In Plein Air - Can Visual Art Influence Your Pursuit of Music?

Plein Air is an art term used to describe the act of painting outdoors “in plain air”.  (Plein rhymes with glen).  The gallery near where I live - Gallery Flux - is featuring a ‘Plein Air and Big Skies’ exhibit now through September 27, 2014.  

At the opening reception last week, I was impressed at the variety of different styles and techniques that fall under the plein air umbrella.  Many of the paintings depicted either the countryside or the beach/water, but the way each artist chose to interpret those scenes was unique.  

Gallery Flux Plein Air exhibit, August 2014

There were some in the Impressionist style, some had a Bob Ross kind of thing going on; some were very realistic, some were very abstract.  I suppose the common thread throughout all plein air work – besides the act of painting outside – is an attempt to capture the essence of light and convey the intangible. 

How does this relate back to music?

A painter might have a particular style that is reminiscent of artists that have come before her (much like the fiddler who plays in the style of her favorite oldtime master), but she is still painting her own paintings.  Additionally, the abstract artist whose plein air canvasses almost look like a Rothko still shares a kinship with the artist who paints his outdoors-inspired work in a very detailed way.

Not all of us have the composition skills or creative urge to write the next Mississippi Sawyer or Swallowtail Jig.  Many of us are content to work within the repertoires that have been handed down to us by previous generations.  That doesn't mean that you can't still express yourself through these tunes.  I think of these traditional, centuries-old melodies as palette to work from, but not strictly adhere to.

The most enduring fiddle tunes and folk songs are rubbery enough to respond well to endless interpretation.  If you are inspired to play this music in your kitchen or on your front porch, for your own enjoyment and in your own way, then you still share a kinship with the traditional musicians of old who played for exactly the same reasons, long before the days of session police and oldtime nazis!

Drawings by Ben Belcher of The Hot Seats

In addition to being a standout 5-string banjo player, musician Ben Belcher of The Hot Seats is also a talented visual artist.  He makes pen and ink drawings. I own one of his originals and a couple prints. Below are some examples of his work. If you're interested in purchasing or commissioning something, contact Ben and Annie directly. 

Conflict

Fast Food

Dream Dogs

Hero

Happy Birthday Jesus

Sticker

Party Face for the Prophet

Science Fiction commission

2008

TMGB poster

Upon My Return

Gig flyer

Tour poster

Uten Hender

We Reach

Troupe 2

Wonders!

Orkney Folktale: The Giant, The Princess, and Peerie-fool

There were once a king and queen in Rousay who had three daughters. The king died, and the queen was living in a small house with her daughters. They had a cow and a kale yard, but found their kale was disappearing by night. The eldest daughter said she would take a blanket about her and would sit and watch to see what was going away with the kale. So when night came she went out to watch. In a little time a very big giant came into the yard. He began to cut the kale and to throw it into a big creel of straw. So he cut till be had it well filled.

The princess asked him why he was taking her mother's kale.  He said to her, 'if she was not quiet he would take her too'. As soon as he had filled his cubby he took her by a leg and an arm and threw her on the top of the cubby of kale, and away home he went with her. When he got home he told her what work she had to do: she had to milk the cow and put her up to the hill, and then she had to take wool and wash and tease it, and comb and card and spin, and make claith.

When the giant went out she milked the cow and put her to the hill. Then she put on the pot and made porridge to herself. As she was supping it a great many peerie yellow-heided folk came running, crying out to give them some. She said:

'Little for one and less for two,

And never a grain have I for you.'

But when she came to work the wool, none of that work could she do at all.  The giant came home at night and found she had not done her work.  He took her and began at her head and pulled the skin off all down her back and over her feet. Then he threw her on the rafters among the hens.

The next night the second daughter sat out for the giant, and was carried off also. She got the same orders as her sister, but if her sister could do little with the wool, she could do less. When the giant came home at night and found that her work not done he began at the crown of her head and peeled a strip of skin all down her back and over her feet, and threw her on the rafters besides her sister. There she lay and could neither speak nor come down.

The next night the youngest sister said she would take a blanket about her and go to watch what had gone off with her sisters.  Before long in came the giant with his cubby and began to cut the kale.  The third daughter was carried off as her sisters had been, and next morning given the same work to do.

When the giant was gone out she milked the cow and put her to the high hills. Then she put on the pot and made porridge to herself. When the peerie yellow-heided folk came asking for some, she told them to get something to sup with. Some got some rough stems of heather and some got broken earthenware, some got one thing, some got another, and they all got some porridge.

After they were all gone, a peerie yellow-heided boy came in and asked her if she had any work to do - that he could do any work with wool. She said she had plenty, but would never be able to pay him for it.  He said all he was asking for it was that she should tell him his name. She thought that would be easy to do, and gave him the wool.  

When it was getting dark an old beggar woman came in and asked for lodging.  The princess said she could not giver her that, but asked her if she had any news. But the old woman had none, and went away to lie out. There was a high mound near the place, and the beggar woman lay under it for shelter.  She found it was very warm.  She kept climbing up, and when she came to the top she heard someone inside saying, 'Tease, teasers, tease; card, carders, card; spin, spinners, spin, for Peerie-fool, Peerie-fool is my name.'  There  was a crack in the mound and light coming out. She looked in and saw a great many peerie folks working, and a peerie yellow-heided boy running round them crying out that.

The old woman thought she would get lodging if she brought this news, so back she went and told the princess the whole of it.  The princess kept on saying ' Peerie-fool, Peene-fool' till the yellow-heided boy came with all the wool made into claith. He asked what was his name, and she guessed names and he jumped about and said ' No'. At last she said ' Peerie-fool', and be threw down the claith and ran off very angry.

As the giant was coming home he met a great many peerie yellow-heided folk, some with their eyes hanging on their cheeks and some with their tongues hanging on their breasts. He asked them what was the matter. They told him it was working so hard pulling wool so fine. He said he had a good wife at home, and if she was safe never would he allow her to do any work again. When he came home and found her safe and with a great many webs all ready, he was very kind to her.

Next day when he went out she found her sisters, and took them down from the rafters. She put the skin on their backs again, and she put her eldest sister in a creel and put all the fine things she could find in with her, and grass on top of it all. When the giant came back home she asked him to take the creel to her mother with some grass for the cow.  He was so pleased with her he would do anything for her, and he took it away.  

Next day she did the same with her second sister.  She told the giant next morning she would have the last of the food for her mother's cow ready that night, that she was going a bit from home, and would leave it ready for him.  She got into the creel with all the  fine things she could find, and covered herself with grass. He took the creel and carried it to the queen's house. She and her daughters had a big boiler of boiling water ready. They couped it about him when he was under the window, and that was the end of the giant.

Olafur and Gellivor the Troll, an Icelandic Folktale

Old Female Troll, by Sofia Trollkind Sundin

This story of Gellivor the Troll happened on Blaskogar Mountain in the south of Iceland.  For two years she haunted the passes, becoming so mischievous that few people even attempted to cross the mountain.

This particular year, the inhabitants of Thingeyarsysla discovered that their calculation of dates was incorrect and they didn't know the exact day for Christmas.  In an attempt to fix the error, the villagers decided to send a message to the bishop in the village of Skalholt, asking him for help.  They agreed to send a bold and youthful man named Olafur across the mountain to deliver their request.

Olafur set off on his journey and late in the day was passing over Blaskogar Mountain.  Not wanting to face the troll, he hurried along as quickly as possible.  At twilight, Gellivor appeared in his path and said, "Are you going south, Olafur? I gladly warn you to go home. Return with shame to your own place".

Olafur replied, "Oh, troll on the mountain, greetings!  I hope you are well."  Surprised by his words, she said, "Over the years, few have greeted me so kindly.  You are a dear man, pass safely."  And she let him continue on his way without eating him.

Troll turned to stone

Olafur arrived in Skalholt and contacted the bishop.  He delivered his message and in return received the exact day for Christmas.  On his way home, he again passed over the mountain.  He encountered Gellivor, but this time she seemed far  less threatening.  When he approached her, she offered him a book.  It was a troll-almanac or calendar.

As she handed it to him, she said, "If the Christ, son of Mary, had done as much for trolls as he did for humans, we would never be so ungrateful as to forget the date of his birth."  Olafur, who was not a very gracious man, said to her, "Look!  To the east.  Who is it that rides on a white horse?"  The troll turned to look and at that moment, dawn broke over the mountain and she was turned to stone.

Based on Jon Arnason, from Hildur, Queen of the Elves, and  Other Icelandic Legends.

Connection Between Folk Tunes and Folk Tales

I've mentioned on this site before about how I hadn't listened to much Irish or oldtime before I started trying to play it.  My obsession with instrumental trad and fiddle tunes began only (simultaneously) with my getting a tenor banjo.  In a search for satisfying forms of music to play on the 4-string banjo, I was led to traditional music of Ireland and Appalachia, where I could make a tune complete by simply plucking the basic single-note melody without the need for complex harmony and structure.

Icelandic folktale

This discovery of an earlier form of music, before the days of radio, TV and recorded audio, has now found a literal/literate parallel in folktales of Celtic, Scandinavian and other origin....legends and stories of elves, trolls, giants, ghosts, witches and elemental beings from the other world that stretch the imagination and were born out of a similar need for self-made entertainment.

The malleable, un-complex, and easily digestible format of a traditional tale allows each storyteller to make it his or her own, adding or subtracting as each retelling is remembered a little differently, the same way that a fiddle player might bring to life his own version of a fiddle tune he's heard others around him play.  I had never played any music or instruments prior to learning instrumental folk tunes.  However, I have been reading and writing most of my life, so incorporating variations, embellishments and ornamentation with the written word seems natural. Soon, I will begin sharing some folktales here.