From: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org (jangle-poets-digest) To: jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Subject: jangle-poets-digest V4 #117 Reply-To: jangle-poets@smoe.org Sender: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk jangle-poets-digest Tuesday, October 1 2002 Volume 04 : Number 117 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [JP] Solzhenitsyn on art and the artist [Nieldsforever@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 21:14:36 EDT From: Nieldsforever@aol.com Subject: [JP] Solzhenitsyn on art and the artist I ran across this excerpt from Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Nobel lecture on literature, 1978. "The task of the artist is to sense more keenly than others the harmony of the world, the beauty and the outrage of what man has done to it, and poignantly, to let people know. Art warms even an icy and depressed heart, opening it to lofty, personal experience. By means of art we are sometimes sent dimly, briefly, revelations unattainable by reason, like that little mirror in the fairy tales. Look into it and you will see not yourself but for a moment, that which passes understanding, a realm to which no man can ride or fly and for which the soul begins to ache." ================================================= This quote reminded me of the harmony of the world, as reflected in the harmonies *in* Pete and Maura's music --- in the harmony *between* their words and their music --- in the harmony between Pete and Maura themselves - --- in the harmony between TK and their friends, family, colleagues, peers, and fans --- and finally in the deep soul harmony ringing chords of truth directly into our *own* souls, when we let TK's "vibe" jangle into our own lives, even if only for brief moments in time. It is no wonder to me, that I have found myself being drawn deeper and deeper into the Kennedys place of wonder, mystery, and delight --- where the spiritual "within" harmonizes so hauntingly with the "without" of things in the world. The Kennedys really *do* "warm my heart" --- opening it to "lofty personal experience" --- just as Solzhenitsyn says. The Kennedys *do* seem to sense the harmony of the world --- "the beauty and the outrage of what man has done to it" --- and poignantly, "let people know." The beauty can be found in the tenderness and poetic vision that's so integral to so many Kennedys songs: "River of Fallen Stars," "Bells and Loaves and Letters," "Angel Fire," "One Heart, One Soul," etc. etc. The outrage comes through loud and clear in the anthemic "Can't Kill Hope With a Gun," maybe one of the greatest protest songs ever written. Solzhenitsyn: "We are sent dimly, briefly, revelations unattainable to reason... A realm to which no man can ride or fly and for which the soul begins to ache..." I think of the matchless beauty of "Angels Cry" --- "Ride, angels, ride on your horses of light, chasing souls with the runners of dawn" --- Of "Feather in the Flame" --- "You can fly above the heavens and your wings might brush the sun, but your skyward journey always ends the same" --- Or the mystical fragrance of other worlds in "The Fire and the Rose" --- "One destroys, the other one grows --- Oh, the fire and the rose are one." ================================================= But the Kennedys even transcend this "high seriousness" of art. Cause they are folk "of the people" --- not just another band of self-absorbed purveyors of "great art." The Kennedys are genuine, TK are thoughtful and kind, TK are "gentlefolk." They know how to make people laugh. And TK know how to laugh at themselves, and not take themselves "too seriously." And so they make us feel better about ourselves too. They seem to be always on the cutting edge of being rapt in a childlike wonder for the world and its marvellous creatures of sense, sight, and sound. They look for the good in everything and in everyone. And they just plain love to have fun. TK are a whole Texas-truckload of good times, childish glee, and good-natured goofiness. Maybe Solzhenitsyn *should* have said too: "The artist can share the incredible gas of living life large and having a ball at just being ourselves!" :-) Bruce Check out the Kennedys' Official Home Page: http://www.KennedysMusic.com/ Fab photos, the Official tour diary, dashboard Buddha haiku, groovy merchandise...what more could you ask for? ------------------------------ End of jangle-poets-digest V4 #117 **********************************