November 22nd – Saint Cecilia’s Day
Patron saint of musicians, composers and church music
trismos
/uploads/2007/11/trismos.mp3Her name means ‘blind’, she lived for three days after the executioner failed to de-capitate her. He struck his blow three times and ran away in fear when he had failed in his task. Blindfolded she lay and waited for death all the while singing hymns for her true love.
Sounding a trismos, the steady whistling noise that is a sound reserved exclusively for dead souls. Oh Cecilia you’re breaking my heart. You’re shaking my confidence daily. Shakin’ my cocaine and saltine. A misheard lyric. A misplaced sound. It’s much more important how language sounds than what its concrete content is. Oh Cecilia I’m down on my knees and begging you please to come home.Your blood pearl necklace of tangled fences. A song heard in dreams that carries us across the breach of sleep. A bridge, the middle 8. Richard Pryor’s funeral pyre. Bob Dylan’s burning guitars and boxcars. Clickity clack clack, don’t step on a crack or you’ll break your mother’s back. Bridges burned and backs turned. A structure seeks stasis by balancing forces in tension and compression. Verse Chorus Verse Chorus Bridge Verse Chorus Verse again.
Sea shanties, football chants, cowboy songs, church house songs, song of songs, protest songs, drinking songs, poor ol’ me songs and ballads.
