Drums and Violins

August 7, 2006 at 2:18 PM

I have limited visitation rights with the violin world and my novel this month. I’m working on a short-term project – a short story set in Africa. I love the world of my novel. It nourishes and sustains me, in no small part, I’m sure, due to the strong violin and classical music angle. I’m wildly infatuated with that world. Which is funny, because two years ago, I was wildly infatuated with Africa (the setting for my previous novel). Dangerously so. I was sick at the thought of putting Africa behind me in order to move on. It was just like being in love for the first time. (Okay, maybe some of you younger members haven’t even been in love like that yet. Use your imagination.) That kind of love hurts. It gobbles you up, turns your world into a multi-sensory, Technicolor parade of emotions and feelings that sweep everything else away. You can’t believe, not for a minute, that you can ever love this way again.

How ironic, then, that I’m back with the former infatuation and I’m pining for the latter. No real surprise, though, given the subject. I’ve enjoyed classical music all my life. Listening to it has always been a sanctuary. Africa, on the other hand, grabs you by the neck and gives you a good shake, the minute you approach the subject. In a matter of seconds, I’m back in Africa—the heat, the sweat, the spirits swirling around me, the way Africa doesn’t make sense—the latter particularly evident in my work. The story has tentacles like an octopus that extend, flailing and writhing, in all directions. I’ve decided it’s impossible for me to write about Africa without the material spiraling out of control.

See, that’s Africa. You try to explore it, solve a problem or two, and boom, it’s sucked you in. The ensuing issues become so wildly complicated, it takes your breath away, it throws your good intentions to the wind, where they scatter and land in places you hadn’t anticipated.

But here’s the ultimate silver lining to Africa’s turmoil: her music. African music rocks. It just sings. Particularly the drums.

The drums, I’ve decided, are the sound of the earth. They announce all aspects of life -- birth, initiation, marriage, death. They soften the impact of a harsh, unforgiving world, with its innumerable health crises, drought and famine, civil war, AIDS. You name it, Africa’s been hit with it. But the music seems to summon a spirit that allows something in you to transcend the ugliness and find the beauty of it all. When I listen to it, something primal in me awakens. I’m transported.

What a shock, then, to return to the violin and my practice for an hour each day. After the intensity of the day’s writing, the purity of the violin’s tone—even a simple bowing across open strings—feels like an angel descending. Cliché, perhaps, but that’s exactly what it feels like.

The violin is the sky. The drums are the earth. It would appear I need both in my life. Alternating classical music with African serves to remind me that the world is not just one place or the other. Amid stirring beauty lies great pain. Amid catastrophe and strife exist soothing cadences and timeless melodies. Drums and violins. How wonderful music is, to be able to teach us so much about the world, about life.

From Theresa Martin
Posted on August 7, 2006 at 10:51 PM

Hey Terez--

I really enjoyed reading your description. I hadn't thought of it before, but I think you're absolutely right about the drums=earth and violin=sky. Some of the violin I like best is the violin that takes you outside into the darkness and mingles you with all the elements. A lot of the old Scandanavian folk music does that (the stuff in the wierd modal keys with wierd meandering rhythms).

Speaking of writing about Africa, you have, no doubt, read Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible, about which she said it took her about twenty years to develop the skills she needed to tell the story she had been burning to tell about Africa since she was a very young woman.

But your entry here has made get out some of my old African CDs and put them on....

From Scott 68
Posted on August 8, 2006 at 2:40 PM

do you play any jazz?

From Terez Mertes
Posted on August 8, 2006 at 3:33 PM

Hey, what a cool response, Theresa! And tell me - which African CDs do you have? (And I feel better hearing about Barbara Kingsolver taking so long to write about her experiences in Africa - it truly is a very challenging subject to write about.)

Scott - I don't play/listen to much jazz (although it's my husband's favorite kind of music), but my appreciation for blues has gone way up since I got hooked on African music. (Except no drums - bummer!) There's a Putumayo Presents CD called "Mali to Memphis" that incorporates the two, and I just love it. Love all those Putumayo collections for World and African music. Great stuff.

From Roderick Hart
Posted on August 8, 2006 at 7:53 PM

Enjoy your analogy of the drums and of violin, two years ago I was married at the Little Church at Van Reenan's pass over the Northern Drakensburg (in South Africa) - we had a solo violinist play us into the church and agree with your sentiments that the strains of the violin summon a spirit within a person that transcends and lifts. The violin seems so much at the opposite end of the spectrum to drums that I had never thought to compare - thanks for the new perspective!

From Terez Mertes
Posted on August 9, 2006 at 12:03 AM

> The violin seems so much at the opposite end of the spectrum to drums that I had never thought to compare.

Isn't that so true?! In honesty, I'd never thought to compare them until this past month, feeling so caught up in both places/worlds. But they are decidedly two ends of a spectrum. And both pretty cool instruments. If I could only listen to two instruments for the rest of my life, these would be it. (Except I'd miss hearing the piano!)

Thanks for the comments, Roderick.

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Drums and Violins

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