Definatley a piece written about depression ( or depressed at the time of writing ).
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lex van Sante Sent: 03 December 2009 08:59 To: lute mailing list list Subject: [LUTE] Re: Renaissance Metaphors As a point for discussion. I read the poem thus (a very personal view of course!) For me sitting down and writing this down puts any thoughts I have had about this poem in perspective. Probably next year I will have changed my mind somewhat. In darknesse let mee dwell, I want my right to melancholy The ground shall sorrow be, The foundation for it shall be Sorrow The roofe Dispaire to barre all, The roof shall be Despair to all cheerfull light from mee protect me from all cheerfulness The walls of marble blacke The black marble walls that moistned still shall weepe shall be wet with silent tears My musicke, hellish, jarring sound My music shall be hellish jarring ( rattling unnnerving) sounds to banish friendly sleepe To keep me from comforting sleep Thus wedded to my woes Thus connected to my woes And bedded to my tombe and in bed with my tombe ( as in having a marital relation to it) O, let me living die Let me die being alive Till death doe come Till (true) death comes In darknesse let mee dwell I want my right to melancholy In short I think the poet wants to live as king in his kingdom of despair, and wants every positive influence to be kept outside of it. Shoot!! Lex van Sante Op 3 dec 2009, om 09:05 heeft Daniel Winheld het volgende geschreven: > All that stuff is well and good. Actually, it's magnificent, > important, and the best course of study if you are planning to expound > this song to a college audience. > > For me personally, all I ever needed was the bare song itself. Between > difficult times in my life- including a touch of depression here & > there, (and some apartments I've lived in!)- well, that song in > particular hits like a kick to the solar plexus. A special "treat" > over the years has been the occasional private performance of it with > the soprano I live with- my wife of 30 odd & special years. A mutual > harrowing & purging. The best of the Elizabethans only gets better > with time, age, and life; it's right there- at the very core. > > Dan > >> On a basic level, you have a few settings for the starter image from >> which to expand outwards. My reading ( and I invite you to create >> your own) of the starter image is that it is a description of a dual >> world, one in which the person is buried alive in a marble tomb with >> no light, which at the same time is mirrored in the "above" world by >> being trapped inside one's body as a sort of creative/spiritual tomb. >> In this sense, it is directly derived from Elizabethan theories of >> existence of "as above, so below", in which everything in heaven is >> mirrored on earth. The twist is, "as above so below" is moved to a >> focal plane of earth and hell. It is like taking the elevator one >> floor down in a Bosch triptych. In this reference frame, you can then >> read different qualities to the lines of the poem. In a different >> frame you would see different meanings, and so it goes, and so it >> should go. Rather than assigning a specific correspondence, you can >> see that the weeping of the marble walls resonates simultaneously on >> the level of the real properties of stone, contemporaneous ideas of >> underground tombs, the musical lamentations of both sacred and >> secular music, and Dowland's signature piece, Lachrimae. Some of >> these belong to both worlds--the internal, creative hell as well as >> the "vanitas" quality of Dowland falling out of favor at home even as >> Lachrimae become more popular abroad. The "roof despair" can refer to >> the inversion of the Elizabethan world view of :as above so below: by >> removing salvation from the resonance of the two worlds, but can also >> refer to any number of things such as lack of inspiration "light". It >> can also, again on the "real" or immediate level, have the basic >> feeling of being trapped inside a real stone tomb and being unable to >> move the >> lid. >> >> And these that I mention, are only a few of a hundred ways to read >> the poem. There are dozens of cross references to Dowland's own songs >> possible, as well as the poems and songs of his contemporaries, such >> as the Danyel brothers, (Grief, keep within), Fulke Greville, Greaves >> and even Campion, as well as classical writers. As far as "ground" >> goes, I don't read that as a pun on the musical ground, although I do >> read "sleep" as a substitute for death or even poisoning as it is so >> used by other poets (e.g., Care-charming sleep). Many of these words >> have musical meanings, like "accent" or "relish", but such a musical >> pun in this context doen not seem to have quite the right tone to my >> ear. It is not, in short, Danyel's "Like as the lute delights". >> Dipping into the historical side, there are countless examples from >> English history and Classical Mythology which would have been well >> known to the Elizabethans. References such as Antigone, St Castullus >> and the Vestal Virgins are common in the literature. Specifically >> looking for those who suffered the same fate twice also brings up >> lesser known references, which though now obscure would have been >> familiar at the time, such as the intriguing legend of Saint Otteran, >> which is particularly interesting in regards to this poem and the >> religious controversies of the time. >> >> Enjoy rereading the poem and replaying the song. I always have; I >> always will. >> >> dt >> >> >> At 08:58 PM 12/2/2009, you wrote: >>> A music student at my local college wants me to play lute for her >>> senior capstone recital, and one of her choices of song is Dowland's >>> "In Darkness Let Me Dwell". I have pondered these words for some >>> years now, and it seems obvious to me that "The ground, the ground >>> shall sorrow be..." has multiple connotations - physically ground as >>> in the foundation of a building, and musically ground as in >>> variations on a ground. "The roof despair..." and "...walls >>> of marble black..." are obvious comparisons to a room or >>> building, but could they have musical connotations as >>> well?? Could the roof be the highest note in the range of >>> the song? Following this line of thought, what would >>> "The walls of marble, black" mean? Am I just pulling this >>> out of my hat, or did the Elizabethans talk about their >>> music in terms like these, other than ground? >>> BTW, I love Ellen Hargis' recording of this with Jacob >>> Heringman, lute and Mary Springfels, Viol on "A Candle >>> In The Dark". What are some of your favorite recordings >>> of "Darkness"? >>> Thanks, >>> Tom >>> Tom Draughon >>> Heartistry Music > > -- > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
