My first thoughts about the piece were with all the problems in the world today, does one really care about the morality of a factitious fairy tale. Ah, but there lies the rub, a story such as this Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder “A Wondrous Oriental Fairy Tale of a Naked Saint” provides a higher standard regardless of the situation one might find themselves in, if we just take a moment to reflect. As I read the tale, I imagine how we today toil at work at a frantic pace hurriedly going about, thinking that we are making a world of difference, but the truth is while this is orderly at the Dorian mode of the ethical power of music, like the saint we are more in rhythm with the Dionysus who practiced a frenzied behavior, leaving out the delightful portion of this ethical musical practice.
Yes, the saint practice what Pythagoras heard as he passed a blacksmith hammering away to create a sound, a steady flow that was monotonous but somewhat rhythmic. Similar to the era of the 1920’s and 30’s railroad chain gangs as one would call cadence so that others would simultaneously strike the pins that secures the rail. Greek philosophers believe that if they studied the sound they learned the secrets that contained the universe. The saint believed that by continuously systematically and studiously observing the wheel of time he was assisting in keeping it on track. However aesthetically he was so off the mark.
No beauty was involved in what the little saint was doing, here he is engulfed with the management of the universe, but he neglects to include the pleasure of his imagination while doing the momentous task. His actions pushed people away, he snapped at them for doing something simplistic yet fulfilling in the vicinity of his cave. “he was enraged when he saw those who had made a pilgrimage to see him standing idly by watching or strolling up and down engaged in conversation” (Wackenroder 48). How many times have we met people who feel that the total responsibility of any subject is left entirely up to them? Too many! However, like the little saint they learn. And learn he does. He has been enlightened to the knowledge that sublime and beauty can coexist. You see the Greeks surmised that pleasurable enjoyment could dramatically enhance the quality of ones life.
Two lovers yielding themselves to the night as they sailed along the river, forever changed the saints heart to what truly matters. His enjoyment of awareness to the fact that there was beauty in what this couple was doing, opposed to the countless other time he observed people during the day, do task that while toilsome was still pleasurable and relaxing, but perhaps not loving. The observance of the young couple placed him in Pythagoras category of the spondaic melody, that calms and morphs’ young men from uncontrolled to self controlled youths that are inebriated by the sounds. The music of harmony and tones that came together blissfully is what the saint observed the sounds of hope in the air, instead of despair. Forever change his life, because the churning of the wheel dissipated from his life, and he was able to now hear the beautiful music that has been playing all along.
As he heard the music his earthly body dissipated and transformed into an angelic being that released him from the bonds of one world and allowed him to escape into another the spell had been broken as in many stories by love. Perhaps the Greeks have something to the power of music having a law unto itself, being able to calm ones spirit with the right tones and melodies, that creates the sound of love for any given situation, taming our spirits and freeing our souls, to travel into heavenly bliss by the playing of a single note, that makes a musical story come to life with all that it was missing, changing hearts along the way, down thru the ages. This seems to be what happen with the saint, his heart was touched with a sound that he had not heard before, though he saw it constantly. Just not with the right note to make the connection to free his [our] souls. So this fairy tale does have an important message for us today, live, love, and enjoy the sounds around you. Take a moment to smell the flowers and observe acts of love, which just might make you love as well.
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