#words and silences

[dustedmagazine]

Brian Harnetty — Words and Silences (Winesap Records)

Words and Silences by Brian Harnetty

Composer and instrumentalist Brian Harnetty has accomplished something rare in Words and Silences. He has achieved a compelling, an oddly timely synthesis of the recorded reflections of Thomas Merton and Harnetty’s own limpid music. Merton, the Kentucky-based Trappist monk who achieved a halting fame in the mid-20th century, recorded a series of reflections in 1967, the year before his unexpected death in Thailand. These are fundamentally reflections on those things noted in Harnetty’s title, but also on books and identity and nature. They are not overly self-regarding or verbose, and it’s that sense of sparseness and gentle clarity that Harnetty’s music also possesses.

On this series of uncluttered, usually brief tracks, Harnetty – who plays piano here – employs an ensemble consisting of clarinetist Katie Porter Maxwell, trumpeter Phil Rodriguez, trombonist William Lang, and Jeremy Woodroff on flute, alto and baritone. It’s rare to hear the full ensemble playing at once, since the intention behind Harnetty’s pieces is create spaces for reflection and also for meditating on Merton’s own commentaries, which are unfailingly compelling. Be thankful, too, that Harnetty has included all the instrumental tracks on their own (which is how I began to digest this record) as well as in accompaniment to Merton. There are resonant piano figures, repeating notes that dissipate and reform; multiple passages where a lonely clarinet writes pastoral sketches in the sky; grouped brass is a constant; and in general the tone is lyrical and patient, Harnetty slowly dilating the harmony bit by bit. If listening for influences in these gentle pieces, with their overlapping lines lapping at your ears, certainly minimalist composers come to mind; but I also hear a nod to the precise orchestration of artists ranging from Neutral Milk Hotel to Sujan Stevens. Consider “Well, Cats, Now We Change Our Tune,” where the piano arpeggio is flanked by Lang’s trombone and Maxwell’s B-flat clarinet. Some of my favorite pieces, though, are for Harnetty alone: “Strange Things You Sometimes Find” or “Let There Be a Moving Mosaic of This Rich Material” are particular piano standouts. 

Whether or not you have any familiarity with Merton’s thinking, or his far-reaching influence on religious pacifism and the contemplative tradition, it’s easy to just nestle in and bathe in the words as if they were another instrument. Merton speaks with an assured baritone, his diction unfailingly patient. The recordings are almost all accompanied with the sounds of the natural world, frequently birds, or rainfall, or a running brook. On “Sound of an Unperplexed Wren,” for example, he at length simply states “no comment necessary” before cycling through names of sub-species familiar no doubt to birdwatchers. He reads a Beckett fragment, riffing briefly on the importance of how writing sounds. These moments of clarity and frank observation, though, are outweighed by Merton’s ruminations on the perplexity of everything, or meditating on how it is possible for one human to identify with another. 

This blend of ideas is perfectly complemented Harnetty’s lilting melodies. On “Who is This I?” we’re treated to the gentle interplay of instruments, birdsong, Merton’s thoughts on Sufi mysticism, and his interjections about the recorded medium itself. The latter range from the mundane (“This needs to be louder, I think”) to the philosophical: on “Thinking Out Loud in a Hermitage” Merton opines, he describes his process as not “two machines recording each other, but a speaking which will somehow bring to the surface this metaphysical perplexity of man in the presence of his own being, or being in the presence of other beings, in such a way that the unity is manifest of the one and many.”

In this fractious times, I found myself not just compelled but consoled by this music. Harnetty’s writing is pure, though never necessarily hymnal, and Merton’s generosity of spirit and his candor can be a balm. Whether he discusses Mary Lou Williams or Michel Foucault, he is invariably drawn to what lies outside of himself: the hawk waiting by the cross in a poplar tree, on the morning of Pentecost; or the idea of examining fragments, seeing not just difference but the possibility of making mosaics. Harnetty is to be commended for writing such gorgeous music, and for realizing such a project.

Jason Bivins

[stayuntilthefoglifts]

Never have I dealt with anything as difficult as my own soul.

Imam Al-Ghazali

[feral-ballad]

Forugh Farrokhzad, tr. by Hasan Javadi & Susan Sallée, from Another Birth: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad; "Let us believe in the beginning of a cold season"

[Text ID: "I am naked, naked, naked / naked like the moments of silence / between the phrases of love"]

[stil-lindigo]

link

on twitter, a viral thread started where people around the world shared their translations of “If I must die”, the last work of Dr Refaat Alareer also known as "the voice of Gaza". A beloved poet, teacher and life-long activist for Palestine, he was recently assassinated along with members of his extended family by a targeted Israeli air strike. His loss leaves a hole in the heart of palestinians all over the world.

Below the cut, I’ll be posting the translations of his poem, with links to the original posts. Unfortunately, tumblr limits posts to a maximum of 30 images. I will update when I can.

Arabic (Refaat’s mother tongue)

--

2. Spanish

--

3. Irish

--

4. Dutch

--

5. Greek

--

6. German

--

7. Vietnamese

--

8. Tagalog

--

9. Serbian

--

10. Japanese

and the traditional japanese calligraphy version

--

11. Nepali

--

12. Tamil

--

13. Bosnian

--

14. Indonesian

--

15. Romanian

--

16. Italian

--

17. Albanian

--

18. Urdu

--

19. Turkish

--

20. Polish

--

21. Norwegian

--

22. Galician

--

23. Swedish

--

24. Jawi

--

25. Bengali

--

26. Russian

[fromdarzaitoleeza]

1)Van Gogh +Paul Valéry, from Collected Works, The Voice of Things 2) May Sarton, from a journal entry.

[chipsy]

Instead of having meaningless conversations with others, I'd rather be in awkward silence with you.

[flowerytale]

Anne Sexton, from A Self-Portrait in Letters

[mournfulroses]

Vicente Aleixandre, from A Longing For the Light: Selected Poems; "The Silence,"

[windydrawallday]

WING HOLD

[Part I] & [Part II] And that's it! Extra fluff happy ending 💙✈️❤️️

Even if recycling panels, for my first sequence done with TFs characers is quite an achievement on its own!

Shame to say though: I probably can't make new art in time as planned (I got recent important stuff to deal with irl) but you know what? I enjoyed a ton sharing and looking back at old art. And remember that it can be old for me but fresh for all of you who have never seen it before! And I'm super happy it brought smiles to each one of you: thanks for the support 💞💞💞

And please: if you are still hungry for MORE art of this pairing, I suggest checking @skystarweek 's tumblr blog, socials, and tag. There's lots of amazing art poured for what lasts of the event (and even cool art from past events you can support) so, go on and give them some love!!

[lobster-lover]

one with simon in it.. as a treat.. 

[cabinette]

redrew one of my favourite chilshi comics, because I'm working on like 5 other pieces i can't post on the tumble...... oops !

OG under cut

[dumblr]

When two people are silent, they have a lot to say.

[feral-ballad]

Jane Hirshfield, from The Beauty: Poems; “I wanted only a little”

[Text ID: “I wanted, I thought, only a little, / two teaspoons of silence—“]

[mayclair]

love warrior, glennon doyle melton / fleabag (2016-2019), dir. phoebe waller-bridge / shannon barry / andrew garfield for gq’s men of the year 2022 / jamie anderson / not quite here, hannah lock / ocean voung / holly warburton / andrew garfield, the late late show with james colbert / silence of the girls, pat barker

[fromdarzaitoleeza]

Alice Oseman, Radio Silence

[fairydrowning]

"So, if you are too tired to speak, sit next to me for I, too, am fluent in silence."

– R. Arnold

"I'm a master of speaking silently—all my life I've spoken silently and I've lived through entire tragedies in silence."

– Fyodor Dostoyevsky