Death and music part II (+new poem)
My time today has been somewhat chiseled away by my writing of a brand new poem, I was given the 1st and last sentence and had to fill in the rest. I hope you’ll enjoy it (or rather not >.< since it is not quite happy…). It is called “A sailor’s fate”.
Well, yesterday I carried on my rant about life so much that unfortunately I didn’t managed to finish my thoughts. And since I said that I don’t have that much of a time, it is a good opportunity for me to just add this one small thing today.
I wanted to expand a bit the topic, including the opposite view. And this would have been the perspective of Death (as an imaginary entity) and his views about music. At least, as writers and composers depict him.
Maybe through this, by sensing what and why, those people think about death, would give us the opportunity to see another reason for the happy music.
Again I shall use a familiar tune of mine that I believe that it describes many of the views that poets have about Death. It’s again a Cretan song, named “Death of a lyre-player”, written and sung and played (lyre) by K. Mountakis.
This song’s choice of music illustrates my point perfectly. It is a sad tune in almost all of its length, but on ~4min when we enter the 4th period of the lyrics, where Death explains why the lyre is not allowed to the hades, the music turns up really joyous. I like to see this as this: Death is a grim subject that is due to sad music, but Death himself explains that merry tunes are unfit for it, and so our lyre player decides to ‘speed it up’ a bit 😀
————–
In one’s lyre-player’s the courtyard, Death came.
And the lyre-player stood up, old wine to bring,
like (Death) was a valued friend, to lay him the table.
And he (the lyre-player) unhooked his lyre, sweet tune to play.
As if he (Death) was a roisterer, to make him have fun.
———–
-Leave the tray lyre-player and hang your lyre.
Hide your fiddle stick because you’re not getting it anymore.
And go to prepare, your best clothes wear,
because I’m taking you right now to get you to the underworld.
————
-Death, if you wish let me take my lyre,
where the cords talk and the ‘rider’* cries,
where the eaglebells* of the fiddle stick tell me
of the joys of the above world and the (joyful) escapades of the youths,
(of) the beauty of the girls and the grace of the gallantry,
and of an old love’s the commandment,
who double-ordered me the lyre to not forget,
when I’ll go to the underworld.
————-
-I won’t leave it to you, crazy (old man), better for me (that you) break it.
Because with your fiddle stick, you raise the dead,
and you will start playing little tunes to upset the men,
to drive nuts the girls, to shake up the old men,
and you will bolster the babies to cry for affection.
And everyone will hate the cells, the Hades castles,
and everyone would want to come up again.
—————-
*rider refers to the cordy part of the fiddle stick
*eaglebells are little bells traditionally hung by the fiddle stick so as to produce little noise when the player plays fast tunes.
We see here, that Death is afraid of merry music. Music is a representation of life, the liver the tune, the more close to the above world. So, maybe the cheerful music is something like a spell, like the laughter of children that banish away all fears of the old people. Happy music is there to lighten their burden, but not by making them forget death, but through making them remember life. Through chasing the dreadful thought away…
Rebirth In Darkness 
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