Simrit Kaur (Creative Commons photo by Fiz327)
Partially inspired by the ongoing Beethoven discussion group led by Eric Wagner and partially by his work being on tour as the sound mixer for the world music artist Simrit, Oz Fritz has a new post up at his blog.
At one point, Oz Googles Bob Dylan and Beethoven and pulls up these lyrics, from "Tombstone Blues":
Where Ma Rainey and Beethoven once unwrapped their bedrolls
Tuba players now rehearse around the flagpole
And the National Bank at a profit sells roadmaps to the soul
To the old folks home and the college.
Oz writes. "The title 'Tombstone Blues' obviously suggests death. Old folks home suggests death lurking close by. A college gives education. The Invisible College educates invisibly. Educate yourself about death; make a roadmap to the soul. I submit that Beethoven's music contains similar instructions. A lot of great music seems didactic in a multiplicity of different ways along the lines of a spiritual education, an education into the mysteries of death and the life that follows. Every SIMRIT concert does, different each time."
2 comments:
Thank-you, Tom. You chose a great excerpt, well done!
Very cool. And Joseph Kerman wrote an essay called "Labyrinth Music" in his wonderful book "Opera and the Morbidity of Music".
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