Luckily poetry isn't compulsory. But it's fair to say its pleasures
are myriad.
Interesting how music pops up as a referent here... Michael's comment
about not having the time to spend reaping the rewards of "self
referential" art reminds me of comments about new music, which
baffles many people whose ears are conditioned by 18th and 18th
century ideas of harmony and rhythm. Perhaps I've been protected by
my ignorance - having nothing in my mind I had no expectations to
shatter - so when I first encountered it (attending a few concerts by
the excellent Elision Ensemble here many years ago now) I was both
amazed and fascinated. I was listening to pieces by Xenakis, Richard
Barrett, Ligati, Liza Lim and others, and they were doing violence to
rhythm in ways which aren't so far from what Bergvall's doing in that
poem. For me, it was incredibly important to listen to this work
live, because it makes me listen properly; cds tend to settle into
the background unless I'm being unusually disciplined.
But of course, they are all very different composers, just as "new"
poets are incredibly various (take a look at the poetries at
http://www.scc.rutgers.edu/however/v1_5_2001/current/new-writing/index.html
- Karlien von Beukel for instance is doing something that looks
awwfully _lyric_). So to generalise about it all is a little
difficult.
I'm no expert on music, but I've learned enough since to think that
parallels between music and poetry tend to fall apart, since the
metaphor when applied to poems tends to be smudgy rather than precise
and musical composition is above all precise. There are rare
exceptions like Theodore Enslin, who trained as a composer. He says
in an interview (speaking of Aiken): "I found very quickly that he
was using these terms in a way that poets often do, something that
still rather annoys me. They don't really talk in a musical sense.
They think they do, but they don't really know what the fuck they are
talking about. ... How many poets know what a plagal cadence is, and
can use it properly?"
Well, not me for one: though I like Enslin's poetry, and it's
certainly musical.
Best
Alison
--
Alison Croggon
Home page
http://www.users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
Masthead Online
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