Richard Strauss of Captains Flat - by Leon the Huguenot

A poetic treasure unearthed by computer OR

A computerized thesaurus out of control

Although fairly inured to computers - I use them for some of my scoring although few programs can cope with my normal twenty staves - I still find some surprises.   My friend Hugo, who’s now living down Captain’s Flat way, discovered something interesting about his computer: his thesaurus does free word association without any apparent logical pattern - that is, until you examine what it produces more closely.

I have been playing around with his system to see whether there might be anything useful for my work.  As an example, I tried it out on a poem by John Henry Mackay which I would love to have written but which I used for one of my most famous songs - “Morgen”.  It’s a fairly optimistic poem.  I’ll just quote it:

And tomorrow the sun will shine again,

and on the path which I follow,

it will unite us again in our happiness

in the midst of this earth which breathes the sun...

And to the broad shore, blue with waves,

we shall walk down, slowly and quietly;

we shall look into each other's eyes without a word,

and the wordless silence of happiness will fall over us.    

OK, it’s not quite in tune with today.  Maybe not the sort of thing you might see published in the local paper.  But what happens when it is Thesaurised?  At this point your guess is as good as mine.  I’ll try the first sentence:

“And tomorrow the sun will shine again” becomes “And toilette the summer house will go shearing off again”.  This computer obviously has a mind of its own, and a most original one at that.  Fine, I’ll finish the first verse:

and on the lookout for the paste tube which I fold over,

it will uninvolve us in our happening again

in the mid point of this ear which breathes the summer house.

This is turning into a work of profound meaning.  One does, indeed, fold over paste tubes.  I assume the computer is referring to toothpaste tubes and the folding over of them which, in a sense, represents the passage of time.  And that leads on to the idea that one only uses a finite number of tubes of toothpaste in one’s life.  Perhaps twelve a year for a lifetime of seventy years.  Most people’s lives are contained within the duration of a thousand toothpaste tubes.  How ephemeral is life that it can be measured in mere toothpaste tubes.  Yet this is what Mackay is saying as transcendentalised by Hugo’s computer.

We will be “uninvolved in our happening” by the toothpaste tubes since they measure our life span and this will happen in the “midpoint of this ear which breathes the summer house”.  Well, this is getting a bit deep for me.  Perhaps a reader could help.  The mid-point of the ear - the middle ear - contains the malleus, incus and stapes.  So what?  And how can an ear breathe?  Well, in a sense the ear is breathing in what it hears.  In what sense you may ask; well, no reason to let logic get in the way.  The ear is extracting the essence of what it hears and the process of uninvolvement with our happening occurs in a sort of eternal summer house of the mind.  Or does this represent eternity itself?  Your guess is as good as mine.  Well, not quite as good.

So, with the aid of the computer, we have extracted new meaning from the first of MacKay’s verses.  But I still have not cleaned up - or is it brushed up - the “toilette” of the first line and yet, when you look at the verse as a whole it is blindingly obvious.  When one performs one’s toilette one brushes one’s teeth and that leads one naturally to imagining your life in terms of toothpaste tubes folded over and ending in an eternal summer house from which the harmonies of the cosmos are ‘breathed in’ by the ear.  Am I really saying this?  It appears I am. The resemblance of any of this to the output of a bovine rear is not entirely coincidental.

In a sense, your whole life can be envisaged as a huge toothpaste tube with your existence being eked out centimetre by centimetre.  How many centimetres left in your tube, hey?  What additional symbolism does striped toothpaste bring?  How about with baking soda and hydrogen peroxide?  I shall have to ponder that.

Sure, my own toothpaste tube of life is finished; but Hugo and I’ve had ours refilled.  I can identify very strongly with what is being said.

So we are ready for the translation of the second and last verse.  What new insights will this bring into the human condition?  I only dare sample the first line to start with; come to think of it, the first line is always a good place to start:

“And to the broad shore, blue with waves” becomes “And brought forth ship-shape, blue and watched over.”

I feel I know what the poet is trying to say here, but perhaps I should hold my tongue at this stage.  It could be saying something that is, in fact, beyond the power of language to express.  I shall continue:

we shall be wage earner down-and-outers, slovenly women with qualities;

we shall look as if into each other's extremely unfavourable future with respect to a woollen cloth,

and the woollen cloth sidekick of happening again will fairy tale over us.    

It is now clear what the first line refers to.  It is birth.  We come into this world perhaps blue (depending upon our APGAR score), but ship-shape - ready for life.  And we are watched over at one level by medical personnel, midwife, or whatever but, at another level, perhaps by the gods.  The second line refers to the range of things we might be and there are contrasts here between being a wage-earner or a down and outer, and the incongruity of being a slovenly woman with qualities.  These days one cannot talk about slovenly women but Mackay was not concerned about such niceties.  In the third line we will perhaps have second-sight and be able to look into each other’s future.  We see bad things with respect to a woollen cloth: could that be a shroud?  A security blanket?  Perhaps something of religious significance?  Or is the woollen cloth referring to a veil of time?  We clear away the woollen cloth and see into the unfavourable future. 

Yet, in the final line, there is optimism in the shape of reincarnation - a ‘happening again’ which will ‘fairy-tale’ over us; it will not seem like reality.

So while the first verse is referring to the transience of human existence though briefly alluding to a ‘happening again’ the second verse refers to the variety of human existence, the uncertainty of what is to come, but with the reassurance of future existence.

What a revelation!  Just let’s have a look at the whole thing again in its changed state:

And toilette the summer house will go shearing off again,

and on the lookout for the paste tube which I fold over,

it will uninvolve us in our happening again

in the mid point of this ear which breathes the summer house...

And brought forth ship-shape, blue and watched over,

we shall be wage earner down-and-outers, slovenly women with qualities;

we shall look as if into each other's extremely unfavourable future with respect to a woollen cloth,

and the woollen cloth sidekick of happening again will fairy tale over us.    

There’s another thing I missed: clearly the “shearing off” of the first line connects with the “woollen cloth” of the final two lines.  Perhaps those readers with sheep or shearing sheds might hazard a guess at the connection here.  It just remains to translate the whole thing - this poetic edifice of the human condition - back into German and I can re-set it to music.  For German scholars, here is the translation (but remember my German is now a bit rusty - it’s forty nine years since I last set foot in Garmisch):

Und toilette der Sommer bringt schirt gehen wird weg wieder unter,

und auf der Vorsicht für das Paste-Rohr, das ich falte, über,

es wird uns in unserem Ereignis wieder nicht verwickeln

im Mittel Punkt von diesem Ohr, das atmet, der Sommer bringt unter.

Und hat hervor Schiff-Form gebracht, blaue und hat zugeschaut über,

wir werden tarifliche Einkommen-Person sein arbeitslose, schludrige Frauen mit Qualitäten;

wir werden schauen als ob in jeder äußerst unglückliche künftige in Bezug auf einem Wolle-Stoff,

und der Wolle-Stoff-Helfershelfer wird von Ereignis wieder Fee-Erzählung über uns.

So I have written a new song to these words.  This time it is not “Morgen” but “Zahnpasta mißt unser Schicksal”.    Yes, in English it is “Toothpaste measures our destiny”.  A moving work and I am delighted to have used old von Hoffmanstal’s modern technology to bring this implied meaning of Mackay’s wonderful poem to light.

As ever,

Your ex-Garmisch now Bungendore bard and composer,

Richard Strauss