Richard Vallance

Vallance Review 28 All Glory, Laud and Honour To Thee, Redeemer King! Featuring Contemporary Sonnets on Christmas, Peace and Winter and the Final Musical Score of Peter Zanette's "Brighter Orbs on High" INTRODUCTION Ever since September of this year, when we introduced you to the "ponnet" or Potato Sonnet, to October, when you were all treated to a multi-media review of William Shakespeare's sonnet 73 right through to November, when we took an atypical approach to Remembrance Day, the Vallance Review has been exploring fresh new avenues of poetry criticism.  And this month's review promises to be no exception.  Not only shall we be introducing you to a roster of contemporary sonneteers from around the world, but we are bound to delight your ears with the music and lyrics to the final score of the Canadian composer, Peter Zanette's, "Brighter Orbs on High", which you may have had occasion to hear for the first time when it was released in draft form in the December 2002 Vallance Review, "Brighter Orbs on High" [1]. As I did in the November 2003 Vallance Review, I intend simply to step aside and allow our little international showcase of winterized sonnets to speak eloquently for themselves.  All of the sonnets cited in this review are to be found in their entirety in the current issue of SONNETTO POESIA (Canada), Vol. 3, no. 1, Winter = l'hiver 2003-2004 (ISSN 1705-4524).  And, as a special bonus to our readers, we are even featuring a REAL PLAYER fun amateur performance of Handel's "Messiah" in toto, gloriously and enthusiastically rendered by the MIT Handel Chorus at its 2002 Christmas Concert!  You can play any part of the "Messiah" as you read through the special Winter 2003-2004 international issue of SONNETTO POESIA. But the fun does not end there!  Far from it.  Once we have duly introduced you to our roster of contemporary Winter, Peace and Christmas sonnets, villanelles and quatrains, we have a great surprise in store for you, a glorious musical sendoff to 2003 and a joyous, trumpeting welcome for the New Year, 2004.  I refer to none other than the complete choral music to Peter Zanette's all-new Anthem, "Brighter Orbs on High", the lyrics of which are the integral text of William Lisle Bowles' lovely sonnet, "On Listening to Handel's 'Messiah' in Gloucester Cathedral", which I reviewed indepth in the December, 2002 Vallance Review [1 bis]. So without further ado, let us proceed to our review of Winter and Christmas sonnets as these are now appearing on the contemporary stage of world literature. Let Our Sonnets Sing Their Own 'Halleluias'! In order best to exemplify the "spirit of our Age", I have decided simply to thematically arrange the quotations from these wonderful poems, beginning with sonnets, villanelles and quatrains about Winter, snow and the like, proceeding to poems about Christmas, and rounding out our brief survey with poems focussing on the urgency for Peace in our bloody, war torn world. WINTER Maxfield Parrish, "Winter Night" (1958) We begin where December 21st. begins, with Winter!  This is the one season folks love to hate the most, and yet it is a season of magic, of nice fresh, cold and invigorating air, and of course, of countless Winter sports, at least for those of us who would not remain inside all Winter until we ran insane with "cabin fever".  Historically, Canadian poets, being so powerfully affected as they have always been by the indomitable presence of a harsh natural environment exemplified in the one word, "wilderness", have been masters at evincing the sheer majesty and awesome power of Winter.  One of Canada's greatest sonneteers, Archibald Lampman (1861-1899), was only too well acquainted with Winter and with its long, bitter, frosty nights; and yet he seemed to take such a delight in them, as attested by his vivid descriptions in his justly famous sonnet, "Winter Uplands": The stars that singly then in flocks appear, Like jets of silver from the violet dome, So wonderful, so many and so near, And then the golden moon to light me home-- The crunching snowshoes and the stinging air, And silence, frost and beauty everywhere. To anyone who has ever had occasion to spend an entire Winter in the almost timeless recesses of Canada's vast wilderness expanses, this sonnet, previously reviewed in the February, 2002 Vallance Review [2] surely speaks volumes. Turning now to the contemporary Canadian sonnet, we find ourselves face to face with virtually the same phenomenon, the brutally cold and remorselessly inhuman landscape of Canada's Winters, which continue to haunt the Canadian poetic imagination even to this day.  In one of his recent sonnets, "Drum the Ocean! Sonata in 4 Acts", Richard Vallance vividly recalls his own experiences as a child in Nova Scotia, witnessing the ferocious temper of the Atlantic Ocean.  Richard's Tale of the Imagination in this sonnet holds firmly to the Canadian tradition of evoking a fierce, even hostile natural Winter environment from which we as Canadians can never find escape: Act II Siren Against our panes we'd heard our conifers Argue as they must with some Siren's squalls: You'd heard branches yelp, some fragmented blurs, As they, scratching, knocked, Someone on you calls! [3] However, far be it from me or any other Canadian to presume to be the sole guarantors of the ferocity or, if we'd just flip the coin, fun of Winter.  In her , "Glitches of Winter", the American sonneteer, Erin Moen, excitedly looks forward to the fun and merriment of winter sports in her typically vivid and racy language: laughter rings as skates go white and zinging crystals twist with falling flakes, soft and sleek; [4] CHRISTMAS Edward Burne-Jones  Pre-Raphaelite   Angel Playing a Flageolot (1878) Winter is not all cold, misery and "cabin fever".  Far from it.  At least for many Christians, who for the most part celebrate Christmas in one form or another and for Jewish folk, who enjoy the festival of Chanukah, it still somehow manages to maintain a vestige of its original symbolic value, if nothing else.  Other great world religions have their own "festivals of light", such as the Diwali or Hindu Festival of Light and Islam's 'Eid-ul-Fitr, the Festival of Fast-Breaking, which follows immediately on the heels of Ramadan, or the time of Fasting, Meditation and prayer.  However, for the purposes of this review, we shall be focussing more or less exclusively on sonnets celebrating Christmas, for the simple reason, if none other, that all of the contemporary "holiday" sonnets I have received for review in this issue deal with Christmas alone. Perhaps the quintessential Christmas Oratorio sonnet is William Lisle Bowles' beautifully crafted, "On Listening to Handel's 'Messiah' in Gloucester Cathedral" (1789), which as you may recall we reviewed in the December, 2002 Vallance Review [1].  But, rather than quoting any verses verbatim from this sonnet at this point, allow me to leave you in suspense for now, as you wait for the wonderful surprise in store for you at the end of this review. The current issue of SONNETTO POESIA, however, features some sonnets which, like Lisle Bowles' own, do not balk at singing the harmonious praises of Christmas in its more traditional meaningfully symbolic expressions.  Here are but a few examples of the celebratory verses to grace this issue: Les fantômes d'après-Noël       ... The whole earth is uncurled in a galaxy of sparks --- our fellow brothers and sisters fall in slow motion colored mysterious at the surface everything spins and whispers emotion. Love is the answer. © by Stephen Morse, 2003 (U.S.A.) [5] Or how can we not be enchanted by the magic invocations of Crystal Rose in her villanelle rondeau? The seas begin to sway As trees dance to a melody On Christmas day. © by Crystal Rose, 2003 (U.S.A.) [6] War and Peace In light of the ceaseless ebb and flow of misery that continually stalks our pitiable human race from age to age, even to this very day, and shall always do so until we finally blow ourselves all to kingdom come in a paroxysm of suicidal mass self-annihilation, yes, even in spite of all this misery and despair, our seemingly allotted Fate, we humans still cling desperately to the trinity pillars of faith, hope and love.   And what greater symbol of these abides than the valiant and ongoing struggle for World Peace, which refuses to die on the drawing boards, in spite of all the fierce opposition it has historically received and no doubt, shall continue to get? Ah yes, Peace, all too evasive, yet ever to be consummately desired, Peace!   Even the sound of the word in any language, peace, la paix, la pace, pax and hei eureineiye (Greek), even its very sound rings the clarion call to humankind to awake and unite in brotherhood and sisterhood for our commonweal. Of course, the current issue of SONNETTO POESIA is replete with poems lamenting the horrors and brutality of war and extolling the virtues of Peace: War: Foremost among the sonnets lamenting the horrors of War and worse yet, the brutality of those who profit victoriously from its ill gains is Audrey Manning's scathing sonnet, "To the Victor Go the Spoils", in which she caustically observes: The victor rests on berths of whitest clouds; On this good day have ended all his wars. Newfangled peace displayed by lively crowds, Oblivious to the echo of the stars.       ...passim... And weapons' stony blows no longer yield Undoing for a less than human race... [7] Given the current state of World affairs and the ongoing chaos in the Middle East, this sonnet leaves little room for doubt in our minds about the tyranny of might and power mindlessly wielded against the weak and the poor. Peace! 1. Of all the sonnets, quatrains and villanelles to grace the pages of this issue of SONNETTO POESIA, one stands out for its profound pathos, which the poet, Jim Dunlap, so artfully and so poignantly drives home through the poem's deeply felt tensions, playing right on the surface of the verse.  It is this defining tension, so very reminiscent of the same technique Matthew Arnold brought consummately to bear on his lyrical Elegy, "Dover Beach" (1867), which informs the sonnet entire. SYMBOLS IN FLIGHT: 1941 * I'd have liked to see the bluebirds fly Above the white, chalk-cliffs of Dover; And while blithely soaring over, Immersed in thought I'd lie In calm repose upon that beach,       ... passim ... While England fought her bitter fight To hold at bay the 'fall of night.' © by Jim Dunlap, 2003 (U.S.A.) [8] 2. Perhaps the most illuminating of all the poems in honour of Peace is Bhuwan Thapilaya's universally appealing, yet intimate quatrain verse, "I Am the Lonesome Love", wherein he so eloquently and so fervently speaks to all humankind from the depths of his soul: But in my mind's authenticity, I know now who I am; Yet I shine incessantly like the Sun and shed warmth To all within the midst of their freezing compassion In the swirling atmosphere where fathomless heart burns. © by Bhuwan Thapilaya, 2003 (Nepal)  [9] This delicately framed, quietly stylized and spiritually engaging quatrain is all the more compelling as it originates from the hand of a Nepalese poet outside the Christian and/or Judaic tradition.  Surely those two religions do not hold the slightest monopoly on Peace or on the heartfelt celebration of its virtues in the heart, mind and soul of humankind!  As the old English saying goes, "The proof is in the pudding." 3. Or yet again, in this fine sonnet, so characteristic of human concerns everywhere in the world, our poet looks to a more clarion definition of the very concept of "peace": "Peace isn't absence of war; it is a virtue; state of mind; a disposition;" 2 "doesn't dwell in outward things but in the soul," 3 you can't find it lest you're ready: comes looks for you, they tell. © Helga Ross 2003 (Canada)  [10] Other sonnets, exemplars of the perennial staying-power of Peace, grace the pages of SONNETTO POESIA.  May you be as enlightened by their Message of Hope in the face of despair as was I. Peter Zanette's Choral Anthem, "Brighter Orbs on High" In last December's Vallance Review, Poetry Life and Times, as some of you may well recall, we featured the draft of Peter Zanette's then incomplete new Choral Anthem, "Brighter Orbs on High".  The score of this anthem is based on the text entire of William Lisle Bowles' glorious sonnet, "On Listening to Handel's 'Messiah' in Gloucester Cathedral."  This Christmas, we are delighted to bring you the finished score of Peter Zanette's exalted Anthem, which you may listen to at your leisure here, Brighter Orbs on High, in the current issue of SONNETTO POESIA, Vol. 3, no. 1, Winter 2003-2004 (ISSN 1705-4524). This all-new Choral Anthem is notable for several reasons.  First and foremost, it is music set to a major English sonnet.  While several of Francesco Petrarch's and William Shakespeare's sonnets have been set to symphonic and choral scores, along with many of Pierre de Ronsard's and Rainer Maria Rilke's, in the Twentieth Century, all too many of the world's greatest sonnets of the day were not scored for music.  It is with this in mind that we have valiantly set out to fill the regrettable lacuna, by setting Lisle Bowles' eminently musical sonnet to music. Far more significantly, at the outset of the Third Millennium, with the advent of audio, graphical and motion picture multi-media all working in tandem to spawn new artistic creations not previously feasible, we are indeed poised to launch ourselves into an exciting new era of super-Art literary and poetic performances of sonnets, in practically any conceivable multi-media format.  That is precisely why Peter Zanette and I conceived our little project to set Lisle Bowles' sonnet to music.  I addressed this phenomenon head-on in my most recent book, Canadian Spirit Voices where, in Chapter 12, The Historical Evolution of the Sonnet, Section 6: The Music of the Spheres, I posited the theoretical foundation of the coalescence of all major artforms throughout the Twenty-First Century: On yet another plane, a fair number of sonnets have historically been set to music, either as songs or as sonatas, or even orchestral pieces. Typically, and partially as the result of their exquisite command of the natural rhythms of Italian and French, which are both highly melodic languages, many of the sonnets of both Petrarch and Pierre de Ronsard have been set to musical scores, not just occasionally, but historically many times over by such famous composers as Franz Liszt, Camille Saint-Saëns and Georges Bizet, amongst others.  [11] and again: Recent trends in poetry, encouraged by the Internet’s provision of relatively free and universal access to all, poets and their readers alike, have permitted Formalist poets to “be seen as well as heard”, and with rather surprising gusto.  The re-emergence of Formalist poetry could presage a corresponding renewed interest in lyrical poetry in general, and the sonnet in particular. Does this necessarily mean people, lyrical poets, sonneteers and their readers alike, are as likely to be as fascinated by the music which may underscore such poetry as by its conventional metrics and rhythmic structure, be it iambic pentameter or otherwise?  The answer, I think, is most likely, yes, at least for some of the new Century's more innovative poets and readers - or should I say, "listeners"? The concept of marrying lyrical poetic forms, including the sonnet, with musical scores is, as we have seen, hardly a new one.  However, until just before the New Millennium, poetry and music had been traditionally viewed as separate arts.... passim ... With the advent of supercomputer graphics and powerful sound-mixing technologies, the search for novel ways for melding the composition of lyrical poetry and music, and indeed visual art, into one medium, is becoming very enticing, to say the least. Still, the day has yet to come when sonneteers write their sonnets and simultaneously compose them to music, and on a large scale. But come it will, of that I am sure. We are indeed at a threshold. It seems highly probable that, in this Century, many of the Arts, as we know them separately now, will anneal into one supra-Art form, which merges literary (including poetic and lyric), graphic, motion picture and musical elements. The resulting artistic productions should prove exciting.  [12] © by Richard Vallance & Peter Zanette, November 28, 2003 REFERENCES & NOTES: [1] Vallance Review, Poetry Life and Times, December, 2002: "Brighter Orbs on High" [2] Vallance Review, Poetry Life and Times, February, 2002: Archibald Lampman, "Winter Uplands" [3] SONNETTO POESIA. ISSN 1705-4524. Vol. 3, no. 1. Winter = l'hiver 2003-2004. Page 1 le Canada [4] Op. Cit. Page 9   United States = Les États-Unis 1 [5] Op. Cit. Page 10 United States = Les États-Unis 2 [6] Ibid. [7] See [3] above, Op. Cit. [8] See [4] above, Op. Cit. [9] Op. Cit. Page 6, Nepal [10] See [3] above, Op. Cit. [11]  Canadian Spirit Voices.  Kedco Studios, Las Vegas, NV., © 2003.  ISBN 1-878431-44-7  Chapter 12, Section 6, "The Music of the Spheres: Part 1 = rv12-6.htm [12]  Canadian Spirit Voices.  Chapter 12, Section 6, "The Music of the Spheres: Part 2 = rv12-6b.htm

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