Saturday, September 20, 2008

Art to Music to Poetry - all whispered in Chinese

And now for something completely different.

My favourite composer (who I shan't name yet) is a curious cove. He does both soundtracks and his own work. His soundtracks are inspired by some really singular directors. And the music he writes to accompany these images are perfectly wonderful. His own work on the other hand, can't quite compete. All of the music is his, sure enough, but somehow when he is inspired by others he produces his best stuff.

The piece I've linked to here is inspired by some very intense cinematic visuals and themes. When I hear this music the film and its emotions come rushing back to me. I wondered what, if anything, people who hadn't seen the film, would make of this music. 'Make' by way of a tangible effort to convey their thoughts (by haiku, natch). Would it resemble the film? Or something else altogether? Perhaps something completely unconnected to that which originally inspired it?

To this end, I'm going to leave everyone in the dark as to where this came from. If you do happen to recognise it, I - a) salute your taste in film, ha ha, and b) ask that you not give the game away (feel free to write some haiku, nothing could please me more, but don't name the film, director, composer, etc.) At the end of the week I'll enlighten everyone as to who, what, where, etc.

I've provided two links here. One is a heavy (5Mb) mp3 file that will play on any computer with any number of software. The other is a light (0.5Mb) mp4 file which is an mpg variant that will play on quicktime and most video software.

Enjoy boys and girls, and see you you in the comments pages. Yoroshiku.

28 comments:

nobody said...

PS Thanks again to the anon who helped me out in organising this.
PPS Feel free to listen to this piece of music a couple of times. Me, I think it repeated listenings are useful in appreciating music.

Anonymous said...

strings resonate
turning sound
to an emotional roller coaster

nobody said...

Mmm... a good start. But it's kind of a description of listening to the music rather than a discussion of what it might be about. Do you know what I mean? Let's put it this way - you could be describing anything from Flight of a Bumblebee to Puccini's Death of Butterfly. (Oh. That's weird. Two insects and no pun within cooee)

Don't take this as a criticism. View it as a gentle, um... steering, ha ha. Yoroshiku.

nobody said...

The event of our lives,
a thing cherished slips away,
never ours to keep.

Anonymous said...

It's mechanical haka nobody; that's how my head works.

Anonymous said...

Only just now downloading the files, but must leave a guess as to the composer as a pre-comment, before I return in a tmely fashion with something that may (or may not) contain thoughts of any value whatsoever... =)

Philip Glass?

Magdelena said...

That was beautiful.

it reminded me of the film, Microcosm (?). I closed my eyes and pictured the first drops of spring rain, falling from a leaf. Then watched as life sprung and in a time lapse sort of way moved through the seasons.

(this could be since I've been working in the garden.. ;)

I'll be back later with my haiku - need to get back out and finish enjoying the rest of these last warm days.

~ Buffy (picking grapes and putting the garden to bed)

nobody said...

As much as I like Philip Glass, no. I'm pretty certain no one will have heard of him. He's the greatest composer you never heard of, ha!

And Buff, even without a haiku that was VERY interesting. Spooky really. And no, not Microcosm, nor anything like it. And yet...

It occurs to me now that since I'm going to be writing something about this film, why not do it properly and stick it over on the cinema blog? Hmm... I better get cracking.

And carn anon, resist the pull of the every day. Forget the temporal. See if you can put words to the unspoken. Feel free to stop making sense.

Input and result,
we throw the roadmap away.
reason? What reason?

nobody said...

Happier than ever,
the impossible achieved.
Just us and the sky.

Kevin Michael Rudd said...

morning in the rain forest
slowly, ethereal wonders repeat


bugger canberra
and rupert murdoch
i'm not sponge bob i'm me

nobody said...

Thanks PM,

Spongebob, ha ha ha. I could so see you in shorts.

The first one was very good, very interesting.

Folks! Don't be distracted by anyone else's thoughts. It's difficult I know. Try and make it just you and the music. Yoroshiku.

kikz said...

reflections ripple
bird now aloft
wonders
does fish have mountains too

Anonymous said...

It's do very still,
everyone sleeping but me,
waiting for the rain


schutte

Anonymous said...

I gotta tell you I loved the idea for this challenge, but it was hard for me because basically I despise synth/pop pseudo classical.(whats with the digital echo chamber piano?) So I had to divorce myself and try to feel the music. I found it fitted with what i was feeling in my little sleep disorder world.

schutte

Anonymous said...

errr ahem that was....

It's so very still,
everyone asleep but me.
Waiting for the rain.

typo problem there


schutte

nobody said...

Most excellent. Kikz, way interesting.

Thanks R (it's too weird me calling you schutte. Stick with that name by all means, but I'll just call you 'R'. Rhymes with 'Na', ha ha. Speaking of which, where is she?)

And synths, yeah yeah. How many times have you sat on a street corner in KL eating the greatest meal on the planet, and all served on plastic plates?

Otherwise, I don't know if that wasn't my favourite haiku to date. Thank God there's someone to challenge kikz, ha ha. Whilst she hasn't turned into any kind of bossy-boots yet, I expect she would have done. (smiley winky face!)

Anonymous said...

I thought that plastic plates were the traditional way to serve that food! It wouldnt look like on Aunt Vera's China.

schutte

nobody said...

Hee Hee.

I've had your haiku rolling around in my head and I realised how really classical it is. Apart from the syllable count, it coheres to the two-line/one-line break. The first two lines lay out a simple observation or activity. Within this simplicity is a suggestion of mood or emotion. The final line makes a break into the seasonal. But this shift is actually a comment on the former. And sure enough the former is a comment on the latter. They're both connected and each colours the other.

I've never insisted than anyone obey the rules here. No fascist me. But within haiku's rigid structure is tremendous freedom. Done right, the structure becomes gossamer to the point of being imperceptible.

Magdelena said...

The first drops of rain
On a cold and lifeless earth
Brings a fury of growth


Drips,drops fall gently
Seasons start, slowly reaching
Growing, expanding, alive

***

Buffers

Penny said...

Alone, I think of you.
Images run through my mind,
memories or dreams?




This just had "lost love" all over it, or at least to me it did?

nobody said...

Excellent. Mind you, perhaps I ought not to have written anything until the end. I wonder if I didn't spoil the experiment? Who cares? Good haiku.

Penny said...

you didn't spoil it, not for me anyway. I try not to pay attention to anyone else's because they are not me, and I am not them.


I listened about, 40 times to this piece and let all these words and thoughts come in my head, I wrote them down as I listened.( I have beside me, heading for recycling 3 5" by 7" pieces of paper full of writing, I think I sometimes take this all to seriously, but, it's all good. lol :)


and went from there.

I have no clue what this music is from or to whom the music belongs.


I am waiting though to find out.

nobody said...

Thanks Pen,

How diligent you are, ha ha. I just watched this movie again (so I can do it on the cinema blog) and I gotta say it's spooky how the haiku here are tapping into the themes. All of them.

And c'mon Miraculix, yours are always worthwhile and I'm curious to see what you make of this.

And where's Na? Was she like, 'Yada, taihen!'? Natsuko - おねがいたします!

Penny said...

lol, diligent or obsessive?

Magdelena said...

Okay, this is totally silly - haha

Rain drops keep falling
On my head, they keep falling
Oh damn it's a downpour, run!

;)

~ Buffy (the haiku slayer)

nobody said...

ha ha ha ha ha

kikz said...

ahahahaa

yea buffz:)

haiku slayer indeed :))))))) cute :)

nobody said...

And anon, will you forgive me? I didn't put you on the front page. It's just that there was something about 'emotional roller coaster' that, er, gee whiz, I don't know... I just didn't groove on it (smiley winky exasperated face). But pile in on Rousseau and see how you go. Onwards and upwards.