[lit-ideas] Homer by The Fire
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 12:19:48 EDT
Homer's Songbook
J. Krueger expresses her observations regarding the complexity of following
a lyric in a language -- foreign or other.
"Ya know, as much trouble as Americans seem to have understanding lyrics sung
by fellow Americans, it is probably no small wonder that I have a hard time
understanding lyrics in Spanish and French songs, though were they spoken
rather than sung I would likely have no problem at all. Something about the
requisite attenuation, glossing, syllabic emphasis, etc., that music
requires of lyrics render the words nearly incomprehensible to me."
Exactly. At Eton, boys were 'trained' to follow the songs of Homer in the
vernacular. I am copying some of the verses:
When Achilles is told that his friend Patroclus was killed in battle, Homer
sings:
Hos phato, ton d'akheos vephele ekalupse melaina
amphoteresi de kersin helon konin aithaloessan
khenato kak kephales, kharien d'eskhune prosopon
vektareo de kithoni melanin amphixave tephre.
"So he [Antilochus] spoke, and a black cloud of grief
enfolded Achilles,
and with both hands he took the dark dust
and poured it over his head and
defiled his fair face,
and on his fragrant tunic
the black ashes fell."
----
I remember once at the Memphis Metaphysical Ministry we were attempting a
recreation of the Homeric song cycle.
I was supposed to do the playing to a lyre (well, a sort of acoustic guitar,
rather to which Geary had taken 14 strings off -- 'to make the sound more
authentic).
We had a fire pit, and all the trainees around us.
The Director (Geary) was to do the recitation. It all started well:
"Hos phato, ton d'akheos vephele ekalupse melaina
amphoteresi..."
when we first the first complain from one of the female trainees. "Can you
keep the lyre lower? Can't hear the verb-endings to Geary's recitation"
"Neither do I", said another, a male one this time.
Geary tried to defend the musical instrumentation. "That's your fault. The
whole idea is to let your brain process the _verbal_ meaning +plus+ the
lyrical orchestration," and on the spot he continued...
"de kersin helon konin aithaloessan
khenato kak kephales, kharien d'eskhune prosopon
vektareo de kithoni melanin amphixave tephre."
When he finished the 478 hexameters of Canto I8, he promptly said, "To bed
now -- make your beds in your tents". Little time he needed to realise the
trainees and the lyricist were already in the fields of Endymion, by the warm
fire of a starry Tennessean night.
Cheers,
JL
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