individual problem becomes a small but important lesson for solving problems in general. Maths is traditionally learned by first doing many smaller problems. Then the small problems are put together to solve bigger problems. For instance, in order to solve algebraic equations, being knowledgeable about arithmetical operations, i.e. addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, is a must. Ordering the steps to be carried out, evaluating expressions, and learning how and when equations are used must be learned, too.
 

The world is facing a range of serious challenges on issues such as the environment, energy, and climate change. The finances of a globalised economy, the complex budgets of the world’s major countries, international trade, all require mathematics. Especially where sustainable practice is concerned, mathematical modelling is essential. Mathematics plays an important role in understanding and addressing these sustainability problems.
 

You may not need maths to survive in your every day existence. Pocket calculators taught us that you don’t even have to know arithmetic. Mobile smart phones tell us immediately the answers to simple maths problems: Google can tell you how many square kilometres 12.4 square miles is, or the volume of a hemisphere with 25 cm diameter. In any case, these are simple arithmetical, geometrical and mensuration exercises. Higher mathematics teaches to appreciate the beauty of reasoned thought, the value of logic, and the power of proofs. Mathematics is the foundation of all science: For example, physics, economics, computing, astronomy. How can one understand the world without knowing what calculus is about, without knowing what optimisation is? Without knowing about Noether’s theorems or chaos?
 

Even if one looks at the arts, and music is an obvious example, you don’t need to know maths to like a concerto or enjoy a symphony. However, maths helps us understand why we like the sound of an interval and why another sounds unpleasant. Why jumping from one note to another is pleasing and why another pair of notes sounds grating. Maths tells us why the composition of one canvas is pleasing to the eye and why another painting’s composition may look “wrong”. Counting and simple arithmetic, ratios, sequences and series may help us understand why a poem doesn’t scan right. Mathematics is the language of nature and learning it provides our connection to the universe.

SATURDAY WITH SCHUBERT

“To love beauty is to see light.” - Victor Hugo
 
A Schubert symphony for Music Saturday. Amongst the classical composers, Franz Schubert (1797-1828) is one of my favourites in terms of his tuneful melodies, lovely harmonies and wonderful musicality. Besides his amazing lieder, there is a treasure trove to be discovered in his orchestral works.
 
The fifth of Schubert's nine numbered symphonies was written in 1816 and was performed in October, a month after its composition, at the house of Otto Hatwig, a violinist in the Burgtheater orchestra. The musicians concerned were otherwise amateurs from the group that had been accustomed to meet at the house of Schubert’s father.
 
The music is in the tradition of what Schubert in his diary that year described as the magic sound of Mozart, the immortal. It is scored for flute, pairs of oboes, bassoons and horns, with strings, while the Unfinished Symphony was to make use of a larger orchestra that included clarinets, trombones, trumpets and drums.
 
The first movement leads us through the charm of its principal melodic material to an excursion into stranger keys, until a recapitulation that opens with the first theme in the key of E fiat, before the original key of the movement is restored. There follows a slow movement that is in that essentially Viennese operatic idiom of which Mozart was the greatest exponent, succeeded by a lively Minuet and Trio in the keys of G minor and G major respectively. The symphony ends with a finale that contains all the dramatic contrasts that the customary form encourages.
 
Here are Les Musiciens du Louvre, conducted by Mark Minkowski playing this bright and beautiful symphony.
Enjoy!