Acourse, Dave, I was joshing you bcuz you wrote Midsummer Night's *Theme*
rather than Dream. I'm glad you're revisiting the goofiness of the
presumably understood&shared term 'theory'.
I have to hand Ellen Bryant Voigt's *The Flexible Lyric* [U Georgia P,
1999], and want to use bits of her analyses to show what I mean by 'theory'.
I think that 'theory' itself, employing shorthand [jargon] separates one [or
'all'] creations into bits, seeking to show how creation works and how it
succeeds. *Critical* theory, using its jargon, separates a creation [or
several creations] into bits, seeking to show *if* and how *well* it
succeeds.
Voigt does both. Let me take a particular instance in her chapter the
same-named as the book. She deftly and economically sweeps through the
English sonnet evolution and lands on Shak's #129, [p 146] saying that the
poet has gone past the "quatrain independence", using "rhetorical,
syntactic, sonic, and metrical patterns toward construction of a seamless
12-line unit, its interior so rich that attention is forced away from the
end rhyme and its subdivisions:"
"Th'expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
Enjoyed no sooner but despised straight:
Past reason hunted; and no sooner had,
Past reason hated, as a swallowed bait,
On purpose laid to make the taker mad:
Mad in pursuit, and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell."
A bit later Voigt asserts: "The step from a few strategically placed
enjambments to a preponderance of them, from associative structure to
narrative sequence, from a two-line self-evident closure to a single line,
is a small one:"
[Shak's #154]:
"The little Love-god lying once asleep
Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand,
Whilst many nymphs that vow'd chaste life to keep
Came tripping by; but in her maiden hand
The fairest votary took up that fire
Which many legions of fair hearts had warm'd;
and so the general of hot desire
Was sleeping by a virgin hand disarm'd.
This brand she quenched in a cool well by,
Which from Love's fire took heat perpetual,
Growing a bath and healthful remedy
For men diseased; but I, my mistress' thrall,
Came there for cure, and this by that I prove,
Love's fire heats water, water cools not love."
Voigt further describes the evolution: "And when that step moves the poet
more completely into idiom and character, as is the case at what seems the
cycle's end, the next step is smaller still: to the utter replacement of
*logos* with *pathos*, of end rhyme with an interior music, irony now
enacting paradox throughout. And what happens to the couplet, that most
'Shakespearean' legacy? The dramatist replaces it with efficient action:
watch for Edmund's swift conclusion to and reversal of King Lear's final
monologue in Act 5, scene 3 . . ."
Let me know your thoughts, Dave.
Judy who'd love to've heard Mendelssohn's "Dream", but the site said:
"Unavailable in your region", as you'd thought it might. <sigh>
2009/5/14 David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>
> 2009/5/13 Judy Prince <[log in to unmask]>
>
> > Which Shaksper wrote MNT?
>
>
> Also the same one who is available (abridged) with Mendelssohn (wedding
> march included) till the end of the year at:
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/composers/mendelssohn/dream.shtml
>
> I imagine it is one of those things that will only be accessible to people
> in the UK though.
>
> There are lots of things theory could say about that, it's performed at the
> Middle Temple for instance, but the why it works is another matter.
>
> >
> > 2009/5/13 David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>
> >
> > > It is clear to me that the general drift of comments in this thread
> > display
> > > an absence of a defined theory of the nature of theory, without which
> > > theory, theory theoretically cannot theorised or theoretically be, in
> > > theory
> > > or not.
> > > In A Midsummer Night's Theme we see what can happen if you cavort with
> > the
> > > theories.
> > >
> > > 2009/5/13 Judy Prince <[log in to unmask]>
> > >
> > > > And then there's The Best, Art Tatum:
> > > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYcZGPLAnHA&feature=related
> > > > Judy
> > > >
> > > > 2009/5/13 Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]>
> > > >
> > > > > I admit that I may be wrong in thinking that music theory & poetic
> > > theory
> > > > > arent quite the same thing. I'd respond to this John, by saying
> that
> > a
> > > > lot
> > > > > of the 'theory' can only be learned by reding the poems, & then
> > trying
> > > to
> > > > > write the way that excites you most, not copying others' poem
> exactly
> > > so
> > > > > much as seeing how those poems do what they do. And to see that,
> one
> > > must
> > > > > read poems, a lot of them.
> > > > >
> > > > > Which is a bit like paying a lot, while also asking questions, like
> > > that
> > > > > one Miles asked Dizzy.
> > > > >
> > > > > Doug
> > > > > On 13-May-09, at 9:43 AM, John Herbert Cunningham wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > Until recently, Dominic, all the great composers were known as
> great
> > > > >> improvisers - Bach Beethoven, Mozart, etc. This meant that they
> were
> > > > able
> > > > >> to
> > > > >> play by ear and, in fact, because of this skill, they were able to
> > > > notate
> > > > >> what they heard in their heads. Many composers these days compose
> > via
> > > > >> mathematical algorithms so I cannot say anything about their
> ability
> > > to
> > > > >> hear
> > > > >> music. As to Jazz, Andrew, it used to be the case that there was a
> > > > certain
> > > > >> amount of pride in jazz musicians saying that they were untutored.
> > > > Recent
> > > > >> investigations and writing on the early and later jazz giants
> > > indicating
> > > > >> that most of them were schooled in theory. Dizzy Gillespie and
> > Charlie
> > > > >> Parker would talk for hours about chords and structure. The
> > legendary
> > > > >> cutting sessions in Kansas City and the same type of sessions in
> New
> > > > York
> > > > >> required musicians to be able to modulate their way through
> complex
> > > > >> chordal
> > > > >> patterns. Legend has it that Ornette Coleman taught himself theory
> > > while
> > > > >> operating an elevator in L.A. The joke that others were to tell is
> > > that
> > > > he
> > > > >> got it wrong. This doesn't really matter much as he went on to
> > create
> > > > his
> > > > >> own harmelodic theory. So whether classical or jazz, if you want
> to
> > > > >> compose
> > > > >> then you'd better have your chops down. I think the same works
> for
> > > > >> poetry.
> > > > >> The better a poet you become, the more you've paid attention to
> > > literary
> > > > >> theory and the more poetry reflecting this theory you've read
> never
> > > mind
> > > > >> the
> > > > >> time spent trying to figure out what another poet is saying and
> > what
> > > > the
> > > > >> thing is in the way that say it that makes that poem and poet
> > > effective.
> > > > >>
> > > > >
> > > > > Douglas Barbour
> > > > > [log in to unmask]
> > > > >
> > > > > http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
> > > > >
> > > > > Latest books:
> > > > > Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
> > > > > http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
> > > > > Wednesdays'
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
> http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html
> > > > >
> > > > > and this is 'life' and we owe at least this much
> > > > > contemplation to our western fact: to Rise,
> > > > > Decline, Fall, to futility and larks,
> > > > > to the bright crustaceans of the oversky.
> > > > >
> > > > > Phyllis Webb
> > > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > David Bircumshaw
> > > "Nothing can be done in the face
> > > of ordinary unhappiness" - PP
> > > Website and A Chide's Alphabet
> > > http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
> > > The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
> > > Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
> > >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> David Bircumshaw
> "Nothing can be done in the face
> of ordinary unhappiness" - PP
> Website and A Chide's Alphabet
> http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
> Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
>
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