مو بر تن سیخ کننده ترین

من و دوست عزیزی به صراحت فکر می کردیم که پیش از دوران باخ موسیقی زیبا به آن معنا وجود نداشته. هفته ی پیش متوجه شدم که در جهلی مرکب به سر می بردیم. یوتیوب گردی های شبانه ی من در جستجوی موسیقی کرال و گوش دادن به اجراهای گروه فوق العاده ی The sixteen، پایانی بود مو بر تن سیخ کننده بر جهل مرکب من درباره ی موسیقی پیش از باخ: دعای «خداوندا مرا عفو کن» که توسط آلگری آهنگساز ایتالیایی دوره ی رنسانس نوشته شده. در زمان خود، این دعای زیبا تنها به طور خصوصی در چند جای محدود در حضور شاهان و اسقف ها از جمله هنگام نیایش صبحگاهی در کلیسای سیستین (همانی که سقفش را میکل آنژ نقاشی کرده و طرح معروف انگشت خدا و آدم در آن قرار دارد) اجرا می شده و اجرای آن برای عموم ممنوع بوده (هنر طبقاتی!). در سخن است که موتزارت جوان چهارده ساله نخستین بار که این قطعه را می شنود، آن را از بر می کند و می نویسد و تنها یک بار دیگر برای غلط گیری به آن گوش می دهد. سپس در سفرهایش آن را به کسانی می سپارد که در نهایت چاپش می کنند و به این ترتیب ممنوعیت قطعه لغو می شود. پاپ موتزارت را احضار می کند. ولی به جای سرزنش، نبوغ موسیقیایی او را مدح می کند. آوای کوتاهی که توسط تکخوان سوپرانو در این قطعه تکرار می شود شاید از «مو بر تن سیخ کننده ترین» آواهای تاریخ موسیقی باشد. جهش آرام و مطمئن و قدرتمند از تونیک بهدومینانت، ویبراتویی نرم و بازگشت آرام و دوباره به تونیک. بی نقص 

…Sit down

 

and tell me a story. Don’t rush. I’ve got all the time in world…

 

 

Bernstein and Gould: Beyond perfection

Music is listening to Bach’s magic through Bernstein’s orchestra and looking at Gould’s hands and facial impressions. It is to be appreciated in full consciousness, over and over and over again. That is why the experience of the concert hall is different from a noisy radio in a noisy room. That is why I have to pause it even if I want to write about it.

.Music is not to be played in the background

.Music is not to be not listened to

Let beauty awake for beauty’s sake

 

,Let Beauty awake in the morn from beautiful dreams

!Beauty awake from rest

Let Beauty awake

For Beauty’s sake

In the hour when the birds awake in the brake

!And the stars are bright in the west

,Let Beauty awake in the eve from the slumber of day

!Awake in the crimson eve

In the day’s dusk end

!When the shades ascend

,Let her wake to the kiss of a tender friend

!To render again and receive

هرچقدر هم این روزها تاریک و ابری و لخت باشند، آرپژهای به هم پیوسته و آواز گرم و تغزلی این ترانه هر پاییز زده ی نم کشیده ای را می تواند به باغی پر از پرنده، یک غروب آرام یا خاطره ی بوسه ای مهربان ببرد

اجرای باریتون

اجرای سوپرانو

پ.ن. این ترانه بخشی از یک حلقه ترانه به نام «ترانه های سفر» است، سروده ی رابرت لویی استیونسون و ساخته ی رالف وان ویلیامز

Make me a key

?Trinity: Where are you going

.Keymaker: Another way. Always another way

Science: beauty and purpose

I guess it is not only Feynman and I who share the feeling of beauty in science and the unravelling of the mysteries of nature. Robin Ince also gives out beautiful examples of how things can be beautiful and amusing through science goggles. However, the part I like best is where he quotes Steven Weinberg that the more you know about the universe, the more you realize it doesn’t have a purpose. But instead of sinking down to nihilism, Robin Ince says you can think that you are blessed with infinite options in choosing and making up your very own purpose in this purposeless universe. What is your purpose? The universe doesn’t care anyway

Eppendorfotography

Ice is melting

Life is passing

Buffer is incubating

Life is passing

Ice is melting

Occupy autumn

 

Nostalgia…or maybe denial

Nostalgia is denial – denial of the painful present… the name for this denial is golden age thinking – the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one ones living in – its a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present.

(Midnight in Paris – 2011)

Question: Which one is worse? Denial of the current shit or conforming to the current shit? I would personally rather live up in the present than dream the past. We tend to obliviate ourselves from the all the pain that was most probably prevalent during our époque de rêve and in turn would have made us nostalgic of rather another time (going backwards all the way to when we were happy and worry-free single cells swirling freely in the primitive oceans). Coping with the present is difficult, whether or not you romanticize the past.

Not that I actually do live in this manner, but I try to. I think nostalgia and its associated denial are parts of conservative nature of humans unwilling to go through change, especially as they age.

Trying hard to live in the present, I still keep a small mind-window open for far future, for the discovery of the secrets to singularity and longevity! Or even space travel. Is that also a form of nostalgia? For instance to higher life-forms who have overcome the hardships of perpetuating their existence? Or hopefully our descendants who finally found better things to do with their time? I would think so

Feynman and I

I look at the moon tonight, and I wonder how such a huge piece of mass perpetually spins around the earth, so precise that calendars have been based on its movements. How it never falls or runs away. How we see it as a perfect sphere although it is filled with the imperfections of hills and grooves. I wonder why it is that we never see the dark side of the moon. What would it be like if there were life on a planet where it is always dark on one side and bright on the other. I wonder how poetry would be like on Mars with two moons or on Jupiter with many more. Would midnight kisses on double or triple full moons be as special? What kinds of mythical werewolf-likecreatures would be created? I cannot agree more with Feynman that asking all those questions only adds to the beauty of that bright light of the night