Musical Moments #28
“A lamentable tune is the sweetest music to a woeful mind.”
Sir Bysshe Shelley
“The Sound of Silence” by Paul Simon (b. 1941) arr. John Maclane Schirard
For many years, I taught a course at Rollins titled “The Marriage of Music and Poetry.” Most semesters, I began the first session by playing the opening measures of a purposely selected song, only to stop it before the lyrics began. I would then motion the class to respond, and without fail they recited in unison, “Hello darkness my old friend.” This piece, situated in a particular era, represents an example of lyrics matching the music so perfectly that you can’t hear one without thinking of the other. Frankly, there is hardly a more recognizable phrase, textually or musically, in all musical pop culture.
While the lyric’s meaning is not easily parsed, it speaks, as all good poetry does, to a universality of emotion yet still allowing for personal, private interpretation. In 1999, BMI named the “The Sound of Silence” the 18th most performed song of the 20th century, and in 2013 it was added for long-term preservation to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress, essentially sealing it as an anthem for all time.
The original song first appeared on Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., the 1964 album whose commercial failure caused the then little-known duo of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel to disband after their first Columbia recording. But the following spring, DJs in Boston started playing the song that was quickly embraced by students at Harvard and Tufts. From there, it rapidly gained an audience and was especially taken up, some believe, by students vacationing in the popular spring break college getaway of Cocoa Beach, Florida. “The Sound of Silence” became so trendy that the duo quickly got back together to record another album, and the rest is, as they say, history.
Paul Simon emerged from the 1960’s as a singer-song writer with a gift for creating profoundly poetic lyrics. His music, along with the work of others such as Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Carole King, and James Taylor, tapped into the zeitgeist of the age and spoke to the conscience of the turbulent times. In many ways, the era’s music exemplified a generation’s voice and solidified the idea that powerful text is enhanced when paired with equally compelling music that seems to brand itself upon the mind and soul.
Paul Simon has won nearly every conceivable honor afforded a musician, including Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions, lifetime achievement awards, and sixteen Grammys. Having been fortunate enough a number of years ago to converse with Mr. Simon through the auspices of the Winter Park Institute, I can report that he is a generous and engaging person, and a deep thinker.
Today’s performance is a compelling arrangement by the gifted John Maclane Schirard, who also serves as the soloist in this performance from last February’s Spiritual Spaces program.
“Music became a healer for me.”
Eric Clapton
A side bar….. the last semester I taught “Marriage of Music and Poetry” was in the fall of 9-11. As a plane flew into the World Trade Center’s second tower, the class was discussing Britten’s War Requiem and the Wilfred Owen WWI poem, “Anthem for Doomed Youth.” The current times seem to call for a return to the class.
-John V. Sinclair
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