Little Fugue
by Marianne Boruch
Everyone should have a little fugue, she says,
the young conductor
taking her younger charges through
the saddest of pieces, almost a dirge
written for unholy times, and no,
not for money.
Ready? she tells them, measuring out
each line for cello, viola, violin.
It will sound to you
not quite right. She means the aching half-step
of the minor key, no release
from it, that always-on-the-verge-of, that
repeat, repeat.
Everyone should have a little fugue--
I write that down like I cannot write
the larger griefs. For my part, I
believe her. Little fugue I wouldn't
have to count.
------------------------------------------
Marianne Boruch was raised in Chicago, and was born in 1950. She went to college at the UNiversity of Illinois, and earned an MFA from University of Massachusetts. Her poetry takes an ordinary occasion, and by isolating it, turns it into something profound. Here, she takes the mere act of a conductor passing out a score to a fugue and makes it a life lesson.
To me, this poem shows that everyone must experience some heartache and pain in their lives. The fugue, which is sad and "dirge-like" can represent sadness, and even a death. The conductor talks about how it won't sound right, as the release doesn't occur, but keeps going and going and going. This is likely achieved by several sustained notes on the V chord not resolving, as it should, to the I chord. Musically, when we hear the V chord, even those of us who don't know what a V chord is, we expect it to resolve. Like situations in life, we expect that when we have sorrows and heartache, they will resolve quickly and easily. Life doesn't always work like that, of course, and the last lines, "For my part, I / believe her. Little fugue I wouldn't / have to count." state this. She (the author, or the subject, which may not be the same) hopes for small pains, so that she won't have to pay attention, or continue to dwell on them.
"Marianne Boruch." Poetry Foundation. Web. 19 Apr. 2011. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/marianne-boruch>.
Concerto, nontraditional
ReplyDelete************************
Movement I
1, 2, 3, rest
1, 2, 3, rest
1, 2, 3, rest
Wake up.
Fermata: two beats
Five measure rest.
1, 2, 3, rest
1, 2, 3, rest
1, 2, 3, rest
Get your clothes, hit the shower
Grab your keys
And go
Movement II
Pick-up to measure 1-chimes
Eighth notes: 1 and 2 and 1 and 2 and
Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat
Rumbles of the timpani and twoots of clarinets
Just ignore a few squawks from the oboe
Repeat entire section
Movement III
Hush to a mezzo piano
Mellow notes with the French horn
Played in common meter
Slowly fading out
And that’s Tuesday
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine or thoughts of a tenor.
ReplyDelete------------------------------------------------
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine
Slowing the beat to match the second violins our voices raise to the sky the conductor beats
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
The sunlight has long faded into darkness matching the patina of the double bass
Te decet hymnus Deus, in Sion,
The audience dressed in their finest still look interested too bad this is just the introit
et tibi reddetur votum in Ierusalem.
I can’t forget to turn the page because I don’t have this memorized it’s too long thank you Mozart.
Exaudi orationem meam;
Yes god hear my prayer I don’t want to faint and the guy behind me didn’t shower and he’s flat.
ad te omnis caro veniet.
Missed that high note but luckily there’s many more tenors here. None of us good.
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine,
That lady in the second row is sleeping whoops I’m ahead by a measure I should be paying attention
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Really? Who takes a flash photo of a choir and an orchestra singing Mozart’s Requiem?
Lacrimosa dies illa,
Wow, time has flown we’re already into the sequence. Wait this is the last piece that Mozart wrote
Qua resurget ex favilla
before he died.
Judicandus homo reus.
These are the last words from mozart’s pen the rest is some imposter trying to finish the work
Huic ergo parce, Deus:
Can I compose great works that move the world to tears before I die what happens after death?
Pie Jesu Domine,
What will become of my words when I am gone will others sing them or speak them or know they exist?
Dona eis requiem. Amen