{"id":5742,"date":"2009-09-25T11:52:52","date_gmt":"2009-09-25T15:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=5742"},"modified":"2009-09-25T11:52:52","modified_gmt":"2009-09-25T15:52:52","slug":"so-deep-a-sound-in-autumn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/so-deep-a-sound-in-autumn\/","title":{"rendered":"So Deep a Sound in Autumn"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

[Image: “Autumn Grasses,” a two-panel folding screen by 19th-century
\nJapanese artist Shibata Zeshin. Click image for more information.]<\/em><\/p>\n

From whiskey river<\/em><\/a> (which has been on a William Stafford binge for a few weeks, not that you’ll find me complaining):<\/p>\n

Assurance<\/strong><\/p>\n

You will never be alone, you hear so deep
\na sound when autumn comes. Yellow
\npulls across the hills and thrums,
\nor in the silence after lightning before it says
\nits names — and then the clouds’ wide-mouthed
\napologies. You were aimed from birth:
\nyou will never be alone. Rain
\nwill come, a gutter filled, an Amazon,
\nlong aisles — you never heard so deep a sound,
\nmoss on rock, and years. You turn your head —
\nthat’s what the silence meant: you’re not alone<\/em>.
\nThe whole wide world pours down.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(William Stafford [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not from whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Autumn Grasses<\/strong><\/p>\n

In fields of bush clover and hay-scent grass
\nthe autumn moon takes refuge
\nThe cricket’s song is gold<\/p>\n

Zeshin’s loneliness taught him this<\/p>\n

Who is coming?
\nWhat will come to pass, and pass?<\/p>\n

Neither bruise nor sweetness nor cool air
\nnot-knowing
\nknows the way<\/p>\n

And the moon?
\nWho among us does not wander, and flare
\nand bow to the ground?<\/p>\n

Who does not savor, and stand open
\nif only in secret<\/p>\n

taking heart in the ripening of the moon?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Margaret Gibson [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

Forward, Mannion watched the depth gauge go below six hundred feet. The diving officer would wait until they got to nine hundred feet before starting to level off, the object being to zero the dive out exactly at the ordered depth. Commander Mancuso wanted the Dallas<\/em> below the thermocline. This was the border between different temperatures. Water settled in isothermal<\/span> layers of uniform stratification. The relatively flat boundary where warmer surface water met colder depth water was a semipermeable barrier which tended to reflect sound waves. Those waves that did manage to penetrate the thermocline were mostly trapped below it. Thus, though the Dallas<\/em> was now running below the thermocline at over thirty knots and making as much noise as she was capable of, she would still be difficult to detect with surface sonar. She would also be largely blind, but then, there was not much down there to run into.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October<\/em>, on the so-called “deep sound channel<\/a>“)<\/p>\n

Finally: Wikipedia describes<\/a> Mike Oldfield — who debuted with the hit Tubular Bells<\/em><\/a> album in 1973 — as follows:<\/p>\n

…an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age and more recently dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(The concluding sentence a bit superfluous after what preceded it.)<\/p>\n

In the early 1980s, Oldfield had a productive period of collaboration with Scottish singer Maggie Reilly<\/a>. Oldfield’s 25-minute long “Taurus II” (on his 1982 Five Miles Out<\/em> album) features a little Reilly-rendered song buried within it — a lullaby, really — which is often referred to as “Deep Deep Sound.” (You can find the three-minute clip on YouTube<\/a>, in one of those not-especially-interesting videos with just a still image superimposed over the music.) The song’s lyrics go like this:<\/p>\n

Hush now baby made a start
\nThere’s a jewel in your heart
\nAnd a star that shines for you
\nWatching everything you do
\nDon’t you cry though it may seem
\nYou were born into a dream
\nThere’s another race to run
\nYou were not the only one
\nStanding in the morning sun
\nWaiting though it had begun
\nMay you never run aground
\nOr call into the deep deep sound
\nStormy weather turns to blue
\nHere’s a song to take with you<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The biggest Oldfield\/Reilly hit*, however, was 1983’s “Moonlight Shadow.” This too seems to go along with today’s theme — and to usher us into a weekend (lyrics below):<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Lyrics:<\/p>\n

Moonlight Shadow<\/strong>
\n(by Mike Oldfield; vocals by Maggie Reilly)<\/em><\/p>\n

The last that ever she saw him
\nCarried away by a moonlight shadow
\nHe passed on worried and warning
\nCarried away by a moonlight shadow
\nLost in a riddle that Saturday night
\nFar away on the other side
\nHe was caught in the middle of a desperate fight
\nAnd she couldn’t find how to push through<\/p>\n

The trees that whisper in the evening
\nCarried away by a moonlight shadow
\nSing a song of sorrow and grieving
\nCarried away by a moonlight shadow
\nAll she saw was a silhouette of a gun
\nFar away on the other side
\nHe was shot six times by a man on the run
\nAnd she couldn’t find how to push through<\/p>\n

I stay, I pray, see you in heaven far away
\nI stay, I pray, see you in heaven one day<\/p>\n

Four AM in the morning
\nCarried away by a moonlight shadow
\nI watched your vision forming
\nCarried away by a moonlight shadow
\nStars move slowly in a silvery night
\nFar away on the other side
\nWill you come to talk to me this night
\nBut she couldn’t find how to push through<\/p>\n

I stay, I pray, see you in heaven far away
\nI stay, I pray, see you in heaven one day<\/p>\n

Far away on the other side
\nCaught in the middle of a hundred and five
\nThe night was heavy and the air was alive
\nBut she couldn’t find how to push through
\nCarried away by a moonlight shadow
\nFar away on the other side<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

__________________<\/p>\n

* The term “hit” doesn’t of course mean the same thing for a hard-to-categorize musician like Oldfield that it does for most other performers with whom you might associate the term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Image: “Autumn Grasses,” a two-panel folding screen by 19th-century Japanese artist Shibata Zeshin. Click image for more information.] From whiskey river (which has been on a William Stafford binge for a few weeks, not that you’ll find me complaining): Assurance You will never be alone, you hear so deep a sound when autumn comes. Yellow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,74,250,36],"tags":[1345,1404,1405,1406,1407,1408,1409,1410,1411,1412],"class_list":{"0":"post-5742","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","8":"category-music","9":"category-art","10":"category-reading","11":"tag-william-stafford","12":"tag-shibata-zeshin","13":"tag-margaret-gibson","14":"tag-tom-clancy","15":"tag-the-hunt-for-red-october","16":"tag-deep-sound-channel","17":"tag-mike-oldfield","18":"tag-maggie-reilly","19":"tag-deep-deep-sound","20":"tag-moonlight-shadow","21":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-1uC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5742"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5763,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5742\/revisions\/5763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}