The Archetype of the Troubadour ... is Alive and Well ... all Over the World

... which is more than can be said for some 'archeypes' treated in modern movies and television shows.

Barry McGuire and John York

A few evenings ago I was watching PBS and caught Barry McGuire (with John York of the storied career, includig The Byrds) singing Eve of Destruction. And I thought to myself, since I wasn't thinking to anyone else at that moment, that the archetype of the 'troubadour' is alive and well. Which is a good thing. There are tens of thousands of troubadours singing all over the world, it just happened to be Barry McGuire that pulled at my reflective mind.

The health of our archetypes - i.e. how we treat and dress and give voice to archetypes in our cultural media consumables - is imortant to our health. Degrade our archetypes and we degrade our culture. Which in turn makes us less than what we could be. Since it is our archetypes that inspire and instruct (both of these) us that we are and can be 'bigger' than any of our 'ordinary' moments.

Boy, he has sung that song across a lot of Time, relative to how lasting, across Time, human beings can be.

A Bit of Recent History on the Medieval European Troubadours

"Astonishing in their diversity and grace, the circa four thousand poems of the Occitanian and Catalan troubadours survive by the foresight of a few enlightened patrons who, sensing the end of an epoch, began amassing these precious works in large manuscript codices. Yet the medieval hour was late; poems that had been sung for generations were collected and transcribed at the very end of their general currency in society. And only two hundred or so melodies (preserved in what degree of exactitude?) were ever written down at all."

Joel Cohen's liner notes to Lo Gai Saber: Troubadours et Jongleurs 1100 - 1300, 1991.

You can read more about this recording here.

New Archetypes are not Created

Of course, there were troubadours all over the world before the term was invented in the Middle Ages in Occitania. Then it was largely about 'love' - Divine and of this human plane. I include songs of activism in the troubadour archetype. The 60s and 70s were a rich time for troubadours. The 80s and 90s not so much. But ... the archetype is alive and well today. Hooray! Just as they love love, so we do, and must, love them.

There are no new archetypes created. (Just as there are no new spiritual teachings.) Yes, we can dress and disguise our archetypes, and so empower or disempower them, in the guises of our time and place and the persons around us. To degrade them for entertainment's purposes only is to lose them. To lose them is to lose part of what we are and part of what we can be.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

The Bridge - The Landfill Harmonic and the Irresistability of Creating

Music and the love of music does not necessarily by iteslf change personal issues of poverty or health (acknowledging the many exceptions that are shamanic and miraculous, where it does). But it does change consciousness. Watching people create is inspiring to us all for we are all innately, intrinsically, and Divinely (since we are all of the Divine) creative.

... and so to the Landfill Harmonic. ... once upon a time (in our time) ...

It has a name. Some might fnd that strange. But then, we name everything ... that we need to share or think about. So ... it is named Cateura, this place where creativity and creation bloom in the most unexpected place (on Earth). Cateura is Paraguay's largest landfill.

Luis Szaran, Director of 'Sonidos de la Tierra', was called (inspired) to a mission. He took his love of music and his understanding of what music gives to the children of Cateura.

So Many Children ... So Few Instruments

In the beginning there were only five violins and fifty children ... and so some talented and huge-hearted people began to make instruments from the garbage sent to Cateura. As one lad says ...

"The cello is made from an oil can and wood that was thrown away in the garbage. The pegs are made out of an old tool used to tenderize beef, and this was used to make gnocchi."

And it sounds beautiful ... since it is heartfully played.

These children know (truly know) what they are doing.

"For me, the music is the smile of the soul. ... I love it because you can convey everything with it. You can tell if you're angry, if you're happy, if you're sad, if you're in love. ... As Maestro Szaran says, we need to make intelligence hip, instead of clothes and cell phones."

Landfill Harmonic on Tour

... and here are these young people telling their story through playing orchestral music. And also telling the bigger story of the Bridge - the relationship to 'inspiration' - that we all have as our birthright, regardless of whether we dance with that partner-in-Existence or not.

The Bridge is Always Open

'Bridge' is the core concept, the core understanding. The Bridge is not especially/particularly an 'archetype'. Rather, and simply, it is a basic fact of life. The Bridge is a way, from 'Inspiration' (whatever you may want to call it, and define it to yourself) to each of us. The Bridge is always open. It is our end of the Bridge that is often not. Locally closed, one might say. There are a million ways for us to open to our end of the bridge. But the way of ways is simply to surrender to our desire to 'create'. Yes, there may be quieting down needed from us, and a learning to 'listen' to the choir that sings to us, unceasingly, from the other side of the Bridge.

What is true about music, as above, is also true of writing. This is the way it is and there is no other way.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

Musicians Who Paint - Herb Alpert

Once upon a lo-ong time ago I was a musician. Once upon a time yet to come ... I will be an abstract painter. (As for "why abstract painting" ... it's a lo-ong story ... all to do with acknowledging that the universe that we 'see' is painted by biological perceptive organs and in its 'isness' it bears no relation to what we 'see' ... 'abstract' painting is one way to honor this Divine fact.)

This weekend just past there was a fascinating piece in the Wall Street Journal on Herb Alpert, who started painting in 1970, and his art.

Just fascinating ... and there was a gorgeous photo of his studio, by Annie Tritt, showing some of his paintings using organic coffee on gesso. You can read more on Herb Alpert's website here.

The Artist At Work - Honesty

Albert talks about his work on this video featured on Vimeo. (permissions don't let me embed it here - you will have to click to Vimeo to view.)

"There's a running thread to all good artists and it's 'honesty'. ... I don't have a goal in mind apart from form. I'm looking for that form that touches me. It's a real mystical art form. There's someting that feeds me internally. ... This sounds a little mysterious. There's a voice in me that tells me what to do. It definitely tells me when to stop and when to keep going."

For those who love watching artists actually at work there is a wonderful scene of him making one of his organic coffee on gesso paintings, pouring coffee on the canvas (beginning 5.23).

Oneness vs. Poverty Consciousness

Creation is a oneness thing. Music ... painting ... writing. All art forms aim and intend to manifest into our world something that was not manifest before. And the only thing worth creating is that which is from your own truth. Forcing yourself to copy or emulate - "otherwise I won't make it!" - is poverty consciousness. Honesty ... to the life that life that we have been Given.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

What Did It Sound Like? - To Play the Oldest Known Music Notation in the World

As a writer of stories, long and short, in the genre of historical fantasy I am fascinated by all the facets I need to create a world for my characters which seduces my readers. And more ... which bedazzles and successfully invites them inside. One of these facets is music. Music is integral to the world in my novel Alba - not only is it integral, it is a 'shamanic' doorway. Thus essential.

The oldest currently-known notated music in the world (or, this set of civilizations upon the breast of Mother EAerth) comes from Ugarit, on the coast of present-day Syria, and is dated around 1400 BCE. Acknowledging that there may well be older music currently played, today and even tomorrow, that was transmitted by lineage of teacher/pupil learning ... This music, known today as the Hurrian songs, was inscribed onto clay tablets. What has so far been discovered is incomplete - clay is a fragle material.

What did it sound like?

Well ... here would be no elements of today. No technobeats ... no sampling ... no overdubbing and multi-tracking ... no electronic instruments. The 'true' tones of Western music not at all necessary. Voices and ... handsonics ... and ... reeds, strings, skins and metals, No recordings. No greatest hits. No accompanying twerking (I strongly intuit/suspect, but cannot be certain). Optional hotpants very unlikely.

What did it sound like?

Well ... we will never know. But that does not stop us from enjoying the joyful wonder of the fact that way back then, in that tribe, musicians composed and notated their music so that is could be shared and so that it could endure, at least for as long as the culture did endure.

Malek Jandali

There are some inspirational extrapolations from these Hurrian songs. The Syrian-born Malek Jandali has an album called Echoes from Ugarit released a couple of years ago written for piano and Western orchestra.

Why is this important to writers?

Why is this important?

Well ... It is important to be able to access a state of 'personal' wonder about this creation upon this planet and these experiences that 'we' have. It is right and natural to have wonder about these ancient civilizations - that in the galactic scheme of time are just the last heartbeat away. A sense of wonder is natural. A lack of a sense of wonder is not.

Why is this important to writers?

Music is a huge part of every culture, down through all of 'history'. Sure, we can all write stories that don't need the facet of music to create the world in which the story takes place. However, for myself, the more I want to incorporate the essence of a culture in a story setting the more likely I will introduce music into that world. Of course, if I want to introduce any facet that is the slightest 'shamanic' then I likely need music.

For writers of historical fantasy and historical fiction it depends how far back in time you are setting your story. If you have gone back as far as the Baroque Period - 1600-1750, or so - then you are in reasonably well-documented territory. Though bear in mind that there are periodic huge controversies in the early music communities about what early music actually sounded like.

Once we are in historical settings that are way back, like the Dark Ages and before in Europe, and their equivalent periods in other parts of this world, then where are we going to find inspiration to be able to write and create the musical backdrops in our stories?

Over the next few months I will share some of the music I have listened to, and become drunk upon, in the quest to meet inspiration for the musical facets of my ancient worlds.

Malek Jandali is currently giving great Service to the world through activist work on behalf of all children caught up in the current conflict in Syria. You can read more about his work here

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light with you!