IT HAS NOT BECOME NECESSARY NOW TO MIGRATE THIS BLOG

Hello Everyone,

I wish you a very worthwhile and enjoyable New Year.

It has not become necessary to migrate this Blog Site.

I am very grateful to a member of eNom's Technical Support Team and a friend who have been extremely helpful and resourceful in resuming our service.

The next Post to be published will continue the series featuring aspects of Dante's Divine Comedy.

My warmest regards,

Robin

POTENTIAL MIGRATION OF THIS BLOG

It may become necessary to migrate this Blog, in the near future, to:       www.livingspeech.uk  
changing the letters at the end of the address from    info   to   uk

I anticipate the new migrated Blog will be in place next Spring - 2017.

In the meantime if you would like information or exchange regarding speech formation, Dante's Divine Comedy or Goethe's epic Fairy Tale - The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily -  please e-mail me at:  robinlivingspeech@gmail.com

I will respond straight away. 

Many thanks.

Robin Blackmore

28 November 2016

   

Post VIII - Dante's Divine Comedy - SOWERS OF DISCORD

As the "Pilgrim" in Hell - the Inferno - Dante, led by Virgil, arrives at a place where he sees those  who he described as "sowers of discord." The Oxford English Dictionary defines "discord": to disagree, to quarrel, be different or inconsistent, be dissonant: dissonant as incongruous, harsh toned.

The tone and nature in which Dante characterises these individuals in verse lines 34 - 36 in Canto 28 is:

"The souls that you see passing in this ditch
     were all sowers of scandal and schism in life,
     and so in death you see them torn asunder."

Dante brings together sowers of discord in religious history. Poetry and intellect are not enough. He condemns moral failings, creators of divisions in faith. (Kline)  

Illustratively, Gustave Dore has them placed prostrate across rocks looking in extreme pain and completely desolate. His illustration can be found by putting into Google "Gustave Dore Sowers of Discord Dante Divine Comedy" A strip of Illustrations appear. Look at the first one on the left. See if it is at all possible to put ourselves within the nature of the gesture of just one of these individuals. What does it feel like? How do we express this feeling?

What was it that brought Dante in the 13th Century to be so passionately concerned about this type of individual?  He wrote in detail about the characteristics of many key individuals at that time. It was his perceptions of their behaviours that moved him to create those he thought needed confronting about them and being helped to achieve balance between their characteristic tendency and the opposite behaviour. For example anger and humility. Humility being a balance to anger. Non judgemental objectiveness being a balance to flattery. Truthful openness being a balance to hypocrisy.

Dante's descriptions of different human behaviours were both historical and prophetic. Before and since individuals have either felt it "necessary" to, unconsciously or unknowingly have exhibited the range of behaviours he describes and values they imply. In relation to Sowers of Discord this is particularly true of today.

Add to the above three verse lines a further six and you have Gustave Dore's Illustration in words:

"A devil stands back there who trims us all
     in this cruel way, and each one of this mob
     receives anew the blade of the devil's sword

each time we make one round of this sad road,
     because the wounds have all healed up again
     by the time each one presents himself once more."

Verse lines 37 - 42 Canto 28   (Mark Musa)

Speaking aloud the whole set of nine lines may help create the image and feeling of a "sower of discord."



The resulting question for our lives today is to what degree Dante's verse writing and corresponding interpretive illustrations by artists Gustave Dore and William Blake help us make sense of the world we live in.

Post VII - Dante's Divine Comedy - THE HYPOCRITES

Progressing through the Inferno - Hell - Virgil takes Dante, as the "Pilgrim" in the Poem, to a ridge from where they see "painted people" "slow motioned: step by step, walking their round in tears, and seeming wasted in fatigue."

There is no better way to describe the nature and plight of these people, ourselves if we are like this or behave in this way, than to directly use these words from the Poem itself, "dazzling, gilded cloaks outside, but inside they were lined with lead." "O Cloaks of everlasting weariness."

These descriptions and the Illustration by Gustave Dore (found by entering into Google "Illustration by Gustave Dore Hypocrites Dante's Comedy.") are intended to portray the full nature of a Hypocrite, Mark Musa describing them as: the appearance of truth cloaking a false substance.

The Illustration is stunning showing Virgil and Dante standing and looking from a ridge, a mound of earth, about the height of a human being, down to a column of individuals three or four deep stretching as far as the eye can see! The cloaks of those near are white whilst those further away are grey with feint parallel lines running the full length of the cloaks. The bottom of the cloaks are on the ground. The faces of the individuals are sad, almost sullen, with their heads bowed. They look incredibly deep in thought. Maybe of what it is like not to be able to speak true words?

The text by Dante reflects their mood, gesture, internal despair and fatigue saying: "All were wearing cloaks with hoods pulled low, covering the eyes (the style was much the same as those the Benedictines wear at Cluny), ...... so heavy that the capes King Frederick used, compared to these, were straw."

The complete text of lines 58 - 67 (Canto 23 - Inferno) translated by Mark Musa are:

"And now, down there, we found a painted people,

     slow-motioned: step by step, they walked their round

     in tears, and seeming wasted in fatigue.

All were wearing cloaks with hoods pulled low

     covering the eyes (the style was much the same 

     as those the Benedictines wear at Cluny),

dazzling, gilded cloaks outside, but inside

     they were lined with lead, so heavy that the capes

     King Frederick used, compared to these, were straw.

O cloak of everlasting weariness!"

To endeavour to appreciate the plight and dilemma for this type of individual and occasions when this trait emerges spend time looking and studying the illustration by Dore and enter into the physical gestures of the individuals portrayed. If you have a coat, especially one with a hood, wear it.

Gradually, feel how an individual is with this gesture, demeanour and way of being. Hold this feeling.

Sit quietly afterwards. Write down the feelings if you wish.

I wish you well with this exploration.

 

 



Post VI - Dante's Divine Comedy - The FLATTERERS in the Inferno

As a Pilgrim guided by Virgil, Dante and Virgil find themselves an a high ledge beneath very high cliffs looking down into an area of water in which individuals are covered from head to toe with dirty sticky liquid.

This is where, in Hell, those who on Earth flattered others, can be found.

Dante, on Earth, saw these individuals (in Hell and Purgatory all individuals being called "Shades") as those who "corrupt language." He experienced them as "Yes men." He abhorred this type of individual. Dante himself stuck to his principles which ultimately resulted in his exile from Florence.

His verse-text below provides a vivid description of the horror and punishment these individuals experience in Hell because of their behaviour on Earth.

Before reading this text, first, look at the Illustration created by Gustave Dore reflecting, for him, what  Dante wrote. To look at this Illustration type into Google: "Gustave Dore's Illustration of Flatterers Dante's Divine Comedy" A number of illustrations will be shown. Within the first three is the one that will be described here. Two of the three pictures are the same. The "Getty" image is the clearest.  This Illustration by Dore shows very high cliffs, then a ledge below on which Virgil and Dante are standing, beneath which is the filthy water which the Flatters are unable to get out of.

Look at, study the sheer cliffs standing exactly at a 90% right angle from the liquid and being impossible to climb. Look at the faces of the individuals and their overall gestures. What do they tell you about their plight in Hell.

A way of appreciating the way these figures feel is to imitate their gesture. Look particularly at one individual, a person who is a darker shade of colour than the others. He is immediately adjacent to the lower cliff face that stands furthest to the right of the picture.

See how he is holding his head by one of his arms - how the top of his back, together with his equally bent head, is bent forward remorsefully. Feel his pain, sorrow, apology, remorse, regret?

Now read the verse-text, preferably aloud. The translation is by Mark Musa.

"Now we could hear the shades in the next pouch

     whimpering, making snorting grunting sounds,

     and sounds of blows, slapping with open palms.

From a steaming stench below, the banks were coated

     with a slimy mould that stuck to them like glue,

     disgusting to behold and worst to smell.

The bottom was so hollowed out of sight,

     we saw it only when we climbed the arch

     and looked down from the bridge's highest point:

there we were, and from where I stood I saw

     souls in the ditch plunged into excrement

     that might well have been flushed from our latrines;  (Lines 103 - 114)

I am stuck down here by all these flatteries

     that rolled unceasing off my tongue up there."  (Lines 125 - 126)

Speaking these verses and forming gestures may enable experience of pain and remorse of a Flatterer.

 

 



 

 

Please use this Blog to share your experiences. Thank you.

The next Post will look at Hypocrites  - Dante's next concern. Gustave Dore's Illustration for these individuals is particularly stunning.

Post V  Dante's  Divine Comedy  (Inferno) - Hell  Experiences of those GREEDY for material things.

In this "circle of hell" Dante describes experiences through his role as a "Pilgrim" what individuals suffer if when on Earth they were drawn to "get and spend" or being careless and wasteful about use of material wealth.

Individuals with these tendencies were made to undergo being forced to roll uphill great weights and lumps of matter in extremely heavy bags, containing coins.

This is shown graphically in an illustration by Gustave Dore entitled The Avaricious and Prodigal. Enter these details into the Net for this illustration. See the gestures of the individuals, referred to as shades, depicting their bodily strain of heaving and pushing the weighty bags upwards - without success. There are round objects on the floor symbolising coins. The whole gesture of this illustration can be felt as entrapment in greed and wastefulness.

The following lines - 58-66 from Canto 7 of Inferno, translated by Mark Musa, represent the plight of these people:


It was squandering and hoarding that have robbed them

     of the lovely world, and got them in this brawl:

     I will not waste choice words describing it!

You see, my son, the short-lived mockery

     of all the wealth that is in Fortune's keep,

     over which the human race is bickering;

for all the gold that is or ever was

     beneath the moon won't buy a moment's rest

     for even one among these weary souls."


The final three lines describes the plight of many today.

Consciously formed speech sounds for the vowels O and U in key words within the last three lines support well presentation of the image of this dilemma.

The O of "gold" helps question the value of this metal, to the soul. The deeper (questioning) sounds of U from the the two O's in the word "moon" followed by staccato O sounds in the words "won't" and "moment's" lead very effectively towards the fundamental meaning provided through these final lines epitomised in the combined vowel sounds of OU in the final word - "souls."

Post IV Dante's Divine Comedy  THE GATE OF HELL

Lines 1-9 in Canto 3 of the Inferno, (Hell), the first of three books of the Divine Comedy, include, in line 9, the classic saying known by all of "ALL HOPE ABANDON YE WHO ENTER IN"

I show here all 9 lines, refer to William Blake's painting of The Gate of Hell, and search for the "gesture," in each line or collection of lines as described in previous posts on the Divine Comedy.

First, the verse lines, which with the exception of the last, are a translation by Mark Musa which are the words written within the stone above the door of the Gate of Hell:

"I am the way into the doleful city,

    I am the way to eternal grief,

    I am the way to a forsaken race.

Justice it was that moved my great creator;

    Divine omnipotence created me,

    and highest wisdom joined with primal love.

Before me nothing but eternal things

    were made, and I shall last eternally.

    All hope abandon, ye who enter in!" (Henry Longfellow)


Rather than trying to "understand" the lines and what 'they mean', intellectually, in the head, speak them, look at Blake's picture of Virgil with Dante the Pilgrim at the entrance to gate of hell, replicate their respective gestures and the gesture of the whole scene and occasion. For it is what any lines "speak, mean to us" individually that matters - not what others tell us "what they mean." Musa adds a further three lines at the end of the first nine which help form a picture of the overall context. These are:

"I saw these words spelled out in somber colours
    inscribed along the ledge above a gate;
    'Master,' I said, 'these words I see are cruel.'

To access Blake's painting Google "William Blake The Gate of Hell". A picture will be displayed which shows, in blue, two characters in front of an opening in a wall within which what looks like inverted icicles are present. Consider who the characters are. There are only two at this point in the story, in fact rarely are there more throughout the whole Poem. One is Dante in the role of the Pilgrim, the other is Virgil. Which is which. What is the predominant gesture of each and towards each other.

This is the first of three Gates, critical stages in the Divine Comedy, in the whole Poem. The second is travelling on a boat from Hell to Purgatory. The third is the submersion of the Pilgrim in the waters of the River Lethe, entering Paradise.

I attach a short recording I have made of all 12 lines. Create a recording yourself if you are able. Play with creating the image of this incredibly foreboding occasion and the pace and pitch that is needed to create the necessary image.

Tell me and others who follow this Blog how you get on.

The next Post on the Divine Comedy will consider Illustrations and related texts of further scenes from the Inferno.

The Consonant W

The consonant w is warmer in sound than most other consonants. This sound originates from our lips which engender feelings, therefore warmth and softness in quality.

Because of these qualities it becomes particularly worthwhile (note the nature and effect of the two w's in this word) looking closely at words with w in them to draw out the full potential of w when speaking them.

For example, however forcefully I might try and pronounce the two "w's" in the word "worthwhile" in the above sentence they are unable to have the nature of an "impact" sound like d or t. In contrast, coming from the lips the consonant w is a "blown" sound.

An example of where however much you try, the above is the case, can be experienced through speaking the following dramatic description of a winter sea storm. Experience how impossible it is to form an "impact" sound with w:

"White topped winter waves were thrown against the sea wall by a howling westerly wind."

Return to a recent Post on this blog giving Dante's first three lines of the Divine Comedy:

Midways long the journey of our life,
I woke to find myself in a dark wood,
for I had wandered off from the straight path.

and experience through speaking these verse lines how appropriate and helpful the consonant w is in supporting the picture Dante sought to describe.

Find and create your own phrases and lines, experiment with speaking them and discover the whole nature of the consonant w.

Dante's - Divine Comedy - Post III

Through preparation and experience of working with this epic poem at a conference enabling exploration by colleagues I am inspired to explore it through posts on this Blog from the perspectives of speech and gesture to help relate the verse text of the poem to our everyday lives.

Two posts ago I looked at the very first lines of the whole work - starting with the words "Midway along the journey of our life." In that Post I explored a whole cluster of ways to become prepared to speak these first verse lines in a living imaginative way.

I now add the value of looking closely at the gesture portrayed in the very first Illustration Gustave Dore created from the Divine Comedy entitled "The Forest." This illustration can be found easily upon the Internet by putting in to any search engine the words - Gustave Dore, Divine Comedy, The Forest.

A line of illustrations come up. "The Forest" is the second one in from the left. This is a picture of a man, Dante, as a "Pilgrim," moving towards a forest. His feet are hidden in vegetation and ahead of him is darkness between trees.

To appreciate being, having the feelings of, this pilgrim commencing his journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise imitate the gesture you see Dore has created. His looking backward with the light shown radiating around his head whilst facing forward.

How many times do we have this feeling - are this gesture - and why is this?

This particular Illustration can helpfully enable us to have feelings, thoughts and insights very relevant to situations we find ourselves in our everyday lives today.

Please use the comment Box to describe the value and help of this Illustration to you.

I am very happy in future Posts to work through illustrations created by artists in relation to key aspects of the Poem.

Consonants w, x, y, z

These remaining consonants to be considered through this Blog have different qualities and characteristics for use and making speech sounds across languages.

I would appreciate hearing from individuals who work directly with these differences.

Thank you,

Robin

Post II  Dante's Epic Poem Divine Comedy

The text verses in Canto 1 (of 100) at the beginning serves as an introduction to the entire Poem.

Dante, who describes and writes about himself as a "Pilgrim" on a journey through hell and purgatory awakens to find himself in a wood. He is driven by fierce beasts deeper into it. There he meets Virgil who undertakes to guide him on a path through these two regions.

Of the many translations I particularly like that by Mark Musa written in the 1980's. He provides extensive abstracts and notes to each Canto which he places immediately before and after the text.

The very first lines are:

"Midway along the journey of our life

     I woke to find myself in a dark wood

     for I had wandered off from the straight path"


As you might expect from the rest of this Blog I am always intrigued by and want to get the best out of speech and gesture from the written word. To help this happen it is helpful to form a vivid picture image of what we believe a writer was trying to convey.

The context in which Dante wrote this Poem was his late 13th, early 14th Century experience of his life in Florence, from which he became exiled.

Each of the above first three lines contains within the words written, ten syllables. There are ten or eleven in each line throughout the whole Poem. Although the original speech metre rhythm created by Dante no longer exists the regular number of syllables in lines, in groups of three, supports regularity.

Further, the regularity of rhythm can be enhanced by: apportioning musical note values to syllables for length of sound; placing "bar lines" to stress the importance of descriptive words and colour symbols to show the "pitch" of the speech sound reflecting the picture image of what is being said.

In the above three lines musical bar lines can be placed to accentuate and stress the potential picture image from the word that immediately follows a (bar) line. I have placed these before the word "journey" in line 1, the word "woke" in line 2, "in" in line 2 and "wandered" in line 3.

The pitch of the speech sound for these three lines is generally low but particularly so for the words "dark wood" in line two and "wandered off" in line three.

It is also interesting to experience the nature of speech sound where there is a preponderance of one particular vowel. An example is in the first line where the vowel "o" is present a number of times in "along the journey of our life." The nature and characteristics of vowel sounds will be explored in this Blog upon completion of exploring the consonants. We only have X, Y and Z to complete.

With this range of tools experiment with how through conscious formation of speech sounds we can live the experience Dante was seeking to describe.

Further tools of great value are Illustrations, paintings and pencil drawings. Illustrations by Gustave Dore, paintings by William Blake and pencil drawings by Sandro Botticelli.

The most important tool however is looking for and replicating, experiencing, the "gesture" a character is experiencing. The gesture of the Dante as the pilgrim entering into The Forest at the beginning of the Divine Comedy is shown beautifully in the Illustration by Gustave Dore simply entitled The Forest. You can see this by Googling "The Forest" Illustration by Gustave Dore.

Be the individual in this Illustration, feel what it is like to both be going forward, looking back and have his feet and lower legs surrounded by foliage and creepers. Then speak the three lines above reflecting this context and the gesture you see.

Let me and others know of your experience.

We next will look at the scene at The Gate of Hell as depicted in a painting by William Blake together with accompanying verses translated my Mark Musa.

Exploring Dante Alighieri's  epic poem the Divine Comedy  Post I

I went yesterday to an exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House, London, of Sandro Botticelli's series of drawings for Dante's the Divine Comedy.

The drawings are spellbindingly beautiful complementing thoroughly illustrations and paintings by Gustave Dore and William Blake.

Thirty drawings charted Dante's journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise with the Roman Poet Virgil and an incredibly radiant Beatrice, whom Dante had loved in his youth.

The exhibition continues until the middle of May.

The Divine Comedy was written at the beginning of the Fourteenth Century, Dante placing himself as a central character - a Pilgrim - experiencing pity in hell for sins committed through earthly life, hope through repentance in purgatory and faith through love in paradise. He drew upon classical literature and included in the text key individuals of the time in the Florentine Community, leaders of Rome and the Roman Catholic Church.

Characteristics of human nature together with forces that help balance these are experienced. Through this truths emerge for ourselves and in relation to the world around us. This work allows immediate and open access to these truths without the need for academic investigation.

As you will appreciate, through the nature of this Blog, my particular interest and specialism is speaking - of texts and in general dialogue. Having now completed my "pilgrimage" on this Blog of speaking the text of Goethe's epic poem "The Green Snake and The Beautiful Lily" I would like now  to draw out, through speech formation, highlights for me of Dante's Divine Comedy.

Please join me. We start in Post II with the Pilgrim entering, "Midway along the journey of our life..." a wood into which he is driven further where he meets Virgil who undertakes to guide him on a path through Hell and Purgatory.

The Consonant V

The sound of the English consonant v is dynamic, full of vibration, as the word "vibration" itself! requires and is subtle in tone.

The sound is formed by placing the upper teeth on the lower lip and blowing firmly through this point of contact.

This sound is very positive in character, full of vitality and is often accompanied with a smile.

It is a particularly good example of what Cecil Harwood in "Eurythmy and The Word" (Golden Blade 1973) asserts as "each sound lives out of its own gesture." Cecil Harwood advocates consciously living into the nature of movement associated with speech sounds. In the case of the consonant v this is through forward outstretching of arms and hands replicating sea waves or a series of valleys.

Take the word "revive" where two of its six consonants are v's. In this word the active rippling nature and effect of the v's, placed in parallel in the middle of the word, comes from the effect of this forward waving motion.

Envisage and form the gesture of this movement for the v's in the two words, "vibration" and "revive." Place the upper teeth on the lower lip and blow breath through this point of contact firmly. Experience the effect of outstretched forward movement of arms and hands supporting the nature and quality of the sound that follows. Gesture precedes sound.

Further, experience how a consonantal v sound can affect directly words that follow. For example, "As wave, flowing forth, sustaining itself." (From "Twelve Moods" Rudolf Steiner) Live into the complete picture of this set of words: a water wave flowing forward forever sustaining itself - until it reaches elevated land. Towards a competing v here in the word "elevated"! Experience the v speech sound in the word "wave" underpinning, enlivening and pushing forward the words that follow.

Look for v consonants in words. Listen to how ourselves and others form this specific sound. Experiment with consciously forming it from the above suggestions. Experience this new level of consciousness in our own speaking and that of others.

Please share your experiences. Thank you.