“Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; praise Him with the lute and harp!
Praise Him with the Timbre and dance; praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!
Praise Him with loud cymbals; praise him with clashing cymbals!”
BIBLE Psalms 150:v.3-5
As you have read the Jellicle Chronicles, you might have noticed my usage of the Human Orchestra when I describe the dance mode of the individual characters. It is a marvelous media - music. Even one instrument has so many emotional sides. Take the clarinet. Anyone who has ever heard George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” has heard the clarinet in the blues. The characteristic clarinet “scream” or howl on the first few measures is definitely a different than the one that plays in a Dixieland band, or a symphonic orchestra or a Sousa march. Depending upon the music style, an instrument can be moody and soulful, or comical and flighty, or number of emotional attitudes in between. From the heights of the piccolo to the heavy bottom of the double bass, music captures our passions, our laughter, our love, our triumphs, our majesty, our sorrow, our anger, our despair, and everything in between.
When I pondered what to write in this Author’s page, I was sitting in church. Seemingly from out of the blue (not intended as a pun), the pastor asked the congregation to read the Psalm written above. The verses ask us to praise our God with music! Through this inspiration, I decided that this is what would go in my Author’s section.
CATS used the dance and the music to provide a wonderful blending of the art forms. One had to experience this awesome point of view with all the senses to really appreciate it. Here, in the Chronicles, I have to rely on the written word. What better way to provide such an image than to describe to you an instrument and use emotional words? Hopefully, if I wrote it correctly, you might have seen Misto and Victoria dance on the ice, or that whimsical little number that the stoic Quaxo did with Scatterburr. If you have any imagination at all, all you have to do is imagine the sound of the instrument and couple it with the character, and you have the tone of the story at that time.
Maybe I do have to explain one thing - “Jellicle Music.” What is it? When you saw the musical, CATS, you heard music, right? Naturally, in a theatre, you are listening to an orchestra play that music. Human beings, with real honest-to-goodness instruments, are playing the music the CATS characters are dancing to on the stage. In the Yard, where do you hide the orchestra? We are talking about a setting where no Human being is known to exist. So, where does the music come from? “Jellicle Music” is very much like the Jellicle Cat - a magical component of the setting. The Jellicle Cat hears music in the very breeze, or maybe in the cells of its own brain. Do we really have to know where it comes from? In my mind, the Jellicle really doesn’t care. All that they want is the music, and they hear it according to who is dancing.
YOU ARE READING
The Jellicle Chronicles - Year Four
FanfictionThis is the fourth year out of fifteen years. I did NOT write this (I wish I did), but I wanted to have all the stories in a place that was easier to access. This story was written by Dennis Callin, and pictures were made by Anna-Karin Larsson and...
