"The Shan states had for centuries staged periodic uprisings against Burmese rule. In the 1880s these hardened into a movement called the 'Limbin confederacy'. While the Shan fought the Burmese, the Burmese were fighting the British. When the British took Mandalay, the Shan switched enemies and declared war on British rule. To complicate things further, local warlords, or dacoits, such as the legendary bandit prince Twet Nga Lu, launched ferocious campaigns of violence against the Shan. In their attempts to pacify the Shan states and secure their eastern frontier, the British established outposts in the remote Shan territory. The Limbin confederacy was savagely put down in 1887, and the bandit prince was captured and shot."

Although this story is set in time when Modernity was in full flower Edgar's behavior has many of the characteristics of Post-modernity

The quote says a fugue is: "A polyphonic composition constructed on one or more short subjects or themes, which are harmonized according to the laws of counterpoint, and introduced from time to time with various contrapuntal devices."

If one doesn't know what polyphonic or contrapuntal means, it's hard to understand this quote. Polyphonic means "many voices".

Counterpoint, from which the word "contrapuntal" is derived, is one of more individual lines of music which are woven around a melodic single line theme in such a way that any harmony you hear comes about when these lines meet and create a chord.

On the piano, if you put your thumb on middle C and hold it, then strike E, the third note above middle C, and G, the third note above E, and the C above middle C, or an octave above, you will be playing the C Major chord. CEGC.



Chords are what make "harmony." Rather than composing a piece with many chords like this, as Beethoven did for example (harmonic music), Bach composed separate lines of music, wove them in and out and around each other, having them meet harmonically only once in a while (contrapuntal music). The fugue is the most advanced and sophisticated musically of all polyphonic music.



Did you ever sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat with someone? That's a "round", which is a simple form of polyphonic, contrapuntal music.

In relation to this book, of which I've read only a little, perhaps Mason is suggesting that he's writing contrapuntally with a major theme and many other themes weaving around that, only occasionally meeting to form a harmonic chord.

"Superb fugues occur in many works, e.g. Beethoven's Grosse fuge for string. quartet., Op.133, in Elgar's Introduction and Allegro for strings and in many choral compositions. Fugue-form is also used effectively in opera, e.g. the finale of Act 2 of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and the finale of Falstaff."



For more about the fugue, click HERE

"There are three points to be kept in mind relating Bach and fugues. First, as is well-known, and has been stated, Bach remains to date the all-time master of fugue. Anyone learning fugue studies Bach's fugues, and rarely those of anyone else. What is more, anyone writing fugues aspires to Bach's model. Even great fugues in Beethoven, say in the C minor Piano Sonata, Op. 111, seem to be homages to Bach. Bach single-handledly immortalized the fugue.

"Secondly, Bach wrote fugues and fugal passages expressing the entire range of human emotion, and perhaps more. Up to the time of Bach, fugues were thought of as a rather austere form -- dry and academic at one extreme, and suitable for grave, grand, majestic religious feelings at the other. While Bach's fugues that express grand, majestic, religious feelings (e.g., the Gratias agimus of the B Minor Mass) are second to none, his fugues often bespeak joy, playfulness, anger, remorse, and so on -- in Bach's hand, fugue was a tool for all times and all seasons. And no matter to what application Bach puts fugue, the complexity, emotional depth, ingenious contrapuntal resource, and masterful dramatic architecture one expects are always present.

"Thirdly, Bach used fugue 'as though it were going out of style' (well, actually, it was going out of style!), left and right, on every conceivable occasion and for every purpose, as a basic instrument of his expressive and compositional technique. Bach wrote full-scale fugues for organ, clavier, and chorus by the dozen, and even fugues for solo violin (BWV 1001.2) and 'cello (BWV 1011.1). Fugal passages and mini-fugues abound in every genre of Bach's work. Magnificent choral fugues in the Cantatas are simply too numerous to list (start with BWV 50.1!); The opening Kyrie of the B Minor Mass (BWV 232) is a five-voiced, accompanied choral fugue inferior to none. Bach wrote fugues in every key (two of each in the Well-Tempered Clavier) and having from one (yes, one, BWV 1011.1) voice to six voices (the famous Ricercar à 6 from the Musical Offering, BWV 1079, a fugue whose sublime gravity and eloquent grandeur remain unsurpassed).

"As mentioned jocularly above, fugue and the fugal style were rapidly falling out of fashion in Bach's day, especially late in his life. As was so heavily invested in this technique and form, in spite of his unprecedented wonder-working with it, he himself began to be known as "the old wig" by some of his sons and as a retrogressive antique by a musical world awaiting the advent of Mozart. One can easily envision that Bach undertook his colossal Art of (the) Fugue (BWV 1080), an encyclopaedic compendium of what (technically) can be done with fugue, at the very end of his life in recognition of these realities of changing taste as well as his own consummate mastery of it."

"Odyssey summary: The Lotus Eaters"

"Sailing thence they were overtaken by a storm which drove them for nine days till they reached the country of the Lotos-eaters. Here, after watering, Ulysses sent three of his men to discover who the inhabitants were. These men on coming among the Lotos-eaters were kindly entertained by them and were given some of their own food, the lotos plant, to eat. The effect of this food was such that those who partook of it lost all thought of home and wished to remain in that country. It was by main force that Ulysses dragged these men away, and he was even obliged to tie them under the benches of his ship."

MORE

Were Carroll's intentions 'honorable', were they patriotic ? Can the reader know what they were ?

He clearly had the propensity to manipulate and control (a born leader, would you say ???) But wasn't he a Lotus Eater himself ???

Drake admires Carroll and defends his actions to the bloody end. But is Carroll deserving of admiration ? Whose side was he REALLY on ? Did he have his own agenda ? And what was it ? Is there a hero in this story and who is it ?

Has your extensive research into the Burmese culture of the era, the 19th century, shed any light on the historical events to see how close the author's narrative is to what actually happened ? Surely it cannot ALL be invention.

What do you think is the theme (the lesson, if you will) of this book? Peace through the universal language of music? Isn't there more ???

But isn't it important that we learn from hurts, losses, disappointments, ups and downs, and that we grow in understanding others and most especially ourselves ? Our reactions, contributions (and I don't mean financial ones) ? Our uniqueness, capacity for love of any man ? It occurs to me that what we may long for most of all in this transitory life is security , however we define it.

Understanding others, literally and figuratively, has been my goal in life and my profession: hence the need to mediate, to break down personal barriers, to show tolerance by example, and to promote contention-free civil discourse. It has not been easy but I am still at it.

Back to our book in a minute.

The book reminded me of Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness and especially of Jane Campion's film "The Piano" (with Holly Hunter, if memory serves).

The legendary Anthony Carroll is a formidable presence in the story even though Drake and the reader don't meet him until the second part. He is an extraordinary somewhat enigmatic character, a lover of the arts in the unlikeliest of places, successful in his dealings with tribal chiefs and hence indispensable to the British military, albeit unpopular, even controversial because of his methods. Drake believes he has found his hero, to him Mae Lwin is Paradise.

The reader is left to ponder whether Carroll is a hero, an idealist lost in a God-forsaken outpost, or a visionary.

LORRIE, thank you for leading us to and through this wonderful book.