A Vague Memory & Dance as Art

A train station in Paris, wrapped in black wrought iron, remembered dimly;then the night sky, glorious with stars brilliant and comforting over ocean, leads into Ellis Island's massive windows and brown benches. Sitting and waiting is made bearable by watching a canary in a wooden cage. Memory vanishes at that point.

We cannot know when humans began to step in rhythmic forms. It may be that prehistoric man celebrated a successful hunt by changing his running steps into irregular leaps and bounds, and found it so pleasing to do that the movements became ritual. And perhaps chanting began at that time, thus adding Music to Dance and forming another close relationship between two of the Arts. Most dance modes depend on a strong rhythmic beat, provided by music, that dictates their choreography.

When did you find yourself moving spontaneously to music? Were you aware you were dancing? Or marching? What music set you in motion then, and what music does so at present?

odysseuse will welcome you to May with a bit of doggerel in the next post.

Odysseuse

The adventures of Odysseuse began near a field of full-blossoming marguerites in Zurich, Switzerland. They continued through space and time in various places and now occur in America's midwest. The journey has not yet ended.

Whether it is realized or not, the Arts have an impact on us, visually, aurally, and emotionally, beginning at an early age. But the Arts also have a partner: the Sciences, often represented by technology. The great advances in the way we listen to music - from 78s to CDs and onward - have come from technical inventions. And that thought leads to the great concert halls, represented by architecture. Accoustics in those concert halls are not accidental - those good sounds heard in them arise from scientific knowledge of how best sound is transmitted.

So here we have two of the Arts: Music and Architecture, neither of which is a simple subject, for there are many offshoots of the two. Music is that to which you prefer to listen. Architecture is Buildings, bridges, and monuments.

You may think you aren't interested in Arts or Sciences. It may be more to the point to say you are unaware of their influence. Here's something to think about: when you were very young, was there a building you still remember, or a bridge, or monument, and what is the first music or song you remember liking?

Odysseuse (the feminine of Odysseus) leaves you with this thought:

Arts, bow in gratitude to the Sciences!

A Sonnet in a Hurry!

And why should any sonnet be in a hurry? This one is because it's set in April and there are only seven days left.

Written by Odysseuse:

The first shy violets of April thrust
their singing hues up through decaying snow,
denying winter's hold and dying gust
with tranquil scent and sweet cerulean glow.
In hives, reluctant bumbling bees begin
to rumble, buzz, and consultate, then flee
the comb in clouds to nominate their queen
and cleave with death in winging ecstacy.
Upon a branch yet bare of bud or leaf,
a bluebird late returned from southern shores
swell-throated sings his soul's sincere belief
in spring; with love his song to heaven soars.

And I, observing, feel myself emerge
from ice to warm and eager vernal urge.

I don't know in what form this will be published, but I assure you it is a fourteen line poem of twelve lines and a couplet.

The next post will reveal a bit about Odysseuse.

Let's Begin!

Odysseuse is at the beginning of an educational adventure in blogging. It seems there will be at least ten more lessons, on completion of which there will be photos to go along with text. And perhaps there will be sketches by Odysseuse if the scanner functions as desired. Odysseuse, Marguerite Louise's alter-ego, is an artist and writer well known in the family and very little known elsewhere. "Petite a petite L'Oiseau fait son nit", a little saying remembered from a long-ago French class."Little by little the bird builds its nest." It fits this occasion.

Tomorrow's blog will be a springtime sonnet which has lain fallow in a folder and needs to come to light. Cheer up - the main thrust of this blog will be the Arts, and you will be amazed how much the Arts are with you when you least think they are. Like stand-up comedy? It's an Art!