Imaginary

Fictional Narratives

Novels:

• Chris Abani, The Secret History of Las Vegas: A Novel (Penguin, 2014): a novel conveying “a feeling of thematic unity” woven from “an unsettling and complex entanglement of outsiders, freak shows, secret government experiments . . .”
• Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna: A Novel (Harper/HarperCollins Publishers, 2009): “‘The Lacuna’ can be enjoyed sheerly for the music of its passages on nature, archaeology, food and friendship; or for its portraits of real and invented people; or for its harmonious choir of voices. But the fuller value of Kingsolver’s novel lies in its call to conscience and connection. She has mined Shepherd’s richly imagined history to create a tableau vivant of epochs and people that time has transformed almost past recognition.”
• Hari Kunzru, Gods Without Men: A Novel (Alfred A. Knopf, 2012): “This new reality seems to have manifested in the literary world in what must undeniably be called a new literary genre. For lack of a better word, let’s call it Translit. Translit novels cross history without being historical; they span geography without changing psychic place.”

Poetry

On the beach at night alone, / As the old mother sways her to and fro singing her husky song, / As I watch the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef of the universes and of the future.

A vast similitude interlocks all, / All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets, / All distances of place however wide, / All distances of time, all inanimate forms, / All souls, all living bodies though they be ever so different, or in different worlds, / All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes, the fishes, the brutes, / All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages, / All identities that have existed or may exist on this globe, or any globe, / All lives and deaths, all of the past, present, future, / This vast similitude spans them, and always has spann’d, / And shall forever span them and compactly hold and enclose them.

[Walt Whitman, “On the Beach at Night Alone”]

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Olivier Messiaen, Turangalîla Symphonie (1948) (approx. 71-86’), is in parallel with the idea of consilience, combining opposite and disparate grand elements into a single work. “Messiaen explained the meaning of ‘turangalîla’ as a combination of two Sanskrit words: turanga, meaning time which flows, movement or rhythm; and lîla, meaning a kind of cosmic love involving acts of creation, destruction and reconstruction, the play of life and death. The composer thus saw his symphony as ‘a song of love, a hymn to joy,’ a concept enlarged by his biographer Robert Sherlaw Johnson to mean ‘a superhuman and abandoned joy, a fatal, irresistible love, transcending all and suppressing all outside of itself’.” “Perhaps Messiaen’s greatest achievement in this work is his fusion of . . . elements with a profound non-Western influence (both technical and aesthetic), as symbolised by the other word in his double-barrelled title. 'Turangalila' is a Sanskrit compound word: turanga — literally the speed of a horse — denotes rhythm or the passage of time, while lîla means sport or play, on a divine, cosmic scale. (It can also mean love.) Messiaen’s suggested translation is 'a hymn to love,' but other connotations are equally applicable, e.g. 'rhythmic games' or 'playing with the passage of time.'” “Composed during the aftermath of World War Two, this powerful ten-movement work represents the culmination of Messiaen’s musical language up to his middle years, exploring the full resources of a large orchestra and taking the listener on an almost superhuman rollercoaster of expression from the relentless, stupendous and cosmic to the intimate and deeply personal. The result is an immensely bold and optimistic work that celebrates both human and divine existence.” “It is one of a trilogy of compositions written in 1945–9 based on the theme of the legend of Tristan and Yseult (the others are the song-cycle Harawi and the Cinq Rechants).” Top performances are conducted by Ozawa in 1968, Salonen in 1986, Rattle in 1986, Chung in 1991, Chailly in 1993, Tortelier in 1998, and Gimeno in 2024.

To illustrate consilience musically, we draw on disparate sources, brought together in a common musical endeavor.

Pianist Filippo Gorini has recorded Bach’s Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of Fugue), BWV 1080 (2021) (100’), and has discussed how he sees the work as bringing together faith, mathematics and poetry. “He is at once intellectual (nothing escapes him in this complex music) and yet speaks directly, yes, to the heart, but more, to the soul.” His reading could be characterized as intense, patient, contemplative, mindful, meditative and reverential.

Banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck enlisted Tuvan throat singers to help him create, of all things, an album of Christmas music. If “Jingle All the Way” (2008) (62’) doesn’t make you smile broadly, check yourself for a pulse.

Classical and jazz violinists, respectively, Yehudi Menuhin and Stéphane Grappelli, paired to offer selections from the American songbook in two distinct voices.

• “Menuhin & Grappelli Play Gershwin” album (1988) (56’)
• “Menuhin & Grappelli Play Jealousy and Other Great Standards” album (1988) (66’)

Grappelli also paired with Indian violinist L. Subramaniam to perform selections of Western music, such as on their “Conversations” album (2013) (40’).

Not to be outdone, Menuhin combined with Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar on some Indian and some Western titles. They created the albums “West Meets East” (1965) (49’), “West Meets East, Vol. 2” (1968) (70’), and “Improvisations: West Meets East, Vol. 3” (1975) (43’).

Ravi Shankar has paired with minimalist composer Philip Glass to fuse the Indian classical tradition with Glass’ Western approach. They recorded an album entitled “Passages” (1990) (56’).

Steel guitarist Bob Brozman has teamed with Japanese singer and string player Takashi Hirayasu to offer some Japanese melodies, admiringly supported by Brozman on guitar. They recorded an album entitled “Jin Jin/Firefly” (2000) (46’). 

Brozman has also taken a fancy to the Hawaiian slack key guitar, recording with Ledward "Led" Kaapana, creating the album “In the Saddle” (2001) (69’); and with Cyril Pahinui, creating the album called “Four Hands Sweet and Hot” (1999) (66’).

Benjamin Frankel, Symphony No. 2, Op. 38 (1962) (approx. 49’): for the composer, lines from Wordsworth’s poetry explained each of the three movements.

• Adagio, Tranquillo: “Dust as we are, the immortal spirit grows / Like harmony in music; there is a dark / Inscrutable workmanship that reconciles / Discordant elements.”
• Alla Marcia (Moderato): “The grim shape / Towered up between me and the start, and still, / For so it seemed, with purpose of its own / And measured motion like a living thing / Strode after me.”
• Adagio: “Visionary power / Attends the motions of the viewless winds / Embodied in the mystery of words.” 

Other compositions:

• William Grant Still, Symphony No. 4, "Autochthonous" (1947) (approx. 26-30’): “Still’s original program note states that the symphony 'speaks of the fusion of musical cultures in North America.'” 

Albums:

• Ran Blake, “All That Is Tied” (2006) (43’) “. . . alone at the piano is how Ran Blake reveals the depth of his musical universe most completely”.
• Klaus Wiese, “Cosmic Glue” (1991) (60’)
• Jeff Morris, Karl Berger & Joe Hertenstein, “Interfaces: Jazz Meets Electronics” (2018) (51’)
• Joyce DiDonato, “EDEN” (2022) (76’): “EDEN is DiDonato’s latest multi-faceted initiative, one that she will dedicate much of her time over the next four years to, uniting music, drama, and education to confront questions of our individual connection to Nature.”
• Umut Çağlar, Fahrettin Aykut & Jone Takamäki, “Myth of the Drum. Urban Transformation” (2022) (37’), is an album of free jazz with East Asian sounds that “dates from an art exhibition in Istanbul 2017 where Fahrettin Aykut exhibited an installation called ‘Urvban Transformation’ that combined painting and music, dealing with the relation of humankind and earth which is symbolized through a tree put upside-down.”
• Xhosa Cole, “Ibeji” (2022) (75’): “ibeji” translates as “twins”.  The Jazzwise reviewer calls the album “(t)houghtful and heartfelt, academic and earthly . . .”
• Langendorf United, “Yeahno Yowouw Land” (2023) (68’) embraces “different musical traditions and genres in the flow of a futuristic, psychedelic sound in constant metamorphosis. Ethio jazz may marry Mali blues, Afro beat, Scandinavian melodies, and tonalities from the Mandinka tradition.” “. . . modes and grooves of Ethiopian jazz . . . meet futuristic spiritualism from outer space, hints of mesmerizing desert blues, and flickers of dub and electronic psychedelia.”
• ​Alam Khan, Arjun K. Verma & Del Sol Quartet, “The Resonance Between” (2023) (41’): “This project fuses Indian and European classical music along with modern western influences in a way that goes beyond mere juxtaposition, creating a contemporary instrumental sound that harmoniously combines the two traditions.”

Music: songs and other short pieces

• “Circle of Life”, from “The Lion King” (lyrics); Elton John, “Circle of Life”
• “Colors of the Wind”, from “Pocahontas” (lyrics)

Visual Arts

• Jackson Pollock, Galaxy (1947)

Film and Stage