{"id":31271,"date":"2021-06-14T07:09:18","date_gmt":"2021-06-14T14:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heuermontage.com\/?p=31271"},"modified":"2021-06-14T07:09:22","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T14:09:22","slug":"cross-fertilization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heuermontage.com\/?p=31271","title":{"rendered":"Cross Fertilization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In truth, what I was looking for was simply some justification to post pictures of the crows that have joined the squirrels, doves and sparrows on the rainy balcony. Poe came to mind, his famous poem about the Raven<\/a>. <\/em>Before you know it, I was sucked into essay after interesting essay of Poe’s influence on French artists, in particular Ravel. The composer claimed many times over that Poe’s Philosophy of Composition<\/a><\/em> (which describes the process of creating the Raven in meticulous, almost mathematical ways, and can be read in full in the link) was a key influence on his own principles of composing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Just as the Anglo world despised Poe (Henry James wrote that \u201can enthusiasm for Poe is the mark of a decidedly primitive stage of reflection,\u201d Paul Elmer More thought Poe \u201cthe poet of unripe boys and unsound men,\u201d Yeats thought \u201cThe Raven\u201d to be \u201cinsincere and vulgar,\u201d and Aldous Huxley thought it \u201cshoddy and slipshod,\u201d) the French thinkers and artists embraced him, Ravel, Debussy and Baudelaire among the biggest fans.(Ref.<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Apparently there is debate how seriously Ravel meant it when he said that his own work in composing was built on Poe’s methods, with some convinced of it, and others claiming that he was the eternal trickster, pulling off pranks and maybe luring people in wrong directions. Unclear if their shared interest in being Dandies forged a bond. I wouldn’t know. Nor do I care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I do care for the music and everyone agrees that some of Ravel’s compositions are in direct reference to some of Poe’s writings. “A Descent into the Maelstrom” was among them, an inspiration to La Valse <\/em>in 1920, for example. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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